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Monday, June 26, 2006

FOX Gets Desperate

(Keywords & tags: , , , ain't no )

Bad news for FOX News. Broadcasting & Cable reports that ratings are taking a dive.

Slackers at Fox News Channel, you’re on notice! Your boss is not pleased. Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes is on the warpath following his network’s recent ratings slump, and he won’t hesitate to clean house to turn things around.

So far during the second quarter, the No. 1 cable news channel’s primetime schedule has dropped 22% in its core 25-54 demo and 8% in total viewers. The first quarter was even worse.

Chief rival CNN has also dipped in recent weeks, but less dramatically, off 18% in the demo and 2% in total viewers.

Insiders say that, even though Fox News remains No. 1, Ailes is fuming over the complacency he senses among staffers.

Production values are slipping, and bookers aren’t competitive enough, relying too heavily on the same pool of faces and settling for authors or actors after they’ve already been on CNN or … gasp … MSNBC.


But that's OK. The network brainiacs have a cunning plan to gain back those young viewers - rip off Comedy Central's The Daily Show. And who better to take on the brilliant comedy of TDS host Jon Stewart than the tremenduosly unfunny Laura Ingraham?

Reports MediaBistro.com, "An anonymous tipster says Ingraham's pilot is known as Watch This Right Now. The tipster calls it 'an absolutely terrible rip off of Daily Show' including a 'music and video montage' and 'mouth replacement of known news figures.' (Huh?) 'They want to keep it a secret so they hired all freelance tech people,' the tipster adds. 'The writers and producers should be embarassed to show this one to Roger.'"

'Mouth replacement of known news figures' sounds like a ripoff of Conan O'Brien's 'Clutch Cargo' bit, where a speaker's mouth is superimposed on a still photo of someone. So the ripoff show will include ripoff bits.

I can only pray this pilot gets off the ground. It sounds like the worst idea since the petroleum-filled fire extinguisher. I wonder if anyone will survive...

--Wisco

9 comments:

Stenar said...

Oh joy. Maybe I can get on Fox News again now. ;)

Anonymous said...

A Fox News comedy show? Completely unreal on all levels. Who will their guests be, Andrew Dice Clay, Daniel Pipes, and Ted Nugent?

Chris Wilson said...

See, I heard the rumor differently.

I heard they were just going to add in a laugh track to the O'Reilley Factor. That way the people to stupid to know its a friggin' joke of a show will know when to laugh.

Let's hope the show is unintentionally hilarious for people with a clue, in that way that watching evangelicals playing pictionary with the word "Evolution" is unintentionally hilarious to those of us who aren't jesus zombies.

Anonymous said...

By 'mouth replacement', they probably meant the skits where a voice is dubbed over a clip in a very obvious way. And yeah, it is a running gag on The Daily Show.

Ben said...

By 'mouth replacement', they probably meant the skits where a voice is dubbed over a clip in a very obvious way. And yeah, it is a running gag on The Daily Show.

It was done pretty regularly on HBO's Not Necessarily the news in the 80s, as well.

Anonymous said...

FoxNews is the best. Beats that pinhead Olberdone hands down.

Anonymous said...

Fox News is already full of fake news. Why would they want to copy The Daily Show's fake news.

Wisco said...

FoxNews is the best. Beats that pinhead Olberdone hands down.

I hate it when Bill O'Reilly posts on my blog...

Anonymous said...

Well I already consider Fox News a brilliant but unintentional satire.

Oh man,taco jack, I will be quoting you forever on this one.