The Buffalo News, N.Y., Alan Pergament Column: When Another Pretty Face Becomes the News
By Alan Pergament, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Aug. 22–Imagine if a bustier, trashier version of Paris Hilton without any journalism experience was hired to become a news anchor in a middle-market Texas town. Then you have the transparently stupid Fox reality series “Anchorwoman,” which premieres at 8 tonight on WUTV.
Fox only sent the first 30 minutes of the hour premiere of the series set at KYTX Channel 19 in Tyler, Texas. That is long enough to introduce series lead Lauren Jones, a former Miss New York State, model and ex-WWE diva who was hired to get the station attention by virtue of her looks.
It worked, too. This TV show within a TV newscast is getting the station maximum attention.
It even got a few minutes Sunday on CNN’s media issues show, “Reliable Sources.”
The station’s owner, Phil Hurley, seems very serious about the experiment, which has the potential to make him look like a dirty old man, a fool, or worse. The station’s news director, Dan Delgado, wisely fears for his reputation. And the current anchor, Annalisa Petralia, who isn’t exactly too shabby looking, is — to
put it mildly — uncomfortable with being part of an experiment that makes a mockery of a business she takes very seriously.
Of course, the idea that looks are important in TV news isn’t exactly a new one.
Channel 2′s anchor lineup includes a former Miss New York State (Maryalice Demler) and a former model (Jodi Johnston). The station gets much credit for the impact its tough government reporting has had on ratings, but it hasn’t hurt to have good-looking women read the news, either.
But at least Demler and Johnston had some journalistic backgrounds before they were hired. Demler used her pageant prize money to take communication courses at Canisius College. Johnston was a 4.0 student at Canisius who interned at Channel 4. Even with those credentials, some women at the station were upset when former news director Randal Stanley promoted them over more seasoned female journalists and hired a third attractive young anchor, Bazi Kanani.
According to Channel 2 legend, when Stanley came upon Johnston on his TV set doing some cable work, he immediately said “Wow.”
Still, one imagines if a Lauren Jones-type experiment ever happened here that the news directors and anchors would at least threaten to resign in protest rather than take part in this comical charade. But the Tyler crew plays along with Jones, who seems to be playing stupid before the cameras just like Hilton did during Fox’s reality series “A Simple Life.”
You don’t know if Jones is serious or just acting when she tells a friend while working out that she wants to anchor because she wants to express her opinions, a journalistic no-no.
You suspect that Jones is definitely acting when she jokes about wearing a sequined bikini while anchoring the news and that she realizes how inappropriate and trashy she is dressed on her first day on the job.
And you hope that she intentionally is making herself look like an idiot during a practice session with the teleprompter when she reads someone else’s name instead of her own. Ha, ha, ha.
If “Anchorwoman” had been a sitcom instead of a reality series, it wouldn’t survive these lame jokes.
I won’t ruin the visual, but Jones’ initial outfit reminded me of a line that actress Patricia Heaton, who is playing a veteran co-anchor on the new Fox series, “Back to You,” had about seeing the hairdos of anchors in different markets these days.
“You got your local New York anchors — the gals who really could use a little wax on the brow,” said Heaton. “Then you get all the way to the West Coast, you know, some of them look like hookers.”
Channel 2′s Johnston, meanwhile, didn’t sound amused when told about the series.
“It is insulting,” said Johnston. “It creates a false image of what it takes to be on TV and to be a journalist. The job requires a lot of preparation and research and you have to be able to think on your feet.”
One suspects that the series will eventually redeem itself, that Jones will take the job more seriously and maybe prove that Johnston is right about the importance of preparation. But viewers won’t learn anything about the business that they don’t already know — that TV will stoop to any level to make a buck.
The scary thing would be if “Anchorwoman” actually becomes a comedy hit because viewers won’t be able to look away.
TV Review
Anchorwoman
★1/2
( Out of four) Premieres tonight at 8 on WUTV
apergament@buffnews.com
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