SOMEONE ASKED ME TO OPINE about CBS News prime anchor, Norah O'Donnell --I must admit I'm in the minority; I find O'Donnell to be pretty damn good and solid. She does her job very well. If CBS was hoping for fireworks and explosions (figuratively, of course) ratings-wise, then I think someone in marketing seriously fucked up because even not knowing O'Donnell personally, I know just by watching her that she doesn't roll that way. Maybe they wanted her to do gymnastics while reading her notes but Norah didn't get the memo which is fine with me.
The traditional network anchor is no more. It's all about numbers now (and recent years too) but we're in a different world. There's far too many options out there including network news at 5 and 6 which along with the other millions of people on line, aren't glued to the TV set because the TV News division is getting clobbered by the Internet and smart phones and streaming devices. O'Donnell didn't put a gun to a CBS exec and say, "you better give me the network news gig, or else!"
They put her there and she's apparently underperformed, but so what, that's life in the big city. I like her sane disposition. I think she's simple and elegant in an otherwise crazy environment and that's the way it should be, especially at a place where news used to be measured by a different standard and not wholly controlled by ratings. That all said, there's good news of late.
Leave Norah alone. She's fine. She's solid. She has a decorum that works and although she hasn't so far panned out in ginormous numbers, she's still attracting viewers and makes money for the company which in the end is the only thing that counts.
