How to make news better! The comedy greats mocking Fallon! And more!

It’s a very quiet start to the week news-wise.

Maybe the most interesting thing I’ve seen in recent days is this appearance by Steve Martin and Martin Short on The Tonight Show where the entire segment is a thinly veiled attack on Jimmy Fallon, which amused me greatly.

Richard Reid won the 2019 Australian I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

There was an interesting study done on the TV news about how to make it more engaging for younger viewers. The conclusion: Make it more like Vox. That is, explain the news - go in deeper than just news-of-the-moment reporting. Videos were re-edited, often going longer, but engagement was higher:

The original Billy Graham funeral story is one minute and 37 seconds long while the remix is two-minutes and 26 seconds long. This additional time allowed us to bring in more context about Graham’s life and death. While the original story focused on the funeral itself and exclusively featured video from the service, our remix combined the funeral video and archival footage, including historical interviews with Graham, to spotlight some notable times throughout his life and career.

To help illustrate the impact of Graham’s life over many decades and give the story an edgier feel, we used a 50-second animated timeline with sound elements to highlight five significant periods for Graham, including controversial remarks he made in 1993 about AIDS being a “punishment” for homosexuality, something he apologized for a few weeks later.

The re-mix videos didn’t work every time - only on those stories that common sense would tell you could require more context.

Jane Curtin is profiled in the New Yorker and details her thoughts on her time at SNL, Kate & Allie, and 3rd Rock From The Sun. It’s a really engaging read and offers quite a different perspective on SNL from someone who felt like an outsider on the show in those early years.