Logo

Pauley a Firecracker

Aug 30, 2004  •  Post A Comment

At the New York launch party for “The Jane Pauley Show,” Jane Pauley was a blithe spirit, executive producer Michael Weisman was uncharacteristically dressed up and NBC Universal Television Group President Jeffrey Zucker was so happy he even spent a few minutes humoring The Insider, who was working the Rainbow Room for news and signs of any truth to the dark (or wishful????) scuttlebutt about the show.

To sum up the findings:

  • Revlon and Target have signed on as advertisers.
  • Repurposing of “Pauley” within the NBC Universal cable family is under consideration.
  • Ms. Pauley’s lookalike sister/best friend/confidante/staff member Ann Pauley is not becoming an on-air fixture. She is introduced during the Aug. 30 premiere. Mr. Weisman said Ann Pauley appears during an “exultant moment” on Monday’s show, which is part preview, part autobiography. (Jane Pauley’s companion memoir, “Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue,” with its revelation that she was diagnosed with a bipolar condition three years ago, was flying out of the room in goodie bags.)
  • The reel of clips from shows and segments already in the can strongly suggests that Ms. Pauley and pals know how to produce daytime-style Moments with a capital “M.” “I have begun to learn how to address a live audience,” Ms. Pauley said. “My learning curve, thankfully, has been better than I thought it could be.”
  • TV stations that bought one show (“Pauley” was conceived for afternoons) will not be delivered another (New York’s WNBC-TV and L.A.’s KNBC-TV are running “Pauley” in the morning). “Nothing has changed. Absolutely nothing,” said an NBC Universal Television Distribution spokesman. “It is being produced the way it was.”
  • New syndicated shows often have trouble getting studio audiences before their debut, but Mr. Weisman said, “There’s never been a show with an empty seat” in the studio at NBC headquarters, which was Ms. Pauley’s professional home for 28 years.

    No See Señor

    “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw, who registered his disappointment that the Commission on Presidential Debates excludes flagship anchors from being considered as moderators, is not the only person miffed with the commission. Telemundo news executive Joe Peyronnin is “deeply disappointed” that there is not a bilingual Hispanic among this year’s moderators (ABC’s Charlie Gibson, PBS’s Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill and CBS’s Bob Schieffer).

    In a letter to commission Co-Chairmen Frank Fahrenkopf and Paul Kirk Jr., Mr. Peyronnin asked: “How could the Commission [on] Presidential Debates ignore Hispanics?

    “Hispanics live in another America and feel disconnected from this country. That is why election turnout among Hispanics is usually low. And that is why the commission’s selection of moderators is such a missed opportunity,” Mr. Peyronnin wrote.

    ‘Restless’ Patience Pays Off

    Belated congrats to Vinnie Favale, the intrepid CBS East Coast late-night VP, occasional extra on “Late Show with David Letterman,” occasional member of Howard Stern’s motley crew(d) and now star of a press release from the company that produces a-tah dah!-hemorrhoid treatment.

    As the Stern radio faithful already know, Hemorrelief sponsored a contest to give $5,000 to whoever could write music that would salvage a song titled “Restless, Restless,” about a bad breakup (“I picked you up at 10/And to a fault you were quiet/I didn’t know it then/That I was off your diet”). Mr. Favale and K-ROCK account exec Tom Gesimondo wrote the lyrics and recorded a cheap demo 23 years ago. Mr. Stern recently heard it and promptly dubbed it the worst song he’d ever heard. Fast-forward to the contest, some 3,000 entries and the “American Idol”-meets-“Extreme Swan Makeover” sing-off seen Aug. 25 on “The Howard Stern Show” on E!

    One down and many works in progress to go, as one can see (and hear) for oneself at Ripthemusic.com.