The Washington Post‘s Paul Farhi writes about the morning show booking wars, including the lengths bookers will go to to secure big “gets.”
Farhi of course mentions payments via license fees, and notes ABC News’ recent decision to step away from the practice. Then there are the more usual ways of securing an interview: speed, charm and the occasional dirty trick, such as when “Good Morning America” whisked Ted Williams (the homeless man with a golden voice) away from “Today'”s studio while he was grabbing a smoke.
“If we aren’t knocking on your door, we’ll be calling. If we haven’t called, we’ll be at your door,” said Marc Victor, a senior producer who oversees booking for NBC’s “Today Show,” which scrambled freelance and staff bookers to Joplin. “It’s really the first person there who gets the exclusive, and that’s the prize. Either you’re aggressive and on top of it 24 hours a day, or you lose.”
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Farhi also gets bookers to say who the big “gets” are at the moment, and they are not surprising names:
But the real prizes, morning TV bookers say, are two infamous women: Amanda Knox, the young American who is appealing her conviction in Italy for the sexual assault and murder of a British woman, and Casey Anthony herself. Neither has committed to doing an interview.
If they do, you can bet a few bookers, and probably a lot of them, will be knocking on their doors.