Erin Burnett Disaster Timeline: How She Flamed Out and How She Can Be Rescued
Erin Burnett's troubled new show on CNN got just 67,000 viewers aged 25-54 on Oct. 25, an all time low. "OutFront" only debuted on Oct. 3. (She got 352,000 viewers overall, or about one fifth of the audience for Fox News' Shepard Smith.)
It's a staggering collapse. Before she joined CNN, Burnett was a sterling media brand (she reportedly earns $750,000 to $2 million a year). Now she seems to be in flame-out mode. Here's how it happened, and how Burnett and CNN could dig themselves out of the hole they're in.
The Erin Burnett Disaster Timeline:
May 6: Burnett says goodbye to CNBC. After five and a half years at the business news channel, she left as its hottest media property. Few who saw it will forget co-host Mark Haines struggling not to cry on air -- a rare display of raw emotion on the channel. The pair were CNBC's odd couple -- he was the older, jaded veteran, often playing the buffoon; she the promising young student, always threatening to outshine her teacher.
May 25: Mark Haines dies, and Burnett loses her greatest mentor. Burnett calls in to CNBC to eulogize him, describing him as the man who gave her her first break in TV, and that "Mark taught me everything."
Sept. 30: CNN begins running a tone-deaf set of promos that appear to ignore Burnett's history. In one she says, "growing up in a small town, I learned that people are the stories." That's an odd thing to say for someone who spent the previous six calendar years noting -- correctly -- that Wall Street's investment banks are, in fact, the story. In another, clips from Burnett's various travels are shown as if she's spent her entire career at CNN. A brief cutaway has her exclaiming into her cellphone, "I'm going to be in Dubai!" It's supposed to make her sound excited but her intonation is whiny, as if she's actually saying, "I can't believe these jerks are forcing me to go to Dubai!" At another point she makes the nonsensical claim that "this is what America's future is dealing with." The spot makes her look like a diva, even though the reason she has so many fans is that on CNBC she was the smart-girl next door:
Oct. 3: Burnett's new show, "OutFront," debuts. In it, she broadcasts her infamous "Occupy Wall Street: Seriously?" segment. In a fundamental misreading of the importance of the protest movement, Burnett shows a series of videos focusing on the wackiest protesters and claims they don't understand basic facts such as that banks payed back more TARP money than they were given in the bailout:
The reaction in the media is negative. The Baltimore Sun calls her "smug" and "superficial." Forbes call her "vapid." Salon fillets her as an apologist for banks.
Oct. 4: Burnett claims Apple stores are empty on the day the new iPhone 4S launches. In fact, lines were shorter because Apple implemented a reservation pickup policy; the iPhone 4S is slated to sell more than the iPhone 4. Steve Jobs dies the next day. Oops!
Oct. 13: Burnett loses 30 percent of her debut ratings.
Oct. 25: Burnett loses 34 percent of her debut ratings.
Can Burnett be rescued?
When she anchored CNBC's morning and daytime coverage, Burnett successfully deployed a difficult combination of skills and qualities: smart but not wonky; knowledgeable but not overbearing; sexy but not disconcertingly so (like Fox's army of cloned cheerleaders); and -- perhaps most surprisingly for cable news -- she was a brunette, not blonde.
Most importantly, Burnett was able to chat live, continuously and intelligently about any news story on the ticker. It's not easy (I've tried it myself): On CNN, daytime anchors often seem to know little about the material they're presenting and struggle to say anything meaningful when forced to adlib.
"OutFront" requires Burnett to do the opposite of everything that made her great at CNBC: It relies on scripted segments instead of ad-libbed commentary; it covers general news rather than business news; it's often location-based rather than studio-desk based. CNN has declined to utilize Burnett's key strengths.
CNN needs to rethink what it's doing. Burnett needs a free-flowing business news show. Big name executives would line up to be grilled by her. She could give CNN back some of the credibility it lost in its slide toward morning-show sofa tat. Instead we're getting touchy-feely nonsense about whether your siblings are more influential than your parents.
The cure: Let Erin be Erin.
Related:
Images: CNBC, CNN.