| The Insider | |
|---|---|
| Format | Entertainment news program |
| Presented by | Kevin Frazier (2011–present) Brooke Anderson (2011–present) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Paramount Television (2004-2006) CBS Paramount Television (2006-2007) CBS Television Studios (2007-present) |
| Distributor | Paramount Domestic Television (2004-2006) CBS Paramount Domestic Television (2006-2007) CBS Television Distribution (2007-present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | syndication |
| Original run | September 13, 2004 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Insider is an American tabloid television news program covering events and celebrities. It debuted on September 13, 2004 as a spinoff of Entertainment Tonight and started as a popular segment that took viewers "behind closed doors" and gave them "inside" information. Since becoming a separate program, however, the show has taken more of a tabloid direction, and has gone through several formats since its 2004 premiere.
The original theme song (which was changed after the second season) was performed by Richie Sambora.
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The series was initially hosted by Pat O'Brien in Hollywood on the ET Paramount Studios Stage 28 set with Lara Spencer in New York in MTV's 1515 Broadway studio overlooking Times Square. O' Brien remained a host up until March 5, 2008 when O'Brien was replaced with Donny Osmond. O'Brien returned to the series a month later after Osmond declined to become a permanent host. Spencer through the years was a solo host due at times to O'Brien's varied personal problems which forced him to take time off in extended periods to address them.
The program has gone through several formats through the years, with the news-heavy first season making way for a direction where subjects such as a pair of anorexic twins were regularly featured in sweeps periods, along with other fringe stories such as true crime stories and the Nadya Suleman octuplets story which had little or nothing to do with entertainment.
In September 2007, CBS Television Distribution moved the show, for its fourth season, to New York. Formerly Los Angeles-based O'Brien joined Spencer in a new Manhattan studio. The duo hosted from studio space within the Minskoff Theatre in Manhattan, home of the musical The Lion King, which has unobstructed views of Times Square, nearby the MTV studio facilities and also within One Astor Plaza.
On September 8, 2008, the program began to air in high definition with the move of both ET and The Insider from Stage 28 to Stage 4 at the CBS Studio Center as a final consequence of the 2006 split of Viacom and CBS .[1] The set's focal point is a large life-size 3D construction of the program's logo, which was formerly used as the main portion of the set where segments took place until the September 2009 retooling of the program into a panel show. The New York aspect of the program was also abandoned, with Spencer relocating to Los Angeles and becoming a solo host, along with Victoria Recano, Steven Cojocaru and Cheryl Woodcock.
In the move, O'Brien became a Los Angeles-based correspondent for the program,[2] but ten days later on September 18, was dismissed permanently from the program for comments he made in a staff email after a trip to Iowa, where he directed comments specifically at a mid-show daily segment of Spencer's which launched when the new season started. O'Brien proceeded to involve a rundown of the prices and labels of her clothing and accessories, saying that it made the viewers he talked to "vomit".[3] Despite this pointed criticism the segment remained and continued to air at the end of every episode until Spencer's departure, expanding to the point where viewers made a multiple choice on what Spencer would wear on the next episode.
After the departure of O'Brien, the show was hosted by Lara Spencer alone until January 2009, when Samantha Harris joined the program from E! News as a permanent co-host. Harris also provided analysis and commentary as part of her duties as co-host of ABC's Dancing with the Stars until her departure from that series at the start of 2010.
During September 2009, the program converted to a panel format, featuring a roundtable discussion and debate format (similar to Pardon the Interruption or the "Hot Topics" segment of The View) with three permanent co-hosts and a guest host discussing entertainment topics, although that was also changed to Niecy Nash becoming a fourth de facto host and a rotating fifth guest host slot. This meant that the on-air correspondents were dismissed and stories were compiled by Entertainment Tonight staff or off-camera personnel.
The format was changed once again in September 2010 back to a traditional entertainment newsmagazine format with Spencer and Jacobs co-hosting; currently the program runs second-to-last in syndicated newsmagazines ratings wise behind Extra. Industry analysts had surmised that the change was a precursor to testing Spencer in the traditional ET format without placing her on that show, as current ET female host Mary Hart will retire from that series at the end of the 2010-11 season. However Nancy O'Dell succeeded her as female anchor at the end of May 2011.
On March 5, 2011 it was announced that Kevin Frazier was named co-anchor of the program, replacing Jacobs, who moved to correspondent duties for ET.[4] Twelve days later on March 17, it was announced that Lara Spencer would leave the program by the start of May to become a lifestyle correspondent for Good Morning America (though her role there has expanded to be more of a show host than correspondent), mainly in order to return back to her home in New York for family reasons.[5] Spencer was replaced by Brooke Anderson, a co-host on HLN's Showbiz Tonight. During the week of the royal wedding, Anderson split her reporting duties between CNN and The Insider.[6]
It is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution, often as half of a one-hour news block that includes the show from which it was spun off, Entertainment Tonight.
There were formerly three different versions of the show - a standalone episode not featuring any tie-ins to Entertainment Tonight for stations which do not carry the latter program, and two other versions designed to precede or follow ET with stories from that show mentioned in promotions and vice versa. Recently, only the standalone episode is aired on all stations which carry The Insider, regardless of whether they also carry ET.
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