Swimsuit Model Lauren Jones Becomes ‘Anchorwoman’

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough (no relation, presumably, to WSJ’s Paul Gigot) notes that some people are none to happy with Fox making hot model Lauren Jones a TV anchorwoman as part of a reality show.

An upcoming Fox reality series about a model-turned-TV journalist is causing a stir in the East Texas city where “Anchorwoman” is being produced.

Model Lauren Jones arrived last week in Tyler, Texas, for a 30-day stint at KYTX-TV, a CBS affiliate, that will include co-anchoring the 5 p.m. newscast today. Jones, who was cast for the show by Fox 21 and the G Group, has been undergoing behind-the-scenes preparation as a reporter and anchor, her every move taped by a 40-member crew. “Anchorwoman” will run on Fox beginning in late August.

Jones is a swimsuit model and actress whose credits include WWE’s “SmackDown!” and “The Guiding Light.” She has no journalism experience; the show will be about whether Jones can hack it in TV news. She arrived in Tyler a week ago and has been put through what a station official calls intensive training in how to read a TelePrompTer and report stories on her own.

TV newsrooms have been a staple of TV shows for years, perhaps most successfully with “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Upcoming Fox sitcom “Back to You,” starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, will keep the genre alive. But this is the first time that a reality series will feature someone with no journalism experience who will be thrust into a job surrounded by real journalists. It has raised concerns inside and outside KYTX. “One of the last sacred grounds of integrity in local television is the local newsroom, so I guess I would say I’m disappointed to see a station, much less one in our own community, that has evidently sold its integrity,” said Brad Streit, vp and GM for KLTV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Tyler.

Yes, because, Lord knows, local TV affiliates never use hot babes with less journalistic experience to boost ratings of the newscasts. And, certainly, CBS would never hire a perky woman known more for her great legs than her reporting chops to anchor a newscast!

Newsbusters‘ Noel Sheppard suspects that what these people are “most concerned about is the likelihood that Jones will be able to read those teleprompters and smile for the cameras with equal aplomb as those making millions doing the very same thing.” Quite likely.

Certainly, France’s Melissa Theuriau has been able to juggle reading the news with a “modeling” career.