Net's blonde ambition
Cosby's show puts MSNBC back on top
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MSNBC recently suffered the ultimate humiliation when perennial ratings loser Headline News knocked it into fourth place in the cable news wars thanks to a ratings surge delivered by irascible blonde ex-prosecutor Nancy Grace.
But MSNBC is fighting fire with fire, planting its own assertive blonde in primetime last week.
Rita Cosby racked up a Nancy-esque 665,000 viewers Aug. 8, her first night on the air, pushing MSNBC back ahead of Headline News. On night two, "Rita Cosby Live & Direct" slipped a bit, with 414,000 viewers, but remained MSNBC's top show.
It's not exactly news that cable thrives on big personalities But the model these days is more Greta Van Susteren than Bill O'Reilly.
The new ratings-grabber is the crusading blonde on the crime-and-justice beat.
Cosby styles herself as a go-getter who delivers big interviews and scoops. "We're going to break news; we're going to make news," she says in her husky-voiced promos.
But her boffo first night out was telling: She had two Jackson jurors admitting they were pressured into voting to acquit. Her numbers slipped when she departed from crime and went for sleaze with a Heidi Fleiss interview.
On Aug. 10, she got back to the jurisprudence beat, reporting from Tennessee on homicidal fugitives George and Jennifer Hyatte.
Still, Cosby and Grace have a long way to go to match Van Susteren, who triples their numbers -- on a bad night. Van Susteren has even beaten O'Reilly at least seven nights since May as she makes Aruba a virtual second home in her bid to keep Natalee Holloway in the news.
That leaves CNN as the only news net without a Greta clone. But if Grace keeps racking up viewers on sister net Headline News, it might not be long before she gets the call-up.
