If “Today” Ratings Sag, Viera Might Reach Into Her Biography to Pump Them: Which Means We’re Likely to be In For It

I am on record as saying that broadcast TV news shows should be populated by “lookers”—and I categorize Katie Couric and her replacement Meredith Viera as qualifying. CBS has just saluted Couric for being a baby boomer (at 49) which will help them with their evening news. NBC has declared that Viera is also a baby-boomer at 52. Actually from her own bio she’s 55, having been born December 30, 1951 (when at that time I was writing ad copy for an abysmal client, “Perk Dog Food” which gave me the slogan, “Dogs drool for Perk” with a full-color picture of a slobbering hound lusting after a bowl of our product). But Viera is a superb replacement for Couric: porcelain looks, with an attitude much younger than 55—and if ratings slip, an outrageous story teller with a flare for life’s experiences.

On “The View,” the all-female gab fest which she hosts, Viera has been in the habit of disclosing her choice in under-garments…and on the topic of abusive men—those terrible creatures—she detailed that she was once tossed out of a boy friend’s apartment sans clothing, he slamming the door and locking it to keep her out. She had to sit naked on the stairs outside his door all night until morning when he let her back in. That’s what we could be in store for. But I’m still hopeful. She’s married now to author Richard Cohen (who has muscular dystrophy) and they have three kids. Tell me in Reader’s Comments, is our culture still declining when co-anchors go from Couric to Viera. Or doesn’t it really matter and I am an old fogy?