Perfect Choice
Tina Brown's nomination of Rachel Maddow to host Meet The Press is inspired. She'd be great, she'd keep things lively, she knows how to tapdance but not be overly deferential or softball (like the show's temporary host Tom Brokaw clearly was last weekend during his Laura Bush interview), and she'd bring in the ratings.
"If Obama is post-racial, Maddow is post-gender," writes Brown, "divested of hair-frosted femininity in the anchor genre and more appealing because of it. Like him, she's a calm, unflappable new era phenomenon. Sure, she's a lefty, and in the past week she's been swinging away at Obama's cabinet choices, but I suspect she's ambitious enough to dial it back if she had to. (She also has that weird TV gene that's so hungry for air time she'd probably insist on keeping her five-day job at MSNBC. Russert himself was on every show except Project Runway.)"
Brown allows that "maybe this kind of seismic move asks too much of NBC brass.
"NBC seems to be paralyzed by the sense that whomever they chose has to be another Tim Russert. Not so. Russert defined an era, but that era is over. It's as if in the months since he died the hands of the clock have spun with accelerated speed, leaving us all with a desire for reinvention. There's been an Obama effect in every sphere of business from General Motors to network TV.
"Meet the Press has to change not just the host but the show itself. It may be successful now, but the winds of change could suddenly engulf it as they have the giants of print."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 1, 2008 at 10:57 AM
comment #1
Rich S.
says ...
I think Maddow would be a fine choice, because she prepares obsessively. She would have to dial down some of the showier stuff, though, at least on Meet the Press.
Didn't Jeffrey just post something about how flashy, celeb-driven pieces were crowding out the real news? Maddow would have to curtail that aspect of her presentation.
Posted by Rich S.
at December 1, 2008 11:31 AM
comment #2
Breedlove
says ...
I like Rachel a lot. I'd just as soon she kept doing her MSNBC show. She does seem a bit partisan. I love MSNBC but NBC is not MSNBC. I vote for Norah O'Donnell, who is qualified and is much, much better looking than Tim Russert.
Posted by Breedlove
at December 1, 2008 11:32 AM
comment #3
TVMCCA
says ...
Likely will be David Gregory. NBC is too committed to deferential gravitas for out-of-the-box choices like Rachel Maddow or even wonky Chuck Todd.
Posted by TVMCCA
at December 1, 2008 11:51 AM
comment #4
Joshua Mooney
says ...
I like Maddow a lot. Isn't she a Rhodes scholar?( I'm one of those Eastern elites who really buys into that shit. Education and so forth.) But I think she's fine where she is now. I could give a shit about "Meet the Press." If Russert was, as Tina says, the "end of an era," than just let it die, already. Maddow would have to tone it down for "MTP," and why should she? It's too soon for that. She's got a lot more shit to kick. Ultimately, though, as long as she and Pat Buchanan keep mixing it up, I don't care where she goes. That's comedy gold, I tell you!
Posted by Joshua Mooney
at December 1, 2008 12:37 PM
comment #5
The Bandsaw Vigilante
says ...
"I vote for Norah O'Donnell, who is qualified and is much, much better looking than Tim Russert."
Maddow would be an awesome and inspired choice as Russert's replacement, but I also second the Norah O'Donnell nom if Rachel proves to be too "controversial."
Because MILFs rule.
Posted by The Bandsaw Vigilante
at December 1, 2008 12:42 PM
comment #6
SaveFarris
says ...
"She does seem a bit partisan."
In other news, water is a bit wet.
Posted by SaveFarris
at December 1, 2008 1:08 PM
comment #7
Ray
says ...
Lezbo.
Posted by Ray
at December 1, 2008 7:48 PM
comment #8
ZayTonday
says ...
Rachel is hawt, I would have her lez-babies in a heartbeat.
Posted by ZayTonday
at December 1, 2008 10:02 PM
comment #9
TVMCCA
says ...
It's definitely David Gregory for MEET THE PRESS:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2008/12/nbc-close-to-an.html
Posted by TVMCCA
at December 2, 2008 2:40 PM
comment #10
janee
says ...
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Posted by janee
at May 19, 2011 2:34 AM