This show has gone through more recent changes than the costumes at a Madonna concert.
At one point "The Big Idea" was a great celebrity-based talk show. At another it brought help to would-be entrepreneurs. It even focused on the 2008 presidential election.
A great example of this constant shifting of focus occurred on Wednesday June 4, 2008 when the show took a dramatic shift away from its prove*n* business-entrepreneurial format. Instead, the show focused each night on a singular esoteric theme and hashed and re-hashed it for an hour. Gone were the cool inventors and their cutting edge products. Gone were the celebrity guests who rated above the D-List. Gone were the real, tangible pieces of advice that Donny used to give to would-be entrepreneurs. The show packed far too many guests on it, too many visuals (including a distracting scroll of quotes at the bottom of the screen), and too many video packages that it all amounted to a confusing and deadly dull mess. For example, on June 16, 2008 the show packed one sports figure after the next. One by one they babbled on and on about sports and winning games at any expense. It was all better suited for an audience with ADD and hopped-up on speed wanting to see a late Sunday night sports show, than it was for an audience needing how-to business advice. Overall the guests that then appeared on this version of the show shot so far over the audience's head in such a heavy-handed dusty dry way that some wondered how the show managed to hold on to any viewers. An article at the time claimed that the ratings had dropped so low that they were not even measurable by the A.C. Nielsen Company.
Donny Deutsch is now completely disconnected from his guests, hitting bullet points instead of truly engaging them in discussion. Remember those days when Donny was known for his energized interviews? That old fire in his eyes is gone. Why is it that he gladly accepts anything the big-wigs at CNBC suggest to him as changes to his show's format? As an ad man who has shown the world his opinion should be listened to, one would hope he will one day fight for what he knows is right for his show.
The latest news out of CNBC is that Donny's show has been put on "hiatus" (a euphamism for "cancelled"?). There's two infamous upper level executives at the company who can be blamed for this. Shame on them for ruining what had once been one of the best news-related shows on the air. Shame on them for wasting the great talents of Donny Deutsch.
