Channel 5 is desperate for ratings…

One thing I've learned during my stint as Promo Joe's right hand man at KFOR is that TV news is a take-no-prisoners, cut-throat world. The stations around town will do anything possible for ratings, Internet page views, and viewer call-ins to an Ogle brother editorial piece.

In fact, the competition is so intense that it occasionally spills over into newsrooms, where coworkers fighting for contract renewals and the opportunity to work at Channel 9 compete against each other for the next big scoop or story. The whole thing can get pretty nasty and violent. For example, during the last sweeps period I watched Abby Broyles, Adam Snider and Ashley Kringen wrestle in an octagon for a flash drive containing the addresses of sex predators who live within one mile of a elementary schools and a dog adoption center. Obviously, Ashley won the flash drive with two early takedowns.

Every now and then, a local TV station takes things too far. This appears to be happening at KOCO Channel 5. Check out this screenshot from last night's 10pm news broadcast:

Yep, Channel 5 is now showing 100% ass. Apparently it's part of a new feature called "My Two Asses with Paul Folger." During the nightly segment, Paul will provide insightful commentary on a pair of Oklahoma City asses. Viewers will then be able to vote for their favorite on KOCO.com. Viewers will also be able to submit pics of their own asses for Wednesday's "My Ass" feature.

Anyway, this is obviously a cheap, silly tactic by KOCO. They should have gone with one of the three traditional ways to get ratings, which are:

1. Hire someone from another station. 

2. Create a doppleganger to go against a popular personality at a competing local station. (In the local news industry, they call this "Swoping.")

3. Add an Ogle. 

Then again, who knows. People seem to love ass, so maybe this will make Channel 5 number one. Well, at least until Dean Blevins launches his long-awaited Celebrity Nudity Update on News 9. Then we'll have an arms race on our hands.