As the dust settles on the cat-fighting and controversy surrounding NBC's "Today" show, a couple of things are becoming quite evident.
There was no cat-fighting. And precious little controversy.Jane Pauley, who announced last week that she would be leaving the program after 13 years as its co-host, branded as "untrue" and "sexist" media claims of animosity between her and Deborah Norville, who recently became "Today's" news reader and who will take over as Bryant Gumbel's co-host when Pauley leaves the show in January.
"If Deborah and I had been men," Pauley said after her emotional announcement Friday, "our ages and hair color would not have been discussed."
But they were discussed in newspapers around the country (including, I must admit, this one), with an eye toward turning this into an "All About Eve"-ish rivalry between the older, established star and the rising young star. Pauley noticed the trend.
"The story took on the tack of the older, over-the-hill woman about to be upstaged by the flashy younger woman," she observed. "It's just our perverse need to put everything in terms of winners and losers, villains and heroes.
"It wasn't a contest," Pauley insisted. "Deborah and I are on the same team."
Or, as she said on the air on Friday, "It has hurt to see two of my friends, Bryant and Deborah, assigned roles in this they did not play." This was just before she presented to Norville an alarm clock, and the two women tearfully - and apparently sincerely - embraced.
So if it isn't a big rivalry, and if it isn't a case of youth being served, what is it?
"It's time to move on," Pauley said. "At some point, as the anniversaries pile on, you start asking the question, `Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?"'
For a long time, she said, she wasn't sure of the answer. But now she is - and the answer is no. Instead, she wants to work on other projects for NBC - prime time news specials and, in March, a prime time news series called "Changes," for which NBC Entertainment chief Brandon Tartikoff has already given an unprecedented 52-week commitment.
"Yeah, I'm sure I want to do it," she said when a reporter reminded her of the network's bleak history for prime time news. "I'm as enthusiastic as my predecessors must have been. Sooner or later we've got to figure out a way. I'm game for trying."
And, if the past 13 years are any indication, succeeding - even if she isn't much at cat-fighting.
-NOW THAT THAT'S SETTLED, it's time to start worrying about Kathleen Sullivan. Appearing on the "Donahue" show Monday along with Pauley and "Good Morning America's" Joan Lunden, Sullivan admitted that she is feeling the heat for the feeble, third-rated performance of "CBS This Morning."
"I can't lie about that," she told Phil Donahue. "I know the ax is right there . . . If we don't improve from where we are (in the ratings), my days are numbered."
-DON'T YOU JUST LOVE KTVX's new news set? With its subdued colors and gently contoured shaping, it has a real Big Time look even though it does have a tendency to get a little crowded when everyone is sitting around it at the end of each newscast. It's like Ch. 4 has finally joined the electronic age - especially when compared to the Early Glasnost desk-in-the-newsroom ensemble the station was using while the new set was being built. (And a special vote of thanks to the designer who opted to give us one consistent backdrop, as opposed to the mix 'n' match backdrops employed on the second newest news set in town.)
-IN FRONT OF THOSE confusing backdrops, however, some good things are happening at KUTV News. I'm especially impressed with the growth I've seen in the station's 5 o'clock news program, which seems to be finding its pace. There's a good mix of local reports and national and syndicated features. The tone is breezy and light, in keeping with a program philosophy that is decidedly "soft" (as opposed to the "hard" news orientation at 6 and 10 p.m.).
Personally, I'd still like to see more extensive use of KUTV's strong stable of reporters, turning them loose for "Prime Time Access"-ish in-depth reports. But they're getting closer - and at least they've taken Bob Evans out of the middle of the studio and allowed him to sit with Michelle King.
-TODAY'S MYSTERY: Hockey officials often claim that the sport decries the fighting that is so often associated with it, and they insist that they never do anything to encourage extracurricular fisticuffs on the ice. But if that's true, why is there a quick shot of a couple of players fighting in a current promotional commercial for Golden Eagles hockey? They make it look as if that's as much a part of the sport's package as skating and stick handling.