THE PLANK JULY 29, 2009
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That's the question of the hour. As I wrote on The Plank last night, I have a piece in this week's TNR that has to do with "The Wanted," an NBC News show that has been attacked by media ethicists, human rights activists, and television critics for supposedly blurring the lines between news gathering and international police work. Now, after only two episodes, according to The New York Observer and The Baltimore Sun's television critic David Zurawik, NBC is saying the show is no longer on the primetime schedule. Zurawik, incidentally, teaches part-time at Goucher College, which is where "The Wanted" first ran into controversy, when the show confronted a Rwandan professor there named Leopold Munyakazi with accusations of genocide. My piece explores the complex story behind those allegations, which some Rwanda scholars believe are probably untrue.
Most likely, NBC's decision had less to do with the naysayers than with the show's ratings--Mediabistro's TVNewser blog reports that its Monday episode finished fifth in its time slot, trailing even a Univision telenovela. Anonymous "insiders" tell the blog that the network always planned to air just two episodes, and that others in production may end up on MSNBC. Though the press release announcing the show's debut only described two installments, the producers indicated to me as recently as a week ago that they were rushing to finish at least four other episodes, including the one about Munyakazi. I've seen footage the producers shot in Rwanda, and I know they've done investigations in other foreign locales like Congo--the kind of ambitious investment, in terms of time and money, that is becoming increasingly rare in network news organizations at a moment when budgets are shrinking.
So, is NBC writing off its expensive experiment? No announcement has been released yet. Several hours ago, I emailed a spokeswoman as well as the producers of "The Wanted" to ask what's going to happen with the show, and what that means for the Munyakazi episode. So far, no comment.
--Andrew Rice
3 comments
-- "The Wanted" first ran into controversy, when the show confronted a Rwandan professor there named Leopold Munyakazi with accusations of genocide.
I suspect the network would have got vastly higher ratings had it confronted am American professor named John Yoo with accusations of torture.
- ndmackenzie
July 29, 2009 at 5:30pm
"The Wanted" "finished fifth in its time slot, trailing even a Univision telenovela."
I get that almost literally nobody watched "The Wanted." But "trailing even" a telenovela? Is that "Mañana Es Para Siempre" we're talking about? Anyway, the point is that Univision has been absolutely killing in the M-F 9 pm timeslot since 2007with its telenovelas. Finishing behind a telenovela is nothing to be ashamed of. Finishing in fifth place with a 0.5 rating and barely 2 million viewers is something to be ashamed of.
- rhubarbs
July 29, 2009 at 5:50pm
Allow me please to iterate my own paranoid obsession here:
No doubt Osama bin Laden and his ilk are big fans of The Wanted. After all, just like the rest of us, they need to know what to think, what to believe and how to behave in this complex world. Isn't it obvious? They have their parts to play in the "war on terror" and we have ours.
I'm just surprised the CIA outsourced this to NBC. Don't they know this is the liberal network? Don't they know about Ed and Keith and Rachel on MSNBC? What if Keith attacks the show in a Special Comment? What if Ed discloses the team is modeled after Dick Cheney, John Yoo and Rush Limbaugh; that it's called "Operation Three Stooges"; that Iggy Pop is suing them for stealing his band? What if Rachel links them to C Street and lurid sex scandals that stretch all the way to Argentina?
FYI: The sources I have embedded in the production of this series have confirmed the following:
* All the wet work will be carried out by predator drones
* Dick Cheney is assembling the torture devices pro bono
* All profits from the show will be used to replace Jack Bauer with Yosemite Sam on 24
* Contrary to rumors, Hillary Clinton does not have final script approval
* Adolph Hitler's frequent cameos are just coincidences
* Sarah Palin is hired to do all the stunts at David Letterman's trial for treason
* The episode that revolves around Marty Peretz's birth certificate is heavily redacted
* James Crowley is abducted in Tehran after arresting the Ayatollah Khamenei for jaywalking
More inside dope:
* NBC may drop the series from prime time because Keith Olbermann is threatening to jump ship and audition for the new Alan Colmes character on Sean Hannity
* Yes, the shows ratings have been less than stellar. But that's because many viewers thought it was an infomercial from Lockheed Martin and the Army
* If the show does end up on MSNBC, the producers have been promised the episodes will be aired between segments of Predator Raw
* The Munyakasi segment is still in limbo because Rush Limbaugh hasn't finished editing it yet.
gw
- iambiguous
July 29, 2009 at 8:35pm