Janet's Got A Talk Show!

If you're wondering what Janet Mock has been up to lately, it's being a talk show host.

Janet's So Popular show is on the recently launched MSNBC Shift online network that was launched in December and is designed to appeal to the 16-34 demo in which television viewing has been dropping.

So Popular as you probably guessed is about popular culture, which Ms. Mock cut her teeth on as a former People.com editor.

The goal of her show as stated in the inaugural show broadcast?  

"To cover all things culture, from art and entertainment to literature and anything trending in the zeitgeist. Our goal is to discuss the things you pretend you're too smart to like, in an effort to expand the idea of what is considered political and worthy of analysis. Every Friday, we will have fun, we will be cheeky, we will mine the nuggets of truth from the cultural topics and experiences that consume our time and I will mess up the teleprompter often."

Knowing you Janet, I doubt that will happen very often, but I'll definitely be checking out So Popular and wish you much success with it.

Waking Up With Aisha And Janet's Punditry

Woke up this morning on a weekend that I've been feeling less than 100% to two Sunday morning talk shows that made me feel much better when I saw them.

On the PBS To The Contrary show hosted by Bonnie Erbe, a diverse panel of four women pundits with diverse perspectives discuss the issues of the day.    I  was flipping channels when I stumbled across Aisha Moodie-Mills intelligently breaking down the issues as usual.

And when I discovered the next segment was discussing the Jamal case. I left my TV on that channel to watch her explain the issues at play in this case to her fellow panelists.

The Jamal case segment starts at the 10:40 mark




Speaking of watching, before I switched over to the PBS show, I was watching Melissa Harris-Perry and was pleased the discover when my TV powered up that Janet Mock was part of the conversation on this morning's show.  

There was also something else added to the graphic under her name:   MSNBC contributor!

Congrats Janet! 

Why Isn't Gwen Ifill Being Suggested To Host 'Meet The Press' ?

The iconic NBC Sunday morning interview show Meet The Press under current host David Gregory has slid to a distant third in recent ratings for the Sunday morning news talk shows, and rumors are flying amongst the chatterrati that Gregory is about to get canned for it.

The rumored replacements for Gregory should this turn out to be true are Joe Scarborough and Chuck Todd.

Time for me to go into Maya Wilkes mode at the thought of either of them in that iconic Meet The Press chair. 

If NBC thought their ratings are bad now with Gregory, if they make that colossal programming mistake, wait until they tank still further with either of those two in the Meet the Press anchor chair.

Instead of putting another conservative leaning white male in the chair, I submit NBC needs to do something bold since they are bringing up the ratings rear anyway.

Those Sunday morning talk shows are highly influential programs and set the tone for political inside the beltway discussions and Capitol Hill debates.  Those shows have been dominated for far too long by white male 50+ conservative Republicans, and it's past time to clear the stagnant vanillacentric privileged air and add the thoughts and opinions of other people who live in this diverse country of ours. 

It's past time to put a journalist of color or a female one in that chair to break up the Washington Conservative Boys Club and bring perspectives and questions into these discussions that white male journalists because of their privilege and other societal blind spots wouldn't think to ask.  .  

Rachel Maddow seems to be the person that chattering class peeps are frequently thinking and talking about as a possible candidate to replace Gregory in that chair should NBC execs pull the trigger and fire him.  

I have another suggestion for a possible replacement that people are ignoring:  Gwen Ifill. 

Gwen Ifill is a longtime journalist and political analyst who moderates and is the managing editor of Washington Week on PBS.  She a Simmons College grad who has worked for NBC, the Washington Post and the New York Times.  She is the co-anchor with Judy Woodruff of the PBS NewsHour.   She has also been the moderator of the 2004 and 2008 Vice Presidential debates.and has appeared on Meet The Press herself.

So with that pedigree, why hasn't she been suggested to take over the hosting duties for Meet The Press?

Do I have to state the obvious here? 

As for the two rumored leading candidates to take over the Meet The Press spot, neither Chuck Todd or Joe Scarborough moderated TWO Vice presidential debates as Ifill has.  Neither have worked for the Washington Post (1984-91), the New York Times (1991-94) and NBC (94-99) as Ifill has in addition to hosting two PBS news shows?  

And if NBC did name Ifill, it's a win-win on multiple levels.  They get to make history, take a bold step toward diversifying one of the whitest hours of television, bring one of their former journalists back, and are guaranteed to get a ratings bump because liberal-progressive peeps like me who got tired of Gregory and the conservative white men he panders to will come back to the show, especially if Ifill is hosting it.  

Ifill hosting it will also draw new non-white viewers who turn past Meet the Press to watch the more diverse Melissa Harris- Perry show on MSNBC

So NBC programming execs, what are you waiting for?

CeCe McDonald On MHP

CeCe McDonald is going to make her first post release national media appearance on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show today with Laverne Cox.

It stands to reason that it would be on MHP because in addition to being a advocate for the trans community, she was one of the few Sunday morning talk show hosts who discussed and covered the story.

This definitely will be interesting to watch.  I'll be parked in front of the TV wanting to hear what our sister has to say about what happened and the other issues they discuss. 

Katie Interview With Carmen Carrera

For some strange reason every time I tried to post the Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox January 6 Katie  interviews in the same post, the code would get overwritten to where it was either showing carmen or Laverne's segments twice.  

So I'm just going to give the Carmen Carrera one this separate post of its own and link it to the original post.  Problem solved.

Here's Carmen's interview with Katie Couric.

Katie Interview with Laverne Cox

The Katie show that aired Monday featured Laverne Cox and Carmen Carrera.   That was the good news. 

It's getting attention in a not so positive way because Katie Couric tried to go there on the genital surgery question with both Carmen and Laverne.

Pro Tip: Trans women are beyond tired of being asked about genitalia, and frankly that is in none of your damned business territory unless you want to date or get intimate with us.  Focus on what's between our ears, not what's between our legs.


Megakudos to Carmen and Laverne for gracefully deflecting and refocused those questions back toward general trans issue concerns.

For some reason when I tried to put the separate segments on the same page, the code in one would overwrite the other, so I had to put Carmen's interview in a separate post after trying four times to tweak the code so I wouldn't have to do that. 

Here's Laverne's interview

Carmen And Laverne On Katie Show Today

Looks like 2014 is going to get off to a fast, positive start for #girlslikeus media wise.

While the Katie show has already been cancelled after its two seasons on the air,  the shows that have already been taped still have to being broadcast.

One of the shows in the can and scheduled for broadcast will involve Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox.

These two lovely ladies will be gracing our television screens today.   Katie will be discussing in Laverne's case of course her groundbreaking role in Orange Is The New Black and the realities that trans people have to face.   

Carmen will talk about her transition fears, her blossoming career as a model and the fan sponsored petition to have her walk the runway as a Victoria's Secret Angel.

If you wish you find what local station in your area broadcasts the show and at what time for your market (in Houston it's broadcast at 3:00 PM CST on KTRK-TV Channel 13), you can click on this station finder link to do so. 

Sally Jessy Raphael 90's Trans Show

During the 90's you could count on during sweeps weeks to see the highly competitive talk show broadcast environment at the time doing shows on trans issues.  And yep, I was videotaping them to watch later when i got home from work.

One of the more respectful ones who broadcast trans themed shows during that period besides Jenny Jones was Sally Jessy Raphael.   This is one entitled 'Beautiful Women Who Have A Secret '

Another Early 90's Springer Show On Trans Issues

While looking for some interesting video, ran across another early 90's Jerry Springer show that surprise surprise, respectfully talks about trans issues.

While this is only a less than eight minute snippet of it, it still is an interesting enough discussion to post on the blog.

The Ricki Lake Show Is Back!

Back in 1993 Ricki Lake kicked off her popular syndicated television talk show that lasted 11 years before it ended. 

The then 24 year old quickly garnered a loyal young adult audience hungry for a talk show that discussed the issues of the day from their generational perspective. 

She's pondered getting back into the talk show arena ever since her first show ended in 2004 

Today, The Ricki Lake Show returns to television with a Ricki Lake that is two decades older later this month and has gone through marriage, divorce, raising kids and remarriage.  

The new show is different from the 90's version. According to 20th Television, the new show "will present topical conversation reflecting Ricki's own personal journey and recent life experiences. As her fans have grown up with Ricki, a combination of relevant themes personal to the host and her audience including family, marriage, parenting, divorce, weight loss and overall well-being are being explored for the program. 

"I have a specific point of view and a vision and a sense of who I am at this point in my life," she said in a recent interview. "Not that I have it all figured out, but growth comes with age and life experience."

The show has been taping episodes since July 25 and is already getting positive buzz and PR.  Some of her fans who remember the old show will probably tune in to see what the new Ricki show is like.

It comes on at noon CDT here in Houston, and it will be interesting to see if Ricki Lake v. 2.0 is as much of a ratings success as her previous show was. 

Sally Jessy Pageant Show

Transsexuality was and still is a popular talk show topic, especially during sweeps months. While Jerry Springer went to the Dark Side of the ratings force on these issues, other talk shows such as Jenny Jones, Cristina and Sally Jessy Raphael tried to keep the stories they did on the subject respectful and informative.

Here's an early 90's one in which they held a pageant on the Sally Jessy Raphael show. Brought back some memories because my late Texas homegirl Tandi Andrews is part of it.