What’s hot/What’s not: 10/07/07
What’s Hot:
Chris Matthews - For all the wrong reasons. First he gets destroyed by Stewart on “The Daily Show” (unfairly in my opinion, but destroyed nonetheless). Then he celebrates the 10th Anniversary of Hardball by making some comments at the party about the current administration which quickly spread all over the internet. On Friday, it was reported by TVNewser that Matthews would talk about the comments on Hardball but to me it seemed like the Hardball segment didn’t really address the issue head on but skirted around it…
More cable news channel sniping - FNC had been on the receiving end of some jabs recently from both CNN (over O’Reilly) and MSNBC (Dan Abrams on FBN talent looking like Joey Lawrence). This week saw a concerted effort on Fox and Friends to take aim at CNN’s “God’s Warriors” series and, late in the week, devoting time to Chris Matthews’ comments.
Dueling Happy Hours - CNBC launched a new segment on “Fast Money” called “Happy Hour”. It turns out FBN was planning its own program called “Happy Hour”. The similarities and coincidences were so many that charges of theft by the peacock business channel circulated the blogs, including this one. Friday, “Your World” took the wraps off Happy Hour as the talent took repeated shots at its soon to be rival network. CNBC, for its part, maintains that their version was part of the original concept of “Fast Money” but wasn’t being used due to Fast Money’s current time slot but would be used in its new timeslot.
FBN’s microsite launches - The first real hints of what FBN would be about surfaced this week with the launch of FBN’s microsite. Still, most of the programming specifics have yet to be revealed.
What’s Not:
Nothing made the cut this week.
#1, I thought this was about the whole cable news landscape? Looking at it, the big news happens at other stations, and for that matter, FBN will be a flop for a long time to come until it appears on more lineups, I mean, FNC took roughly 6 to 7 years to get to the #1 spots, no reason why FBN won’t take that long to catch on, if it ever does.
Comment by Chris (clind) — October 8, 2007 @ 1:08 am
I think FBN has the advantage of FNC - and Cavuto and company in particular - being established already with an existing fanbase to tune in to FBN. FNC had to work its way up and earn its ratings and viewer loyalty, but FBN’s already had a large part of that done for them. Now they just have to have entertaining and informative programs that will keep viewers interested.
About the sniping, I just know the MSM is going to go on and on about that nasty and mean-spirited FNC taking potshots at CNN and MSNBC for no reason. The O’Reilly incident and Abrams’ comments about FBN will no doubt be considered irrelevant to the story and left out.
Comment by Laurel — October 8, 2007 @ 2:41 am
I’m a little confused here, Spud. It seems to me, that you’re putting all the Chris Matthews news into the “Not Hot” category… because even though there was a lot of press… it wasn’t good press. To me, that’s what the “Not” is all about.
If that isn’t it, and my idea of “Hot or Not” is off, can you please clarify what it is you mean by “Hot” and “Not”?
Comment by ImNotBlue — October 8, 2007 @ 3:16 am
I’ll just keep saying it ad nauseum, and then when it happens, I’ll stop.
HOT: DON IMUS RETURNING TO BROADCASTING.
NOT: CHRIS MATTHEWS ARROGANCE.
Comment by cas — October 8, 2007 @ 8:21 am
I said at the start of this that an item can be hot and still be bad. An item can be good and be not hot. But this is still an evolving process so I’m open to refinements…
Comment by Spud — October 8, 2007 @ 11:02 am
I, too, am confused about the categories.
It seems that all the negatives about Chris Matthews would put him in the “Not Hot” category.
I guess that eventually I will sort it all out.
Comment by Cella — October 8, 2007 @ 3:49 pm