Commentary

Rooting For Millionaires: No Problem For Viewers, But The Storylines Need To Deliver

 

 Whether it's sports stars versus owners, actors versus networks and producers, or broadcasters versus cable systems, TV watchers can pick sides -- and root for their favorite millionaires.

The lure is not the money, but the drama around the participants. You can't put a price on that.

President Obama, asked if he would get involved in the current NFL labor dispute , demurred, because, after all, that dispute is between billionaire owners and multimillion-dollar players. Right now, there are people in Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas and California who just need a job. The president made the right call.

Retransmission issues? Same thing. Millionaire broadcast owners versus millionaire cable system operators.

It's similar with Charlie Sheen versus Warner Bros. and/or CBS. But we love the drama of the thing. You know my tiger blood runs deep. What drug am I on? It's called "TV Watch"!

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Forget about NFL negotiations in big office buildings. What we need are football players in suits and ties wrestling on city sidewalks -- with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Sheen could tell them how to amp up media coverage. Just one bit of advice: don't listen to your publicist anymore.

TV coverage of retransmission issues is lame, especially with the usual stock of video images being a non-starter. Pictures of office building or the logos of Cablevision Systems, CBS, Time Warner or Comcast just don't cut it.

Yet story lines about famous performers aren't the only aspect of entertainment news that engages average consumers -- as coverage of the entertainment business now also stirs their interest.

Bring it all on -- with detailed lawsuits, hookers and drugs. Complaints over reality TV are furtive once the real, unscripted reality TV entertainment world takes over.

Better still, give me the right big-money players with the right storylines -- like Sheen, who can rent out the Houston Astrodome so his friends can take batting practice.

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