Jezebel: anchorwoman

BBC Searches For Older Broadcaster

Intern Katy — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:40:00 EDT

After recently being faced with accusations of ageism, the BBC has announced that they are searching for a new newscaster, and they want a woman over the age of 50.

Recently, the BBC replaced Arlene Philips, the 66-year-old judge on Strictly Come Dancing, with Alesha Dixon, 30, reports the BBC. In 2007, the BBC denied reports that Moira Stuart was forced out because of her age. And in 2006, Anna Ford, then 62, left the BBC after 30 years, saying that she felt she was going to be pushed out due to her age. "I might have been shovelled off into News 24 to the sort of graveyard shift, and I wouldn't have wanted to do that because it wouldn't have interested me," she said. She adds that the BBC was still hiring new staff, "because they are younger." "I think that's specifically one of the reasons why they're being employed," she said.

Broadcaster and government adviser Dame Joan Bakewell says she is "really gratified" with the BBC's decision to reach out to their older viewers. "We get lots of jowly white-haired men - that's no inhibitor of employment for them - but it seems to have been eliminator for women until now," she said. "I'm glad it's changing."

BBC Seeks Older Female Newscaster [BBC]

Image via Telegraph

'Anchorwoman' Insiders Bemoan The Predictable Sexist Demise Of Their Actually Good Reality Show

Moe — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:20:11 EDT

Last Wednesday Fox premiered a much-hyped new reality series, Anchorwoman, to reviews so savage — and ratings so mediocre — it was essentially killed before the first episode even finished airing. The premise — a blonde WWE pinup named Lauren Jones tries to make it as a small-town hard news anchor as a colossally self-serious brunette producer (Annalisa, whom we highlighted with her own clip show last week) tries sometimes not hard enough to conceal her disdain — was blamed. But it was good! And not just, like, unintentionally good or absurdist guilty pleasure good — it was actually good by design, according to someone who worked on it. "You rarely get to work with footage that good," she said. "And everyone who worked on the show was really smart; [Production studio Fox 21] kept saying "This could be something really different, really unusual, no music, sort of like 'The Office'... with traces of Mary Tyler Moore and WKRP" We can totally see that! But then..

"They basically decided they wanted 'The Simple Life' ... it was literally like, on Friday they loved it, and on Monday they wanted all these changes: more music! More manipulation! This happens all the time, of course, but not such a 180 like this." Sigh. The promos were changed, and yes — blond Lauren was "made to seem stupid — she's not stupid!" as raven-haired Annalisa was made into something "manipulative and ridiculous." Why, how very fresh, network execs! The most poignant thing: Annalisa's parting wish to the producers was apparently that they "Be kind." We suppose she got her wish, but we have one of our own: that next time a reality show decides to try and document the attempts of one woman to break out of the mindless blond bimbo ideal the reality shows like to promote so much, don't pussy out.

Also: put the extra episodes shows on Fox website as promised, thanks.

'Anchorwoman': The Legend of Annalisa Petralia

Tracie — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:30:00 EDT

Fox's new reality series, Anchorwoman debuted last night. It follows Lauren Jones, a former Miss New York who has given up her life in L.A. as a bikini model and WWE Diva for a career in broadcast journalism at a Fox news station in a small town in Texas. We thought the whole thing would be lame, like, "Oh, let's put the bimbo on the spot and laugh as she proves her stupidity." But we actually ended up laughing at her co-anchor and producer Annalisa Petralia, the "serious" journalist. Petralia thinks that her job is too important to be jeopardized by the employment of Jones, who has no experience in the field. The best is that Petralia goes on and on about how the integrity of the station needs to be maintained; meanwhile, in the three years that the station has been on the air, they've had a dog doing the weather. Yes, a dog. (His name is Stormy and he's really cute.)