Oh Fox you’ve done it again. I might have an unnatural dislike for Rupert Murdoch and the creative decisions his network makes (i.e. cancelling quality shows) but I have to admire their ability to expose our inner need for trash TV. From oldies like Temptation Island to present day juggernaut American Idol, Fox knows that deep down we as TV viewers, at least a little, want to laugh AT people not with them. It’s with this premise that Fox has introduced a late summer reality show entitled Anchorwoman (Wednesdays 7pm CST). Former model and WWE diva Lauren Jones scores a new job as a small town Texas newscaster and of course “reality” ensues. Watching the first two half hour episodes Wednesday night I couldn’t decide whether the funny part of the show is laughing AT Jones as she stumbles her way through the English language and makes ditzy comment after ditzy comment or laughing at the state of our TV news. I think I’ve decided on the latter thanks partly to my own Fox affiliate run a ticker throughout the show advertising an online Q&A with our own female news anchor. Shouldn’t she, I don’t know, be getting ready to cover the news? Watching station members worry about Jones undermining their journalistic integrity when they already employ Stormy the weather dog is both funny and sad. Worse yet many of the so called news stories they discussed reminded me of my local news here and in Madison, the kind of news were you want to shake your TV and scream, “That’s not news.” Still despite all this Fox has created an engrossing show. I’m already cheering for Lauren to succeed and show up her bitchey producer/co-anchor, and I can’t wait to see the dog give a forecast.
***Updated: I wrote the post below Thursday morning but forgot to set it live so imagine my surprise when I woke up today to post it and saw that Fox has already cancelled the show. Looks like its not just quality shows that Rupert’s boys have an itchy trigger finger for. Honestly I won’t miss it and in fact my life will be better off with the show off the air but you’ve got to question the sanity of a network pulling the plug on a show that already aired two of its five total episodes. That’s right folks this was only a five episode mini show to run out the summer yet the networks felt like that called for too much patience. Again I’m not sorry to see the show go, ok maybe a little bit, but moreover its just another example of the insane decision making that goes on in network television.****
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