Bloomberg Will Revive ‘Wall Street Week’
By Brian Steinberg
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Wall Street Week” is on the road again.
Bloomberg’s TV and radio operations will debut a new edition of the venerable financial-discussion program, this time titled “Bloomberg Wall Street Week,” tonight, January 10, at 6 p.m. eastern. David Westin will anchor the weekly one-hour program, the result of a licensing agreement between Bloomberg and Maryland Public Television, which still holds rights to the property.
“The TV program airs at a time, at the end of the week, when people can come and hear about the two or three most interesting stories affecting business, finance and the economy, with perspective from leaders in the industry,” says Westin, in an interview. Bloomberg executives, he adds, feel that “this is something that is underserved, or unserved, right now.”
And like its predecessor, the show will have a rotating panel of influentials. Panelists regularly contributing to the program include: former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers; economist Glenn Hubbard; Roger Ferguson, CEO of TIAA; Afsaneh Beschloss, CEO of RockCreek; Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist; and Samuel Palmisano, former president and CEO of IBM.
Bloomberg’s backing adds another chapter to the history of “Wall Street Week,” which first gained notice during a 32-year run on PBS. Longtime aficionados of the stock market would tune in regularly to hear host Louis Rukeyser, who hosted the show, weave pun-filled thoughts about the direction of the Dow and other indicators and talk to financial sages. As ratings fell, new hosts from Fortune magazine were brought in, but did little to improve viewership. Maryland Public Television and PBS ended the show in 2005.
“Wall Street Week” would keep on traveling. The show eventually was licensed by SkyBridge Capital, an investment firm founded by Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as White House Communications Director under President Donald Trump. SkyBridge streamed its version of the program online in 2015. In 2016, it was picked up by Fox Business Network . But in January of 2018, the show, which had then been taken over by Maria Bartiromo, was retitled “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street.”
Bloomberg intends to update the program for modern consumption, says Westin, who is a former president of ABC News. “Bloomberg Wall Street Week” will be made available across Bloomberg’s digital and social properties, and podcasts will be created from each week’s episode. Every episode will conclude with a “Second Opinion” segment featuring perspectives from the next generation of Wall Street.
“There are quite an extraordinary number of people in business and finance who grew up with Louis Rukeyser, often when their father came home to sit down to watch on a Friday night,” says Westin. “It’s a wonderful legacy, and in talking to people, we found they said this would be very valuable.”
