TV news goes from the dogs to the vixens in 'Anchorwoman'

Lauren Jones is at the center of controversy in the provocative, but predictable new Fox reality series "Anchorwoman."

KYTX Channel 19 in Tyler, Texas, has already gone to the dogs. Now it's going to the wrestling vixens.

The CBS affiliate is the setting for the latest titillating Fox reality series, as Lauren Jones, a former "WWE Diva," swimsuit model and "Barker beauty" on "The Price Is Right" with no journalistic experience whatsoever, tries her hand at becoming a TV reporter in "Anchorwoman," debuting at 7 p.m. Wednesday on WFLD Channel 32.

The owner and general manager, who created the station from scratch just three years ago, is mildly concerned they'll all be depicted as "bumpkins." The news director is more than a little worried about his precious journalistic standards.

Yet when Jones comes through the door -- in a low-cut cheetah-print top, a trim red miniskirt and stiletto heels -- one of the first colleagues she's introduced to is Stormy the weather dog.

That's right, Stormy the weather dog, a poodle-ish mutt adopted as the station mascot, who now has an on-air role in the weather forecasts.

No, nobody's going to question the standards or sophistication at this station.

Let me make this clear: This is a reality series, not some scripted lark -- funny as it sounds as the premise for a comedy. And like many a reality series it plays fast and loose with notions of "reality." For instance, it isn't really emphasized that Stormy is the "weather dog," because that might indicate the station was already desperate for ratings -- desperate enough to put a dog on the air, and desperate enough now to hire an inexperienced blond bombshell as a publicity stunt.

"We're looking for as many eyeballs as we can get," admits Phil Hurley, station creator, owner, president and general manager.

This really did take place. Starting June 1, for just over a month, Jones was an on-air anchor-reporter at the station, and that's what "Anchorwoman" is all about.

First things first. All the media navel-gazers wringing their hands over how this illustrates the further decline of TV journalism can just clam up and go back to eating their grapefruits. It's simply a way for a struggling, mid-market Texas TV station to attract attention -- no more, no less. And don't make me point out that Lara Logan modeled swimsuits too before taking on journalism, and she's turned out to be a pretty good addition to CBS News, in spite of the doubts expressed by certain grizzled bluestockings in the media.

No, this is simply the product of a desperate TV executive meeting up with an exploitative TV producer, Brian Gadinsky, who previously brought you "America's Most Wanted," the first season of "American Idol," the hairstyling game show "Tease" and the Roger Daltrey special "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp." That's a resume that would make most TV executives run in the opposite direction, but Hurley was evidently charmed enough to say, "Oh, what the heck," when Gadinsky pitched him the idea of "Anchorwoman."

A provocative billboard announces, "She's coming," but that was evidently put up by either Fox or Gadinsky, not the station. (Hurley reportedly nixed a billboard showing one of Jones' bikini-modeling shots, so they do have some basic limits.)

There's plenty of material to work with. What's disappointing is how pat it all is to start. Hurley is the oblivious station owner, concerned above all with perception. "Everybody's worried about somebody coming in here and making us look like a bunch of hicks," he says.

Jones plays the role of cocksure beauty queen. After all, it's just reading in front of a camera, right? "I don't even know what to pack," she says. "A sequined bikini -- how do you think that would look doing the news?"

Better consult Amy Jacobson on that one, Lauren baby.

Annalisa Petralia is cast as the entrenched 5 p.m. news anchor threatened by the beautiful neophyte interloper. I'm sure the editors do all they can to play up her jealousy, but even at that it seems pretty clear when she gripes about declining journalistic standards, what she's really talking about is her own self-interest.

A New York native, she goes on to proclaim that she could have been a model if she had wanted. Look, Annalisa, you're striking enough to be on TV, true, but you're maybe one misplaced beauty mark away from slaving in the darker recesses of newspapers with the rest of us homelier-than-thous.

"Now we just have to make sure we get out of this with our journalistic standards intact," says news director Dan Delgado.

"Good luck with that," says someone who sounds suspiciously like Murray the news writer on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

So enjoy the attention and the Nielsen "eyeballs" while you can, KYTX, because the notoriety from "Anchorwoman" figures to be short-lived. But who knows, maybe after this they can sell Animal Planet on a new reality series: "Weather-Dog Manor."