The Hot News
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| Smoke Show: ABC World News Tonight Anchor David Muir |
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, something steamy. But first, the news.
Watching NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt has been our ritual for years. Rational, paternal, and calm, “Lester,” as he is known in our household, is the man for a role that -- when you can get news on your phone 24/7 -- seems about as necessary as “telephone operator.” It is mostly Boomers like me who even bother to watch the nightly news.
Recently, though, Joe, who has an inexplicable and deep aversion to Al Roker, made me change the channel on NBC. We made an astonishing discovery. Holt’s rival anchor, David Muir, is bringing sexy back. He heads a newscast in which one correspondent is even hotter than the last. No less an authority than the New York Post’s Page Six calls Muir “the hottest anchor on TV” and “the king of sexy selfies.”
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| Hotties: A Whitman's Sampler of ABC News Correspondents |
Quick to dub ABC World News Tonight “The Hot News,” Joe now matter-of-factly -- as if it had been decided mutually and rationally -- tells me to turn on “The Hot News.” It took no time at all for Joe’s allegiance to switch. I lost the tug-of-war between my loyalty to Lester and Joe’s predilection for perfect jawlines.
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| ABC Transportation Correspondent and Thirst Trap Gio Benitez |
The “hot news” discovery opened up a Pandora’s Box of thorny questions. Was this profusion of hot correspondents coincidental or by design? Would viewers flock back to antiquated nightly newscasts if Wilhelmina Models and Victoria’s Secret gave out degrees in journalism? And did I want the distraction of getting my news from smoke show correspondents?
Above all, I felt disloyal to Lester Holt, who had been my capable guide for so many years.
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| Winsome Weather Woman Ginger Zee |
The world of entertainment is replete with performers who would be waiting tables were it not for their ability to raise the room’s temperature. That’s show biz.
Appreciation of a certain ideal of beauty goes back to Greek and Roman times and classical athleticism. Everyone they immortalized in marble was hot. Whether these youths could carry on a conversation is a question art history cannot answer.
Conventionally hot people have an unfair advantage in most areas of life. They have more potential mates and job offers. People treat them differently. Hotness opens doors -- but whether it keeps them open is up to the hottie in question.
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| Captivating National Correspondent Trevor Ault |
An Atlantic article about how “Hot People are Stressful” reveals the binary nature of attraction. “While people’s brains certainly enjoy beauty, our appreciation is often not that straightforward, because our perceptions are also influenced by everything else about a particular interaction.”
Thank goodness. Hot people -- like everyone else -- still have to prove themselves.
Which brings me back to the nightly news. I do not care for the ABC newscast. This has nothing to do with the correspondents’ looks or the quality of reporting. I just find the overall broadcast jumbled and chaotic. And Anchor David Muir is a bit too intense.
I miss Lester Holt’s reassuringly calm cadence and the unconventional beauty of the NBC news crew, hotness be damned. This Valentine’s Day, Joe has a battle for the remote on his hands.
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| In the eye of the beholder: Good old reliable Lester |
Muir and Holt photos: Getty
Isn't Walter Cronkite your demographic?
ReplyDeleteMuir is way too intense. I’ll take Lester any day!
ReplyDeleteJoe is saying what some of us are thinking of but aren’t brave enough to say. Bravo!
ReplyDelete