Is Donahue Soon to be Goneahue?

NewsMax.com ^ | 8/20/02 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

With his ratings in a crash dive, critics are speculating on how long it will take the top men at MSNBC to wave bye bye to their widely ballyhooed retread, Phil Donahue.

According to the New York Times, Donahue's show has lost 40 percent of his viewers in the mere four weeks since the cable network hauled the aging ultra-liberal out of retirement and promoted his comeback with a massive publicity campaign one MSNBC executive told the Times was "the most promotion the channel has ever devoted to any program."

Nagging MSNBC is the embarrassing fact that CNN's Connie Chung's ratings put her in second place in the 8:00 EDT time spot far behind Fox's Bill O'Reilly but now about an average 300,000 viewers ahead of Donahue.

For MSNBC, which pinned their hopes on Donahue to energize their new nightly 8:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. lineup featuring Jerry Nachman and Ashley Banfield, this is a disaster.

Donahue's dismal statistics tell the mournful story. According to the Times, in his opening week Donahue had a daily average of about 660,000 viewers, but in the next three weeks that figure faded away. In week two, he dropped to an average of 579,000 viewers, in week three he dropped to 439,000 and in week four he was down to a pitiful average 393,000.

Pursing their lips to whistle in the graveyard, MSNBC executives deny that the onetime liberal idol faces a speedy return to retirement. While denying that his network harbors thoughts of dumping Donahue, Neal Shapiro, the president of NBC News, told Carter that Donahue will start to take advantage of more news developments this fall and everything will be just dandy.

Obviously, there are no news developments like the possibility of an attack on Iraq taking place now. New developments appear to be taking a summer vacation but they'll be back in the fall, just in time to rescue Phil Donahue.

"We'll have an election to cover and a war in Iraq," Mr. Sorenson told the Times. "The channel is counting on Mr. Donahue to handle that kind of subject matter better than Ms. Chung. "Connie has never played in this format," Mr. Shapiro said, adding that he's also pinning his hopes on playing the celebrities-on-parade strategy to resurrect the dying Donahue show.

"He's going to have Oprah on and Harrison Ford and George Clooney," Mr. Sorenson told the Times. "I don't honestly expect to have an answer on this until November."

Wow. The return of news developments and Oprah.

Ominously for Donahue, Shapiro acknowledged that the fall may be the make-or-break time for MSNBC. "We have to keep these shows moving forward," he told Carter, adding that future investment and promotion budgets for the channel may be riding on it.

The whole thing is just another example of the inability of MSNBC executives to read public attitudes that are increasingly conservative, parading out shopworn liberals like Donahue in the hope that he'll somehow be able to compete with the likes of Bill O'Reilly when he can't even compete with Connie Chung.

Sending him home to resume his retirement would be an act of mercy.

[Senator Pardek]

...parading out shopworn liberals like Donahue in the hope that he'll somehow be able to compete with the likes of Bill O'Reilly when he can't even compete with Connie Chung.

Ouch!

Mr. Thomas' act got tiring, formulaic, derivative, and preachy even to the most brained addled, vacuous, bon bon munching couch denizen by the mid 80's. What the hell was MSNBC thinking about?

[THX 1138]

"We'll have an election to cover and a war in Iraq," Mr. Sorenson told the Times. "The channel is counting on Mr. Donahue to handle that kind of subject matter better than Ms. Chung.

Meanwhile, Phil keeps preaching against war. These guys need to get on the same page.

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

Hm, so here's a country network that canned a conservative and replaced him with a liberal. Things have gotten so bad for this country network now with this liberal, you think the country network will "beg" a conservative to replace him? Nah. They'll just end up with another liberal.

Oops, wrong channel. sorry.

[Samizdat]

Mr. Thomas' act got tiring, formulaic, derivative, and preachy even to the most brained addled, vacuous, bon bon munching couch denizen by the mid 80's. What the hell was MSNBC thinking about?

That just about says it Sen. How are ya, BTW? Anyway, I can't imagine what these idiots must have been thinking either. When they said they were bringing back Donohue, I couldn't believe how out of touch they were. They were on the right track with Alan Keyes but he played their game and got dumped. They need someone who won't play the game and dig up Vince. I'll tell you what - if they did a program devoted to just the clinton scandals including the suspected murders, their ratings would fly through the roof. I wonder how long they will whistle past the graveyard by ignoring this obvious plum of an issue.

Hey! I've got it! Bring on John Clarke and Pat Knowlton. Now I'd watch that for sure.

[ladyinred]

The day it is announced that Donahue has been cancelled, I think we should hold an online party celebrating the demise of that smug Socialist! He was so arrogant when talking of why he was coming back to television. Claimed there was no 'voice' for people who believe like him. Apparently there is also no audience.

[operation clinton cleanup]

He had Studs Terkle on tonight... talk about throwing the deck chairs off the Titanic! (and they both had matching red outfits on, who's idea was that?)

[Barnacle]

Donahue was the original piece of daytime TV crap.

A guy a work said to me ten years ago, "Within five minutes of walking in the door, I can tell if my wife watched Donahue that day."

I said, "Oh, yeah? How's that?"

"Because we have a fight."

[operation clinton cleanup]

He had the ba!!s to talk about the silent majority who do not back Bush and polls mean nothing! LOL!

[Cold Heat]

Anybody know how long Mr. D and Posner had their show.? My guess is that this will last about half of that time.

[Cold Heat]

I just heard something really strange on Fox.

Apparently GWB is enjoying a 40%+ approval rating among blacks and they are beginning to switch to republicans.

Can this be true?

And if it is, how do we welcome our new members?

I suggest a big party! Plenty of food and drink and done on a national basis!

[operation clinton cleanup]

"Mr" D. had posner on the other night. He has hit rock bottom.

[My Favorite Headache]

MSNBC is in denial. Calling this the summer of dead news. They are out of their freaking minds. We are at war. We are entering a new phase of the war soon with Iraq. We have Al Qaeda tapes. We have kidnappings. We have every debate for the coming elections. We have 9-11 anniversary coming. We have Israel's war to cover. We have floods in Europe from hell. I mean I could seriously name 40 high news topics here. I have not even hit the running trials and Wall Street scandals yet.

MSNBC is in total denial and is in risk of losing everything by pouring money into the Donahue show. By focusing on this insane new idea they have of talk shows all day and night on, people get lamed out. They want breaking news all the time. They want investigative pieces. They don't give a shit about Phil. They never really did. He was something for burned out 60's wives to watch in the late 1970's and 1980's.

He barely even has the Nader crowd. You have to apply the old saying of "I was liberal when I was young and became conservative when I got smarter,wiser, and older", this is obviously what happened to Phil's audience. He is boring. He can't connect with anyone but a cult. He is out of touch. He tries to be hip. He fails. He is too biased. He can't spin for his life. He is rude, obnoxious, and he looks like he is on a speedball.

Most of all his worst attribute is he books 3 liberals to 1 opposing view and shuts them up and interrupts them constantly. Bill O'Reilly was right when he said Phil won't make it to the Fall.

These MSNBC execs are trying to pull a rabbitt out of a hat with a hole in the bottom of it. They have filled their anchor desks with some seriously ADD ridden super former local NBC or wherever news hacks who have absolutely NO DELIVERY and are ugly.

The news business is shaping up to belong to 2 organizations. 1. Fox News Channel and 2. CNN. That is it. The networks are so damn stale they make a 2 week old loaf of bread that has sat out on a counter look fresh.

MSNBC will be sold. Watch. It will be sold off to some other corporation who will swear they can do wonders with it. They just can't afford to keep losing the money they are losing.

But where is Bill Gates? You know...the MS in MSNBC?? Where are his brilliant ideas that he spoke of the first day MSNBC went on air? Oh yes...I remember that day well. Where he said MSNBC will be just as popular as CNN in 2004 and maybe even more connected.

Having Phil Donahue is not a step to the future. They are digressing back to the age of television when there was nothing to watch. Which is exactly what people are doing right now with MSNBC. Not watching because there is nothing to watch.

[RGVTx]

"He's going to have Oprah on and Harrison Ford and George Clooney," Mr. Sorenson told the Times. "I don't honestly expect to have an answer on this until November."

------

Ya know, the more these actors/entertainers open their mouths about their liberal politics, the less I want to hear or see them. I loved the movie Perfect Storm and enjoyed Clooney's acting most of the time. Then he went and ruined it all by showing his liberal side.

I think the actors of years gone by knew something this current batch doesn't...keep your mouth shut off screen to keep the image alive rather than opening your mouth and revealing the real idiot behind the screen image. I wish they'd go back to those days when their private lives were kept private and the public was fed a well scripted image. Then we would not have them blasting their liberal views from their pedestals afforded them by the mere fact that they are well-known actors.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Apparently GWB is enjoying a 40%+ approval rating among blacks and they are beginning to switch to republicans.

The truth (internet and Fox news) shall set you free!

[My Favorite Headache]

The good news is there is a hardcore republican group of black republicans in Miami. No I am not kidding you. I have worked many a protest with this crew. They mean business and they try to shut down every DNC event they run into. They are not showing up in suits either. We are talking street/avg. joe's who are sick of the DNC lie. They even bring out papers with them and hand it out to fellow blacks and dem's showing them that it was the Dixiecrats that were responsible for hanging blacks...literally...and out to dry today.

The word is out and they want a life.

[Cold Heat]

This is the best news I have heard in a long time. If the party does not run with this, they are going to be severely chastised by me and others.

[operation clinton cleanup]

But where is Bill Gates? You know...the MS in MSNBC??

He got smacked down by janet reno... he is happy to be alive.

[RLK]

Donahe is like a case of genital herpes. You can treat and subdue the symptons periodically, but the fundamental disease keeps returning.

[My Favorite Headache]

Yep. MSNBC has all of the answers. If all else fails...bring out Hollywood actors onto Phil Donahue's set. Like we really give a shit what Harrison Ford has to say? He left his wife of how many years to bang Ally McBeal? Plus had more photo-op's with Bill Clinton than a random baby at a church picnic.