Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

�

Click here for the Secret Decoder Ring to this issue!

Click here to keep up with Galen's Speaking Schedule

Looking for a back issue of Mullings? They're in the Archives

Click here to join the Mullings Movement!

Done-a-hue

Friday February 28, 2003

Click here for an Easy Print Version

LAST DAY OF THE SUBCRIPTION DRIVE! Today ends the daily beating-you-over-the-head phase of the annual Subscription Drive. Remember, 10 percent of the gross is being split between the two organizations I told you about last weekend.

Read about it here.

And please, consider SERIOUSLY joining the Mullings Movement.

Tonight will mark the end of the Phil Donahue experiment on MSNBC. The last live show was actually Monday night and, in spite of high-decibel promos on Don Imus' morning show, the rest of the week has been reruns. The Washington Post TV columnist, Lisa de Moraes, wrote: "For the record, Donahue's final guest Monday was Rosie O'Donnell, plugging her book Find Me."

If I were not the thoughtful person I am, I might try to find some cheap humor in the notion that a somewhat ample Rosie O'Donnell would think she is so hard to spot, that she had to write a book entitled Find Me, but I will refrain. And see if this bullet point makes it past the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices. [It did]

Phil Donahue developed the modern talk-show format in 1967 on a local TV station in Dayton. According to Hollywood.com, "The first show in 1967 featured atheist Madelyn Murray O'Hare."

Donahue's show, which was called "Conversation Piece" was so popular that in 1974 it was moved to Chicago, renamed "Donahue" and grew to a lineup exceeding 200 television stations daily.

In 1982, still the daytime ratings champion, Donahue moved the show to New York City, which was the home-base of his wife Marlo Thomas.

By the mid-1990's, Donahue was overtaken in the ratings by Oprah Winfrey and the day-time talk-fest was populated with dozens of shows including Jerry Springer.

In May, 1996 the original "Donahue" went dark.

The lights went on again this past summer when MSNBC (which was first "The Leader in Cable and Internet News" then was "America's News Channel" and now is "NBC News on Cable 24/7") hired Phil Donahue to build an anti-O'Reilly audience in the 9:00 pm time slot.

The "MS" in MSNBC, we had nearly forgotten, stands for Microsoft. According to "Cable World" magazine, Microsoft put up $500 million to help launch MSNBC in and pays a license fee of $30 million a year.

The Donahue show never caught on. It not only trailed O'Reilly, but also trailed Connie Chung on CNN in the same time slot. Badly.

MSNBC execs hoped that after the summer soft-news period ended and people began to focus on the mid-term elections and a growing threat of war, Donahue would overtake Chung and start making a run at O'Reilly.

Mr. Donahue's complaint that six months was not long enough to establish an audience would have more currency if he were beating Ms. Chung. But being mired in last place does not make for positive long-term scheduling decisions.

In spite of being heavily promoted in the early days and returning to his long-proven format of doing the show before a live audience in the last few weeks, the viewing public didn't appear to have missed Phil Donahue in his absence, and the show was cancelled.

The larger question is what does the failure of the Donahue show mean to the Democrats and Liberals who have been whining since the November elections that they don't have an outlet to challenge the Conservative voices on cable and on talk radio?

In the sixties, the local country and western station was always one of the top-rated in each market. This was because there were plenty of rock 'n roll stations and plenty of easy-listening stations but, typically, only one C & W station in any given market.

So, anyone who wanted that music HAD to go to the one station that played it.

You could make the case that with a limited number of Liberal talkers to watch in prime-time Donahue should have cleaned up. If Liberals have been pining for an outlet for their views, they had one.

The Liberal wing of the American population is so small that it couldn't - or wouldn't - support one of its enduring icons.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A short TRAVELOGUE about my one visit to the Donahue show, and a bio of Donahue.

Current Issue | Secret Decoder Ring | Past Issues | Email Rich | Rich Who?