‘The Onion’ Has a New TV News Parody, But It Needs Your Help

By Alex Weprin 

“The Onion” is trying to make a TV comeback… sort of. The faux-news experts have a new pilot for Amazon’s Prime video service, and Amazon is letting viewers decide which pilots should be ordered to series (Watch the pilot here).

The pilot, called “Onion News Empire,” is a takeoff on HBO’s “The Newsroom” as well as the world of cable news, and stars Jeffrey Tambor as a pompous anchor at the Onion News Network and Christopher Masterson as the grizzled news boss.

“Are you upset we are showing unattractive people? I’m sorry, I know the policy,” Masterson’s charcater says to the channel’s CEO.

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“No, I’m upset because the ratings report came in this morning, even CNN is gaining on us,” she replies, noting the declines in the “lesbian barista” and “lonesome cowboy” demos.

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