Sunday Morning Still Searching For Successor To Russert's Throne: Will It Be Stephanopoulos?

"The throne is empty."

So said "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, meaning that there has been no successor as the king of Sunday morning television since Tim Russert's death last June.

Wallace made the comment to the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz (himself a player in the Sunday morning TV game with his "Reliable Sources" hour during John King's "State of the Union" on CNN).

Kurtz interviewed all four of the Sunday morning news show hosts -- David Gregory, moderator of "Meet the Press" on NBC; George Stephanopoulos, host of "This Week" on ABC; Bob Schieffer, host of "Face the Nation" on CBS; and Fox News' Wallace -- and declared the news throne up for grabs.

According to a piece Monday in the Los Angeles Times, however, Stephanopoulos is posing a threat to NBC's long-standing dominance in the top spot. Meg James writes:

After years of toiling in the shadows of a giant, ABC's Sunday morning public affairs program, "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," is finally beginning to step into the spotlight once exclusively occupied by NBC's "Meet the Press."

One analyst cites Stephanopoulos' roundtable -- which Kurtz notes "features George Will and, at times, paid ABC contributors: Krugman, the Nobel-winning New York Times columnist; CNN's Donna Brazile; former Bush campaign pollster Matthew Dowd; and onetime Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke" -- as one of the driving forces behind its surging popularity.

News analyst Andrew Tyndall told James that the "This Week" roundtable "is the best forum on Sunday mornings."

Kurtz looks at the way each of the hosts has adjusted his program to reflect the void in any de facto leading voice on Sunday morning. Gregory, he says, has loosened up and tried to bring a new generation of voices onto the program. Stephanopoulos has "been injecting more of his opinion," Schieffer lobbied for President Obama's first Sunday morning sit-down, and Wallace has challenged the administration on issues such as dropping the term "the war on terror."

Perhaps most importantly, Kurtz notes, the battle for supremacy is playing out in the ratings: "Meet the Press" was down 6% in Q1, while "This Week" was up 12% and "Face the Nation" was up 8% ("Fox News Sunday" was essentially flat). And, as both Kurtz and James note in their pieces, "This Week" is closing the viewing gap with "Meet the Press" -- on April 5, Stephanopoulos trailed Gregory by just 200,000 viewers, and on April 12 by just 360,000 viewers.

Read Kurtz's piece in the Washington Post here and read James' piece on the Los Angeles Times here.

Comments

[drd1044]

With its entertainment division doing so badly, NBC cannot afford to lose ratings and possibly first place with one of its signature news shows. Because of the interest in the economy and the Obama administration, MTP ratings should be up. Gregory and Brian Williams were chosen because they were friends of Brokaw and the NBC suits.
I predict that within six months, NBC will announce a format change with rotating or shared hosting.

[OregonGary]

On the day Mr. Russert died I mentioned my shock and sadness to some fellow workers. A diverse group is an understatement. Some of my fellow employees are like me, a lifelong liberal democrat, some, at that time were rabid Ron Paul supporters, a few were all for a GWB third term.

Every one of them paused in shared sadness at the news.

Tim Russert is absolutely irreplaceable and I miss him every Sunday.

[Skyhawk]

Give it to Lawrence O'Donnell. David Gregory is a rw tool.

[Wiseronenow]

Why haven't ANY of these shows thought of a WOMAN to succeed Russert?????? Nary an interest in that. Pfft!

[Dean Miletti]

Meet the Press with Tim Russert was one of my favorite television shows. I haven't watched Sunday morning news once since Tim Russert's death. Hard to believe it will be a year in June.

[Klimb]

MTP is done with Gregory last watched it with Tom Brokaw better than what we have now!

[tubette]

I have been sleeping in on Sundays for a year now.

[justwaitandsee]

John King is so BAD he didn't even make it into the story

[Klimb]

Fareed Zakaria is it!

[theresedefarge]

I've always wanted to see Chuck Todd on Tim's throne, but you know what? I like your idea even better.

[tzbar]

I agree. Fareed is the best on Sunday and always .

[CabaretArtist]

LOL. He is awful. But so is Gregory. Yike.

[skymuffin]

Toady. Sycophant. He'd make a good spy. You wouldn't remember his face nor his personality.

[Big0725]

Ouch!

[Xav7]

I think the throne will remain empty for a while.

Russert was great.

[freshnotbitter]

Poor Wallace is stuck with a horrendous panel. I would bet that another network could grab Chris Wallace and get themselves an excellent assett. Chris will go nowhere further at Fox. Chris Wallace doing MTP would be excellent.

[justwaitandsee]

"WALLACE" been there done that was eventually fired, POOR RATINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BuzzingAlong]

Chris Wallace = one of most bigoted excuse for a journalist on the tee-vee today.

[jazabelz]

Not one Liberal! Talk about skewing our news! Give Lawrence O'Donnell a show to compete with this jokers.

[TubbsTattsyrup]

Indeed. To paraphrase B. Kliban's ditty, Lawrence would:

"Love to eat them Republics
Republics what he'd love to eat
Bite they little heads off and nibble on they tiny feet.”

[Chanrazig]

I tuned in Sunday to "This Week" and found it painful to watch. The panel's comments and responses are predictable and mundane or hard-headed and limiting (e.g. George Will).Why do I tune in? I keep hoping Paul Krugman will show up, or some other lively bright original thinker.

The best show to 'watch' is MTP...on the Internet. You can choose video clips and don't have to suffer thru endless droning.

However, the best show is GPS on CNN with Fareed Zakaria. He is exceptional. He is a well-informed and courteous and covers interesting issues well.

[mpell]

And he doesn't interrupt, but lets interviewees and panelists finish their complete thoughts. Best of all, it's just Fareed---no condescending George Will!!

[Klimb]

Yes! Fareed Zakaria GPS!

[InfinteShibumi]

I've forgiven Fareed's support of the Iraq War. It took a while.

[Herb1843]

I started drifting away from the Sunday morning talk shows about three years ago, the process being accelerated by the testimony of a PR flack in Dick Cheney's office during Scooter Libby's trial that they viewed "Meet the Press" as the best venue for pushing their agenda in the MSM.

In other words, "You want to yank the public's chains? Go on 'Meet the Press,' The referee has a loud bark but no bite."

I had formed that thought about Russert before his death, and it would be hypocritical to back off of it now.

My choice? Rachel Maddow. As Alec Baldwin noted, when she's off "cutesy", she's the best interviewer on commercial TV. She's civil, but not in the least afraid of confronting authority.

Until then, I'll settle for clips of the side shows the following day. (Not very time-consuming, really, which ought to be a clue about the value of the news they generatre.)

[jazzman]

Does that mean that we have no interviewer to mercilessly grill and attempt to put Democrats on the spot while hurling softballs at Republicans and administration officials any longer? Does that mean that we don't have an opinion journalist who automatically grants anonymity to any big wig in the Bush administration who wants it?

Damn. I reallly miss Tim Russert's hard hitting approach to journalism!

[cloudminder]

perhaps there should not be a "throne" anymore

I LOVE/D Tim Russert

but after his death I found out a lot about him that made me concerned

his ties to Robert Novak stories ( he was Novak's source) etc

I decided at that point not to claim an allegiance to any reporter, but to respect the process of truth telling

[justwaitandsee]

I was shocked to learn he was a Democrat

[bikerdude]

If they are looking for a real Russert replacement, its none of those guys, certainly not David Gregory.
I'd like to see them try some newbies, like Ana Marie Cox who is bright and entertaining. I just found out she's married, but I'll get over it...

[Petey131]

"Meet the Press" is a disaster of a T.V. program. I used to watch it faithfully. No more.

[truthglow]

IT ALL STINKS!!! As one who was an avid Sunday morning TV addict, I have broken my addiction! The last straws were David Gregory and John King. I cannot stomach EITHER ONE of them, and I will therefore not even turn on their networks. I will watch one of the other "bubble-gum" networks, or no TV at all. If their network "brass" were so tone deaf as to hire these fools, I hope they lose big bucks!!!