Now that Martha Stewart has been convicted, the fallout is starting to drop. Salon reports that her TV show Martha Stewart Living has been cut from CBS and UPN, leading me to believe that it’s probably doomed in other markets too (if it’s even shown in others; I don’t know). I wouldn’t be surprised if the Living magazine is also axed.
That’s too bad, honestly. It does point to the danger of having an entire multi-million (billion?) enterprise revolve around one personality. But did anyone seriously believe that Martha came up with everything? Sure, maybe at the beginning of her career, but I’ll bet 90 percent of what’s featured on the show and in the magazines are concocted and executed by a highly talented staff. You can’t play in those big leagues all by yourself. It takes a highly-paid village to produce television and magazines.
My wife has had a gift subscription to the magazine for years, and for a while watched the TV show on TiVo (where it’s easy to zip through the crappy things and just focus on the two or three real nuggets of wisdom). Some of it is good stuff, and it shouldn’t be locked away just because the namesake is.
Then again, Martha spawned a whole category of shows and magazines, so it’s not like the former viewers of MSL are going to left high and dry.
Jeff Carlson | Never Enough Coffee Creations 