If every single twenty-five-year-old in the world was lined up and ranked by the impressiveness of their resumes, there’s a good chance Ronan Farrow would finish first. The son of Mia Farrow and probably Woody Allen, though perhaps Frank Sinatra, graduated from Bard College at 15 and Yale Law School at 21. He’s also worked for UNICEF and the Obama Administration, become a Rhodes Scholar, testified on human rights before Congress and now, in arguably the least impressive item listed, accepted a job as a talk show host on MSNBC.
Not a whole lot is known about the format of the show, but it's currently being described as a news program for a "new, more engaged generation of viewers". Network president Phil Griffin is pretty pumped about the potential of the idea and possible long-term importance of the project. Here’s a juicy little quote from the press release…
“Ronan has established himself as a provocative, independent journalist capable of challenging people’s assumptions and empowering audiences. His show will be a game changer for MSNBC, representing a fresh approach to how we deliver news.”
Farrow has excelled at everything he’s done thus far during his relatively brief life. He clearly has the intelligence, political knowledge and life experience to handle an assignment like this. His age should help bring in a more youthful, Twitter-friendly audience. More importantly, he also seems to have the quick wit and engaging personality that are just as important. After his daddy drama went public thanks to a rather salacious interview his mother gave, Farrow was able to disarm the situation and get the media off his back with one clever tweet…
It’s no secret MSNBC is the leftist counterbalance to FOX News’ right wing perspective. Unfortunately for the network, that perspective hasn’t consistently produced the type of ratings they were looking for (for a wonderful analysis on why, click here), which is probably why executives have been in the mood to shake things up lately. Alec Baldwin was recently hired to put together a late night talk show, and now, Ronan’s vehicle will be added sometime early in 2014. It’s being vaguely described right now as a one-hour weekday program, which is code for “we don’t want to announce who he’s replacing”.
Not a ton of footage is available of Ronan on camera, but what is out there is pretty impressive, especially for someone without a ton of training. Ideally, he will bring in a younger, more interactive audience with his viewpoint, but there won't be any way to know for sure until he premieres. Regardless, to get a pretty hazy idea of what we might be in for in 2014, you can check out the handsome Anderson Cooper in training answering questions for the State Department below…
