CNN’s ‘Crossfire’ Back In June; Cancelled In 2005
From Deadline Hollywood:
After the failed week long experiment of (Get To) The Point and the unsteady The Lead With Jake Tapper, Jeff Zucker is looking for a blast from the past to revive CNN. The ratings-struggling cable new network is bringing back Crossfire in June, network insiders tell me. No hosts have been chosen yet, the sources say. Nor is it clear if the show will definitely remain a half hour, as the original Crossfire was, or go longer. Right now it seems that Crossfire 2.0 is slated to have a variety of CNN personalities and contributors taking up the “left” and “right” roles on the new version of the political debate show. A CNN standard almost from the begining, Crossfire ran on the network in both daytime and primetime from 1982 until it was cancelled in 2005. Crossfire isn’t the first piece of CNN history Zucker has brought back since taking over in January. The former Today show producer reinstalled James Earl Jones’ traditional “This is CNN” promo voiceover in his first week in his new gig.
6 comments:
Really, this is the best Zucker can come up with? Man, that new morning show better be awesome or he is gonna be out of a job by the end of the year.
@8:46 --- you are kidding, right?
Walton made bad decisions for YEARS before they got rid of him.
Zucker can probably hang on for a long time. Jautz, Entelis, Green, Maddox, Lee, Khosravi etc --- other managers with low batting averages still have their jobs..
@8:43am, this is @8:46pm. Good point. At this rate, he'll die an old man at CNN. :(
A focus on shows (Crossfire or otherwise) is the ultimate problem.
Television news is made in the FIELD ---- not in the studio.
All the famous TV news images that pop into your mind - fall of the Berlin Wall, Challenger explosion, 9/11 etc etc all happened in the real world.
But Zucker has never been a field producer.
Never been a reporter.
Never covered stories first hand at the places where they actually happened.
So he just doesn't get it (neither did Walton).
He will revamp shows and anchors -- but that's not a news audience wants.
That silly show 'The Point' - when you add up the staff and production costs - easily cost over one million dollars to launch.
Just think of what that $1,000,000 could have otherwise bought --- a series on poverty in America (like Diane Sawyer) or some hard hitting interviews (like 60 Minutes) or coverage across Africa (like Al Jazeera), or inside like North Korea (like AP).
Instead, we get fluff like The Point or a new Crossfire.
@2:06am, Very well said - I totally agree. By the way, Soledad repeatedly pitched an idea to do a Poverty in America doc series and they shot it down. Then Zucker fired her. I am just waiting for AJA to launch.
Isn't Crossfire just more people yelling at each other?
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