Christopher J. Tennyson

What We Can Learn from the Return of Billy Bush

New “Extra, Extra” TV Gig Gives Bush the Opportunity to Perform His Way Out of Crisis      

5/9/19 – – With the recent news of threatened tariff battles, constitutional crises and royal births, you may have missed the announcement that Billy Bush is returning to television. The fallen TV host will anchor “Extra, Extra,” a revamped version of the “Extra” entertainment magazine program, when it debuts in syndication on Fox stations this fall.

As you may recall, young Mr. Bush, first cousin of President George W. Bush, was fired from NBC’s Today show weeks before the 2016 presidential election after a recording surfaced of an off-camera verbal exchange he had with Donald Trump in 2005 (at the time Bush was hosting “Access Hollywood” and Trump was the star of “The Apprentice”).  Negative public reaction to the vulgar, misogynist thoughts expressed by Trump and accepted as humorous by Bush was fierce. In the aftermath, Trump moved into the White House, Bush ended up in the dog house, his career and personal life in tatters.   

You may not have been losing sleep over Billy’s banishment. But his emergence from reputational purgatory merits our attention.

As we discuss in Chapter 21 of The Crisis Preparedness Quotient – Measuring Your Readiness to Weather a Reputational Storm (“Performance is the Best Path to Recovery”), a crisis is never over until the assailed person (or company) is perceived to be back on his or her game and out from under the cloud of crisis. Billy’s public apologies, good behavior, and time away from the spotlight have earned him a shot at forgiveness. His new “Extra, Extra” gig gives him the opportunity to perform again. That’s the surest path to redemption.

You can perform your way out of a crisis. Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton, Kobe Bryant, Jane Fonda, Alex Rodriguez and Michael Phelps have all proven that. But when a public figure is blocked from getting back on stage, recovery is almost impossible.

It’s hard even to imagine the frustration of  disgraced individuals like Roseanne Barr (offensive tweeting), football star Ray Rice (domestic violence), Garrison Keillor (allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior), comedian Michael Richards (use of the N-word), Lance Armstrong (blood doping) and Mat Lauer (allegations of sexual harassment). They’re in the wilderness, unable to get back to work, back on the field, back on the air.

Crisis counselors who help individuals and organizations navigate reputational storms – more art than science – understand that the strength of pre-crisis reputations and the nature of offenses make a big difference in the duration and severity of the suffering. Has Billy Bush done enough to atone for his sins? Are viewers ready to move on and accept him back into their lives? The producers of “Extra, Extra” are betting on Billy, and they’ve given him something truly precious on his road to recovery: the platform to perform.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/billy-bush-anchor-new-version-extra-fall-1208811

Published by Christopher J. Tennyson

Christopher Tennyson brings more than 35 years of experience in major agency and corporate environments to his work as a senior communications and crisis management consultant. He has advised a broad range of high-profile companies, institutions and individuals in diverse industries, including real estate, retailing, consumer products, energy, education, art, sports and finance. Tennyson served as senior vice president and senior partner at the international public relations firm FleishmanHillard (FH), heading the New York Corporate and Public Affairs Group. His FH crisis team won the 2008 Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil for best crisis communications program, supporting a major food product recall. Prior to joining FH, Tennyson was a principal in the Michigan-based public relations firm Seyferth, Spaulding, Tennyson, and served as senior vice president, corporate affairs, for The Taubman Company, whose interests included the international art auction house Sotheby’s (NYSE:BID), the Woodward and Lothrop and John Wanamaker department store chains, A&W Restaurants, the Michigan Panthers of the U.S. Football League and Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO), a leading retail real estate developer and manager. Tennyson began his communications counseling career with the international public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, advancing from copywriter to vice president and director of the agency’s Issues and Corporate Advertising Unit in the New York office. A graduate of Syracuse University, Tennyson has been a visiting lecturer on leadership and crisis communications at the Wharton School and an adjunct professor at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. He is co-author of “Driving Crisis Communications in a 24/7 Digital World,” featured in the PR News Crisis Management Guidebook, Vol. 3. Tennyson also co-authored entrepreneur Alfred Taubman’s New York Times best-selling memoir, “Threshold Resistance – The Extraordinary Career of a Luxury Retailing Pioneer,” published in 2007 by Harper Collins.

Categories Uncategorized