I Want MSNBC To Give Phil Donahue A Show Dammit!

[romantico]

Phil got canned when his ratings were high because he spoke out against the Iraq War. What better way for MSNBC to say sorry than to give Phil his own show? Who can I/we contact to get the ball rolling? A Facebook page perhaps? Does Chris Matthews need to be on at 5:00PM and 7:00PM? Maybe he can fill in for David Shuster. I would LOVE to hear Phil Donahue now more than ever.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Give him Scar's job.

[DesertFlower]

3. that's too early in the morning,

especially if you're on the west coast.

[HipChick]

2. Carlos Watson was canned for speaking truth..

M$NBC are more interested in keeping corporate shrill line, they are not interested in truth...

[spartan61]

5. Wow, I didn't know that.

I always liked him and wondered why I had not seen him in awhile. What truth did Carlos say that cost him his job with MSNBC?

[HipChick]

6. He was suggesting the language of GOP townhalls then and now Teabaggers

use of socialism etc was code for something else...

MSNBC said he would continue to be a contributer - we had seen neither hide or hair of him since..

Dead Intern Joe meanwhile says much worst, and gets to keep his job..

[DesertFlower]

4. i agree. give phil his own show.

i never understood why chris matthews is on 2x.

[lpbk2713]

7. I loved the statement Phil made regarding guest booking on his former program.

He said very seriously that he would always have to book two rethuglican
guests for every one Dem guest he had scheduled just to make it fair.


:rofl:

[romantico]

8. Never

Never made sense to me. Phil's ratings were very high on MSNBC and they fired him. I can not be 100% certain, but it has been said that Phil was way too critical of the war in Iraq and MSNBC fired him. He did not lose any sponsors and I like I said, at the time his show was one of the highest rated on MSNBC. WHat kind of decision is that? How do you explain that to your board members and stock holders that you terminated someone with high ratings and no loss of sponsors? How does that work? Can anyone confirm the reasons Phil lost his show?

[butterfly77]

9. Kick &Recommended!!!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[daa]

10. He had no ratings and his show was expensive

becuase of the audience.
From the NY TImes:
"Mr. Donahue was brought to MSNBC with much fanfare last July, after being off television since the end of his syndicated talk show in 1996. But ratings for the show disappointed the channel from the start.

In the 8 p.m. slot, Mr. Donahue's show averaged 439,000 viewers over the past month, far short of his competitors, Connie Chung on CNN, who had 970,000 viewers, and Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, who dominated the hour with 2.7 million viewers."

[Berry Cool]

11. Keith Olbermann has tried again and again to point out the real reason Donahue was canceled

but not with much luck. Liberal conspiracy theorists would rather believe it was because of his position on the Iraq war than that it was based on anything like the expense of his show and how it wasn't paying for itself even with the ratings it had.

Shows with live audiences are more expensive to produce than those without.

If MSNBC forbade the expression of opinions that don't toe the corporate/GE party line, Olbermann's show wouldn't have been on for seven years and counting. The truth is, MSNBC airs whatever gets enough ratings to justify the costs of putting on the show in the first place. They care much more for money than for ideology.

[romantico]

12. Maybe

Maybe give Phil a show with no audience. Or at the very least, have him fill in for Keith,Rachel,or Ed when they aren't there. I love Lawrence O'Donnel but he fills in for everybody! Phil would be refreshing as a sub host once in a while.