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Steve Bornfeld | MEDIAOLOGY
From Alicia to Nina, here's the year in Vegas TV
Updated: Apr. 10, 2012 | 10:27 a.m.
One last sip of '09. (Think of it as a fine whine.)
Counting down the 10 top TV topics:
10. Gillan, Gillan, Gone ... And Back: Gig-less after his Las Vegas ONE newscast was nuked, quality journalist Jeff Gillan re-emerged as assistant news director at News-3, where he'll resume co-anchoring "In Business Las Vegas." Good guy plus good work? Begets good karma.
9. "More" Is Less When You Ad(d) It Up: Fox-5's grab bag of Hollywood fluff and lifestyle stuff is a tangled nest of genuine stories and mini-infomercials stitched into the twice-daily "More," hosted by Fox-5 air staff. Even with graphics identifying their sponsors, ads euphemistically called "integrated content" can pass for straight programming by airing inside a show alongside legit elements and glammed up beyond your average "Paid Programming." Beware a sales pitch dressed as entertainment glitz.
8. Benched: Stand-alone sports segments are drop-kicked out of Fox-5's weeknight news lineup. Anybody notice?
7. Take a Knapp: George captures (and deserves) a Peabody Award for a sensational series on Las Vegas growth and water issues, then turns tabloid, exposing ex-weatherman John Fredericks' phone-stalking of a woman, though there was no arrest made, no charges filed, and Fredericks had been off-air nearly a year. Felt like CNN gone TMZ on us.
6. AJTV: The News, Starring Alicia Jacobs. News-3's entertainment savant headlines her own stories: She cat-fights Holly Madison; flaunts an air of privilege (and is chided by TV talker Bonnie Hunt) for toting a pooch-in-a-pouch to the late Danny Gans' Encore opening; opines on Miss California's gay marriage stance after judging the Miss USA Pageant; and is inappropriately inserted into ostensibly objective coverage of questions over Gans' tragic death, despite their very public friendship. ... She's ready for her four close-ups, Mr. DeMille.
5. ONE Minus Three Equals Zero: Decimated after losing its local tent poles -- "Face to Face," "In Business" and "NewsONE at 9" -- LV1 goes on a ventilator. All eyes turn toward the plug.
4. Federal You've-Got-to-Be-Kidding Commission: News-3 files an FCC complaint accusing channels 5, 8 and 13 of disguising paid ads as news and not disclosing the arrangement -- without any direct proof. Score it a zilch on the Accusation Scale, but a 10 on the Chutzpah Meter.
3. Retirement, Shm-tirement: Leaving the lush life of leisure behind, ex-Channel 8 news great Bob Stoldal resurfaces as News-3's new nabob, signaling a turnaround for a station turned inside-out by newsroom strife. Given that new life ...
2. KVB-Seesaw: News-3 shakes off its voodoo vibes, adding, reviving and importing news programming while dumping "Watching Out For You." Can we get a woof-woof for "WOFY's" demise?
1. Book Passage for Nina on the next Pinta or Santa Maria Outta Town: La Radetich pulls an ethical error the size of Montana, secretly pitching her boyfriend's PR powers of image rehab to the owner of TireWorks -- a company under investigation by her own news crew at Channel 13. She remains on-air. Colleagues, competitors, other journalists and ethicists coast to coast are flabbergasted. ... Still.
Next? We start anew.
Happy View Year.
Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.
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I think it's simple to understand why channel 3 had such a horrible New Year's special. We keep reading that despite the owner, Jim Rogers being one of the richest men in the country, he refuses to help his TV station, i.e. allow loyal employees to keep their jobs. (then he destroys any hope of higher ratings by giving himself his own BORING TV segment everynight on the news!)
I'm betting the New Year special stunk cause the station did it on the cheap, & boy, did it show!