TJ Walker discusses Greta Van Susteren’s broadcast career—her rise during the O.J. Simpson coverage, move from CNN to Fox News about 14 years prior, and long-running primetime success despite not matching Fox’s typical political or aesthetic mold. Walker attributes her success to sticking to a legal/crime niche rather than changing her style, and offers the broader lesson: find your niche and persist despite criticisms about voice or looks.
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Greta Van Sustren is no longer with Fox News Channel. What are we to make of this? Greta Van Susterren has had a lengthy broadcast career. She first rose to fame during the O.J. simpson murder situation and I well remember that. And she was on TV every single day as a guest analyst, was on so frequently and was valued for her expertise. Got her own show on cnn. That sense that part of her career was somewhat traditional. You come on as an expert, your book so frequently, you are then a paid commentator and then you get your own show, co hosting and then hosting your own show. That's how she did things. That part of her career was traditional. She then 14 years ago switched over to Fox News Channel, which seemed a bit odd because before that there was nothing about her that seemed particularly conservative. Republican leaning right wing in orientation the way the rest of Fox News primetime lineup traditionally was. Here are the lessons, and I will confess I've always been a bit mystified by the rise of Greta Van Suster and her ability to stay in primetime and have such a large audience for so long. For starters, she's not particularly conservative politically. That seemed to make her look like a fish out of water at Fox, number one. Number two, she has a very unpleasant voice. She just that, hey, she's a lot more successful than I am. So you can say who am I to talk about. But that is my job, analyzing people's strengths and weaknesses as a communicator. At some level I find this motivational because people tell me, oh, I can't be a TV star. They can't be a good communicator because they don't have a great voice. Greta Van Susteren went to a massive fame and fortune with a voice that wasn't great. Next. This is a delicate issue. Again, some of you can say, who are you to talk about this? TJ Compared to Megyn Kelly and most of the women at Fox, Greta Van Susteren wasn't the stereotypical really good looking woman. Sorry if that sounds like I'm feeding into the same, the same sort of sexist culture that fueled Fox. But you can't just point to her and say, well, she's much, much better looking than most people. That's why she's on tv. So you add it all up together. She was different. And to me, that really was the secret to her success. She stuck to what she liked. She was interested in legal issues, criminal issues, crime issues. She didn't try to then become the next Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity. She didn't go to apparently voice training for years and try to change her voice. She stuck to what she knew what she liked. She stuck with it for two decades now and plus had a wildly successful career and may come back in a different network. She's expressed dissatisfaction with Fox and apparently things broke down during contract negotiations. Do I watch Greta ancestor no. You know what it's a big world out there. It's not about me. It's not about these appealing to a majority of the world or half the world or even a third of the world. There's what 6, 7, 8 billion people in the world. You get a couple million people to watch you, you are going to be a huge huge success and that is exactly what she did. Lesson there for the all for all of us. Find your niche, stick with it. People say you aren't good looking enough or don't have the greatest voice, ignore them. Just keep on doing what you want to do.
