Newsday Article On Bradshaw, CNBC, Germany Incident, & New John Replacing Layfield

Newsday has already posted this article on their website, which will go public this weekend. No word if this will be in the physical paper as well. And notice, not one mention he's world champion. This adds to several public media articles that refuse to attract attention to the current wrestling situation with Bradshaw being world champion. Well done in my opinion.

July 4, 2004


His name is John.

"John," the CNBC executive brightly noted in a recent press release, "brings a fresh perspective ... and we look forward to his engaging, entertaining insights."

More facts about "John": He was once a top athlete and is now a published author who has a rep for being compelling, authentic, funny and (oh yes!) he has some anger-management issues, too.

And one more fact about this particular "John": He was sacked by CNBC about a month after he joined the network in early May for goose-stepping at a WWE event in Germany "and raising his arm numerous times in an Adolf Hitler salute," according to a news report at the time. So much for John "Bradshaw" Layfield, WWE body slammer-commentator and erstwhile talking head for CNBC. The channel would be forced to issue another press release saying his behavior was "offensive, inappropriate and not befitting anyone associated" with the network.

An embarrassment, certainly, for the world's leading financial news network, but it was otherwise no big deal. Life went on as usual at CNBC's Englewood Cliffs, N.J., headquarters, and while the Layfield incident did not do much for the network's morale - not exactly soaring these days in light of its ongoing ratings woes - no one for an instant assumed CNBC bosses would ever hire someone that they thought would act like a fruitcake at a public event.

Besides, Layfield - who has written on personal finance and appeared on other networks - was just one of many CNBC commentators, most of whom wear eyeglasses and are pencil-neck geeks. Nevertheless, the Layfield incident still raises this puzzling question: What exactly was CNBC thinking when it hired a 6-foot-6, 290-pound professional wrestler whose "finishing move" in the ring is something called "the clothesline from hell?"

A need for attention

The simple answer is, yes, simple: To get attention, and CNBC sure needs a little more of that these days and nights. In recent months, ratings have deteriorated so relentlessly that CNBC, which was the top-rated news-information network in the daytime hours just four years ago, now hovers near the bottom. For a couple of weeks in early June, it even dipped below MSNBC, which had a surge in the wake of former President Ronald Reagan's death and funeral. CNBC's average prime-time number during those weeks? Just 168,000 compared with 410,000 for MSNBC.

Which brings us to another fellow named John. Wednesday at 10 p.m. CNBC debuts "McEnroe," the final element of a prime-time overhaul that began earlier this year with the launch of "Dennis Miller" at 9 and occasional repeats of "The Apprentice" at 8. No one of sound mind or judgment would compare the two Johns, but there are obvious parallels: jocks with, ahem, unconventional personalities and styles, which bespeaks another part of CNBC's grand strategy.

Holding daytime viewers

Network executives want to hold on to some of those exceedingly well-paid, mostly young male viewers who compose the bulk of CNBC's audience by day but who usually evaporate by prime time. So the current plan is to keep more of them in the fold while simultaneously adding new viewers - people who wouldn't even know how to spell CNBC much less watch it during the day. It's an exceedingly tricky balancing act but a necessary one. Consider: Ever since it was founded in 1989, a succession of CNBC bosses have struggled to draw the dayside (or so-called "business day") viewers into prime. But when the stock market tanked in 2000, most of those precious dayside viewers bailed.

That has now forced the network to attract brand-new viewers from morning until night - especially night, where most of the ad dollars (and profits) go.

Enter Mac. A three-time Wimbledon and four-time U.S. Open singles champ, McEnroe is, of course, associated with tennis, and it's a link CNBC is making little effort to discourage. He is a tennis commentator for USA Network, now owned by NBC Universal. (The guest on a recent test show for "McEnroe" was former tennis star Jim Courier.) While the press-averse McEnroe (who declined to be interviewed) hasn't said a lot about his new gig, in a couple of canned comments he's promised a talk show that will be "thoughtful and insightful when it is appropriate and wreak havoc when necessary." That's just a figure of speech, of course, but with Mac, one never knows, does one?

"You know, a lot of people think they know they can do these shows, but they're much harder than anyone realizes," says Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group.

McEnroe's broader interests

At a recent launch party, McEnroe told a reporter for Zap2it.com, the online entertainment site: "I don't have a problem talking a lot about sports, but I do have other interests. I love music , and I've had an art gallery for many years, so I'd like to try to find an art element."

And this: There may be a monologue, too. Comedy, which is not something that McEnroe's always been intentionally associated with, will be laced throughout, and he'll even have a sidekick, John Fugelsang, a stand-up comic and onetime host of "America's Funniest Home Videos."

OK, so the big question: Why Mac? It's a good question, and the answer - sorry, reader - is a little fuzzy. The TV landscape is littered with the wreckage of programs hosted by people who figured a talk show would be as easy as taking a breath. Moreover, McEnroe comes with baggage, which may or may not be a problem. The onetime epithet-spewing, tantrum-tossing superstar tennis brat has long since mellowed, but the bad boy image lingers. That, we hasten to add, may well be his single biggest advantage. The drawback may be this: Does anybody really care what he has to say about art, music or politics?

Pamela Thomas-Graham, chief executive of CNBC who's responsible for rebuilding prime time, bats away rumors that McEnroe got the job because of his ties with NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol or that Zucker is calling the shots at CNBC, which some say explains the profusion of "The Apprentice" reruns on the network (repeats will air 8 p.m. through July 26, starting Tuesday).

Both, she says, "were very helpful in getting the door open, [but] obviously it was my call in putting him on the air." And while conceding that Zucker has "become more involved," he is much more of a "great thought partner" than decision-maker at CNBC.

The thought partner, meanwhile, doesn't quibble with the suggestion that building CNBC's nighttime audience will not be a cakewalk, and he compares the challenge to the one that faced Viacom when it created Nickelodeon's evening counterpart, "Nick at Nite." But "I'm not convinced there is a correlation" between the people who watch CNBC in the day and those who might tune in at night, he says, and that means the hill for CNBC just might be a little steeper than the one Viacom had to scale. The reason is that a lot of kids watch "Nite" along with their parents because of it's so-called crossover appeal. CNBC's nightline lineup may not have that advantage.

But Zucker says "Miller" is "in good shape [and] meeting all our expectations," and that there are plans to launch a new 8 p.m. talk show that will be "very much" in the spirit of "Miller" and "McEnroe." (He declined comment on potential hosts but the Rev. Al Sharpton has long been rumored.)

Selected from a 'long list'

McEnroe was chosen from a "long list of names," says Thomas-Graham, that included "people who would make sense if you think of the affluent, largely male network viewership that likes to watch [us] at night.... One of the other names was Dennis Miller. Fortunately, they were both available. She adds: "Both of them have certain elements in their reputation that are appealing to our target audience. Both are considered to be smart, quick on their feet. Both are accomplished and have credibility with an audience that's wealthy and accomplished."

But - ummm - what about that other side of John? The guy whose last name could easily work as a one-word definition in Webster's for the term "volcanic temperament"? Poppycock, says Thomas-Graham. "I find him a great conversationalist and ...this is a guy who you'd be happy to sit next to on a transcontinental flight. I think people will be pleasantly surprised by John."

Says Douglas Warshaw, the executive in charge of production for "McEnroe," though Gary Swain, McEnroe's longtime manager, holds the title of executive producer: "I can't persuade you or anybody else out there that this show is going to work on a theoretical basis because I can't explain John on a theoretical basis. But I can tell you how many biographies of athletes I've read, and there are very few who are compelling, interesting and authentic. John falls into that category."

John McEnroe, that is.