How Not To Launch a New Show

Remeber back five months ago (!!!) when Carol Costello left CNN for HLN?

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

And we still don’t know when Costello’s show will debut on HLN.

First, HLN said it would launch in April, a launch date the network blew.

Then HLN told TVNewser that the show would debut in early June, a launch date the network also blew.

That’s right. HLN gave two launch dates for Costello’s show and blew both of them.

What a horrible, horrible look for the network. Giving out two launch dates and not being able to make either of them, without providing any reason or explanation for the slippage, makes HLN look like the gang that can’t shoot straight.

Costello must be beside herself. She took a big risk jumping from the safety of CNN to its much less secure for everyone not named Robin Meade’s sister network and so far all that’s happened is two failed launch dates.

Put it in these terms; within a few more days enough time will have elapsed between Costello’s CNN departure and now that it will have surpassed the amount of time from Megyn Kelly’s FNC departure to her Sunday show’s premiere on NBC a few weeks ago.

That’s terrible.

Yes, I’ve been on a bit of tear over this. But I wasn’t the one who publicly put out two launch dates and then failed to stick to either. I’m just going by what I see and what I see is a network that has entered rarefied territory. You could probably count on one hand in the history of television the number of news shows that blew one launch date. Never mind two launch dates.

And we still have no idea when Costello’s show will finally see air.