The “Enema” Within?

It’s been a few weeks since we last checked in on Bari Weiss, which was just before she was officially ensconched as CBS NEWS’ czarina.  I know that because when we mused about her impending ascension we got the most organic traffic we’ve seen this year for an homage that was titilatingly titled Is CBS News About To Undergo A Bari-Um Enema?  My hunch was comparing the decision to hire someone with exactly zero traditional television experience to a procedure that literally flushes sh-t out of one’s system might attract a few extra clicks, and lo and behold for a change I was right.

She’s been a busy little bee in her first few weeks on the job, immediately causing consternation by booking our current president for an extended appearance on 60 MINUTES that waaay too many supposed longtime viewers got their unmentionables in a dither about.  In fact, just yesterday someone who I assume was one of them brought it back into the news cycle, which among others THE INDEPENDENT’s Justin Baragona jumped on:

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has launched an investigation into CBS News and its parent company Paramount over whether Donald Trump “improperly influenced and coerced” the network’s editing of the president’s recent interview with 60 Minutes.  Raskin announced his probe in a letter sent to CBS News’ recently-installed ombudsman Kenneth Weinstein Wednesday. He wrote that Weinstein – a one-time Trump appointee and conservative think tank leader – appears to be “acting as a government regulator and censor enforcing Trump’s demands for more pro-Trump content.”

“It is one thing for CBS to make independent editorial decisions protected by the First Amendment. It is quite another to make edits at the President’s demand out of fear of retribution,” Raskin wrote. “The double standard here undermines public trust and demonstrates how Paramount’s capitulation has compromised CBS News’s independence. The American people deserve to know whether their news is shaped by journalistic judgment or by Donald Trump.”.  The Independent has contacted CBS News and Paramount for comment.

Don’t hold your breath, Justin. In a world where bottom-line results matter most, Weiss delivered for her new employers, as VARIETY’s Todd Spangler reported in its aftermath:

The Nov. 2 airing of “60 Minutes” featuring Trump’s interview drew 14 million total viewers and 3 million viewers in the 25-54 demo, according to Nielsen Panel + Big Data ratings. The CBS newsmagazine delivered its best audience since Jan. 10, 2021, with its episode that aired after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters that featured interviews with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger (which had 14.9 million viewers).

And sorry to say for those who claim they may have been merely hate-watching, you proved the exact point you may have otherwise wanted to avoid.  It’s not like much else besides sports is working in linear television these days, and most advertisers pay for engaged eyeballs regardless of whether or not they may be bleeding at the time of viewing.  So whether it was your intention or not, you have given Weiss’ bosses ample reason to place confidence in her to turn her attention to other dayparts in need of similar reinvigoration.  And while Raskin was railing yesterday afternoon CINEMABLEND’s Megan Behnke contributed this additional newscycle nugget:

(A)n insider is claiming that CBS News’ new head honcho is formulating a content-related plan that might impact Behar, Whoopi Goldberg and co. And this move allegedly isn’t just business-motivated.  According to RadarOnline, new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is developing a brand-new daytime, panel-driven show. While it’s not a reboot of The Talk, it’s allegedly being billed as The Right View. An insider also claims to Rob Shuter that the move is “personal” and reportedly stems from Weiss being passed over as co-host on the ABC mainstay four years ago. Weiss was supposedly one of the potential names floated to replace Meghan McCain as the conservative presence on he panel. The source also said:

Alleged network sources claim Weiss is “quietly” building a “sharp-debate-driven alternative” show. Additionally, it’s said that she’s purportedly already approved development meetings for the series which would feature a “panel of diverse voices engaging in real conversation without the on-air meltdowns or shouting matches that have become The View’s signature.”

And while that may be a way’s off, she’s apparently working on something else a bit more imminent that could serve as a de facto audition to help support the contention that those dopes at ABC casting may have missed the mark.  THE GUARDIAN’s Jeremy Barr broke that story yesterday:

Weiss…is scheduled to moderate a network town hall event with Erika Kirk, the widow of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Guardian has learned. The event will air on 13 December at 8pm and will focus on “grief, faith, politics, and more”, according to internal marketing materials.  According to an unpublicized online form soliciting potential attendees, the event will actually be recorded on 10 December at 12pm in New York City.  Those who request online to attend the Kirk town hall, are asked a series of questions. The first question is: “Do you consider yourself a conservative? If so, why?” There are also questions about whether potential attenders are “grieving the loss of a loved one”, whether they consider themselves to be evangelical Christians, and which religious figures they admire most.

As someone who used to go to great lengths to secure tickets to shows taped in New York City, and given that it’s awfully hard to secure ones for either THE LATE SHOW or SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and LAST WEEK is on hiatus, heads up to Weiss and her crew: just like you did for that 60 MINUTES piece, you just might get a larger and broader audience than you might have bargained for.

December 13th just happens to be a Saturday night where the bar for ratings upside is quite low and the competition is minimal.  So this town hall will likely yield more qualitative information and insight than qualitative.  Assuming Laurel Weir has anyone left on her team to do it right, it should if nothing else reveal what appeal Weiss might have to a CBS audience.

Behnke has already been speculating where THE RIGHT VIEW could wind up:

CBS has been down a panel talk show since The Talk ended last year. Instead of its afternoon slot being replaced with a different talk show, the Eye network opted to air a new soap opera, Beyond the Gates, in its place, which has reportedly been doing well ratings-wise. If this new talk show makes it to air, it’s hard to tell where in the weekly schedule it would fit, but that’s just another bridge that will have to be crossed if it comes to that.

I’ll quietly remind Behnke that unlike its competitors CBS still has an actual daytime schedule and in the wake of the cancellations of the CBS MORNINGS PLUS experiment that her predecessor Wendy McMahon championed LET’S MAKE A DEAL has been officially deployed to an afternoon time slot that frequently gets displaced to the mornings on some of their owned-and-operated stations.  While it’s a cost-effective handcuff to daytime’s most-viewed show, the 53 1/2-year old PRICE IS RIGHT, it’s significantly less popular and anything but indispensable.  So don’t worry about that bridge so much.

But I’d offer both ladies that maybe you’re not thinking as much outside the box as you otherwise should be.  Maybe an idea like THE RIGHT VIEW could be better utilized as a replacement for the soon-to-be-departing COLBERT?  You know, adjacent to news and counterprogramming to JIMMY KIMMEL?  Maybe a syndicated half-hour that the owned-and-operated stations could replace the remnants of INSIDE EDITION with?  McMahon used to run that area and the best she could come up with was DREW BARRYMORE.  You could certainly fill out a national lineup by sacrificing at least part of her footprint.  And for anyone that thinks that the kind of ideology she’s proposing can’t work in those dayparts, you likely never pored over the data as copiously as I did when I helped convince Rupert Murdoch that A CURRENT AFFAIR was better suited for syndication than his fledgling network.  We got an eight-year-run out of that call and actually played well with ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT in many cities.  And as the enduring success of JEOPARDY! and WHEEL OF FORTUNE show, old syndication habits evolve glacially, if at all.

Does all of this sound like the end of the world as we know it to you? Tough.  Viewing choices speak far louder than whiny rhetoric.  And as I’ve already postulated with the knowledge that the actual data exists, CBS viewers, particularly those on their stronger affiliates in redder cities, are more predisposed to giving something like an Erica Kirk town hall or a RIGHT VIEW a glance.  If you aren’t thrilled with that reality, come up with a better candidate.

Hmmm–sounds exactly like what I’ve implored the decision-makers at the DNC to do.  Let’s see who takes their medicine first.

Until next time…