O.J.'s
Back
Roger
Catlin | TV Eye
November
15, 2006
This
November sweeps was getting a bit too boring. There was no big event to decry.
No Victoria’s Secret fashion show. No crucifix scene in Madonna’s concert
special next week.
Even
Michael Jackson, practically the poster boy of November sweeps, whose career has
risen and fallen in recent years based on specials that appeared then, is no where
around – although he is to appear at the World Music Awards, but there’s
no U.S. broadcast date.
Finally,
there’s some bit of outrageous scheduling to get us in a dander: the two
part special on Fox Nov. 27 and 29 titled “O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s
How it Happened”
It’s
a tie in to an outrageous book of the same name (perfect for Christmas buying!)
from publisher Judith Regan, whose clients heretofore have included Rush Limbaugh
and Howard Stern. She even published a book by the O.J. Simpson prosecutor, Chris
Darden.
But
profits are profits. And she didn’t want just a normal O.J. Simpson book
about how he didn’t do it. People are sick of hearing that particular angle.
Please, no more about finding the real killers.
She
apparently convinced him to do one in which he’d talk about how he would
have killed the ex-wife if he were indeed the killer. How should the families
of the victims feel about this? On one hand, they’ll be scandalized by the
premise. On the other hand, if the book sells, they are in a better position to
get money from the civil suits they filed.
Naturally,
the interview doesn’t come from the Fox Network news division (largely because
Fox doesn’t have a news division; it has a cable outlet called Fox News Channel,
which is as interested in rightward slant as it is information).
So
it’s coming from the reality show imp himself, Mike Darnell, whose past achievements
include “Joe Millionaire,” “Man vs. Beast,” “My Big Fat
Obnoxious Fiance,” “Alien Autopsy: fact of Fiction” and “World’s
Scariest Police Chases.”
Yeah,
boyee: November sweeps is back!
Can
“Michael Jackson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened” be far behind?
