TV Syndicators to Palin: Sorry, You're Too Unskilled, 'Too Polarizing'

July 13th, 2009 12:06 PM

Paige Albiniak at Broadcasting & Cable magazine says Sarah Palin should scratch this goal off her career-ideas list: "Fabulous Host of Her Own Syndicated Talk Show." Anonymous syndicators tell her that Palin's unskilled, her audience is too narrow, and she’s too polarizing:

A survey of syndicators reveals that they believe that Palin, while certainly mediagenic, "does not have the skills," "appeals to too narrow of an audience" and overall is too polarizing. Not one syndicator indicated a whiff of interest in doing a show with her.

And it’s not because Sarah’s a Republican with a capital R. Many American women share her identification as a Republican, Christian and conservative, and these women want to watch other women like themselves on TV.

"If I could get Elizabeth Hasselbeck out of her contract at The View, I would do it in two seconds," said one syndicator. "I would never invest in Sarah Palin. For me, the fact that she resigned as the governor of Alaska means she’s a quitter. She now has no chance."

How would resigning an office mean there's "no chance" at a TV show? That reads more like a disgruntled liberal than someone talking shop about television. Why would syndicators leap to broadcast Ellen DeGeneres campaigning for gay marriage, but Palin's "too polarizing" to consider? Albiniak continued:

More likely, syndicators speculated, if Palin does have a TV career ahead of her, it will be as a commentator on a cable news network. And let’s be honest: that cable news network would likely be Fox News (although of course we would love to see Palin go head-to-head with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow). The question, says one cable news network executive, is "does she want to have a political future or not? If she does, then it makes sense for her to write the book, get paid for speeches, assist other candidates’ campaigns and maybe appear as a commentator."