Patty Patty Buch Buch
I live for Tim Russert / Meet the Press on Sundays. He’s the only person who ever interviews politicians and calls them out for not answering the question that was posed to them. For example, he asks a politician a direct question and the politician starts to ramble and answer a question that wasn’t even asked.
Example Question: “If Iran develops nuclear weapons and uses them on Israel, will you attack Iran.”
Example Answer: “Tim, I believe in the decency of the American people. I’ve been traveling around the country, meeting good, decent working class Americans and blah blah blah blah…”
Tim Response: “Uh…that was an interesting comment, and it would have been a great answer if my question was ‘Why are you running for President’, but you didn’t answer my question. I ask again, ‘If Iran develops nuclear weapons…’”
Typically, Tim Russert is followed by The McLaughlin Report, aka the Octogenerian show. Actually, scratch that. 60 Minutes is the Octogenarian Show. The McLaughlin Report is the Everyone Yelling At The Same Time show. My least favorite “yeller” is Eleanor Clift, who has a shrill, piercing, whiny chalkboard scratching voice that she uses liberally to yell over and argue with everyone.
Half the show is people yelling over other people so we, the end viewer, can’t hear or focus on any one guest and their opinion. I always wonder if whoever is producing the show understands the concept of putting each person on a separate audio track and bringing down or raising their respective levels in post-production. Like, if everyone is talking at once, lower all levels except for the person you want us, the TV viewing audience, to hear.
Eleanor’s favorite sparring partner is Pat “Patty Patty Buch Buch” Buchanan. The other guests are generally more mellow.
None of the above is what inspired me to write this. After watching Meet the Press this morning, it went straight to the Still Hot But Not For Long Which Makes Me Sad (SHBNFLWMMS) Mario Bartiromo. Wait, where’s the McLaughlin Report!?
It turns out, the show jumped ship to CBS, only to compete head to head with…Meet The Press. Are you kidding me?? The show will get slaughtered in that time slot. That would be like NBC having an NFL talk show at the same time as Monday Night Football.
Anyhoo, I was wondering if anyone in the network television world could comment below on the inner workings of a network and how they decide things like “let’s put our show head to head with the blue-chip Political talk show.”
I just launched my SlingBox to see what else is playing in the different time slots. Here’s what I found.
CBS puts two political talk shows head to head with Meet the Press - Face the Nation and The McLaughlin Report. I don’t know what either of them focused on today, but whatever it was, it went up against Tim Russert interviewing Barack Obama for an hour. Good luck fellas!
I’m not saying never challenge a time slot because a competitor has a strong show in that time slot. I’m just saying, if you do, do it with something a little stronger, or something new, fresh and different than the norm. Not the McLaughlin Report.
CBS puts the MR head to head with MTP. Then mails in the 11:30 time slot with a Time Life Music From the 70s info-mercial. Why not move MR to the 11:30 time slot. I also don’t understand why all the networks think that no one watches TV on Sunday from 11:30am to 2pm.
My choices on CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox are Poker, Moto-Cross, MASH, and Like it Is (whatever that is). Talk about mailing it in. If just one of them had something good on in that time slot they’d get a big slice of the viewing audience who don’t want to watch poker, Moto-Cross, MASH or Like It Is.
Christ, give me a show. I’d be more interesting than Poker.
OK, coffee high fading away. Need to eat. Celtics playing in 30 minutes.
Peter Cervieri is co-founder of and Director of Business Development for ScribeMedia.Org. His fetish is collecting business cards.
1. Why is Bartiromo hot but not for long?
2. How old are you that you can’t deal with more than two yellers at a time? Sounds like you could be on 60 minutes.