In an effort to clean up his act, Geraldo Rivera has changed the name of his talk show “Geraldo” to “The Geraldo Rivera Show” this month. Sporting his CNBC eyeglasses for a more conservative, respectable appearance, he also vows to treat all of his guests with dignity, emphasizing solutions over shock. How honorable of him.
How honorable that he, a professional journalist, has decided that human beings should be treated with dignity. How honorable for him to make an effort to clean up the very mess he helped create. How honorable for him to decide that teenage prostitutes’ confessions are not appropriate for daytime.
What a strange coincidence that his change of heart came when the facts showed last year’s trashy topics were leading to a possible cancellation of his show. Along with Richard Bey, Carnie Wilson and an entourage of others, Rivera’s ratings have plummeted, while Oprah Winfrey’s ratings have soared and Rosie O’Donnell’s not-so-harsh style is taking daytime by storm.
America is finally choosing nice over nasty and, when Newsweek crowned O’Donnell “The Queen of Nice” in a July issue, it also included an article written by Rivera. In it, he claims that along with poor ratings, “self-loathing” contributed to his format change. Too bad self-loathing was not a good enough reason on its own to change things a few seasons ago; after all, he could have saved himself thousands of dollars in reconstructive surgery.
With daytime talk audiences dropping by 4 million since last year, ratings are an indication that America is tired of X-rated shock and wants cleaner, more meaningful programming.
His recent switch to “clean talk,” however, does not warrant him any respect. His decision was not based upon a sole desire to clean up teletrash, but rather a decision to clean up in the ratings. This same rationale was used a few years ago when Jerry Springer and friends brought a trendy, new disease to television that America sadly embraced.
Rivera played the part of the puppet and followed the trend, rather than taking a stand with fellow veterans like Phil Donahue and Winfrey. Now, America is pulling his strings again and he is abandoning the old theme song, the cheap suited body guards and the freak guests. Good decision, but can America respect the man they’ve made their puppet?
A pair of conservative glasses and a new name will not give him the admiration afforded Oprah Winfrey, a woman that went against the grain of teletrash despite the fact that she fell in the ratings and had teletrash rookie Ricki Lake on her tail. She tried to be ethical and earned respect with her audience.
Though Phil Donahue’s spot on NBC has been replaced, he holds much more bearing for his fight to keep daytime talk clean, intellectual and insightful.
What goes around comes around, and the trend of teletrash is making its long-awaited exit. The fighters for clean television can be rewarded with the greatest gift their audience can give them, which is respect in spite of cruel ratings, comparisons and, in Donahue’s case, cancellations.
Though Rivera contests that half of his shows do more good than bad half of the time, he is only as creditable as “Geraldo’s” most degrading topic, which there is probably a three-way tie for.
Geraldo Rivera can hope that the new look, the new name and the new eyewear will fool his viewers, but old shows like “Men in lace panties and the women who love them” will forever be in the minds of his viewers, struggling to take “The Geraldo Rivera Show” and its striving-to-please host seriously.
Andrea Gardner, a junior broadcast journalism major, is arts and entertainment editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at gardnera@ulvacs.ulaverne.edu.
