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

[KevinHallShow]

Interesting that so little is said about how poorly Fox News Sunday does nationally, and not just on a segmented cable outlet. But Stephanopoulos is a joke, even if he is surrounded by level headed people. Cokie showed herself to be a water carrier for Hillary, Will is an interesting but rather droll bow tie wearing conservative, and Stephanopoulos takes advice from Sean Hannity to ask questions. As bad as David Gregory is, Stephanopoulus is not much better. The sad thing is that the McLaughlin Group is still more entertaining and informative than all of these shows. More choice is what we need! Thank god for the internet so we can hear real discussion of the news and insightful commentary. Sunday morning TV used to be a requirement for me, but now the media is so obviously silly that its not really worth the effort/time.

www.kevinhallshow.com

[InfinteShibumi]

The McLaughlin Group? Surely you jest. I've watched the show since a teenager and followed it in its move from NBC to CBS. I can honestly say that it has lost it. McLaughlin was anti-Obama from the start (That's his prerogative, ok -- but as the moderator does not look good; look to Gregory and Brokaw for other unfortunate models in objectivity). And the show is taped too early in the week to address in timely fashion late breaking Friday or early Saturday news -- no longer an unusual event in the New Information Age: Hillary's assassination comment, John Edwards adultery, the debut of Sarah Palin's on the national stage, the September bank failures, just to name a few... "Inside Washington" is also guilty of the same crime. McLaughlin may be entertaining -- but it's becoming increasingly irrelevant.

[chronic]

Seem they wanna go from bad to worse.

[MEHRRH]

Sunday morning shows are pretty bad.
George Will is insufferable on TW. Stephanopolous is just not that good himself, but he is better than David Gregory. Gregory is abysmal as host, from the posing of his questions to his own bias which he cannot disguise, NBC made a poor choice in him for MTP.
Bob Schieffer is probably the best one, but he wants to retire. Harry Smith subbed for him this week and he was really, really poor.
Fox has Wallace - and it's just too hard to watch Fox.
So I agree that there is no "king" on Sunday mornings -- ( I didn't like Russert either).
Fareed's show is excellent, but his program is more narrowly focused.

[justwaitandsee]

This Week with George Stephanopolus is leading the pack with Fareed closely behind (Fareed is more globally guided) and David Gregory is beyond last place.

[TchoupitoulasCanal]

You never realize what you have until it's gone. I would give my left foot to have Russert back. David Gregory just makes me chaffe.

[darrick72]

None of the above. They should have hired Joe Madison to host MTP.

[bikerdude]

Who? If you must go there, how about Tavis?

[InfinteShibumi]

Tavis has Barack envy.

[sicova]

I do not like david Gregory, I believe he is bias to the right wing, he repeats all their talking points letter by letter, the other day I was browsing the MSNBC website and Gregory had a live chat. I asked him a couple of questions and he never answer them. I ask him to respond to the perception that we have of him as bias. No answer. Instead he was busy answering questions about baseball and weather.
I'm not surprised.

[Meah]

I still watch Face the Nation, but only because I like Bob Schieffer. This week Harry Smith was on and was just awful. The ONLY REALLY great show on Sunday is Fareed Zakarias GPS. Honest, unbiased, professional, just plain terrific. These others can't even really touch that show. People respect Zakarias, and there is not the manipulative and dishonest bul lshet going on. Stephanopolous is the worst, and the gang that he has on starting with Will, who is simply out of touch, along with the rest of the old folk: Cokie,et al. I am their age, but jeeze, enough! Fareed Zakarias is the best by far!

[BlueZoo]

Bravo! My choice is also Fareed Zakarias! He tells it like it is!

[justwaitandsee]

Yeah Harry Smith was awful. I wonder why was Rendell invited on if he wasn't going to allow him to debate.

[Balzac]

Lots of us bloggers were critical of his politics, yet I still enjoyed his personality. Another guy may seem to be as big a personality to a younger generation, but there will be no replacement for Tim Russert.

[Skott1]

I've quit watching/podcasting the shows. It seems as if the media has determined there are only a dozen or so people that are qualified to deliver their punditry. "Okay, if you do my show this week, I'll appear on yours next." WTF? If I turn the channel and see Pat Buchanan, George Will, Cokie Roberts or Joe Scarborough again I'll puke. They are all full of themselves. And, on another note, these shows always feel like they need the fringe element making inflammatory or sensational statements that will substitute as news. You cannot balance out extreme right and left to get to the middle. I'm not quite sure where you end up. I am only sure it is not at the truth. We need a strong and independent media in order for democracy to work. The US main stream media has proven it is not up to the task. Whew! I'm just sayin' . . . .

[glesslib]

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I don't even have to wonder what George Will, Pat Burchanan and some of the old tried and trues are going to say on any hot topic. I know in advance exactly where they will come down. There are a lot of voices that could be added to mix things up a little. There should also be some interaction between the guest and the roundtable, with no coaching of the guests. If they want to use these shows as venues to "push an agenda" as it states above, then letls see guests get their guts up and really be questioned by folks from both sides of the topic so that people can decide without all the canned bs that any difficult policy decision seems to generate. With newspapers cutting back in every department, someone is going to need to take up the slack in delivering the truth to us. Thanks for your incisive comment.

[Mij13]

NBC screwed up when they let Gregory moderate MTP. Since everyone seems to think Russert was the best thing since Ed R. Murrow, they'd have done better with someone who isn't a biased prima donna. I wish someone would give Harold Ford a show.

[hunterjond]

Lawrence O' Donnell.

I know, he's too liberally-biased, but it seems impossible to find an old-fashioned down the middle reporter who's unafraid of asking hard questions and following up.

I am so tired of MTP and it's ilk which have degenerated into talk fests of reporters interviewing each other and going no further than today's conventional wisdom.

[jazabelz]

I would watch Lawrence O'Donnell too. Tough questions, articulate and intelligent. Of course the major networks would never go for that!

[TJCole]

Nobody has ever replaced Walter Cronkite..­.nobody...­!

[Sabreen60]

Tim came close. I think it's because then journalists reported the news. Now they all pretty much have a bias.

[InfinteShibumi]

Everyone has a bias -- it's human nature The critical point in journalism is to present the facts as objectively as possible, leaving the viewer to come to his/her own conclusion. Editorials are the exception.

[Olampean]

I was (and remain) in favor of Gwen Ifill as the successor to Russert and believe she would have done a far better job than David Gregory ever will. She's highly intelligent, very well informed, not afraid to ask the real questions, and is able to do so in a smoothly diplomatic fashion that transcends partisanship.

Although technically not a Sunday morning show (in our area it shows at 12:30pm on Sunday), the show "Washington Week with Glen Ifill" has always been one of the best. Unfortunately, the current placement in the schedule in the afternoon makes for a very long day of punditry and too many viewers have moved on to other Sunday afternoon activities by then.

I think PBS should realign their morning schedule to offer her show earlier, when I think many viewers would find her to be a welcome alternative to the others, MTP especially.

[PiscesPrincess]

the one criterion I feel is essential in an interviewer is the ability to be totaly Non partisan. Totally.
All four of those guys are a waste of time, in my humble opinion. I have watched almost all the sunday morning talk shows for decades. Since Tim Russert is gone its the great wasteland. and to have George Stephanopolis being seriously considered for that position makes me gag.
He can't handle the show he currently moderates.
Fareed Zakaria is your man. Take a good long listen. Not a partisan bone in his body AND he is couteous. Line Don Lemon. Love him too. Both are totally unflappable; and stand up reporters.

[bikerdude]

You are wrong. What Russert had was a willingness to work hard. He was always able to "go deep" with any of his guest on any issue that came up. Sometimes he would niggle over trite details that would seem boring to some of us, but he knew his stuff. I can't believe Gregory even reads the morning paper before he goes on.

[Theresa2]

It happened here in Chicago. Clear Channel Communications yanked the wildly popular Tom Joyner Morning Show without warning and turned a deaf ear to audience complaints. The host was replaced by lightweight comedian Steve Harvey. The audience revolted. Not only have they tuned out during Harvey's show but many have stopped listening to the station altogether. A smarter station has hired Joyner to compete with Harvey. If we don't like Gregory, we have to stop watching. I know that I have.