Reply #7: They Call It A Format

[KharmaTrain]

KO talked about this in several interviews...while he'd love to do 60 minutes of solid news, many nights there isn't that much good material or it's topics that have been covered endlessly by the time KO comes on...thus the last 15-20 minutes have been pretty much reserved for the lighter/fluffier stuff. Sometimes Keith lucks out and finds a bouncing bear or Internet singing star...or he he mocks the other "news"...the crap that dominates shows like Entertainment Tonight...programs which polls sadly show as being considered "news" by many.

Also, this newscast is designed to be the anti-O'Reilly by attracting a younger audience. The "conventional wisdom" is that these type of stories will bring in 25-54 year olds...especially female...the ratings audience this show is shooting for. By segregating it in 15 minute blocks at different ends of the show, the game here is to try to get the hard news viewers for the first half hour and then the soft news viewers in the second half. Whatever, the ratings are up...especially in the "money demo".

I usually ignore the fluff stories, only paying attention to how Keith plays around with them. Yep, some he does do a tounge in cheek thing, but there are some I'm sure he would rather be doing another Monica Lewinski story.

Even at its worst, KO is a bright light on a dim bulb of corporate media.