He calls viewers “you guys”, he calls marijuana “weed” and he drops the word “effed” – as in: “Is this new show with Ronan Farrow totally fucking effed?”
Ronan Farrow Daily debuted Monday on MSNBC, and while the host bravely projected enthusiasm right through to the end, it was clear from the start that something was really wrong. It was like seeing the neighbor’s cute kid pushed into a talent recital for which he was not quite prepared. A lot of people are clapping, but the audience support makes the spectacle onstage even worse.
“Today we’ve got a lot to talk about, you guys, we’ve got a government failing in eastern Europe!” Farrow began. The show, which is broadcast live, is a hybrid of breaking news coverage and pre-produced, magazine-style reports. But with an hour to fill every day it also has plenty of time for some of the most tiresome features from other cable shows, such as an on-set roundtable and a lame Twitter callout.
In the middle of it all is Farrow, inviting the viewer to think of him as a buddy, while doing things true buddies would never do. True buddies would not follow a 15-minute report on Ukraine with a chyron reading “Developing now: Awaiting: Chuck Hagel to announce Pentagon budget.”
Yes, Ronan, we can and should be friends. But for that to happen, you’re going to have to try not to put us to sleep.
It is not that Farrow’s show is too challenging for the average viewer, or any more difficult or in-depth than what you might see on countless other cable programs. It’s that Ronan Farrow Daily is, its debut suggests, less well-edited and disciplined about presenting the stories it’s trying to tell. In the Ukraine spot, a live interview with correspondent Richard Engel in Kiev was informative, but it was preceded and intercut with conflict footage out of context, amateurish slow-motion camera zooms on to stills of Vladimir Putin and a raced summary of what happened last week.
It’s as if, in an effort to establish its gravitas, the show perversely highlights its willingness to bore you. To even get to Farrow’s Ukraine report, viewers had to sit through day-old footage of Senator John McCain talking about the crisis on a Sunday program. That followed what must have been a minute-long news montage of stories whose inter-relationship was difficult to discern. It turned out to be a montage of everything in the hour ahead.
An hour of live television is a very long time for one host, and the otherwise precocious Farrow, 26, showed signs of inexperience and early-season nerves. The directors have stuck a roll of paper in his left hand, which mostly, but not quite fully, concealed the hand’s trembling as its owner plunged through his introduction. Later, Farrow’s eyelids fluttered under the pressure from what must have been very assertive advice in his earpiece to cut to commercial right now, despite the happy refusal of former defense secretary Bill Cohen to simply shut up.
Being an effective news host requires both the ability to listen attentively and to interrupt ruthlessly. So far, Farrow is a listener.
Unfortunately, the inexperienced host was not well-served in his first outing by his studio. The control room let 20 seconds of Chuck Hagel footage run on mute while former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele talked, and then broadcast the only two Twitter responses to the show’s much-touted Battle of the Day … in the wrong order. The colors blue and blond look great on Farrow’s head, but as a scheme for his set they look sickly. And making a word cloud the centerpiece of your set design places you firmly in 2011.
Nevertheless, Farrow, a Yale-educated lawyer who has a distinguished career as a humanitarian under his belt, seemed to finish the show with more energy than he began. It’s likely he’ll find the right temper for his enthusiasm as he logs more hours – one per day, here it comes – in front of the cameras. He has clearly has been coached to project his excitement, and he’s not afraid of an exclamation mark.
“Joining us now is Delaware Governor Jack Markell!” he nearly screamed. It might be noted that Farrow is much more telegenic than Chelsea Clinton, whose ill-fated turn on the ill-fated Rock Center marked the previous entry for jet-setting scions checking out the news business.
Farrow, to his credit and possibly to the salvation of his show, is also plainly more daring than the once (and future?) first daughter. When Bill Clinton’s labor secretary, Robert Reich, came on air, Farrow told him he knew that Reich had used some fairly colorful language to describe the quandary facing millions of students with college debt.
“Is that right?” Farrow asked. “Are they really effed?”
Then Farrow invited viewers to share their personal stories on Twitter.
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