The New CNN: Specializing in Bizarre Programming Moves
We knew CNN was going to be different under former Headline News chief Ken Jautz, but it's a little surprising to see it making moves that aren't just attention-getting, but downright off-balance, to garner ratings. Nowhere was this clearer than in the cable channel's peculiar programming decisions surrounding last night's State of the Union address.
Peculiar decision number one was that merely airing President Obama's speech and the Republican response wasn't enough. The network also aired Michele Bachmann's Tea Party response for added measure, as if there aren't plenty of splinter groups in both parties who might have their own views on the speech.
Maybe you thought airing Bachmann's speech would be right up Fox News' alley, but it actually doesn't need to do things like that -- not when its ratings are so clearly superior to either left-leaning MSNBC or CNN. Another possibility: that the Republican operatives behind Fox News (conspiracy theory!) thought showing the Tea Party response would not promote party unity. This is backed up by a report that some Republicans are ticked off at CNN for just that reason.
Second, it added the new Larry King -- Piers Morgan -- to Wolf Blitzer's post-SOTU show. Morgan, who spent his first week interviewing celebrities such as Oprah, Howard Stern and Ricky Gervais, seems out of place in that environment, to say the least. Yes, he used to work for one of Rupert Murdoch's tabloids in the U.K. but to many American viewers, he may still be best known as one of the judges on Britain's Got Talent who "discovered" Susan Boyle.
In a world full of political pundits, Morgan doesn't pass the smell test; it's an obvious, but off-kilter, bid to promote his show. Heck, while we're at it, let's ask Simon Cowell whether he thinks cutting defense spending is a good idea!
As if to prove my point, Morgan, probably encouraged by CNN brass, decided to mix it up with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night on Twitter, taking her to task for for taking CNN to task over the Bachmann speech. He said: "Sorry, but just nonsense for @maddow to say @cnn shouldn't have run Tea Party speech. Rep split is proper news, may decide next election."
All of this makes me wonder about what's really going on with another component of CNN's new primetime schedule: the low-rated 8 p.m. talker Parker/Spitzer. Unidentified sources have been saying for weeks now that Kathleen Parker -- the Republican foil to the Democratic Eliot Spitzer -- was on her way out partly because of tension between the two. The New York Post reported back in December "that Parker stormed off the set after complaining that Spitzer dominated the nightly gab-fest." Well, she's still there. And, by the way, isn't tension good for ratings?
Related:
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- Larry King's Retiring from CNN, And Being Replaced With-- Some Warm Body
- CNN's Eliot Spitzer Show Aims for the Middle, Where No Viewers Are
- CNN: "We're No. 1!" -- Kinda
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- CNN Still First in Cable News, Depending on What You Mean By "Cable News"