No ‘permission’ to be predictable

Many TV hosts of long-running shows become too smug and lazy, secure in the thought that their programs’ continuing popularity gives them “permission” to do predictable work.

This slothful tendency is obvious in a number of morning shows, whose cohosts are “automatically” bright, loud and chirpy, and do the same, old S.O.P. thing, from one portion to the next.

Worse, they take too many holidays, so the blanks are all too frequently filled by second-tier “replacement” talents, who do even less well.

Don’t these shows have producers and directors, and isn’t it their job to keep their talents in check and focused on the show’s welfare, instead of their individual druthers?

If this less than responsible and professional conduct continues, disappointed and “feeling-used” viewers will shift their allegiance to other programs—we’re not that clueless and helpless, you know.

Even on so-called entertainment shows, some hosts or cast members end up turning in knee-jerk work, lividly shouting their spiels and resorting to “fun” gimmicks and reactions with precious little sense of genuine fun and desire to entertain.

Everyone is automatically “excited” from the get-go, but it’s mostly all for show, frenzy and volume, so viewers are not convincingly entertained.

To make things worse, aside from being lazy, some talents keep making mistakes with their lines and cues.

But, their personal standards of performance are so low that it’s “OK lang” for them, as long as they keep going from one flub to the next.

Well, these people should know that it’s not OK for some viewers, who expect TV talents to know what they’re doing.

This negative note rankles most of all when it refers even to news and public affairs people, who are supposed to be made of sterner stuff, because informing and educating the viewing public is a higher and more important calling on TV than just making viewers laugh or cry.

Sad to say, however, this higher level isn’t reached by quite a number of so-called broadcast journalists.

This is disturbing, because many of them are required to just correctly read news reports that have already been written for them by other people—and yet all too often, they can’t manage to even do that.

All of these niggling and nagging notes are intended to remind talents that the fact that they’re connecting with and serving so many hundreds and thousands of viewers requires them to play their best game—all the time!

A mistake or boo-boo isn’t just an insignificant and funny error, it’s a sign that the TV talent is turning in less than professional and acceptable work.

The fact that even veteran talents haven’t learned this lesson and taken their responsibilities to heart augurs poorly for the TV industry’s progress, despite the fact that television is now being hailed as the most influential communication and entertainment medium for the new millennium.

With that encomium also comes great responsibility, so TV workers need to get their act together to deserve all that praise—and power.