New Nightline: Too Many Segments?

In today’s New York Daily News, David Bianculli offers some solutions to Nightline’s primary problem: The multistory magazine format was initially awkward.

“Each left as many questions unanswered as answered, and suggested strongly that devoting a half-hour show to each would have been far more satisfying and impressive,” he writes. For instance, the interview with two priests “could have gone somewhere, but never got the chance,” because after five minutes, Cynthia McFadden faced a commercial break.

Solution? “Dividing the Nightline turf by half, rather than thirds, would be a better compromise, if the new regime is insistent on picking up the pace. The correspondents shouldn’t mind waiting their turn, if the resulting rotation provides time for deeper, better reports.”

> BCBeat: Tuesday’s show focused on two stories, instead of three…