In a newsy day for television, it looks as if Kelly Ripa has chosen her co-host after dragging out the who-will-replace-Regis bit beyond its breaking point.
The apparent choice is Michael Strahan, the gap-toothed former New York Giant. No it doesn’t sound like a good mix. Even the show title “Live! With Kelly and Michael” doesn’t have the zing that “Live! With Regis and Kelly” did.
And though the guy was in a Fox sitcom (“Brothers”) for about five minutes, he doesn’t really have show biz credentials. Don’t they usually have to at least go through “Dancing with the Stars” to be considered more of a celebrity than athlete?
Oh, but Strahan is already on TV you say, as part of the desk team on “Fox NFL Sunday.” But that’s a little different than the fluff, contests, topics and Halloween humiliations of this particular morning show. Maybe he just took a shine to Gelman.
While that was news from daytime, there was also news from late night, with ABC nnouncing that “Jimmy Kimmel Live” would shift down to 11:35 p.m. from 12:05 a.m. starting in January. “Nightline” would then start at 12:35 a.m.
It’s great for Kimmel, the upcoming first time Oscar host, who will take on the established late night giants of CBS and NBC, who may both look vulnerable by now (Leno for one had to let go of staff in a cost cutting measure last week).
He’ll be out of the realm of late, late once and for all, leaving main competitor and fellow Jimmy, Fallon, to fend for 12:25 a.m. crowd alone.
It’s something Kimmel has wanted for years, but it doesn’t mean a necessarily bad thing for “Nightline,” which was started by ABC as a nightly report on the Iranian hostage situation. By 12:35 a.m. CNN and most news networks (and even those pretending to be news networks, such as Fox News) are in reruns, and “Nightline” will have the fresh news delivering to themselves (though their mix in recent years has been toward lighter fare. Then again, the Iranian hostage situation is over).
Finally, Greg Daniels announced that the coming season of “The Office” would be its last, something fans could sort of see coming after a season without Steve Carrell.
Chosing an end date will help focus the writing of the final season and make it the event it deserves to be.
I cannot abide those who say it should have been taken off the air three years ago or some such, or that they are giddy with happiness that it will be gone. “The Office” is still in the handful of watchable broadcast comedies, better than 80 percent of what’s on TV. They did some interesting things this past season, both in the fight for new manager to some Jim and Pam stuff.
Those who are happy when a show is canceled should just watch something else. Does a show mere existence bring you down even if you’re not watching it? And what do you think NBC is itching to replace it with? Not another Greg Daniels comedy to be sure. More something like “Animal Practice II” or the “More Monkey Comedy Hour” or “Let’s just Have Penis in the Title and It will be Funny” sitcoms.