TV Newsmagazines Struggle for Survival

[Dark Knight]

TV Newsmagazines Struggle for Survival

The point was so important that Diane Sawyer was compelled to make it twice during a "Primetime" episode on battling stepfamilies.

"You want reality TV?" she asked. "Tonight, you get it. Starting now."

The appeal couldn't be any more plain, or plaintive. Broadcast network newsmagazines are at a low ebb — with likely even fewer hours on the air next season — and the popularity of reality television is chiefly to blame.

The struggle at newsmagazines to compete with this threat seems ultimately what's behind some stories that drew unwanted attention during the past month. "Dateline NBC" raised ethical questions by paying an outside organization to set up a sting operation for pedophiles. Its producers also angered NASCAR officials by trying to send Muslim-looking men to an auto race to illustrate a story about increased anti-Muslim sentiments.

Sawyer's April 21 "Primetime" featured a stepfamily so abusive it seemed like "Supernanny" spun out of control, with tape of a father punching his teenage daughter. ABC was criticized for not alerting authorities where the family lives in upstate New York about the potentially dangerous behavior.

Rest of the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060430/ap_en_tv/ap_on_tv_slumping_newsmagazines&printer=1

 

[Marthatex]

I think one problem is too many channels, too many choices. How can they all survive?

I kind of liked the good old days when I had the choice of "I love Lucy" or "Gunsmoke". Later on we all sat down to dinner with "Archie Bunker", and the next day you could ask your friend or neighbor if they saw it last night and usually they had.

The news - there wasn't all this sensationalism and gossip; Hawaii Five-O and Perry Mason were the closest you got to crime shows. Walter Cronkite was enough. Edward R. Morrow before that. They were the greats.

 

[mssheila]

I don't watch any of them. For me they have been replaced by Greta, The Line Up, and Rita Cosby. Sometimes Nancy, but more often than not, I end up feeling like she needs a good slap by the end of the show.