Who is Marie?

Where do I start? I mean, this is one very busy woman and it’s just hard to keep up with her. Let’s see, she recently co-hosted both the “Miss USA Pageant” and “America’s Favorite Mom” for NBC; She left just a few days ago for London where she met up with her brothers for a tour of Europe and Asia celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Osmond Family as entertainers. She returns for a summer run at the Flamingo Hilton where she and Donnie will perform together in Las Vegas for the first time in 25 years. She continues her work as a spokesperson for both the American Heart Association’s “Go Red for Women” and Nutrisystems while still making time for her other passions like her love of dolls (she’s sold over $350 million dollars worth on QVC) and The Children’s Miracle Network, a charitable organization that she founded with her mother for which she has raised almost $4 billion dollars. That’s billion. Oh, and did I mention she’s also a working, single mom with 8 children? That’s eight. Seven of them are at home and the youngest is five years old.

Wow. I get tired just thinking about it.

I always like to describe Marie as a “Person in Full”. A working mother, philanthropist, entrepreneur and entertainer – its no wonder that the press loves Marie. She’s actually a publicity magnet. And I’m not talking about publicity in that Britney-Spears-Lindsay-Lohan-TMZ kind of way. Marie is just one of those rare celebrities who has it all going on and it’s all positive, upbeat stuff. 

I can’t understate the vale of all of that as an asset to stations as we move toward a fall 2009 launch. It’s the kind of publicity that money can’t really buy. Add to that her off-the-charts popularity and you start to see how Marie is so well suited to win in such a fragmented, decimalized marketplace. I mean, you know what they say…..if you want to get something done - like creating the next dominant talk show in syndication -  you ask a busy person!

–
Ritch Colbert