"It's great that you have two women of color on two morning shows," King tells THR. "There seemed to be an unspoken 'only one' back in the day. Both of us can be role models for girls of any color."
This story first appeared in the April 24 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
It would be easy to look back at this whiplash year in media and think that the news business is in a state of crisis: Witness the fall of Brian Williams, the impending exit of Jon Stewart from The Daily Show and the untimely death of Bob Simon. Simon’s 47-year career at CBS spanned from television news’ halcyon days to the digital era, in which headlines are delivered with a hashtag — and 140 characters serve as an explanation.
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But even as technology and innovation exert their Darwinian effect, personalities on the screen and behind the headlines and clicks drive the story. And the inevitable churn has given rise to strong new voices: Larry Wilmore, whose Comedy Central program regularly tackles race, still very much the third rail in American discourse; John Oliver, whose ability to spin complicated and frankly dull issues into viral-video gold has given his HBO show a level of cultural cachet rare for a first-year effort; Megyn Kelly, whose independent streak and ability to deftly turn the tables on her newsmaker guests have made her 9 p.m. Fox News hour the second-most-watched program in cable news (after Bill O’Reilly‘s), establishing that she is very much the future of Roger Ailes‘ $15 billion brand.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s fifth annual list of New York media leaders highlights the stalwarts who bear the standard as well as the newcomers who are creating and exploiting the profusion of new platforms for the hotter-than-ever commodity now known as content.
Click here to see The Hollywood Reporter‘s 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media 2015.
