TV Week's annual popularity contest, the "10 Most Powerful," puts the industry's paycheck writers in handy listicle format, which makes it easier to know where to direct your The Man anger. Taking the No. 1 spot is NBC News president Steve Capus, whose most recent accomplishment was afflicting morning people with Kathie Lee Gifford. Obvious choices follow: Fox News chief Roger Ailes, ABC News prez David Westin, NBC's D.C. bureau chief Tim Russert, CNN Worldwide/U.S. president Jim Walton/Jon Klein, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, CBS News prez Sean McManus, and, at No. 9, television rep powerhouse N.S. Bienstock.
And taking the No. 10 spot are a trio of comedians: Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart. These folks made the cut for getting the other members on the list to … START DOING THEIR JOBS.
Apparently people like watching user-generated crap without commercials. The CW canceled its video show Online Nation. The show is the first causality of the fall season. Of course fans of the show can watch the exact same thing on the little known Web site YouTube. [TV Week]
"Survivor: Lord of the Flies" d/b/a Kid Nation doesn’t debut until September, but CBS may already have a few lawsuits on its hands. Fortunately, there’s nothing like a child abuse scandal to get the advertisers talking.
At least one parent (yes the same one who let her child participate on a reality TV show) wrote a letter of complaint to New Mexico state officials claiming the Kid Nation experience bordered on abuse.
Before July 1, television productions were exempt from child labor laws in New Mexico—where Kid Nation was shot—and the preteens worked from “when the rooster started crowing” to about 9:30 at night. (Now, children in New Mexico can only work 18 hours during a school week, with no shooting after 7 p.m.) Asked to comment, executive producer Tom Forman told TVWeek that “work” is a strong word. "We were essentially running a summer camp … They’re not ‘working.’ They’re living and we’re taping what’s going on."
Also several children drank bleach from an unmarked soda bottle. Yep, sounds just like our summers in the Berkshires.
Editorial Director
