TMZ: Comparison of the TV Show and Online News Site

Photo Courtesy of Telepictures

Join me in analyzing the differences of the celebrity news source TMZ as aired on TV verses online. This is a guilty pleasure of mine and is my go-to source for all of my not-needed-but-I-want-it-so-bad news. It's the entertainment of reality TV, with comedic commentary, and breaking news stories. To get you started, here are some things you may not know about the show.

FUN FACTS

TMZ stands for "Thirty Mile Zone" also known to those in the industry as the "studio zone." This area marks the 30 mile circle from W. Beverly Blvd. to N. La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles. In this area are the big name studios in Hollywood. When shooting outside of the 30 mile zone the studios are required to pay for any needed travel and living expenses for the cast.

Although it is considered to some as a celebrity gossip site, TMZ has actually been the first to break several nation-wide and world-wide stories. They were the first to report all of the below events before any other newsroom in the country.

• The death of Michael Jackson.
• The photo of Rihanna after her infamous attack from Chris Brown. 
• The death of Brittany Murphy.
• Paris Hilton's 45-day jail sentence for driving on a suspended license. 
•  Mel Gibson's DUI arrest.
• Britney Spears filing for divorce from Kevin Federline. 

HISTORY OF TMZ

TMZ.com was founded by Harvey Levin, a lawyer turned journalist, in 2005 in a joint venture between Warner Brothers and AOL. It was hugely successful online leading to TMZ TV in 2007, a 30 minute celebrity news program Mon-Fri at 4 p.m. on FOX, is hosted by Levin and his newsroom staff. It reportedly made 25 million is 2008! In 2011 TMZ started bus tours through Hollywood stopping at the locations frequented or made famous by celebs. In 2012 TMZ Live was created, co-hosted by Levin, it is an online show that discusses particular topics covered on the TV show in depth with listeners that can call in and join the discussion. In 2013 they launched a NYC bus tour after the success of the Hollywood tours. So, in other words, TMZ is taking over the celebrity news world one step at a time.

CONTENT AND COMMERCIALS

The focus of this media outlet is to bring current celebrity news to mainstream TV and online.

TMZ TV: The setting is literally in the newsroom with the staff present and Levin heading the conversation. They discuss their findings of the day seated casually around their desks. Whether the news be from tipsters, paparazzi, or themselves, they combine what they found and discuss it as a group. They have dialog with each other, mainly using comedy and witty jokes to go back and forth between each other. The video editors add in silly songs, pictures or snippets that flash across the screen adding visuals to the discussion.

The design of the show could be seen as something that is not taken seriously by the newsroom staff to someone that has not seen the show before. If someone has no sense of humor it could at times be offensive but it isn't designed to be a hard hitting news show. In a sense, it's a reality TV show with narrators. However, they are legit reporters. From my viewing experiences I would guess the staff are all between the ages of 25-35 (excluding Levin). They are young, in Hollywood, and many are mingling with celebrities on a weekly basis. Being that Levin is a lawyer, slander and integrity are important to him. Although jokes are incorporated to engage the viewer, they do not make any of the topics up. The newsroom staff come from all walks of life. Some with British accents, some with Australian accents and some with a Los Angeles accent (if you live there, you know what I mean). Some black, some white, some Jewish, some gay; they embrace their diversity and have friendly banter back and forth involving their differences on the subject matter. It's a well rounded setting for many opinions about current celebrity situations.

The ads: I would have expected the target audience to be younger but was surprised because the commercials suggest otherwise. Dominos; Sprint (family plan, #framily); Jack in the Box; Colgate (Kelly Ripa as spokeswoman); Access Hollywood; KEVU Oregon (Fox affiliate); Advil; Walgreens; Goldwater Law Firm, Charter (TV, internet, phone); Harder, Wells, Baron & Manning Law Firm; Les Schwab Tires; Nuetrogena, Colgate Optic Toothbrush; Sleep Country; and self promo of two TMZ teasers and an ad for TMZ NYC bus tours (Harvey Levin as spokesman). After noting the ads within the show it seems to me that the target audience are families and middle-aged woman. The Dominos commercial was a family eating, Sprint was the "framily" plan for friends and family, and Jack in the Box was clearly for the kids. The focus on health products like skin care, toothpaste and toothbrushes reached out to moms. Advil, Walgreens and law firms for drug side effects hinted that an older generation was expected to be watching. But probably not men.

TMZ.com: From my findings on the site there are at least three posts an hour at seemingly any time of the day or night. They have the ability to include more stories on their website than on their TV show in a given day. Although the show is based around a few of the less serious topics, the site includes serious topics as well. The stories on the site are neatly arranged one on top of another making it easy to read and scroll, especially on the phone app. With each story readers have several options. There are sometimes videos associated with the story from their reporters or related snippets from the TV and LIVE shows. There are comment sections below some stories for readers to put in their two cents. There are links to post the story on Twitter and Facebook. There are often reader polls where a question is asked and a multiple choice answer can be given, showing a percentage of reader opinion on the subject. And under each story they take key words and link similar topics to other stories pertaining to the topic or person. You can seemingly click and click and click some more for as long as you want, getting totally TMZ'd-out if you so choose.

The Ads: Clicking on photo galleries or video footage will most likely get interrupted by an advertisement. The ones I saw were for reality TV shows, health products, and dog food. The online ads support my family viewing theory. At the bottom of the page are ad links to other celebrity news sites and magazines, which I am assuming they have paid for as their platform for traffic. On the right side of the page, starting at the top, are ads for TMZ. They promote their "TMZ Sports" section which has a teaser to click and will take readers to that portion of the TMZ site reserved for news affiliated with athletes. I actually discovered the sports section doing this analysis after years of frequenting the site (whoops). Visitors can book a bus tour in Hollywood or New York with the click of a button. They can view a portion of the most recent TV show and also see a summary of upcoming show topics. Plus, there is a list of most popular stories and most commented stories so that the reader searching for juicy topics quickly doesn't have to browse through the other stuff. At the top of the screen there are banners of rotating ads. When I looked, it was for Dominos which is no surprise since they also advertised on the show I watched.

Harvey Levin: Photo Courtesy of Business Insider

ANALYZE

TMZ TV: Examples of the stories on both the TV show and posted online for Feb.19 were: Natasha Oakley (Bikini a Day founder) prancing on a Miami beach in a thong bikini, Michelle Rodriguez (actress) getting in a limo with pants and coming out of the limo with no pants (but holding the ones she was wearing), Paris Hilton getting her hair apparently sniffed by a creepy guy, a Titanic extra that is suing because he was never paid for two words he spoke in the film, and RuPaul's (drag queen) new reality show Drag Race. There were at least a dozen other topics discussed on the show that were not online (or at least not posted that day).

What makes the show different then others of its kind, such as Extra or E!, is that they don't take themselves too seriously when they discuss the topics. The setting is not a room designed to look like that of a stuffy news anchor and they don't interview people other then the celebrity. They structure the show in its actual environment and they encourage the reporters to ask odd questions to provoke fun topics to talk about. They may have topics about nothing, but then again, wasn't Seinfeld?

TMZ.com: I found a multitude of other stories posted from the TMZ newsroom that day. Some were "fluff" stories and some were serious. Examples of the serious were: Charlie Sheen wanting to test his kids for fetal alcohol syndrome, Miranda Barbour the "Craigslist Killer" and her murderous claims, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's will details, and Coner Oberst (Bright Eyes singer) battling rape claims. I noticed that none of the serious issues were present on the TV show.

What makes the site different from others of its kind, such as Star or OK!, is that they don't usually concern themselves with fashion unless someone is making a big statement. Like, Michelle Rodriguez and her mysterious missing pants. Or I would assume Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl. They take real pictures and real interviews with the celeb themselves in their natural environment. Often they are on a sidewalk or an airport or in their car. They simply report the results of the encounter. Makeup or no makeup, bad day or good day, prepared or not prepared, TMZ pops up and starts a conversation.

CONCLUSION

Anyone can turn on the evening news or CNN and hear about the ugliness in the world. TMZ is an escape from that. A time to catch up on your favorite celebs, or favorite annoying celebs, and laugh at the same time. If you want hard hitting facts, then go to the website or watch TMZ Live where conversations take place about what was caught on camera. More details are apparent online verses the show. In my observation, watching the TV show is more of a mindless escape for 30 minutes. In some cases they discuss the same topic in different segments of the show with different commentary between the newsroom staff offering a different spin on the same subject. The website and LIVE shows offer more engagement and are less repetitious, but lack some of the personality.

Both serve a purpose to their audience. I personally prefer to watch the show because I want to see what kind of shenanigans are going to take place. I picture myself in the newsroom and the staff present themselves in such a normal manner that they could be my circle of friends. I laugh with them. I also follow TMZ on Twitter so that I can see all the stories they post and click on the ones I want to read rather than frequent the website and scroll. TMZ is active in social media and can serve as a good outlet to get much of the news you might see briefly on more traditional sites.

 

There are many critics that put TMZ into the "trash" news category. I would probably guess that those same critics are not picking up celebrity magazines or have much interest in doing so. For those that prefer to read and watch traditional news I can understand what their concerns with TMZ might be. The fact that the show is filmed during a staff meeting, the staff are dressed-down and they don't appear news anchor-ish could be a concern. Maybe it would be hard to take a 20-something seriously dressed in worn jeans and a flannel. But, on the other hand, the show is not designed for those viewers. The website is the same in this regard. They have separated themselves as a news site that lacks the look of news. Verifiable sources and quoted professionals is not what readers will find. Large pictures and minimal text will most likely be the articles readers do find. For someone seeking verifiable fact and in depth reporting, like traditional sites can offer, this would raise some red flags as a legitimate news source.

CRITIC AND FAN REVIEWS

"Harvey Levin's scoops have made his website's name. But while critics fear his celebrity scoops are dumbing down news values, he has become an unlikely champion of press freedom." - Paul Harris, Life and Style

"The site not only breaks culturally significant news (the tirades — Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic one and Michael Richards’s racist one — come to mind) but also attracts so much commentary that it has become a nationwide seminar on sociology." - Virginia Heffernan, New York Times

"As an avid reader of Celeb gossip, I trust TMZ most of the time. Harvey Levin, the owner of the site is a lawyer and prides his website in posting authentic information." - Megan Skehan, Blogged