Terry Murphy will replace Wil Surratt as the executive producer of The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, effective today, says TVN. Oh, and there’s also this bit of news: The Big Idea clocked just 114,000 viewers in May, “scratching” on its Nielsen ratings, since it fellow below the threshold of 122,000 viewers needed to even register.
“The Big Idea is a stake in the ground against Fox in primetime,” declared CNBC executive Jonathan Wald in October.
“They might want to find another stake. Well-tanned ad guru Donny Deutsch’s show is off 15 percent in the ratings year-to-date versus the same period in 2007, according to Nielsen. That’s both among total viewers and within the prime 25-54 age group.
“Worse, The Big Idea frequently ’scratches,’ or draws an audience too small to mention. That’s been the case half of the time so far in May.” [Portfolio]
Although we can???t always shake the nasty habit of writing in the royal we, occasionally one of our editors decides to shake off the cloak of anonymity to write a short, pithy statement long, rambling diatribe about a topic of their choice. Today, Debbie Newman is that editor.
Pot-stirring pundit (and brazen book self-promoter) Ann Coulter is no stranger to causing controversy—in fact, most conscientious observers would agree she’s made a fairly lucrative career out of it. And last week was certainly no exception. After dropping by the otherwise irrelevant Donny Deutsch show*, ostensibly to discuss her new book, Coulter had tongues of all races, ethnicities and party affiliations wagging over her calm, methodical and, doubtless, premeditated statement that the Jews need to be “perfected.”
Another day, another firestorm started by—and explicitly for—Ann Coulter.
Or, put another way, in the unlikely event that Coulter keeps a journal,** her entry for that day would have read something along the lines of:
“Dear Diary…Jackpot.”
CONTINUED »
Felix (like the cat) Gillette (like the razor) might have had something else on his mind when he wrote a profile of Donny Deutsh for the New York Observer this week.
The Big Idea has made marginal ratings gains, from 138,000 in 2006 to 158,000 in 2007, but the show still routinely garners less than 50,000 viewers. In the third quarter, the show???s scratch rate was 26%.
So as much sex appeal Deutsch might have for middle-aged women, his ratings growth probably doesn’t merit a profile.
The article might have been inspired by the upcoming launch of the Fox Business Network, which will no doubt vie for the same ???main street??? business owner viewers as The Big Idea.
Seeing as they both Deutsch and Rupert Murdoch have no financial need to work and live in the Trump Park Avenue building, relating to demographic shouldn???t be a problem.
• Donald Trump, not content with having a reality show and a magazine tout his ego, now wants to get into TV shopping. Prepare for lots of gold chyrons. [WSJ]
• Tonight, you might actually have an excuse to watch Donny Deutsch’s CNBC show. He’s announcing I Want Media’s Media Person of the Year, a feat that could bring total viewership up to 20, maybe 24 people. [I Want Media]
• Thanks to Judith Miller, is Arthur Sulzberger Jr. the new Howell Raines? Leave it to Seth Mnookin to overanalyze. [Lowdown]
• The U.S. military admits to paying for editorial in Iraqi newspapers, and suddenly Armstrong Williams doesn’t look so bad. [NYT]
• Richard Branson is taking on Rupert Murdoch, while Rupert Murdoch is taking on Craig Newmark. [Daily Telegraph]
• Lewis Lapham has been hanging around Harper’s only to, ahem, harp on President Bush. [NY Mag]
• For four seconds, you too can be Time’s Person of the Year. [Page Six]
• While Daniel Craig may have nearly locked in the James Bond spot, it’s not definite. What is definite? That he’s making Sienna Miller scream louder than Jude Law ever could. [R&M]
• So much for Anna Anisimova’s dreams of becoming a better looking Donald Trump. Her plans to trash Diane von Furstenberg’s former West 12th Street HQ (for which she paid $23 million) to build a 150-foot condo complex got the kabash when the city council sided with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, capping building heights at 100 feet. Though there’s always a Hamptons summer to make headlines again. [Page Six]
• Katie Holmes‘ dad Martin is about as pleased with her as Brooke Shields is with Tom Cruise, sounding off on his daughter and movie star fiance about their shotgun wedding. Meanwhile, the duo’s uber-handler Lee Ann DeVette is asking parishioners at Katie’s families Christ the King Church not to speak to reporters. [The Scoop]
• Rush Limbaugh feels left out of yesterday’s Top 10 Ubersexuals list, which explains his running his mouth over Bono landing the No. 1 slot despite Rush’s claims of the U2 frontman having a mistress. [Page Six]
• Donny Deutsch finally admits what we’ve known all along. It’s an “ego trip” to do his low rated CNBC show The Big Idea, and he wrote his latest book because “seeing your name on a book is really a big f – – – – – – deal.” [Cindy Adams]
• Apprentice wanna-be Raj Bhakta is venturing into politics. The bow tie wearing, babe chasing former contestant is considering running for Congress in the 13 th District in Fort Washington. Even if The Donald won’t endorse him, maybe he can meet some cute campaign workers to hit on. Or at least a receptionist. [R&M]
• Without that house in the Hamptons to let all his friends crash at, Men’s Health editor David Zinczenko is having a hard time getting anyone to laugh at his jokes.
• Coincidence that the Weinstein brothers leave Disney today, the same day Michael Eisner is splitting after 21 years? We thought not.
• Martha Stewart’s supposed TV comeback isn’t exactly wowing viewers and, in turn, isn’t exactly wowing advertisers.
• If Janice Min gets anymore press this week, we might actually have to buy a copy of Us Weekly.
• Sumner Redstone isn’t content with Rupert Murdoch being the only one using family members to infest his media empire, so he’s signed on wife Paula to “audit” some of Viacom’s L.A. media properties.
• The New York Times really scored with its editorial on Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas. Except they didn’t.
• Donny Deutsch is finally getting around to understanding hatred, but not the type aimed at him, apparently.
• With the new divorce magazine Rosenkrieg (it’s German, kids), you can start reading about your future in a glossy instead of a fortune cookie.
Business Week’s John Riley’s examination of CNBC flub Donny Deutsch is so entertaining, it’s worth examining line by line. Normally we don’t do this because, for one, we’re practically first-grade ESL-ers and two, it’s a shitload of reading and writing.
But in the interest of holding onto your Anna Nicole Smith attention span before Labor Day weekend strolls in, we’re subjecting ourselves to the agony on your behalf.
What JR says: Donny Deutsch is a big guy.
What JR means: Donny Deutsch couldn’t get any more bloated if he were Roseanne’s twin going through menopause.
Not so much by stature, but it????????s his personality.
There’s a reason why “Deutsch” sounds so much like “douche.”
The camera likes him. Witness his daily TV program on CNBC.
If you can find it. Because, if you look at the ratings, nobody else can.
He fills up a room, which is why he has long impressed his clients at Deutsch Advertising.
See above, about the ratings? I’m blatantly lying here.
Now, Donny has tried to get some of this oversized personality into a book, ???????Often Wrong, Never in Doubt,” Collins 2005.
His book may only be 270-something pages, but it’s so inflated with his ego that you’ll have to check it on the plane.
Okay, that’s where the funny ends (i.e. the lede) and the actual Bronx cheering of his book begins — well, except for the “whether created by men, women or monkees” line. As if you needed to be told, that’s where we stop reading. And like most things about and by Donny, we’re going to assume that’s a smartpants decision.
• Kevin Federline must be too busy spending wifey’s cash, which explains his absence from the first birthday party of his son Kaleb with ex Shar Jackson. Naturally Shar is going to feed this story to the tabs generate this week’s income.
• It’s war (or pussy fight) between Bill O’Reilly and Donny Deutsch, with laughable “author Bernard Goldberg at the center of it all.
• While Men’s Health’s David Zinczenko has been seen courting Mandy Moore around the Hamptons, she may have spent the weekend with ex-flame Zach Braff.
• Tom Sizemore is no out on probation since admitting to a judge he used a fake dick to pass a urine drug test. Now he’s back in rehab, or as we like to call it, “career revival.”
• Britney Spears‘ lil sis Jamie Lynn has been running her mouth in her online journal, revealing Brit’s due date is in September.
If there’s one thing we know about Donny Deutsch, it’s that we don’t watch his show. Okay, if there are two things we know about Donny Deutsch, it’s that nobody watches his show. Okay, okay, if there are three things we know about Donny Deutsch, it’s that he shouldn’t let evidence of his Billy Ray Cyrus years get into the hands of his coworkers.
Unfortunately, Donny Deutsch doesn’t know much about what’s good for him, so here you have an at-the-beach candid of Donny in all his speedo glory. (Click photo for larger version.)
Tan lines and hair to match the nuevo Arnold Schwarzenegger body. But even more unpleasant is that this photo got art director Jeison Rodriguez fired from Don-Don’s company after he attached it to an email sent to colleagues. But hey, we hear Donny’s BFF The Donald is hiring.