Thank God it's over.
That, of course, is the way most people will greet this week's arrival of 2010 and passing of 2009.
You've heard of annus horribilis? 2009 seems destined to go down as an annus WTF-us.
The good news is that we all get to move on -- not just to a new year, but a whole new decade. And that means a fresh start, complete with the resolve to try to do things better this time.
It's also a good excuse for one journalism's oldest end-of-the-year, it's a slow news week traditions: Making New Year's resolutions for famous folks.
TVMoJoe has selected 10 individuals we think could stand to take some bold measures in 2010. We're splitting our list into two parts -- five today, five on Thursday.
Feel free to add your own suggestions for resolutions in the comments section:
Leslie Moonves should resolve to loosen the reigns at CBS Entertainment.
Sure, everyone at the network's Studio City HQ will insist that the big boss is far less involved in running primetime than he's ever been. And that, really, he only weighs in on the big decisions.
Right. And Jeff Zucker has had nothing to do with the primetime woes at NBC the past five years because he's been busy focusing on the cable and movie businesses.
Moonves has stayed heavily involved in his entertainment division for one reason: He's really good at it. His incredible eye for casting talent and his sense of the pop culture zeitgeist made him one of the best executives to ever lead a network entertainment division, putting him in the same class as the Tinker and Tartikoffs of the world.
So why should he back away now? Well, if you believe the business press, there's been some internal pressure on Moonves to find a strong No. 2, someone who could be his successor.
The Los Angeles Times recently speculated that Moonves would have to go outside the company to find such a person. But that would be a shame given the fact that the Eye has so much strong in-house talent.
That talent, however, needs a chance to stand on its own, to make some tough decisions -- and maybe fail -- in areas outside of their comfort zones. Moonves was able to make the leap from programming genius to mogul because Mel Karmazin gave him a lot of rope; Moonves now needs to do the same for the executives below him.
Mark Burnett should resolve right now to stop wasting his time trying to become the most prolific producer of reality shows and other programming. Really, does the man who made "Survivor" a phenom need to collect a paycheck for the MTV Movie Awards?
No, what the world needs from Mark Burnett is his skills as a producer. "Survivor" worked because he (and some smart executives at CBS) sweated over every last detail of the first season of the show, making sure it played like a real-life drama rather than a silly game.
