By Kaylee Johnson
Campus News
New York’s favorite daily spectacle, The Cuomo Show is going off the air today. For the past few months, the show has been a hit with people across the state, acting as a reassuring agent of unity during such uncertain times. No matter your political beliefs or feelings about Cuomo, it is impossible to deny that the show had the perfect formula for success. Cuomo’s presence, corny (sometimes poorly decorated) PowerPoint slides were strangely entertaining in a very special edition kind of way. Perhaps the notion of living through such a pivotal moment in history with the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests and brutal killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor coated the show with a layer of impact that it would not otherwise have.
The basic fundamentals of The Cuomo Show make it accessible and entertaining – the special guests (often his family members, but even Chris Rock and Rosie Perez at one point), occasional personal touches and organization make it a unique entity. Quite notably, The Cuomo Show was powerful enough to interrupt morning game or talk shows at any given moment, unapologetically.
Confidently, I believe that Cuomo’s briefing is a better show than the ultra vain filibustering that is Kelly and Ryan or Today. It also has much more substance than Wayne Brady asking people dressed as chickens to pick a curtain – it felt satisfyingly intellectual. I know morning television does not give viewers a lot to work with, but The Cuomo Show definitely had a style going. All it needed was a catchy, flamboyant theme song.
Daily live shows should try to emulate what Cuomo strung together, as his show targeted all, not just stay-at-home moms or older people – his material mattered and was relevant. He also did not worry about the frills and instead focused on consistency, coming out every morning to speak on the same topic using the same organized formula to explain it in understandable terms.
As New York’s favorite morning show approaches its bittersweet ending, we should reflect on how far we have come as a state – protesting against injustice and racism, following the proper protocol to fight COVID-19 and dealing with a president who knows little to nothing about leadership. We have proven that in moments of crises we can unite and problem-solve in abstract ways to fix issues that are larger than us. One day those horrendously made PowerPoint slides will be in history textbooks and we will reflect with gratitude and a strong sense of community. Keep it up NY!
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