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NEWS FOR THE SAKE OF ENTERTAINMENT? Thursday, January 10 2008 
NBC
is
being
taken
to
task
for
its
decision
to
reconstruct
the
Golden
Globe
Awards
show
on
Sunday
as
a
news
event
that
will
include
a
two-hour
Dateline
documentary
in
which
Matt
Lauer
will
interview
the
nominees
and
a
one-hour
news
conference
during
which
the
winners
will
be
announced.
Several
former
and
current
TV
news
correspondents
depicted
the
night-long
affair
as
an
effort
by
the
network's
entertainment
division
to
co-opt
news
programming.
Former
CBS
and
(more)NBC EXPANDS NIGHTLY NEWS -- ON THE WEB Thursday, January 10 2008 
In
an
effort
to
make
available
more
produced
news
material
than
ordinarily
makes
the
cut
for
its
nightly
newscast,
NBC
News
has
announced
plans
to
launch
a
new
website
Wednesday
that
will
provide
longer
versions
of
stories
and
interviews
seen
on
the
TV
broadcast
as
well
as
features
that
did
not
get
on
the
newscast
at
all.
The
website
will
also
sport
a
new
video
player
providing
bigger
pictures
and
higher-quality
video
than
previously,
the
(more) |
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NBC found itself besieged from all sides following its decision to air the Golden Globes presentation as a three-hour news special Sunday night. On the one hand, it was forced to cancel the original awards show when the Writers Guild of America threatened to picket it and when other entertainment industry unions said that they would observe the picket line. It was then attacked by numerous critics for tearing down the usual wall that exists between the operations of the entertainment and news divisions by insisting that the announcement of the winners at a news conference be covered live in primetime and that it be followed by a two-hour Dateline program in which the nominees would be interviewed. (Although the biggest news about the Globes was that they had been broken by the WGA strike, the strike itself was not mentioned in any of the Dateline interviews.) NBC then failed to reach an agreement with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Dick Clark Productions that would have allowed it to broadcast the announcement of the winners exclusively. Anticipating lower ratings, it also agreed to return millions of dollars to advertisers who had purchased spots on the Globes telecast. It may not have anticipated just how low those ratings would drop. The Dateline program drew the lowest ratings of the two-hour time period, averaging a 3.2 rating and a 5 share. Viewers' reactions were probably summed up by Chicago Tribune columnist Maureen Ryan, who wrote: "No gowns? No half-drunk acceptance speeches? No thanks." The telecast of the awards announcements was only slightly higher -- pulling a 4.8/7, but still in last place. To make matters even worse, NBC's repeat of its hit American Gladiators series at 10:00 produced a minuscule 2.8/5.
