»» Columnists

The Young Turks Celebrates 10th Anniversary Today

video

by Tommy Christopher | 1:07 pm, February 14th, 2012

» 29 comments

Viewers of Current TV’s The Young Turks might get the idea that host Cenk Uygur and his crew are a relatively new band of progressive broadcasters, and even fans of TYT’s long-running internet and radio shows might not know just how long they’ve been toiling away. Tonight, that all changes, as Uygur and co. celebrate their 10th anniversary, and debut the trailer for a Valentine of a documentary for their fans.

From The Young Turks‘ press release:

On February 14, 2012, The Young Turks Network celebrates its 10 year anniversary. Over the past decade, The Young Turks have continually informed hundreds of millions of viewers and listeners across the globe on the latest issues trending in politics, pop culture, lifestyle and sports.

The Young Turks transcended platforms to become the largest and longest running daily Internet show accumulating over 670 million views on YouTube since their launch in 2005. Today they average over 30 million views a month.

Producer and Host Cenk Uygur says, “Our ten year anniversary is a celebration of all of these people coming together to make an independent show happen. Together we’ve been fighting the power for the last ten years and the establishment better watch out, because we’re just getting started.”

Although currently parked at a burgeoning cable news network that’s struggling to grow its audience, The Young Turks has undeniably come a long way since its debut as an internet-only show back in 2002. Along with a long stint on satellite radio, and a run as part of the Air America radio network, The Young Turks pioneered new media penetration with its livestream and chartbusting YouTube clips.

Host Cenk Uygur became known to a wider audience when he signed on as an MSNBC contributor and fill-in host, and was later given his own show at 6pm. The unnamed hour, however, didn’t capitalize on the host’s identity, or that of The Young Turks. When MSNBC decided to replace him with Rev. Al Sharpton, Cenk refused to accept an offer of a different time slot, and aired out his differences with the network (which they disputed) following his departure. The host has earned the enmity of some on the left for his sometimes strong criticism of President Obama, and detractors on the right for his vocal criticism of conservatives, but you always know exactly what he thinks, even if it means he has to say it to a smaller audience.

Departed MSNBC star Keith Olbermann was more than happy to add Cenk Uygur to the fledgling Current TV primetime lineup, and the rest, as they say, is very recent history. Current wisely opted to keep Cenk and his band of Young Turks intact, and designed a show to fit their vibe, rather than the other way around.

One of the more remarkable things about The Young Turks story is the fact that Cenk managed to collect a rather large family of contributors and crew along the way, and brought them all with him to Current TV. I’ve been a TYT listener/viewer since they debuted on Air America in 2006, and almost all of the “family” members who were on the air then (with the exception of Jill Pike), like longtime co-host Ben Mankiewicz, Jayar Jackson, Jesus Godoy, and producer Dave Koller, and who were added since then, like Ana Kasparian, are on the Current TYT, along with a growing stable of contributors. It couldn’t have been easy to convince Current to bankroll such an expansive roster (especially given the network’s shoestring production budgets), but it’s that mixture of voices, and Cenk’s interaction with them, that gives The Young Turks its identity.

As part of their 10th anniversary show tonight, TYT will debut the trailer for an as-yet-untitled documentary about Cenk and the show he built. While it features the kind of high school yearbook-embarrassing cable access clips that you’d expect, it also promises a real-time glimpse into the behind-the-scenes wrangling over the MSNBC deal, and even less varnished opinions than those featured on the show:

As long as I’ve known Cenk Uygur and his TYT crew, they have had detractors who were, and are, sure they wouldn’t go anywhere. Some would joke that, at Current, they still haven’t gone anywhere. Everything is a huge success and a huge failure when it’s just getting started. However, if the last ten years are any indication, they will keep going, wherever the media currents take them, and they’ll be who they are.

Air America, Ana Kasparian, Ben Mankiewicz, Cenk Uygur, Current TV, Dave Koller, Jayar Jackson, The Young Turks, Young Turks 10th Anniversary

Anonymous

The TYT Army is too strong! Congrats on 10 years Cenk and the gang!
Sanders Youth

Viewers of Current TV’s The Young Turks

LOL ! Good one .
Moderate

Another Tommy Christopher puff piece.

Puff Piece(Noun): 1) an article or report in the media that is based on exaggerated praise to promote a person, entity, or event. 2) an online journal all about me and my life that is in no way exaggerated or purely promotional, but a true, unbiased and unembellished account of how fabulous I am.
Anonymous

Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government site gets 286,100 unique hits per month

Cenk Uygur’s The Young Turks You Tube site gets a million views a day.

And yet Andrew Breitbart is all over Mediaite, every stupid thing he does, you rarely see stories from TYT. No one pays attention to Breitbart’s website.
http://twitter.com/rickthaluddite richard l. r. cole

Whatever. Cenk and his crew built a small media company that provides much needed realistic commentary on current events. You don’t have to watch or comment– it’s a (supposed) free country.
Moderate

If Cenk’s audience had been anywhere close to one fourth that, MSNBC would never have canned him.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bart-Morgay/100001554351938 Bart Morgay

Give the baggers and wingnuts hell Cenk!
Anonymous

Congrats to Chenk and his team! To last so long in this environment and in such a configuration… respect!

Too bad Mediaite would never mention something from their program. Instead, every implosion of the brainless outraged chicks on Fox is duly echoed here.
Hout Bosques

You’d think so. Uygur increased msnbc viewer numbers while there – even tho msnbc didn’t promote his slot at all, evening hiding it in a generic name under the list of daily shows. Even tho there’s no evidence for this, I’m going to grant some credit to msnbc for recognizing what it’s after, & assume that msnbc’s producers weren’t happy with the idea of two straight hours of shows bashing Dems & the Obama administration (Ratigan followed by Uygur), & so ‘compromised’ by deciding to move Uygur to another slot that broke up that drum beat. But the difficulty is that the time slot where they proposed to put Uygur cut him right out of daytime news & the ability to attract Beltway guests, which also made it impossible to attend also to his more-or-less daily work on TYT, msnbc failed to offset those disadvantages by offering Uygur production control, & on top of that proposed to put Uygur would conflict directly with The Daily Show & The Colbert Report, with which TYT shares a large demographic, dramatically increasing the chances of Uygur not being able to sustain his numbers increase. All that is just from what Uygur told his TYT viewers about that msnbc didn’t dispute – there were other things Uygur said he was told or led to believe that msnbc has either dispute or failed to confirm, including that msnbc made a bunch of implied promises on production control changes following the initial 6 month ‘try-out’ period. But even just that list where the two sides agreed was enough to isolate Uygur from TYT & therefore cut him off from his main selling point in the first place.

As they say in the business, it just wasn’t a good fit. It looks as if Current TV just took that same list of grievances & agreed to everything on it, thereby preserving the TYT ‘brand’. I don’t think it’s quite there yet, but given what I saw from Uygur’s rant at Grover Norquist the other night, it’s close.
Anonymous

Cenk got good ratings in that slot, better than the previous host. He wasn’t canned either, they offered him another slot for a lot more money and Cenk didn’t take it. I for one am glad TYT isn’t on MSNBC anymore, I personally never watch MSNBC, I actually watch Fox more. But I love TYT and hope he has a great future at Current.
Anonymous

Cenk just announced that Andrew Breitbart will be on The Young Turks tonight, should be entertaining.
http://profile.yahoo.com/4ZZHFEEEGJBN5DIOMR7SOXMIVQ JakeF

he has a good You Tube presence too
Anonymous

“Some would joke that, at Current, they still haven’t gone anywhere.”
Except it wouldn’t be a joke, it would be a statement of fact.
http://www.facebook.com/spiritual.gunfighter Jonathan Scott

Please stop harassing me and stealing my identity. I am asking nice. Not sure why you feel the need to do this. You already hacked my website which I reported to the police. I am asking you and Mediaite to stop allowing you to bully people on here. I don’t agree with you politically so that gives you permission to harrass my family? I have already contacted the police about the hack. I am asking you to stop for the sake of decency and my children. Thank you.
Anonymous

Actually, ratings had nothing to do with it. His show was the fastest growing show on the channel. They just didnt like how Cenk was in everyone’s face, including the Democrats.
Anonymous

Oh, Mediaite! Get some editors PLEASE? Ones who are educated in proper usage and know what words actually mean. For example, in this story you say “…a burgeoning cable news network that’s struggling to grow its audience”. Do you not know what burgeon means?

burgeon |ˈbərjən|verb [ intrans. ] [often as adj. ] ( burgeoning)begin to grow or increase rapidly; flourish : manufacturers are keen to cash in on the burgeoning demand.That is pretty much a junior high level of word knowledge.
Anonymous

ten years of no ratings, another liberal moron success story
http://twitter.com/kelly396 kelly murphy

That’s exactly what I was going to write!!

A few weeks back someone on nick-named this guy Sink Yogurt. I thought that was hilarious.
http://twitter.com/VladiRad Tyler

wtf?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CQWUTBF2KSSVOXCR4PSN66L2PM James

if they show what happened between Cenk and MSNBC in this movie. That would another why Phil Grufen dropped the ball with MSNBC. I’m interested in seeing this movie just for that alone. I wonder if NBC will try to come after Cenk pending what is being shown
http://profile.yahoo.com/565TCXMB2XP263LC6JONTU4N6A Kim

My friend just met a chocolate man on Blackwhitemeet.COMit’s where for men and women looking for interracial’ship for a fabulous lifestyle
It’s a nice place for black white sing’les, to interact with each other…no bounds or extremes in front of true love.
Anonymous

I thought they were born yesterday.
Anonymous

Sounds like TYT have put together a decade of betting on the wrong horse when it comes to distribution. Congrats!
Anonymous

Ana Kasparian, so beautiful.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Be/1751243136 Dave Be

Actually, it can also mean “beginning to grow.” That definition works fine in this article. Also, your post is riddled with grammatical errors. Normally I wouldn’t point them out, but since you’re attacking the quality of writing in this article, here goes:

“Get some editors PLEASE?” should be “Get some editors, PLEASE!” If you’re not asking a question, you shouldn’t use a question mark. Also, you need a comma before “PLEASE.” “Ones who are educated in proper usage and know what words actually mean” is an incomplete sentence. Within that incomplete sentence, “proper usage” should be “proper word usage.” Otherwise, we’re left wondering what items you want the editors to be educated in the proper usage of, and you may insert your own funny list of possibilities here. In your next sentence, you need a comma after “say” and punctuation always goes inside quotation marks, not outside.

Don’t be the grammar police if you don’t have the chops, and even if you do, it’s pretty lame.
AIiveStiIIKickin

Got paranoia?
AIiveStiIIKickin

…and I can preach about Jesus…..”. You don’t have to watch or comment– it’s a (supposed) free country.
Pablo

Why would you compare pageviews to unique visitors?
See No Evil

Wait a second here, I’m confused…Cenk Uygur ISN’T a virulent strain of rectal fungus?
I guess I missed that one on the test!