And you Know it's Ratings...
You know it's ratings when TV Anchors take time to talk about their cancer battle, fight against depression, alcoholism or some disease.
These discussions seem to only happen when the book is here.
In Chicago, news veteran Edna Schmidt has been off the air for the past year.
This week, in an "exclusive" five-part series on WGBO-TV's nightly 10:00pm newscast, "Noticias Univision Chicago," Schmidt talks about her alcohol addition that has cost her jobs and wrecked havoc in her personal life.
From 1992-2002, Edna Schmidt was a news anchor for both nightly newscasts on Chicago's WGBO-TV -- the first female news anchor in the station's history. In 2000, Schmidt became a Chicago correspondent for Univision's national newcasts, giving her a wider audience, while still being a news anchor for WGBO-TV.
Schmidt had done a newscast at the start of October where she appeared to be under the influence and was slurring her words. That led to her being removed from the air the next night -- first temporarily, and then permanently.
Telemundo Chicago had no comment on the reason or reasons for the speedy release of their newly-hired news anchor. A simple statement from a station spokesperson read: "Edna Schmidt is no longer with Telemundo Chicago. We wish her the best in her future endeavors."
As you know, TV stations do not talk about personal issues, unless of course it's a rating book.
Then they talk about it in an "exclusive five-part series."