Will Imus Affect 'Morning Joe? [View All]

[DainBramaged]

As Don Imus' first air date at Fox Business Network approaches, NY Oberver's Felix Gillette profiles how Imus and his previous network affiliation might change the dynamic of the time slot, saying that FBN is "unleashing Don Imus to compete against NBC, the media company that shunned him in his time of crisis."

Gillette writes:

Some critics now argued that the addition of Mr. Imus would finally present CNBC with a serious challenge. Others wondered if FBN was simply giving up on business news altogether. But, at least in the short term, the arrival of Don Imus on FBN is less likely to impact CNBC than it is another NBC franchise -- namely, MSNBC's Morning Joe.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/


Not long ago, shortly after dawn, Don Imus sat behind a live microphone and let his mind linger for a moment on Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe. The day before, he had watched Harry Smith on CBS’s Face the Nation interview Secretary of State Clinton about such things as Iran’s nuclear ambitions. What, Mr. Imus now wondered, was with her red pantsuit? “I don’t know if I would have worn it,” said Mr. Imus. “It was not flattering.”

It was the morning of Monday, Sept. 28, and Mr. Imus was at work in a new studio inside the News Corporation headquarters in midtown Manhattan. In just seven days, News Corp.’s two-year-old foray into financial reporting, the Fox Business Network (FBN), would begin simulcasting Mr. Imus’ morning radio show (which is currently broadcast by WABC and syndicated nationally by Citadel) into some 50 million American homes. This was a test run—which was airing on the radio, but not on television.


AFTER CANCELING Imus in the Morning two-odd years ago, MSNBC executives held a bake-off among various anchors to see who would replace Mr. Imus. In the end, Joe Scarborough, the sharp-witted former Republican congressman from Florida, beat out the likes of David Gregory. Since then, Morning Joe has gone on to attract a slightly larger audience than Mr. Imus’ program ever did in its heyday. In September 2009, Morning Joe averaged 373,000 total viewers versus Imus’s 354,000 during his last full month on MSNBC, in March 2007.



http://www.observer.com/2009/media/watch-your-backs-msnbc-imus-can-see-you?page=0


It's like having Bevis and Butthead on two different channels without each other. Lord help us.