LEAD STORY
MSNBC Is Setting Up Wagner To Fail
When you are a new cable news primetime anchor, the honeymoon period is pretty short, and one needs to make the most of this grace period.
For Alex Wagner, that honeymoon period seems to be running out as a result of poor ratings for her 9 pm ET MSNBC show.
Wagner was named Rachel Maddow’s replacement Tuesday through Friday, and she had had huge shoes to fill.
Maddow was a primetime force and was one of, if not the only anchor to pull in numbers that were as big as Fox News’ primetime hosts.
Losing Maddow was a big blow to MSNBC, and finding an anchor who could command the same numbers as Maddow was going to be a tall order.
Enter Wagner.
Wagner began her assignment in August, and even though she is a well-known commodity, she was still a relative unknown to MSNBC’s primetime audience, and that is where the network failed her.
Wagner is no stranger to MSNBC, having anchored a show there from 2011 to 2015, but that was under a different leadership team and time.
MSNBC under Rashida Jones is in a transitional phase and she’s still establishing her style to the net. Like all the other cable news networks, MSNBC is losing viewers as audiences seek additional forms of entertainment or are still fatigued by the heavy news cycle during the Trump days and at the onset of Covid.
Wagner was planted onto MSNBC’s schedule without any grooming. They built buzz for her in all the external places except on their network.
To make matters worse, she’s still under Maddow’s shadow whose show airs on Mondays. So viewers of Maddow’s show can still get their fix.
MSNBC hoped that Wagner's TV resume would earn her the respectability and the gravitas to enable her to succeed in primetime. But that’s not reaping the benefits that they had hoped for.
CNN had tried this particular strategy with its primetime shows, bringing well known personalities (Eliot Spitzer, Kathleen Parker, Connie Chung, Campbell Brown) to primetime without cultivating them within and hoping their audience gets used to them.
It did not work out.
CNN has had success in primetime when it would slowly and methodically bring in its anchors (Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, and now Jake Tapper) to primetime.
Audiences are familiar with them, having seen them in other dayparts and know what to expect.
Fox News is also very good at this grooming method.
MSNBC doesn’t seems to have forgotten this, and they have put Wagner in an unfortunate position where she has to work extra hard to establish her identity and build a relationship.
Hence the end of her honeymoon period.`
(TVNewser, CNN Business)
RECAP
Should We Be Worried About Peacock?
This past Tuesday, NBCUniversal’s CEO Jeff Shell shared that the streaming service Peacock added 2 million subscribers to now stand at over 13 million subscribers. Those may sound like promising numbers, but Peacock trails behind the bigger streaming services by a whole lot. To get to that number, Peacock had to use some tricks such as ending its long-standing agreement with Hulu to stream NBC and Bravo content, acquiring Days of Our Lives from NBC, utilizing the short window between when Universal movies arrive in theaters and start streaming, and finally an end-of-summer promotion where you can get a full year of Peacock for $20. All this to just get 2 million more subscribers. Even with those encouraging numbers, there are more signs that Peacock is still struggling. It is seeing very little audience engagement due to a lack of buzz-worthy programming. It will be interesting to see what kind of tricks they will use to generate better engagement. (Vulture)
DraftKings And ESPN To Sign Exclusive Deal
ESPN has been looking for a sportsbook partner for some time, and it may have found one in Draftkings. The two organizations are set to sign an exclusive partnership that could possibly have betting information and odds integrated into ESPN’s broadcast. The new partnership could also see the sportsbook acquiring the ESPN name. ESPN’s parent company, Disney, has been looking for ways to get into the sports betting business. Disney, which owns a stake in DraftKings, is looking for a long-term deal with a sports-betting partner that would be worth $3 billion. If this deal goes through, it would put DraftKings in the driver’s seat in the sports betting business, as ESPN viewers would more than likely use them, first, to place bets. (Action Network and Broadcasting & Cable)
Cuomo’s New Show Launches On NewsNation
New home, a new timeslot, but it is the same old Chris Cuomo. Ten months after his exit from CNN, Cuomo debuted his new show, aptly tilted Cuomo, on NewsNation this past Monday. The “let’s get after it” anchor is hoping to reclaim his top-tier status within the cable news primetime battlefield, but it is going to be a difficult challenge as his show debuted dead last on its premier night with 147, 000 total viewers and 8, 000 viewers in the adults 25-54 demo. Numbers ticked upward on Tuesday with 193,000 total viewers and 21,000 in adults 25-54, a sign that some of his viewers who used to watch him on CNN are starting to migrate to his new home. The brass at NewsNation is hoping that Cuomo can bring in a whole lot of viewers to the network, further legitimizing it as a true cable news competitor. (NewscastStudio, The Guardian, Forbes, Stephen Battaglio/Twitter)
QUICK RECAP
Jed Duvall, a former CBS News reporter, ABC News Nightline correspondent, and Good Morning America news anchor, has passed away. (Jerry Cipriano/Twitter)
Ray Telemundo, president of Telemundo’s sports division, to retire. (Brian Steinberg/Twitter)
Ashley Etienne joins CBS News as a political contributor. (TVNewser)
Ryan Noble joins NBC News from CNN. (Deadline)
Renita Young departs from Bloomberg TV to join TD America Network as a senior markets correspondent. (The Biz News)
Amara Walker named co-host of CNN’s New Day Weekend. (CNN Press Room)
Bomani Jones signs a contract extension with ESPN. (ESPN Press Room)
ABC News’ Deborah Roberts named contributing anchor at 20/20. (TVNewser)
CNN International opens up a new bureau in Taipei. (CNN Press Room)
Natalie Morales named CBS News correspondent. (Paramount Press Express)
MSNBC adds Huma Abedin as a contributor. (TVNewser)
CNN International moves Selina Wang to Beijing. (CNN Press Room)
Malika Andrews to host the Wednesday edition of ESPN’s NBA Countdown. (Andrew Marchand/Twitter)
Streaming services are looking to bundle up. (CNBC)
Streaming services are looking to bundle up. (Wall Street Journal $$$)
The Draymond Green altercation will not affect his status at TNT’s Inside the NBA. (Front Office Sports/Twitter)
Is Warner Bros. Discovery discontinuing the use of the Turner Sports moniker? (Brian Steinberg/Twitter)
Jose Diaz-Balart earns the TV Broadcast Journalist of the year from the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. (TVNewser)
Netflix leads in new and returning shows this fall. (MediaPost)
ESPN’s baseball crew faces pressure to deliver over the local teams’ crew. (New York Post)
HBO Max is gaining on Netflix. (The Ankler$$$)
What does David Nevin’s exit from Showtime mean for Paramount Plus? (CNBC)
Why do TV reporters insist on being out in the elements during a hurricane? (Journal-isms)
Netflix’s ad revenue will be a small slice of the pie. (Light Reading)
ESPN’s Mike Breene offers a heartfelt message to concerned viewers following his house fire. (Awful Announcing)
CNN’s Kasie Hunt is completely healthy after her brain surgery from a year ago. (People)
Former ABC News exec to produce sex docuseries for Vice TV. (Deadline)
How BBC Sport covered the London Marathon. (SVG Europe)
ESPN introduces new music and graphics for its NBA games. (Jacob Feldman/Twitter)
NewsNation’s morning show, NewsNation Live, has a new look as a result of its timeslot move. (Newscast Studio)
Paramount Global was downgraded by Wells Fargo. (Broadcasting & Cable)
Some CNN employees don’t want the Warner Bros. Discovery swag. (The Daily Beast)
Former president Donald Trump sues CNN for $475 million. (The Guardian)
ESPN gives Scott Van Pelt’s segment, Bad Beats, a monthly show. (Awful Announcing)
Real Life Nightmare returns to HLN for season four. (TVNewser)
One America News might be available through TV antennas. (Bloomberg $$$)
Fox Business announces its primetime programming slate. (TVNewser)
Pac-12’s exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and Fox Sports ends; it’s now open to all. (Sports Business Journal)
Former CBS News executive Susan Zirinsky talks about launching a new production studio. (Vulture)
ABC News’ Robin Roberts and George Stephanaopolous are now the longest-serving pair of hosts ever on any ABC, CBS, and NBC morning show. (Associated Press)
Former CNN chief Jeff Zucker resurfaces at the Bipartisan Policy Center event. (Oliver Darcy/Twitter)
Did the pandemic change TV production for good? (Newscast Studio)
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A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - Issue #102 - 2022