TV News Review

I have been slacking off on the blog entries lately but I wanted to give some good and bad props to Fox News’ morning show ‘Fox & friends’.
 

THE GOOD: A few weeks back I let loose on ‘F&F’ for constantly having on their show Geraldo Rivera, an embarrassment to anyone that ever considered being a reporter. Since that time Geraldo has not been a guest on the show. I am not claiming that his absence has had anything to do with this blog, but none the less it has been a great improvement for ‘F&F’.

The show doesn’t appear to be raking the septic system of journalism by having him on. Neither do their hosts come off as some brainwashed cult followers looking adoringly at their leader awaiting the word to drink their kool-aid and join him on their trip to the heavens.
 

THE BAD: Last week show host Gretchen Carlson took vacation time. ‘F&F’ used 4 of their Fox News women to fill in for her. On Monday, the effervescent, talented and sexy Alisyn Camerota was the host filling on for Gretchen. Alisyn is the regular host of ‘Fox & friends 1st’, the show that immediately precedes ‘F&F’. Alisyn is the usual fill in for Carlson. Alisyn regularly proves she is extremely capable of the job and often can make one wonder why she is not the regular host of the show.

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday the producers had Alexis Glick as the substitute host. Alexis is the VP and Director of Business News for Fox News. She will be an anchor on the soon to launch Fox Business Network.

While Alexis has been a capable and solid fill in anchor for Neil Cavuto on ‘Your World w/ Neil Cavuto’, she is not a good fit for a morning tv show host. Alexis was at one time on ‘The Today Show’, some saying being groomed to be Katie Couric’s replacement. That didn’t work out and last week the reason was evident on ‘F&F’. Alexis was not bad, but she was neither good either.

Additionally, Alexis is an attractive woman with a nice figure but was dressed in a dowdy manner making her look at least 10 yrs older than her true age. This was even more noticable when compared to how youthful and attractively Alisyn Camerota always is dressed.

It was hinted at that Alexis may be the host for a morning show on the upcoming Fox Business Network. If true this most likely was Fox’s attempt to introduce Alexis to their audience. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to dawn on them that they were introducing their future competition. If someone is watching Alexis on FBN than they won’t be watching F&F.

On Thursday, F&F had ‘Big Story’ host Heather Nauert as the fill in host. Heather was not bad but also unimpressive. I believe she was on to promote her return to FNC and the new cohost of ‘Big Story’ with John Gibson.

Friday, Greta van Sustren was the fill in host and the ultimate culmination of the ‘F&F’ parade of women that should not have been asked to host ‘F&F’. At one point in the show Steve Doocey, one of the regular cohosts, said to Greta that she was the worst guest host they had ever had. While Steve was meaning to be humorous it was very true. Greta seemed bored and uninterested between her subtle insults to Steve and Brian. Perhaps her attitude problem could be discounted to her lack of sleep but it does not change she was a bad decision to ask as a guest host. She most definitely should NOT be asked back.

Two things became quiet obvious last week. One, that Gretchen Carlson is a better host than often given credit for being. Two, that when Gretchen is off they need to stick with having Alisyn host. Alexis, Heather, and especially Greta showed that they are not even a close substitute for Alisyn and Gretchen.

THE FRISKY: On Monday, October 1st, Gretchen returned from her vacation. While off she took a cruise to Greece and Turkey. At the top of the 7am hour Gretchen gave Brian and Steve presents of olives and baklava dessert. She then teased that she had special presents to give out later.
At the top of the 8am hour Gretchen said she was ready to give out the special presents. 

Gretchen started off giving Alisyn a bottle of Ouzo, a strong Greek alcohol.

This was followed by Gretchen giving both Steve and Brian a bottle of what she called the Turkish equivalent of Viagra. Apparently the top of the jar had a fairly explicit drawing of the effect it was reported to have upon the man taking it.

One need not guess why Gretchen was so excited to be back when she was handing out gifts to get Alisyn drunk and leave Steve and Brian “happy to see her”. That must have been quiet the after party Monday. This blogger hopes that Alisyn posts pictures on her blog. Although one might need a credit card to view the pictures.

One Eyed Man