Woefully deficient TV hosting scored

THE LEVEL of local TV program hosting has plunged to such depths this season that dissatisfied, aggrieved and irate viewers should complain that they’re being poorly served.

Don’t these inept or smug hosts’ shows have managers whose job it is to make sure that an acceptable level of professionalism and proficiency (if not competence) is maintained?

There are many areas in which TV hosts’ performance has been found woefully deficient:

On at least some newscasts, anchors don’t even bother reading the news text in advance, so they make all sorts of embarrassing mistakes that would prompt their counterparts abroad to bury their heads in shame.

Their alibi is that the news text is delivered to them late, so there’s no time to rehearse—but, when there’s a will, there’s a way!

Why have some news anchors become so lazy? Because they regard themselves as stars in their own right, so they can do—or not do—pretty much what they want—or don’t!

So much for broadcast journalists’ genuine spirit of public service, these veteran “stars” think they can make their own rules.

Line of work

Can’t their news managers make them toe the professional line? Apparently not, so those ineffectual “superiors” should consider another line of work that’s not quite so helplessly frustrating.

Worst of all are the news anchors who feel that they’re entitled to go beyond simple reportage, and “brilliantly” analyze and comment on the news they’re reporting.

Why do their networks allow them to be so brash and bold? Because they think that viewers like this “personalistic” style of news reporting.

—Do you like it when a news anchor “colors” the news in this “personal” way? If so, you should remind yourself about the all-important difference between news and commentary. If you allow news anchors to do the analyzing for you, how can you develop your own analytical abilities?

Other inept TV program hosts do lousy work because they’re stars or starlets who have been instantly transformed into hosts without the talent, affinity or training for it.

They’ve been deluded into believing that, if they look good, smile brightly and read their scripted spiels in a lively way, they’ll be A-OK.

—Alas, all they do is end up with egg on their pretty faces, so they’re quickly replaced—by the next incompetent looker!

Worst of all

The worst program hosts of all are producers or financiers of their own shows. The correctly termed “vanity” TV productions they “self-host” are so bad that they are watched only by masochistic viewers.

Some “vanity” program host-producers have the sort of “nonlooks” that industry people cattily dismiss as “mukhang pang-radyo.”

In addition, they talk a loud, blue streak, not realizing that, on TV, the rule is: less audio, more video!

But, with the host’s looks so unprepossessing, their TV show’s director finds himself helplessly caught between a rock and a hard place—what is he to do?!