TV/Radio Notes: Dan Rather takes minor role on show
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Dan Rather going Hollywood?
There were gasps of surprise at ABC's fall-schedule announcement this week when the veteran TV newsman popped up as an actor in clips for "Dirty Sexy Money," a new drama about a wealthy, misbehaving New York family.
The role wasn't exactly a stretch. Rather plays a reporter at a fancy dinner party pressing a politician, portrayed by William Baldwin, about his future political plans.
Rather initially said no when the show's executive producer and director, Peter Horton, called to ask if he'd be interested. News people occasionally pop up in fictional settings, like CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday's "Gilmore Girls" series finale, but it is frowned upon at CBS News -- his former home for decades -- and Rather had never done it.
Then he gave it a second thought. It might be an easy way to remind people that he's still working, with his own weekly news show on HD Net.
True to his nature, he did some research, and found that past TV news icons Eric Sevareid, Howard K. Smith and Walter Cronkite had done some film and television work.
"I did say to myself, no matter what the others had done, what do you think? And I thought, at this age and stage of my career, what the hell."
He showed up in a tuxedo one night a few months ago for filming in New York. Nailed his lines in two takes.
"I got there at 7 and left at 1, and they still were shooting," he said. "I was very impressed at how hard these actors and actresses work."
Rather, 75, hasn't seen the pilot, so he doesn't know how much of his scene was used. If the network hadn't picked up the series, his work would never have been seen at all. (David Bauder, Associated Press)
Ratings doom 'Jericho'
CBS would like you to know that it was a tough decision to cancel "Jericho," its entry into last season's plot-driven serial glut.
That will probably be small consolation to the show's fans, who watched the show's first -- and only -- season end with the titular town's fate very much up in the air. But, as CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler put it Wednesday, "It just wasn't performing."
The ratings bear that out. After drawing a pretty solid 10.7 million viewers over its first 11 episodes in the fall, it fell off sharply after a long hiatus. The second half of the season fell to around 8 million viewers, with the adults 18-49 numbers also taking a sizable hit, often hovering just above a 2.0 rating.
"You know, it had good viewers, loyal viewers, but the show just really kind of lost its engine," Tassler says. "It was a hard decision. It's a hard decision in any year."
As for the cliffhanger ending, Tassler can only shrug. "We go through this every year," she says. "It's the nature of the beast."
Having learned the lesson about long hiatuses, CBS is hoping to avoid the same situation this season with its drama "Swingtown," about suburbanites exploring the boundaries of social acceptability in the 1970s.
"The plan is to air it in its entirety from the premiere to the finale, which is why we're holding it until midseason," Tassler says. (Daniel Fienberg, Zap2it.com)
Opera on radio
WEDO-AM (810) has added a weekly program to its schedule: "Sunday Night at the Opera" will air 5 p.m. Sundays and feature complete performances of well-known operas. Companies featured include Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera and Houston Grand Opera. The performances will air without interruption. (Adrian McCoy, Post-Gazette radio writer)
First Published May 18, 2007 5:38 pm
