TV Tirade: Ellen DeGeneres on “American Idol,” Kanye West on MTV, Jay Leno in Primetime and the End of “Guiding Light”

The new television season officially begins on Monday amp8211 and it canamp8217t get here soon enough Perhaps the excitement of all those new shows some of them quite promising will take my mind off the bad decisions and boneheaded moves by network executives powerful showrunners and egocrazed celebrities that have dominated the medium in recent daysMy growing dismay began last week with the announcement from Fox that Ellen DeGeneres will fill the judgesamp8217 seat recently vacated by Paula Abdul on American Idol Perhaps I should pin the cause of this distress on Abdul herself for deciding to leave the show that so grandly revived what had been a career on the slide and made her very wealthy in the process Of course Paulaamp8217s selfcreated public persona is that of a foggy ditz so it really wasnamp8217t out of character or all that surprising for her to do what she did But how can the executives at Fox allow the producers of Idol to bring DeGeneres on board It seems so wrong in so many ways As we learned during Idolamp8217s problemplagued eighth season which succeeded only because of its terrific contestants a group collectively more talented than any since Season 4 amp8211 the fourjudge format simply does not workSince its start in 2002 as a humble summer series Idol has been all about making stars out of unknowns and that has held true for contestants host and judges alike The American viewing public had never heard of Simon Cowell Randy Jackson or Ryan Seacrest before Idol began Idol has never been and should never be a platform for a star of DeGeneresamp8217 magnitude And then there is the matter of her qualifications I am a big fan of Ellen I think she has richly deserved every Emmy she has won for her daytime talk show But when it comes to music and to Idol sheamp8217s just another fan What does she know about offering valuable advice to aspiring singers I seriously do not want to hear her make jokes or add humorous banter of any kind after performances That will get old wicked fast Idol should have reverted to the threejudge format with Cowell Jackson and Kara DioGuardi remaining in place DioGuardi deservedly received much harsh criticism for her wildly uneven contribution to the show last season but as onethird of a relaxed trio rather onefourth of a harried quartet perhaps she would have benefited from the breathing room and finally stepped up For me the arrival of Idol in January is the most exciting television event of the year I hope Fox and friends havenamp8217t effed it upOn a side note I caught the soldout American Idols concert at the Harbor Yard Arena in Bridgeport Conn last week and was knocked out by the talent on stage Michael Sarver the first to go among the Top 10 has improved dramatically since he left the show and could have a fine career in country music The immensely popular Danny Gokey was nothing short of spectacular and should have as successful a career as Carrie Underwood now that he has signed with a country label Yes he was that good Idol winner Kris Allen was ill that evening and could not perform though he did come out on stage to personally apologize That made the performance by runnerup Adam Lambert the grand finale of the show To say he didnamp8217t disappoint would be the mother of all understatements Lambert was electrifying amp8211 the energy he generated on stage could barely be contained in the venue which seats 10000 I canamp8217t imagine how Allen or anyone else could have followed him and not appeared diminished Lambert is a supernova This guy knows what it takes to be an entertainer Maybe Idol should have signed him as the fourth judgeContinuing with my mounting TV despair count me among the masses that may forgive but will never forget the extreme bad behavior of Kanye West at last Sundayamp8217s MTV Video Music Awards What an ass I have twice interviewed Taylor Swift at the CMT Music Awards in Nashville and found her to be one of the friendliest smartest and most articulate young performers I have met during my 25 years working in and around the entertainment business so perhaps I am overly sensitive to Westamp8217s wacked behavior But what a terrible thing for him to do to a girl who has risen to the top of her profession by doing everything right in front of millions of her young fans not to mention his own MTV isnamp8217t without fault here I donamp8217t know if West was drunk when he bullied his way onto the stage but I have seen the footage of him swilling cognac straight from the bottle on the red carpet before the event in front of hundreds of cameras Where were his handlers Where was the network Where was security Why was that allowed at an event that is targeted as much to teenagers as any other demographicWestamp8217s pitiful display of egregious disrespect for all including himself proved to be a blessing for MTV because it enjoyed the highest ratings in five years for the VMAs and unprecedented postAwards publicity ABC because its daytime talker The View had previously booked the sublime Swift for its live Tuesday telecast and especially NBC because its bold and brazen experiment in primetime reconstruction The Jay Leno Show launched the day after the VMAs with West as a previously confirmed guest West had been booked solely to perform with JayZ and Rihanna but was understandably asked to sit for a jiffyquick interview during the debut showamp8217s second half hour Believe what you will about Jay Lenoamp8217s unexpectedly high opening night numbers amp8211 millions tuned in for no reason other than to see how West would comport himself less than twentyfour hours after his public disgrace Unfortunately Leno flubbed what could have been another Hugh Grant opportunity never once asking West the question for which everyone wanted an answer Why the hell did you do itThe low energy of the West interview segment fit right in with the astonishing lack of excitement that characterized Lenoamp8217s first hour as a primetime entertainer a big disappointment well documented by almost every TV critic of note Unlike most of those reviewers I did watch Tonight with some regularity during his 17year tenure and thought it was lively good fun Comparatively I found his Monday night premiere to be shockingly dull beginning with the inexplicably subdued title sequence Indeed it was such a humor vacuum that even the always reliable Jerry Seinfeld couldnamp8217t deliver the funny The canned appearance by Oprah Winfrey via satellite was arguably the low point of the night It was about as much fun as watching someone moving a pile of sand from one side of a room to another one grain at a timeSomeone suggested to me that Leno and his crew need time to get comfortable with their new gig I replied that the new gig isnamp8217t all that different from the old except for the uncomfortable looking blue chairs in which Leno now conducts his interviews and that after a 17year warmup Leno and his producers should have been on their game right from the start seeing as their arrival in primetime is supposed to change the course of television history and allNight two showed some signs of improvement so maybe we should throw out the first pancake as they say Leno was a little looser and his monologue more uptotheminute though he still looked somewhat lost on that giant new stage which affords none of the critical intimacy of his old Tonight Show environs Itamp8217s as if heamp8217s working in a half empty warehouse What is it with NBC and jumbo studios Conan Oamp8217Brien seems totally adrift in his ginormous new arena Tuesdayamp8217s guest comic Jim Norton was not particularly funny but his segment wasnamp8217t as difficult to sit through as Mondayamp8217s mishap featuring Dan Finnerty at a car wash Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were entertaining guests in their live remote from a movie set in Worcester MassBut Iamp8217m still a long way from satisfied Critics who complain that The Jay Leno Show is too much like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno are wrongheaded The new Leno needs to be more like the old Tonight before Oamp8217Brien and his crew steamrolled over itI have saved the worst of the recent network bungles for last in part because it has yet to happen Friday will bring with it the end of Guiding Light the longestrunning scripted series in television history From its humble beginnings as a radio serial in 1937 thru the dawn of the digital era and without ever ceasing production GL brought compelling entertainment to generations of families It survived the Great Depression the Second World War the Korean War the Cold War the Cuban Missile Crisis the Vietnam War the assassination of a president years of riots in our cities and calamitous protests on our campuses Watergate the resignation of a president multiple recessions and energy crises and natural disasters the Gulf War 911 and the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq among other national and international hardships and challenges But this one of a kind broadcast entity couldnamp8217t survive the calamitous machinations of the current executive regimes at CBS and Procter ampamp Gamble Productions Working together those wellcompensated folks couldnamp8217t come up with a way to continue this precious and historic franchise amp8211 not even via lowcost webisodes or basic cable moviesGuiding Light wasnamp8217t just another soap opera It was an American treasure and it deserved much better So did its millions of faithful fans

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TV Tirade: Ellen DeGeneres on “American Idol,” Kanye West on MTV, Jay Leno in Primetime and the End of “Guiding Light”

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"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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TV Tirade: Ellen DeGeneres on “American Idol,” Kanye West on MTV, Jay Leno in Primetime and the End of “Guiding Light”

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