Meredith Viera started a new show this season and I enjoy her style and determination to add topics of substance or to highlight kids with notable accomplishments.
For example, she had on a dance troupe composed of kids with physical challenges. It was inspiring and uplifting to see the delight on their faces as they had the opportunity to perform, wear sparkles and tutus just like their peers and brought a smile to my face.
She also featured Jason, a young filmmaker in his thirties who was recently diagnosed with MS (which her husband also has) and his filming himself and his efforts to cope, his recent marriage and birth of a baby daughter.
I’ve always enjoyed watching her over the years regardless of which network she was working for.
She’s refreshingly free of the type of BS that surrounds so many media figures nowadays, unpretentious, possessing some substance and a prety good sense of humor (many times at her own expense).
She’s a breath of fresh air.
Queen Latifah also started a new show this year. She’s a bit more into celebrities and such but still manages to be intelligent and down to earth with a genuine compassion for people.
There are certainly worse alternatives than these two and they’re kind of bright spots in the usual wasteland of daytime TV.
These two I actually watch. There are a couple of others I have on mostly as background whilst doing other things, The View, The Talk, Dr. Oz and The Doctors. The latter two do have occasional tidbits of useful and largely accurate medical info. interspersed between bits of banter and filler, some of which can get a bit ridiculous. The Doctors, especially, has gone downhill in terms of more ridiculous filler quotient compared to previous years.
Who the hell needs to see a hair makeover on a medical show? Good Grief.
The rest of the time I meander around between Food Network and various news shows just to keep up on current events.
Oh yeah, when I can tolerate it, I’ll check in on The Chew since there are at least two competent chefs (Symon and Batali) with some decent recipes.
(I have absolutely no idea what the simpering Clinton Kelly is supposed to contribute and he usually gets on my nerves, but…)
Anyhow, there’s not a whole lot to get all enthused about, but both Meredith and Queen L. are real enough to make spending some time with them not all that execrable.
I’ve never watched any of the soap operas at any time in my life, so the fact that they’re disappearing affects me not in the slightest :)
Give Meredith Viera a try. You may find her enjoyable. She does have kind of a goofy side to her but at least it comes off as genuine. (I could do without some of the stupid made up
Games but both she and Fallon need to cool it with those. Fortunately, they don’t take up a lot of time so hopefully they get phased out )