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 TV Guidance

Jaime Weinman writes about all kinds of television and other kinds of popular culture. He does not write Gossip Girl episode reviews. Follow Jaime on Twitter: @weinmanj

Categories: TV Guidance

Glenn Beck to end his show (again)

by Jaime Weinman on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 12:56pm - 16 Comments

Glenn Beck will “transition off” his daily Fox News show later this year. He’ll still be under contract to do specials and things for the network. Somewhat amazingly, the Fox show will end having lasted only a little longer than his CNN Headline News show.

This comes after a long string of rumours in major publications (i.e. stories that are based on leaks from anonymous people behind the scenes) that Fox was trying to find ways to get Beck away from that valuable piece of daily real estate, fearing that he’d become too wild even by comparison with the other hosts. There was also some fear that he might go off the reservation; he was getting some criticism from foreign policy conservatives for his pronouncements about Egypt.

But personally, I don’t think much of the idea that he was a loose cannon or a bad fit at Fox. While I don’t care for Glenn Beck, I don’t see any great difference between him and Sean Hannity; both believe and argue pretty much the same things. And virtually all Beck’s talking points (George Soros, sharia law) are pretty bog-standard on the entire network. It’s just that Hannity or Gretchyn Megson (I can’t always tell Fox’s female hosts apart) seem to take everything they say very seriously, whereas Beck brought some influences of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report to Fox — in other words, the shows that made fun of people like him — by doing nutty, often deliberately comedic bits that seemed to raise the question of whether he was serious or not.

I don’t think it was what Beck said that got him into trouble at the network, since everyone on the network says the same things he does. He just said it the wrong way: too hysterically, or too silly, or without the veneer of sophistication affability that Bill Kristol uses. It’s all about Tone and Style, not about Substance.

Mostly, of course, it’s about ratings. Now that the frenzy of 2009-10 is over and the Republicans are in control of one house of Congress in Washington D.C., Beck’s apocalyptic messages have lost some of their spark. This may be what makes Beck less durable than Hannity or, especially, Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh is very good at crafting a message that is effective no matter who is in power: even when the Republicans controlled the entire government, Limbaugh was able to say that the real enemy was liberalism and that liberalism needed to be fought elsewhere (or that the Republicans, when they did something wrong, were secretly liberals). Limbaugh’s tone is meant for the long haul: it’s angry, but not apocalyptic. Beck, on the other hand, attracted a lot of viewers who genuinely believed that Democratic power was a unique, unprecedented and terrifying threat, and that’s the tone he prefers: something really bad is about to happen and everything may collapse at any minute. Once one of the bad things (complete Democratic power in Washington) no longer existed, it was inevitable that some of his viewers would drift away; unlike Limbaugh, his messages at such a high pitch of excitement and fear that they can’t be effective for very long. Yesterday he even admitted on the air (as usual, half in jest) that his formula is getting a little played-out. He’s like the Billy Martin of TV pundits: he starts big but burns out fast.

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  • truthintoronto

    The closest analgoue to Glen Beck (on the right) would have been Keith Olbermann (on the left) — both are charismatic, perusasive and articulate on onehand — but completely unhinged, narcissistic and unmanageable on the other. Both are ratings draws — yet both have consistently found that their employers are happy to 'part ways' with them.

    Beck's hysterics is miles different than the Bill O'Reilley's, Sean Hannity's or (especially) Rush Limbaugh's of the world.

    It is hard for those who hate Limbaugh's politics to look beyond their distaste and recognize his once-in-a-generation talent that has redefined and set the radio industry standard for over a quarter of a century.

    Beck and Olbermann on the other hand traffic in a far more abundant commodity — narcissistic hysterical outrage — each closer to Charlie Sheen than to any serious commentator on the right OR left.

    • Olivier

      Limbaugh has "set the radio industry standard"?

      For inane antics maybe. But I don't think anyone with half a brain takes him seriously.

      • matt

        Riiiight. Like his 20 million listeners are brain dead? Don't think too much of yourself there… BTW that's more than all three major network newscasts combined. and how does non-brain dead liberal radio do? Oh yeah it went bust in about a year and NPR needs subsidies from the taxpayer and donations to survive. Helluva model there, until you run out of other people's money

        • Olivier

          I never said that they were brain dead. I've listened to Limbaugh many times so I can counted in that 20 million of people.

          I said no one with half a brain takes him seriously, and I stand by that statement.

          • Gary

            Limbaugh and Beck pander to the red neck illiterate portion of society . That their numbers are high is more an indicator of a broken educational system.

          • Healthcare Insider

            I think you have to be careful not to dismiss their audiences as being uneducated or unintelligent. You might be very shocked to find out exactly how many powerful people think the way Beck and Limbaugh do.

    • dustrider1

      The other thing that both Beck and Olbermann's shows shared was a steadfast desire to never, ever, ever put a guest on who would engage in any major disagreement with the show's host. That's a major difference from Hannity, O'Reilly, Matthews or Maddow — the first two may lean right and the last two left, but their Fox and MSNBC shows at least force the host to engage in debate at times with people who disagree with them.

      Both Beck and Olbermann were basically doing 60-minute monologues to the crowd, with the guest of the moment simply serving as the laughing Ed McMahon syncopate sidekick to Glenn and Keith's Johnny Carson. It's not hard to get caught up in both your own rhetoric and in an inflated sense of your own self-importance when you never put anybody on who disagrees with you. In that sense, Beck's probably better off jumping away from the show before he's pushed (or at the very least, before Fox makes it clear he was pushed, in the same way Olbermann was heave-hoed completely off NBC property once the welcome was worn out there).

  • briguyhfx

    Maybe Sun TV will hire him. We still have a grasp of sanity that Beck could work to eliminate.

  • Judge RoyBean

    Written like a true commie-wannabee from a jealous media 'personality'. His was the third most successful show on cable news and don't tell me the lefty types don't squirm with jealousy at that. The left, primarily suppoprted by George Soros have tried to shut him up for years. His and O'reilly are about the only political shows worth watching. Someone needs to offset the liars on the left.

    • Judge RoyBean

      Oh yea, forgot to mention, Beck has often made mention of the fact he is tired of his family being threatened by the lowlife audience this writer seems to want to cater to. The left really are such wonderful, loving people—provided they get their own way. Hypocrites to the extreme, nothing ever changes.

  • Gary

    Beck has consistently made factual errors before assailing his overall laughably erroneous thesis on government.

    He claimed the current health care bill offers insurance for dogs. It does not.

    He claimed America is the only country in the world that has automatic citizenship upon birth. This is not true; Canada, Brazil, and Romania all do the same thing, just to name a few.

    He claimed that Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union, was the most frequent visitor to the White House. No, he wasn’t. Many other people had visited more times than Stern.

    He claimed the founding fathers would have approved of states seceding from the union. Only someone vastly unfamiliar with the founding fathers could make such a ridiculous claim.

    He claimed John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has “proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population.” Holdren said no such thing.

    He gave credence to the wild conspiracy theory that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was building concentration camps for a possible government take-over and rounding up of citizens. This one was so untrue that Beck eventually had to offer a correction and bring someone on his show to debunk the theory.

    He once asked Pastor John Hagee whether President Obama was the anti-Christ.

    He claimed that Obama was a racist. But he didn’t just call him a racist, Beck said Obama “has a deep-seated hatred for white people or white culture.” A few moments later Beck suggested, “I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people.” Actually, that was exactly what he said only seconds before.

    He is a dangerous moron.

    • Healthcare Insider

      The first thing I would say is that Glenn Beck is definitely not a moron. He is an entertainer. His program puts me in mind of a WWE wrestling exhibition…all show – no real substance. He and his ilk treat the news the same way that entertainment tabloids treat famous people. I question if people like he and Ann Coulter even believe some of the outrageous drivel they spew.

    • Sue Reid

      How about you get your facts straight. Glenn did call Obama a racist. But he got on the air on two separate occasions and admitted he was wrong, that he should not have said it and he apologized on national TV to Obama.
      How come the people who don't actually watch the guy think they know so much about him and that the truth will not catch up with them.
      Glenn Beck debunked the crazy concentration camps nonsense on his TV show, I witnessed it, So Gary WRONG AGAIN

      On and on and on with the same old lies the far left has been pumping out ever since, Beck started really rattling their chains. Gary – All of you talking points are nonsense.
      Instead of wasting your time writing out this crap why don't you watch the guy and get the truth.

  • Sue Reid

    Sit back and enjoy the ride folks. Glenn Beck is branching out and the 5 PM time slot could not hold any longer.
    This time next year y Weinman, the hack, will be line typing advertising copy for the classifieds.
    Should actually know something about your subjects before you write about them Weinman.

    • Jaime Weinman

      I'm always happy to be wrong, but I'd certainly like to know on what basis this is considered branching out. After all, I can't know more about a subject unless I get the evidence to correct me.

  • John

    What's as surprising as anything is that people even waste their time on these guys. Why? Either to rant along with them, getting that satisfied feeling as your blood temperature goes up, or because maybe they can keep you 'informed'? Hopefully, it's merely because they're just entertaining. I suppose.
    Merely my opinion, but the word 'facts' means one of three things to them (and lord knows, they're not alone!).
    -Find one that that can be taken either totally out of context, and then twist it to fit the point.
    -Dream one up- repeat it enough times, and some people will even start to believe it. Actual facts not withstanding.
    -Ignore them, because basically, they just get in the way.

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