Let’s take a break from all the news about Donald Trump and RFK Jr. and get to the stuff you really care about:
See if you can guess the next host of “Wheel of Fortune.” Here’s the clue:
RY_N SE_CREST
Need to buy a vowel? An A? Sure thing.
Ready to solve? That spells out Ryan Seacrest.
The affable Seacrest — this generation’s Dick Clark — seems to be everywhere and on everything. He now takes over for Pat Sajack, who has hosted the show since 1981 and recently announced he is stepping down. Seacrest also will serve as consulting producer on the popular game show.
In a statement, Seacrest said, “I’m truly humbled to be stepping into the footsteps of the legendary Pat Sajak. I can say, along with the rest of America, that it’s been a privilege and pure joy to watch Pat and Vanna on our television screens for an unprecedented 40 years, making us smile every night and feel right at home with them.”
Seacrest’s statement said a bunch of other stuff, including, “I can’t wait to continue the tradition of spinning the wheel and working alongside the great Vanna White.”
So that would seem to indicate that White will remain on as letter turner. She is under contract for one more year and reports are that she is in negotiations to extend her deal.
The New York Times’ John Koblin made a good point, writing about how quickly Sony Pictures Television, which owns the show, announced a replacement for Sajak. It was only two weeks ago that Sajak announced he was stepping down. Koblin wrote the swift decision “suggests that they are hoping to avoid the succession fiasco that nearly overwhelmed their other hit game show, ‘Jeopardy!’” (More on that in the next item.)
So what about Seacrest? Why this move?
Funny, just the other day, I saw something on TV about “The Price is Right” host Drew Carey and his switch to game show host. It seemed like an odd turn for the comedian and actor to take over a game show, but Carey has been hosting “The Price is Right” since 2007 and seems set in his career.
As Koblin noted, “Hosting a popular game show, which requires little more than a few days of work a month, is one of the most coveted jobs in all of entertainment.”
Seacrest taking over such a popular game show (it’s nicknamed “America’s Game” and still draws a robust 8-million-plus viewers a night) is a smart move if you’re looking for easy money and long-term security. Then again, Seacrest has had no trouble finding work. He is coming off a six-year stint as co-host of the daily “Live with Kelly and Ryan” alongside Kelly Ripa. He hosted “American Idol” for 21 seasons. He has hosted “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest” on ABC since 2005.
And he remains host and producer of iHeartMedia’s nationally syndicated radio show “On Air with Ryan Seacrest,” as well as “American Top 40.”
“Jeopardy!” player James Holzhauer, the third all-time highest earner in that show’s history and the winner of the recent and first-ever “Jeopardy!” masters tournament, put out a winning tweet after the Seacrest announcement:
“Wheel of Fortune went about this all wrong. First you subject the contestants and viewers to an endless parade of temps who don’t prepare before hosting. Then the producer in charge of the search says ‘Actually, *I* would be the perfect host.’ Then ‘jk we have two hosts now.’”
OK, back to the serious stuff. Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will have a town hall this evening that will be televised by NewsNation and hosted by its anchor Elizabeth Vargas. It will be held in Chicago in front of an audience of Democrats or independents who are leaning Democrat.
Vargas told The Hill’s Judy Kurtz, “This is everybody’s chance to really sort of get — unedited and live — hear him speak and listen to how he thinks.”
Is that a good thing? Kennedy’s ant-vaccination views are seen as dangerous by many. CNN’s Jake Tapper said on a recent podcast that he would not host a town hall with Kennedy because he “spreads dangerous misinformation about childhood vaccines.”
About Kennedy’s stance on vaccines, Vargas told Kurtz that they were “definitely very, very controversial.”
She added, “He has been heavily censured by many social media platforms in the past about his stances on them. And if somebody asks him a question about vaccines — I’m sure it will come up —I will remind our audience that the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and the (Food and Drug Administration), and the (American Medical Association), and the American Academy of Pediatrics and most of the medical and scientific community say that vaccines overall are incredibly safe and have saved hundreds of millions of lives over the past decade.”
However, Vargas added, “This town hall is not a town hall about vaccines.”
Well, here’s hoping it’s partly about vaccines. Vargas not only has a responsibility to ask Kennedy about his stance on vaccines, but to fact-check him in real-time to make sure he doesn’t spread dangerous misinformation.
Vargas said, “It is my job to moderate the questions from the audience. I think that we do our greatest public service when the audience gets to see him speak, and think, and react in real-time and fully. You can say, ‘Hey, I agree with that position,’ or, ‘Hey, I think he’s wacky.’ That’s up to our audience to decide. I want to provide them with the capacity to watch him answer questions on Russia, on the economy, on the border, on the fentanyl crisis in this country, on crime, on the economy, and to have him explain his positions, explain how we arrived at those positions and how he defends those positions.”
Here’s hoping Vargas isn’t afraid to step in if Kennedy says anything that’s flat-out wrong or dangerous and doesn’t leave it “up to our audience to decide.”
Earlier this week, I wrote about how The Denver Post is dropping the comments sections on its online stories. Now another Alden-owned newspaper is doing the same. The Boston Herald announced Tuesday that it, too, is ending readers’ comments on stories published online.
In a note to readers, publisher Kevin Corrado and executive editor Joe Dwinell wrote that dropping the comments will “dramatically speed up the performance of the website.” They added, “This change will make for a faster online reading experience on mobile and desktop platforms.”
That’s a little different of an explanation than the one given by Denver Post editor Lee Ann Colacioppo, who wrote the Post’s comment section had become “an uncivil place that drives readers away and opens those trying to engage in thoughtful conversation to hateful, personal attacks. None of it managed to make our commenting section the productive space for engagement we envisioned.”
Like The Denver Post, the Boston Herald will still offer readers the opportunity to comment by contacting staff directly through email and via letters to the editor, as well as commenting on the news outlet’s social media sites.
(Courtesy: ABC News)
The most-watched network newscast these days? ABC’s “World News Tonight.” Ratings for the second quarter of 2023 came out Tuesday and showed that “World News Tonight” remains the leader, attracting an average of 7.6 million total viewers.
“NBC Nightly News” drew 6.3 million viewers, followed by the “CBS Evening News” with 4.5 million viewers. Again, that’s for the entire second quarter of 2023. Add those numbers up and see that people are still watching their evening national news. It might not be like the heyday before cable, back when Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw were anchoring. But these numbers show that well over 18 million viewers are tuning into the network news nightly. And those numbers, by the way, dwarf cable news.
The Poynter Institute announced Tuesday that CNN’s Anderson Cooper will receive this year’s Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism. Cooper will receive the award at the 2023 Bowtie Ball in Tampa on Nov. 18.
In a statement, Poynter president Neil Brown said, “Anderson Cooper’s fearless reporting, whether from war zones or the political arena, has earned him a reputation as one of the most respected journalists of our time. His humanity, humility and humor make him the rare journalist who can connect with millions of people around the world on a deeply personal level and earn their trust. We at Poynter are honored to celebrate his achievements.”
Past recipients of the award include Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Katie Couric, Lester Holt, Tom Brokaw, Lesley Stahl, Chris Wallace, Judy Woodruff and Bob Schieffer.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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