It is too late to put the genie back in the bottle, but that isn’t stopping a columnist for the Vancouver Sun from suggesting that CNN’s Anderson Cooper should stick to his primetime show, rather than degrade himself by joining the daytime fracas.
Shelley Fralic argues:
Daytime talk shows -whether Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, Ellen DeGeneres or Maury Povich -thrive on drama, dysfunction and dime-store psychology.
AdvertisementAnd, most tellingly, a healthy sprinkling of Hollywood fairy dust.
The View, for all its Barbara Walters influence, may tackle political issues and other socalled hot topics, but every morning it invariably delivers a newly refreshed celebrity flogging a book, CD, movie or Dancing With The Stars move.
That’s because the daytime audience for North American television largely comprises seniors, students, shut-ins, stay-at-homers and many a middle American whose daylight tastes on the small screen run to game shows, soap operas, cook-offs, relationship advice, makeovers and celebrity upon celebrity.
The interminable strife in the Middle East? The economic suicide of easy credit? The planet in peril?
Um, important but boring, so no thanks, Tyra Banks.
Of course, from a financial perspective it makes perfect sense for Cooper, who stands to earn tens of millions of dollars if the show becomes a hit.