Two Thumbs Up to the New Rocketboom
I just watched the new Amanda-less Rocketboom 2.0. Wow. Producer Andrew Michael Baron handled the tricky transition oh so deftly.
Amanda's replacement host came on wearing a catcher's mask and chest protector and proceeded to take a bunch of tomatoes in the puss. Once the public pillorying was done she gave a link to Amanda's blog (gracious and brilliant) and moved on to the best episode in a long time.
The new host, Joanne Colan (Colan rhymes with Joanne), is fantastic: Very natural on camera, wry, and obviously intelligent. Network television could learn a lot from how this was handled.
I didn't take sides in the war of words after Amanda's firing/quitting and while I'm generally on the side of talent in things like this, Andrew clearly has come out on top. Rocketboom is better than ever.
The queen is dead. Long live the Queen.
Comments
Hey Leo,
Just got a Vox invite from a trusty member of the TWiT army and would be pleased if you checked out my blog... http://iancube.vox.com
Anyway, I watched the episode earlier today as well, and agree with you for the most part.
The interesting thing will be to see if a British host will have any affect on the listener demographic RocketBoom sees...will their presence go up in Britain? Down in the US? Does it even matter?
I have to say though, what a great episode and idea to come out with. I had a friend who watched it for the first time, watching this new episode first, then watching an older one with Amanda. He enjoyed both, but enjoyed this new one better...perhaps it was the content...but I have a feeling Joanne did it.
She DID say she was interim host though, so that had me wondering...
AGREED! wait a second...you posted this at 4:20...haha, anyway! I thought this show was 5235235% better than the original and i'll be watching every day as opposed to the bi-weekly to monthly visits that I used to make, Sorry Amanda...
Huh....I liked amanda cause she was oddly cool...like she acted differnt and she looked really nice.
Although the new host is great.
A late comment but I am new to VOX. However, I am a "long time" listener of the TWiT family of programming and discovered VOX through "Inside the Net".
I agree that RB 2.0 is quite strong with Joanne behind the desk. Of course, it really comes down to content now doesn't it.
Keep up the good work Leo.
Joanne is HOT!