Clearly Sarah Palin, failed Washington aspirations and all, still has her supporters. They like her political positions on abortion, taxes, and gun control (limiting the control that is), to name a few. It just shows how many of us will ignore continuing inappropriate behavior if need be, as long as the end justifies the means.

Now that our political leaders have morphed into celebrities like never before -- doing commercials, late night television, radio, musical and comedic cameos and the like -- it looks like the Sarah Palin show can legitimately be accused of "jumping the shark!" ... and then some.

Continue reading Has Sarah Palin jumped the shark -- again?

Has Sarah Palin jumped the shark -- again? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

America is getting tired of James J. Cramer's act. That's the conclusion I draw from mediabistro.com's recent report on the decline in the ratings for Cramer's Mad Money. Cramer's ratings dropped 29% from 2006 -- he fell below 200,000 total viewers at 6pm in May -- averaging 175,000 for the month -- by contrast his May 2006 average was 247,000 viewers. Moreover, his viewership has been dropping in the last few months -- In March, he averaged 255,000, and in April, he averaged 205,000.

To his credit, unlike fellow prime time business buffoon, Donald Trump, Cramer does not even try to create the illusion that he has hair. But I think Cramer jumped the shark as he was writing his self-pitying New York Magazine article which came out last month.

While Mad Money helped pump up interest in the stock market, individual investors are still a sideshow to the current market action. It's institutions, private equity firms, and hedge funds that rule the roost. And they march to a different drummer.

So unless Cramer can totally retool his act -- or perform the miracle of consistently making stock picks that beat the market -- he'll slowly fade into the sunset.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Has Cramer jumped the shark? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 09 Jun 2007 09:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) shareholders should be concerned that 'Grey's Anatomy,' one of its biggest hits, jumped the shark last night.

Jump the shark is pop-culture slang indicating that a TV show has reached its peak. It derives from an episode of "Happy Days" in which Fonzie literally jumped over a shark on water skies while wearing his trademark leather jacket. The hit program just wasn't the same afterwords.

"Grey's Anatomy" didn't just jump the shark, it jumped the whole ocean with tearjerker of an episode in which the show's title character had a near-death experience after accidentally falling into the water. Somehow the effects of hypothermia didn't kill Meredith Grey and her heart started beating again after her best friend Christina Yang told everyone to take one more shot at reviving her. Of course, they did it and Grey pulled through just fine. Can anyone in the medical field tell me how often that happens in real life?

This blunder creates a problem for Disney's ABC network, which reportedly has plans to do a spin-off of the drama. The company wants to make Greys a tent pole franchise similar to the "Law and Order" and "CSI" shows which are cash-cows for General Electric Co.'s (NYSE:GE) and CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBS) respectively.

ABC may find that difficult to do. Once an audience gets turned off to a program, it's hard to convince them to go back. The advertisers know this and shift their spending accordingly.

What ABC is equivalent to McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD) putting Cheez Whiz on the Quarter Pounder or Starbucks Co. (NASDAQ:SBUX) deciding to only play music from hair metal bands from the 1980s in its stores. The network tried to fix something that wasn't broke and will pay for it over the long term.

Disney jumped with shark with 'Grey's Anatomy' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.