It's the homestretch of 2006, and since everyone else is making lists from the year we will, too. Here are ETP's picks for the Media Winners of 2006 — people who went beyond just excelling at their job and ascended to new levels of prominence and influence this year, raising their game, raising the stakes, and putting their definitive stamp on the year that was.
This is part one; part two is here, and our Honorable Mentions are here. And now, in no particular order:
John Hodgman: Who has broken out bigger than John Hodgman this year? The NYT mag funny pages editor, McSweeney's contributor and Areas Of My Expertise author went from being a guest on "The Daily Show" last November to being scooped up as a regular (do you know how many people audition for those spots? Actually a lot more than correspondent brothers and husands). Hodgman then proceeded to land the the huge Mac commercial campaign (maybe you've seen it?). He may not be a household name but by now he's surely a household face, seeing as there are about a zillion and a half versions and they run all the time. It's incredible - the media-world equivalent of being appointed Vice President AND President. In 2006, no one has climbed so far so fast. (RS)
Brian Williams: He's not just the ratings king of the nightly news, he's the only anchor who is an authority beyond that — the guy moves across platforms with incredible ease. He's a welcome and repeat guest on The Daily Show and his impeccably timed and genuinely funny cameo on SNL was the highlight of the season premiere. He's legitimately a blogger, and "The Daily Nightly" wipes the floor with anything from Gibson and Couric. He's the anchor they put on the Time "Man of the Year" panel (two years running, actually) and the guy who first suggested "You" (last year he came up with the "Mother Nature" suggestion, much better and buzzier than Bono and the Gateses). He made Katrina his story, and won the Peabodys to prove it, but beyond that he just always seems to be a prescence. You don't see Couric and Gibson stepping out of their anchor roles and taking the kind of pan-media role that Williams does. For God's sake even Gawker loves him. (RS)
Al Gore: He may have lost the presidency in 2000, but now there's something even greater at stake: The planet. Al Gore's emergence as a global warming soothsayer and planet-saving crusader has all but completely supplanted the old image of the former veep as stiff and boring. Now he's got a whole new universe of credibility thanks to An Inconvenient Truth, both the top-grossing documentary of the year and the bestselling book. He's all but guaranteed an Oscar, but that will just confirm what everyone already knows: That An Inconvenient Truth is a mesmerizing, galvanizing masterpiece, and it's all because of him (oh come on, it's two hours of watching a lecture, and they make it work. If that's not a masterpiece, then I'll shovel your driveway). Since his re-emergence as crusading matinee idol, Gore has become forceful and — yes! — charismatic presence, stirring up speculation (and hope) that he'll run again in 2008. His surprise SNL appearance imagining what it would have been like under his presidency reinforced the fact that he was robbed in 2000 (cough hanging chads popular vote Katherine Harris cough), and sort of drove home that everyone else was, too. The fact that he has been remade as cool, hip, beloved Al Gore of the quippy soundbite (cf. GQ Men of the Year) is incredible. It's been a good year for Al Gore, except for that whole planet hurtling toward oblivion thing. We are so screwed. (RS)
The Boys Of YouTube: Do we really need to explain it? We do not. So big that Time latched on to them like a nerdy frosh following the football hero. That's Chad Hurley and Steve Chen as football heroes. That means YouTube had to be big indeed. Sure there's Facebook and MySpace and they may even be bigger with clicks and streams and whatnot, but when you think about the YOU you think about YouTube. That goes double for "Macaca." Oh, p.s., somewhere in there we should probably mention that whole $1.65 billion acquisition by Google. We could go on — Lonely Girl, Daily Show/Colbert, Connie Chung's piano-writhe — but you know the drill. Now, go watch some guy dance. (RS)
Rosie O'Donnell: Say what you will about her (and plenty of people certainly have) but one thing is undeniable: Rosie O'Donnell gets people talking. Since replacing Meredith Vieira (and, of course, Star Jones) as co-host of "The View", she's attracted continuous headlines, and within three months has single-handedly jolted a once-lagging talk show into an irreverent, boundary-pushing caper that journalists have dubbed "must-see TV." The show's 2006 ratings were up 13% from the year before according to Nielsen, with viewers climbing to 3.3 million, a hefty boost that's rare for a show in its tenth season. The reason for the rise is irrefutable: Rosie simply hasn't missed an opportunity to take any discussion to the next level, be it on gun control, personal wealth or the potential dangers of radical Christianty. She says what others won't, and the press follows in droves. Even rumors of her departure from the show caused major ripples; after a libido-killing guest appearance on FX's "Nip/Tuck," she made more headlines by landing an offer to return as the show's female lead.
Granted, Rosie's outspoken antics haven't always fallen on the prudent end of the spectrum. Her ad hominem attack on Kelly Ripa for alleged homophobia (which the latter quickly slapped down by calling the show to defend herself on-air) left Rosie looking humbled, and an ill-advised parody of the Chinese language led to apologies against cries of racism. Still, she hasn't been afraid to call out the proverbial BS when the situation calls for it. Noting that Donald Trump, whose personal history includes multiple divorces and extramarital affairs, was hardly a "moral compass" to judge the behavior of America's teenagers was a ballsy and importunate move, while her pleas that Britney Spears ditch hard-partying and panty-spurning friend Paris Hilton, while not exactly on the level of gun control advocacy, were refreshing in their sympathetic honesty. Like her or despise her (and most people seem to do one or the other, though we can't tell which it is for Barbara Walters) no one can deny that she's been a clear Media Winner in 2006. That part Barbara Walters knows. (ML)
Rachael Ray: It can't just be the outfit, though it's certainly very classy; no, there's got to be more to the appeal of Rachael Ray, the dominant domestic diva of the year, with all sorts of TV show, magazine and book properties going through the roof. She had the top new show of the season (the most successful talk show in syndication since Dr. Phil), and the most recent of her bestselling cookbooks, drawing crowds from Seattle to Philly, already a bestseller along with her next most recent book from last November (still in the Amazon top 100. Then there's her start-up magazine, Every Day With Rachael Ray — you know, start ups, the ones that are supposed to struggle and probably fold — which has more than doubled its rate base since its launch in November 2005, from 350,000 to 750,000 as of August 2006 and upping to 1.3 million come February. The mag was named an AdAge's 2006 Launch of the Year and is a Reader's Digest Most Trusted Brand of 2006 — true, that honor also goes to Australian Handyman and Daheim in Deutschland, but it's also true that she has an 88% positive response rate and that 1 in 8 American households declare themselves her fans. Of course, those who aren't fans are extremely vocal about it, but that just got her one more New York Times article. She was runner up for I Want Media's Person Of The Year, she beat out Martha Stewart in a recent Parade poll, and was even embroiled in a sex scandal. Okay that last part is no fun but the rest of the year was one hell of a consolation prize. (RS)
Part II: Stephen Colbert, TMZ, Keith Olbermann, some tech nerd, and more!
