Last night, ABC News LA correspondent Cecilia Vega (above, left) played a White House correspondent on the hit ABC show “Scandal.” Vega was one of several people playing White House reporters reporting on, a scandal, presumably.
Last Friday night, “CBS This Morning” co-anchor Norah O’Donnell (above, right) played herself on the CBS series “Blue Bloods.” That scene was even shot in the CTM studio. “Blue Bloods” is set in and filmed in New York City.
The “Today” team has also turned up on NBC’s new “Michael J. Fox Show.” In that series, Fox plays a local news reporter.
Brian Williams went on “30 Rock,” playing himself, numerous times. Feature films often rely on real reporters — sometimes retired, sometimes still active — to play reporters. Lester Holt, now with NBC News, then with WBBM in Chicago, famously asked “How many one-armed men are there around here?” in “The Fugitive.”
The networks tell us there’s no set policy here, but that each request is looked at, and, so long as the reputation of the news organization isn’t at risk, the green light is usually given.
And on the flip side of this, an actor is about to become a cable news host.
But what do you think? Do news correspondents lose trust with viewers when they turn up on entertainment shows?