The Power of Bieber

On Friday morning, June 15, 2012, Justin Bieber performed on the Rockefeller Plaza outside the NBC Today show studios. Before the concert, he sat down with Matt Lauer to discuss his tour.

Longtime Today show host Matt Lauer confessed that Bieber had convinced him to sign up for twitter, something he said he swore he'd never do. During the interview, Lauer asked the 18-year-old pop star to prove his influence by helping him gain followers, "I want to find out the power of Bieber. I'm gonna do a little test here... I want you to tell your 23 million followers to follow me."

After first promoting the release of his new album Believe on June 19th. Bieber finally complied, tweeting from @justinbieber at 8:18 that morning:

"Everyone follow my man @mlauer" 

Matt Lauer had quietly signed up for twitter the day before, but said he had "zero followers." Lauer said that NBC's director of digital news operations, Ryan Osborne would streak in the studio if he can gain over 750,000 followers by Tuesday, June 19.

I found Lauer's account before the Bieber blitz and clicked to follow his tweets, taking this screen shot showing 85 followers. Joining right before me were: Amanda Wright @adwritght10, Susan @savedbygraceto, Carrie Mitchell @MonsterPuma, and Lauren Boudreau @LBoudreauu.

"We're going to see the power of Justin Bieber by Tuesday," said Lauer.

Within three minutes, while Bieber typed away, Lauer announced: "We have 9,000 already, okay? And this has been going on for three minutes... Ryan, start taking your clothes off."

Within five minutes, Matt Lauer had 30,753 followers and was trending.

Only one day later, on Saturday, June 16, @mLauer had over 131,000 followers. Today, he has nearly 140,000. Although he won't reach the 750,000 mark he had hoped for, it's still quite impressive.

Will Matt Lauer remember me, having been one of the first 100 to follow him on twitter? Nah, probably not. It's fun trivia, though, just another story for tvgrrrrl's files.

Bieber will be back on NBC on Wednesday and Thursday nights, June 20th and 21st, for his All Around the World tour TV special airing at 8 p.m. each night. (NBC can be found on channels 4 and 1020 in Orlando on Brighthouse Cable.)

Ben Folds to co-host Hoda and Kathy Lee show today

Professor Ben Folds from the Sing-Off will be co-hosting the Hoda and Kathy Lee show today, Friday Sept 30, which airs during the last hour of the Today show. He will be filling in for Kathy Lee Gifford, who is off in Seattle at the 5th Avenue Theater working on a musical she's written called "Saving Aimee." Dr. Folds is following suit of each of the 4 hosts and judges of the Sing-Off: Sara Bareilles co-hosted on Tuesday, Shawn Stockman co-hosted on Wednesday, and Nick Lachey co-hosted on Thursday.

You never know what will happen on the Hoda and Kathy Lee show. On Tuesday, Sara Bareilles hula hooped! She brought along three of her friends from her past a capella group to sit quietly in the audience off camera. However, after singing a small snippet of something in perfect three-part harmony, the friends were invited to sing segment teasers on everything from boots to camera shoots. It was adorable! I think they should get the job of following Sara B around in her every day routine, providing a musical sound track to her life, and perhaps become the B's Knees. Now, wouldn't that be cute?

I suspect that Dr. Folds will get to answer a poll on relationships, view a fall fashion show, mash squash in a cooking segment, and or perhaps sip a microbrew or margarita. I would love it if they let him sing and play something from his new 3-disk Retrospective CD which is due to be released on Oct. 11.

The show will air from 11 am to 12 noon on NBC channel 4, or 1020 HD on Brighthouse Cable in the Orlando, FL area.

Good Morning America! --You’re Missing a Great Opportunity to Broadcast Live From Orlando!

The NBA Basketball Finals are being held in Orlando this year, thanks to an incredibly talented Orlando Magic basketball team. The City of Orlando, in typical “O-town" entertainment-style has rolled out the blue magic carpets and spared no expense welcoming all of the wonderful NBA fans and reporters with blue and white balloons, banners, manicured gardens, clean streets, fresh paint, free Lymmo buses, and comfortable outdoor seating. Except for the time zone (and no volcanos), you’d think you were in Waikiki!

TVgrrrrl, thanks to a cleverly-worded sign and an ambitious ABC roving camera crew, managed to get herself and her posse of friends on ABC TV last night as the Magic beat the Lakers 108 to 104! How very cool!

However, the ABC presence stops there. Where is the Good Morning America crew? Back at home in NY, safely shielded behind the sterile blue windows of their studio on Broadway with a subdued “live” studio audience standing like statues in the background. Ah, snore… No wonder the show always lags behind NBC’s “Today Show” in ratings. (According to Nielsen, on May 14, 2009 the Today Show marked it’s 700th week as network television’s most popular morning show. Do the math – that’s over 13 years!)

Why isn’t Good Morning America here in Orlando broadcasting live from Amway Arena during the NBA finals? Or perhaps from the quaint brick-lined restaurant and business district, perhaps in the Orange County Historical Museum park at Central and Magnolia? Or on Lake Eola? Or perhaps from outside their own affiliate studios at WFTV Channel 9 in downtown Orlando?

Or, here’s a thought – Disney World?

ABC is owned by Disney. It’s not like they’d have to get permission and pay stiff royalties. It’s the same company. Even their websites show the melding of their identities. (ABC TV, Walt Disney World)

While ABC is broadcasting for the NBA, they might want to look around and think about possibly setting up permanent shop in Orlando. Strategically located on the opposite end of the United States, but still in the eastern time zone, Orlando, a city built around Disney World, is a major entertainment destination, a family-friendly city, and a regular stop on celebrity tours. The cost of living is lower than New York City, so employees can live quite comfortably on lower salaries. ABC Disney already owns several buildings where the network could build their sets. Despite all the bad publicity about hurricanes in Florida, the city of Orlando is actually in the center of the state, far from the coast, and 98 feet above sea level. Yes, it can get quite hot in the summer, but mornings are usually cool and you simply can’t beat our balmy winters and moderate weather 8 months out of the year.

I suppose that at one time, it would have been next to impossible to base a major television network, much less a morning show, in a city other than New York. However, due to improved technology, television shows can now broadcast from the ends of the earth – literally.

Rather than continuously compete for viewership and a live, vivacious audience in densely network-populated New York, why not break the mold and move to Orlando? O-town welcomes you!

Getting on the TODAY show – Easy as hot dogs

One of my biggest goals while visiting New York City was to stand outside in the audience on NBC’s Today show and hopefully get on TV. I didn’t have very high hopes, but boy was it easy!

Arriving around 7:30 AM, my friend and I entered the gate on the south side of Rockefeller Plaza just off West 48th Street. Greeting us were two very nice people offering free hotdogs, which we declined (it was 7:30 AM after all). We were also happy to accept free “birthday” t-shirts from volunteers with the American Cancer Society. Before entering the gate, security checked my purse, searched our pockets, and read my sign to make sure it was appropriate for morning TV viewing audiences. Then, they whisked us in – it all happened in about a minute flat.

Once inside the narrow fenced area (which looks four times bigger on TV), we had a few choices. We could walk all the way around so that we would be beside the big windows – the ones you see when they broadcast from inside. However, there were already quite a few people there. It was Fleet Week and the audience was filled with handsome tall sailors all dressed in white. Being vertically challenged, I decided to hang out close to the gate where only a few people were standing. That way, we could see!

While we all watched Ann Curry interview Brad Pitt via satellite, Al Roker made his way around the audience, shaking hands and meeting with the crowd. Poised to start at any moment, Roker then exercised his voice in preparation for a weather segment, saying and screaming funny words. At 7:40 AM, Roker set up shop in front of a guy with a buffalo hat, where he gave today’s weather forecast. Since the crowd was so small in that area, I had no trouble holding up and proudly displaying my Orlando Magic sign during the whole weather segment.

Wow! We were on TV within only ten minutes! Time for coffee!

We hung out in Dean & DeLuca where we were able to sit at a window table beside the plaza and see the show from a slightly elevated position. By 8 AM, the crowd began to grow significantly as more and more people showed up, hoping to be seen on the show during the broadcast for their time zone.

My only regret – not meeting Lenny!

TVgrrrrl off to New York City!

I'm off to New York City for a few days where I will attempt to see some live tapings of television shows. I already tried to get Letterman tickets for May way back in February, but heard absolutely nothing back from the show. I'll visit some of the morning shows (Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show), incognito of course, and report back next week to let you know how it was. Same bat time! Same bat channel!