NOT a Renaissance with KSN's 5PM show

So after a long work week it was time to kick back and relax. I had an idea on the sugestion of a reader wanting to know what I thought of the morning shows and then the weekend. I will have a weekend review coming on Sunday. With my feet kicked back I began watching the 5PM shows. I flipped the channels and came across some guys dressed in armour and had to stop. Things looked like some fun. It was the KSN 5PM show. If you are not familiar, KSN goes a totally different route when it comes to its 5PM cast. They go live every night at a different location in the area. Its less news and more entertainment. On paper it sounds OK. One problem, management brass forgot about the talent. This show is probably nearly 2/3 driven by the anchor. There are few stories on tape and basically a lot of interviews, except for the few minutes of news. So to make someone want to watch, the viewer has to like the person steering the show. And in this case its Paul Petite. I mentioned in an earlier blog about the morning shows, I dont think I'd let the main news anchors (5,6,10) for KSN even in my living room, because I am afraid they would try to sell me something. That is exactly what I feel like I get with Paul and this show. If he has a joke or a gag, it is often cliche or recycled. For instance, on the Friday show at the Renaissance Festival, of course he had to use the "Hear-yee, Hear-yee," phrase with a bad European accent, that sounded more New Yorker than it did from the Renaissance. Others probably could pull that off, but with him it just came off as a bad act. It might be good for St. Joe, Peoria, or a smaller town, but not here. That's sad when I make it sound like Wichita is a huge metropolis. I am interested to see what happens when he is gone or on vacation and if he has fill-ins. My feeling is the show probably comes off a little more genuine. I am not so quick to necessarily give up on the show style. I think they go to some interesting places, have good material and it seems like the producers try hard, but once again the captain of the ship, Paul, just steers it in a bad direction. So what do I think of the other 5PM shows, hmmmm. Interesting question. I couldn't flip off of 3 on Friday, because I was intrigued when the phoney act was going to end. So I guess KSN got me on this one. They had me watching the whole show, even though I didn't like the captain, at least for this one night, anyway.-Hal