The Question: Can an Anchor Do a Game Show?

[dzinkin]

An interesting article on Studio 7 host Pat Kiernan (requires free registration)... why he gave up  news for a game show, how he entered the biz, and some other fun information.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/18/nyregion/18profile.html

(See?  No wholesale lifting of the article, just a brief description.  That wasn't so difficult, was it?)

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'dzinkin\' date=\'Aug 18 2004, 03:35 PM\'] (requires free registration) [/quote]
*cough*bugmenot.com*cough*

That's a neat piece. I don't expect it to catch on, but I wouldn't mind seeing Studio 7 succeed, if only because Kiernan's personality is shining through with each passing week, and it's becoming obvious that he is a very funny man who takes his role as the Resident Stoic not at all seriously.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 18 2004, 05:54 PM\'][quote name=\'dzinkin\' date=\'Aug 18 2004, 03:35 PM\'] (requires free registration) [/quote]
*cough*bugmenot.com*cough*

[/quote]
According to this, it looks like bugmenot.com's been taken down.

And I will say that although "Studio 7" looks like toast, I have liked Kiernan--and liked him in my trips to New York in the morning on NY1, where he provides a wonderful alternative for those of us who don't always want to be cheered up in the morning.  He'll be around somewhere in television.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Aug 19 2004, 02:05 PM\'] According to this, it looks like bugmenot.com's been taken down. [/quote]
 THAT is a shame. Viva la revolucion.

I'm in total agreement, if nothing else this program is showing the rest of the country that Kiernan is quite a talent. Although that article implied he was holding out for an anchor gig with a network, and it seems those are pretty locked down for a while....

[Clay Zambo]

Nope.  Bugmenot's back.

By the way, I'd never heard of it before tonight.  The things I learn from you guys!  And they say game shows aren't educational...

Thanks!

[Matt Ottinger]

To the main question of newsmen doing game shows, I've said before that the skills required to be a newscaster and the skills required to be a game show host are very similar.  That's why you can look at so many successful game show hosts who came out of that world, where you have to project the best version of yourself you can, but relatively few who came out of the world of acting, where you're pretending to be someone you're not.

I don't know Pat Kiernan, and I never got to see Studio 7, but you guys seem to be impressed, and he's just the latest in a line of *recent* hosts to have a firm journalistic background.  Meredith Vierra and Anderson Cooper immediately come to mind, and anyone unfortunate enough to have seen the pilot to the $64,000 Question remake saw that Greg Gumbel was by far the best thing about it.

One of the few good things about the continuing blurring between news and entertainment is that we might see more of these talented journalists willing to do game shows.   Newsmen used to cross the line all the time (most successfully represented by John Daly and Hugh Downs) and it's nice to see that start to happen again.

[tvwxman]

I interviewed Davies for "Super Mil" back in February, right when Studio 7 rumblings started to come alive....A nice guy, we had a quick converstaion on game shows in general and how it was my dream to be the next Regis...  Had I known he was going the 'newsman' route, I would have handed him a resume tape right there!

Matt