NBC's The Wanted: Here's hoping it's gone for good
I did not think things could get worse for The Wanted, the dreadful newsmagazine program NBC introduced last week.
I hated it, and you can read how much I hated it here. You can also read how much viewers in the U.S. and Norway hated it here. And the Nielsen ratings hated it, too. Read that here.
Yes, I hated it. I wrote three posts in one day, saying I thought it was the poster show for everything that was wrong with network TV news today in its so-called hunt for terrorists "living among us."
Last Monday, it was the lowest rated show of the night on network prime time with only 2.99 million viewers. This Monday, it failed to hit even that low-water mark with only 2.17 million viewers. Tuesday afternoon, after only two epsiodes had aired, Lauren Kapp, a spokeswoman for NBC News, said that the network had no more episodes of The Wanted scheduled.
(Photo courtesy of NBC shows three members of The Wanted team.)
In answer to a follow-up email whether that meant it was cancelled, Kapp wrote, "As of now, NBC doesn't have any future episodes on our schedule."
I won't try to read between her words. One can only hope The Wanted is gone for good.
But before leaving this series to the ash heap of its misery, I have to say Monday night's show actually was worse than the premiere. The first episode was so ridiculous in its search for a mullah living in Oslo, Norway, that I compared it to the children's action show from Haim Saban, V.R. Troopers. Dozens of Norwegian viewers thought it even sillier than I did.
But at least in that episode, the actions of the terrorist-hunting "ops" team (ha-ha) didn't endanger anyone.
Monday night as they tried to track Mamoun Darkazanli, another person they identified as a "bad guy" and a terrorist, in Hamburg, Germany, the team got involved in a high-speed car chase in a residential neighborhood. The chase was meaningless to the outcome of the show, but it certainly seemed to put people on the street in danger. I wonder if any German viewers have seen the episode online yet, and what they think.
I think it is time for NBC News to pull the plug for good on this misadventure in TV news before someone gets hurt. Really.
(Full disclosure for the third time in the three days I have written about The Wanted: I teach part time at Goucher College. That potentially might matter because NBC News cameras last year came to Goucher to tape a segment on a visiting professor who was allegedly a Rwandan war criminal, according to NBC News. The producers said the interview was for a Dateline segment -- they did not say it was for The Wanted. Still, for the third time, I disclose however slight and improbable any potential conflict might be. The college said at the time that the case was "murky," and that there was not enough evidence to "exonerate or convict." The visiting professor was suspended. Read the Sun story here. )
Comments
I think there is a typo in the first sentence of this posting. It doesn't make sense.
That said, the rest is interesting.
Hi, Thanks, you are right. It is fixed now. It should have said I did not THINK things could get worse....Thanks again. Z
Posted by: Sammy | July 28, 2009 6:56 PM
Your a trashy critic....
Sorry, I had to do a little editing for sake of civil discourse and to avoid slander. Z
Posted by: GFU | July 28, 2009 7:46 PM
Z, That's the best news I've heard all day. Sounds like the ratings have spoken. Maybe the wanted team can go back to journalism school and then do some real reporting. Chasing "bad guys" through a residential neighborhood is just plain irresponsible.
We have air conditioning, yea! It was up to 90 degrees in the house.
Posted by: Sherry T. | July 28, 2009 7:53 PM
Live in your pre-911 world. Both episodes of the Wanted removed the red tape to have two terrorists extradited to the countries that have charges against them.
No I don't call them terrorists, the United Nations identified them as this.
You live in the bliss of your ignorance.
The hotdog team from NBC News changed nothing. Monday night's ending was every bit as convincing as someone telling you "the check is in the mail." Both of those "bad guys" are in the same place they were before all this phony running around by the NBC News team started. This show was an embarrassment. As to pre-9/11, that is one of the things that troubled me most about this show, I thought the producers were trying to exploit the post-9/11 fear rather than provide trustworthy information that could helop us make better choices as to how to live in this world. Thanks. Z
Posted by: Josh | July 28, 2009 7:55 PM
Excuse me because I actually watched both shows. On both they talked to the holding country's officals, and the officals at the Countries that wanted to extradite them.
In both cases the two countries involved, their officials said the shows communications got the process flowing again. And the attention should get both Norway and Germany to get back on the ball again.
If nothing else the show did do this.
For you to say the show made no difference is a joke. The pressure of investigative journalism does work.
Perhaps you would rather have NBC put on a dancing show and you would love that show, and be proud that you liked it.
In this TV program cases of Norway and Germany NOT following through with Iraq and Spain wanting to extradite them for being terrorists was exposed.
Would you rather that the pressure not be put on the countries not extradite these individuals charged with crimes?
You need to be entertained by Dancing shows, is no reason for you bias against an Investigative reporting show. Sorry if it was not enough like "24" for you. But bureaucratic Red Tape is what it is.
Actually, it was too much LIKE 24 -- and not enough like journalism. Believe me, this has nothing to do with real investigative reporting. They accomplished nothing. And, in fact, according to a Los Angrles Times story, they misrepresented on-air what the Norwegian government actually said.
Posted by: Josh | July 28, 2009 10:48 PM
Sour grapes, anyone?
Posted by: Sarah S | July 29, 2009 2:13 PM
Josh,
The show did not do anything at all. If you want to know why, please read here:
http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ud/Whats-new/News/2009/the_wanted.html?id=571959
At the end of the premier, they printed that Norway had once again promised to expel Krekar, but they have never said otherwise, they only stated that they can't because of fear of torture.
Also, I hear a lot of people using 9/11 as justification to do almost anything. But what you fail to miss is that a lot of european countries had WW2, millions died. You don't see us using that as a justification.
Blind anger, blind faith and blind allegiance will not serve the united states well. If you want to judge something, do your homework, don't just look at one side of the argument. The issue about Krekar was only shown through the eyes of the united states and even worse, they didnt get all the facts straight.
Jonas Gahr Støre, the norwegian minister of foreign affairs actually offered to talk on The Wanted, but NBC said no. How can they say no to someone that actually have the power to do something about it? It only shows that they had no intention to do anything about it, they only wanted to get media attention and screw up the facts.
I have lost all my respect for NBC. And that they call themselves jurnalists? Jeeez...
I am from Norway, so if you want to call my perception of all this bias. That's fine with me :)
Posted by: Jonas | July 30, 2009 11:02 AM
Well, please keep up your reporting on this! What ran on NBC News was bizarre, but Is this the future of news? Could it work if it had been done right, by professional reporters? What are the journalistic backgrounds of those involved here?
Posted by: Sammy | July 30, 2009 11:50 AM
Hey Z,
yes.. some of us watched the second episode. I do not know why, but I had too - even after the epicly failed debut.. maybe because it was set in my hometown, Hamburg.
The "car chase" was no car chase, I wrote some facts about that trickshot in the corresponding ImdB-boards and for all the rest of bullshit-entertainment: We got ourselves some closed courses and went on with the footage. This show is staged from first to last!
Our authorities don't care about your nationality or occupation when it comes to arrresting reckless drivers, gunslingers or "journalists" threating locals - you fail, you do time, it's simple as that. In a city like Hamburg, where police is present and aware, no such things happen without public attention and therefore without a permit to shoot the footage there.
The Attorney General was fake (he's a DA with no authority to extradite even a guineapig and he said so - the interview was held in German), the SEK-guy (local SWAT unit, absolutely no clearance in such cases and therefore simply not qualified to make such statements) knew nothing but his script and so on and so on.. NBC News lost their credibility that night and insulted millions of Norwegians and Germans. For what?
Shame on you, NBC News.. you are not worth the pidgin crap on your corporate skycraper.
Hi, This series never ceases to amaze -- in a very bad way. Can you direct me to the site to read about what you wrote about trick shots and no car chase. Amazing. Thanks. Z
Posted by: mgfster | August 1, 2009 7:19 AM
Z, If mgfster directs you to the site can you put it on the post. I would be interested to see this too. In your article too was concerned about the mention of the high speed car chase, which sounded very irresponsible to create something like that for the sake of ratings. I see and type enough accident bodily injury to know that it is not funny. It was nice of mgfster to come back and give us some more insight.
Thanks.
See ya! - Sherry
The folks from the countries where these clowns from NBC News filmed their two stories are invaluable in exposing the willingness to lie by the producers of The Wanted. Thanks. Z
Posted by: Sherry T. | August 1, 2009 10:50 AM
Hello Z,
sure - you can find my comment here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1468817/board/nest/143989719
Basically it's nothing new (compared to my last one here) and some other people although noticed.. the sequences for e.g. the "car-chase" were dramatized by shaky camerawork and speeding them up quite slightly. If you take a close look you are able to spot all the other cars going exactly the same speed after all, so no getting away from the mighty mighty "journalists"!
In fact the two cars they sold as observation-bases of "other agencies" (compared to what? The "Echo Ops"-superteam of NBC News?) were shot on different locations on the rather long street the "terrorist" lives in. You can see and almost feel the cuts and locals know where these cars belong.. to employees who take them to work with them and put them back in parking when at home in their freetime - so in this case the "other agencies" are guilty of having lunch at home with their families or watching TV in the evening from a couch in their living-rooms, commando-style of course. ;-)
It's so devastating to see even that stupid artwork in their "homebase".. Echo Ops? Who came up with that bullsh*t?What is this little sitcom supposed to sell anyways?
OTR I can provide quite some info.. but as stated, that's OTR. Use my eMail-address included with the entry to get in touch if interested. ;-)
Posted by: mgfster | August 1, 2009 5:57 PM
I agree with you Z, why go to all the trouble to fake a car chase, which you pointed out did not lend anything to the storyline and in the end was apparently not even real. Between Jon and Kate and The Wanted I am really beginning to lose faith. I'm sticking to documentaries these other fake shows are not worth the trouble to watch, REALLY!
Posted by: Sherry T. | August 1, 2009 7:25 PM
Z - I can't help but to disagree with your rants with respect to this program. It may not have been best show on television and the information may not have been all that new but it did bring information to the public. There may not have been resolution but at least it was brought forward.
I thought it was a bold move for NBC and a move in the right direction for them. It was definitely a step above anything featuring Keith Olbermann.
I put you in the same category as Keith - lots of opinions with very little substance.
Posted by: Tim M | August 2, 2009 7:41 AM
If the show's producers want to find internationally famous unindicted war criminals walking among us, they don't have to go to Norway. They can find one of the top ten in Crawford, Texas. Another in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Another in Taos, New Mexico.
Need I go on?
Posted by: Vigilante | August 3, 2009 12:46 PM
... Your ... rants harken us back to the good old 1990s when UBL and Zawahiri were hiding in plain sight while plotting 9/11. I would say that I hope another 9/11 does not occur, but hope is not a strategy. ...
Sorry, I had to some editing to take out excessively coarse and crude language. Z
Posted by: Mark H | August 3, 2009 10:22 PM