June 21, 2012

 

I FEEL SORRY FOR ANN CURRY

  1. Everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon with the news of her alleged departure from the Today show or, as they wish to have it called, “Today,” so that it enters the conversational lexicon as a stand-alone, like a rock star who goes by a single name, i.e., Madonna, Cher, Rihanna.
  2. . . . What a distinction.
  3. . . . She never should have been chosen to replace Meredith Vieira - who wasn’t that good doing the job -- which is merely hosting a bunch of self-promoters and some people in the news.
  4. . . . It’s part of the NBC News department but you could fool me, although they do consider Matt Lauer capable of sometimes being on the Nightly News with Brian Wilson, er . . . Williams, with some important “get” every now and then.
  5. . . . He’s versatile, they think.
  6. . . . Curry is good in on location trouble spots in a flak jacket – excellent - unless she’s walking among the ruins with Brad Pitt in Haiti or George Clooney in the Sudan.
  7. . . . She’s also good at subbing for Williams the times she’s done “Nightly.”
  8. . . . I hope she’s not embarrassed by what happened. It’s not her fault.
  9. . . . It’s the fault of the executives, the decision-makers at the network.
  10. . . . It’s true that she never really “fit” in with the Today show regulars, especially with Lauer.
  11. . . . You could tell they (the cast) looked somewhat questioningly at some things she said and regarded her as a bit quirky.
  12. . . . They (Lauer, Al Roker, (Natalie, newsreader Morales) put with up her, it seemed, but barely disguised their irrerverence.
  13. . . . She sometimes dressed unusually - once with the Today show logo in big colored circles on her dress, which was commented on and laughed at when pointed out by her cohorts.(The other day she had on a yellow – she looks good in that color – toga-type thing.)
  14. . . . Savannah Guthrie, who appeared out of nowhere - she shared anchoring duties from Washington in her non-New York early days with Chuck Todd on “The Daily Rundown” - fit right in to the show and to NBC. She crosses multiple formats, is “used” on practically every broadcast and it’s been obvious that she could easily do the job that Curry has been doing.
  15. . . . Her rising star-ness has been rapid and probably disconcerting to the rest of the NBC host wannabes standing in line for the plum job, especially the womenfolk.
  16. . . . Curry used to touch and hug (guests and show cast members at the beginning of her reign) but she stopped that. It was a little cringe-worthy and overfamiliar.
  17. . . . She often got in people’s faces when they sat down face-to-face with her to discuss some tragedy that the guest experienced. Too sympathetic.
  18. . . . She’s calming and concerned.
  19. . . . But neutralness disappeared a long time ago with “news” people. Gone is the objective-ness in covering a story. Peter Jennings had it and most of the time just stuck to the facts, didn’t express an opinion, except on 9/11. Everybody had to weigh in on that.
  20. . . . Lauer’s concerned about the show, doesn’t like the direction it’s taking (GMA catching up); he mentioned it in an interview.
  21. . . . What, does he run the show? It seems so.
  22. . . . The media likes to see people fail. They’re getting their hands full on this one.
  23. . . . Rumors are that Curry might be made a traveling international anchor/reporter (“Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”?), like ABC did with Christiane Amanpour, who they named “Global Affairs Anchor” to make the execs feel good about the dump job she got.
  24. . . . She does more reporting than anchoring. “Anchoring” denotes more than a two-minute two-way with Diane Sawyer about the latest developments in a trouble spot.
  25. . . . Let’s hope what happened to her doesn’t happen to Curry. Amanpour virtually has disappeared from being on the air at that network. (She’s also back on CNN International but who watches that?)
  26. . . . She’s only on when something breaks out in the Middle East.
  27. . . . Will there be an on-air going-away party in Studio 1-A for Ann Curry? That’d be awkward.
  28. . . . The show is worried about a backlash with the viewers if they change hosts and they might get it.
  29. . . . They might be resentful about getting a new host.
  30. . . . I hope NBC finds a place for her, she deserves it.
  31. . . . Hope she lands on her feet.


rocci.fisch@gmail.com

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