Houghton Mifflin's Channel One News promotes horror TV show.
From Jim Metrock: Today, Channel One News took over 2 minutes of their in-classroom TV show to promote a horror, fantasy TV show called “Shadowhunters.”
As you watch the clip think about all the taxpayer money that paid for every second of this promotion. Taxpayers pay for every second of public school time. Doesn’t this TV show make enough money from its advertisers? Why rob taxpayers?
This is classic Channel One. An actor comes on Channel One News and tells students about his or her new movie or TV show, and then he or she tells students something motivational (“Stay in school”) to deflect attention from the obvious advertisement.
From Channel One News transcript for October 17, 2017:
Katherine McNamara: Hey guys! Katherine McNamara here from Freeform’s “Shadowhunters,” and Channel One News starts right now.
Arielle: All right, Kat is coming up in just a bit, but first, I am Arielle Hixson.
VIDEO: C1N Shadowhunter opening Oct 17 2017
VIDEO: Shadowhunters promo Oct 17 2017
Later in the show:
Now, this next story takes us to the big screen — up close and personal with one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars, Katherine McNamara. And I am not kidding on the “bright” description. Here is Cassie Hudson with her story.
Cassie: From hunting demons to casting shadows, Katherine McNamara’s role on the Freeform show “Shadowhunters” keeps her busy.
For the, like, two people who don’t watch the show, what is this show about?
McNamara: It follows the story of this girl named Clary who, on her 18th birthday, finds out that she is a shadowhunter and comes to realize that all the legends are true: vampires, werewolves, warlocks, fairies, angels, demons, every story you’ve ever heard growing up as a child — it exists.
Cassie: But when she isn’t slaying it in the supernatural world, you can catch the young actress playing the role of student.
McNamara: I actually — I’ve always been a huge nerd. I’ve always loved school; I’ve had this kind of thirst for knowledge from a very young age, but that was actually instilled in me by one of my preschool teachers. Shout-out to Miss Vicki, because I love her.
She, I guess, saw something in me — that I loved learning. And she pulled me aside and said, “Okay, now you’re going to do this. And now you’re going to read this book; now you’re going to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, all of these things.” It just gave me this hunger for learning.
Cassie: And Katherine made her education a priority, even while working as an actress.
McNamara: And so what I would end up doing is getting up at seven, doing work until it was time to do the reading, working in between, going to the show and then, “Oh, I have to study for tomorrow’s work,” so I’m up till 3 a.m. and then sleeping for a few hours. But ultimately, it’s all about prioritizing. If you really want to do something with your life, if you really are passionate about something, you’ll make the time for it.
Cassie: By 14 she graduated with honors from high school. And at 17 she was able to get her college degree from Drexel University taking online courses.
McNamara: Because I had my business degree, that’s helped me exponentially in my career. I can read my own contracts. I can sort of manage the different people I work with and run my career like a business. You know, a lot of kids see school as, like, a chore or as something that’s not very fun. But my whole life, my perspective on learning has been that it’s a way to expand your horizons and learn about things that you don’t have access to.
Cassie: Cassie Hudson, Channel One News.
Arielle: Very impressive!
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