-By Warner Todd Huston
Due to low ratings, NBC has canceled Rock Center, the evening news program hosted by anchor Brian Williams. The program has only been on the air just over a year.
When the show debuted in October of 2011, it was scheduled for Monday evenings. But ratings never gave the show enough of an anchor to allow it to keep a home for long. Within months it was moved to Wednesday and then to Thursday.
Last year, NBC renewed Rock Center despite its low ratings. In May of 2012 the L.A. Time reported that the show was renewed “despite a dismal ratings performance in its freshman season.”
At the time of last year’s renewal, some network insiders claimed they had so much faith in Rock Center that the move to Thursdays at 10PM was actually a promotion of sorts. But that “faith” seems to have extended the life of the program only a year.
In a memo, NBC Universal News Group chairman Patricia Fili-Krushel praised the staff of the show. “While we’re disappointed with the news, we are very proud of the hard work that the Rock Center team put into the program each week,” she said.
In March, long-time TV news man Ted Koppel complained that the network wasn’t giving Brian Williams his due respect.
“Just when you think somebody might figure out when it’s on and want to see it the next week, they move it to another place. That’s not helpful, and I think Brian deserves more support than that,” Koppel said.
Not everyone was as enamored of Rock Center. In February, David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun criticized NBC for hiring Chelsea Clinton as a special correspondent for the show.
There were jokes, as well. For at least one comedian, Williams’ show was ripe for satire. During his keynote speech in April’s White House Correspondents Dinner, TBS comedian Conan O’Brien spoofed the NBC late night news show saying, “Imagine Brian delivering the evening news on a different floor in the building, a little later, with a slightly different tie. It’s a mind blower.”
Williams will continue to anchor the NBC Nightly News.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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