Comments on: News reality show idea

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:20:26 +0000

I think the problem with this idea in general is the news people *need* to see is generally boring as hell. The things they tune-in for (car wrecks, murders, wonton self-promotion (ok, maybe not that)), gets their attention but does nothing to really “inform” them. If you want people to see the reality behind news-gathering, screw the newsroom and take them to the sales meetings.

By: Marc Rullo

Marc Rullo — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:32:07 +0000

Some things most people prefer not to see. By its very nature news is ugly enough already. We could do without the forced public strip tease of an already scantily clad messanger of mostly doom and gloom. To be perectly blunt, the idea of exposing the exposition of the festering sores of humanity like war and scandal for the sake of entertainment is repulsive. Maybe I’ve taken your idea to an extreme that it would never reach in practice but it seems to me that this is a continuous slumping of all things media. We need more decency and dignity in reporting not less.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:11:17 +0000

A TV newsroom would work better than a newspaper newsroom as TV is by nature of the business a much more visual medium. I liked ‘Tabloid Wars’, but I thought that the 5-part series ‘Inside Local News’ was just as compelling, if not more visual.

Hey if you’re going to do it in real time (and there’s no budget attached), I would turn the whole news organization into a fishbowl with remote cameras (microphones included) in live trucks, news cars, news conference rooms, production control, edit bays, everything. And make sure you can get at least one audio side channel that features local scanner traffic.

The whole show streams live on the web from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Morning meeting to end of early evening newscast).

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:44:03 +0000

Well, FWIW, there’s a recent review of the ‘Making News, Texas Style’ over on my site (click on my name for the link).

I like the show, but it’s only watchable if you record it, then do a lot of fast-forwarding.

This type of reality show seems like a natural for MSNBC’s ‘Doc-Bloc.’

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:29:06 +0000

Straight from FOX:
“will run back-to-back episodes of ‘TIL DEATH on Wednesdays for the next three weeks, and the remaining episodes of ANCHORWOMAN will not air.”

By: HMMM.....

HMMM..... — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:05:39 +0000

CANCELLED.

By: Terry Heaton

Terry Heaton — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:56:52 +0000

Have you not seen “Making News, Texas Style” on the TV Guide channel? I’d include a link, but it’s against the law.

By: Safran

Safran — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:54:00 +0000

Absolutely. I’ve had a similar idea. Take yours and put it in a local TV newsroom every day.

I’ve always thought the best show in town is the one that happens behind the scenes in the newsroom. People love the behind the scenes stuff and it is cheap and easy to produce.

My only change to yours: the video is posted online as it is collected all day. Come on Johnson, this is LR for crying out loud!

Great post.

By: D T Nelson

D T Nelson — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:52:40 +0000

Sounds like “Tabloid Wars” only in almost-real-time. “Tabloid Wars” was good.

The only problem I see is, in “the back-and-forth in crafting the news into product,” a lot of stuff that isn’t true, and would ultimately not be included in the printed paper, would be put out on the air. In “Tabloid Wars,” the stories were months old, and anyone who cared already knew how the stories turned out, and the chasing of the false leads was part of the drama of the show. I suppose on “A1,” discussions of such false early reports could be captioned with “This is not true.”