Amanda splits with ABC — does anyone care?

I remember not so long ago, the news that Amanda Congdon was splitting from Rocketboom — the video blog she either co-created and co-owned or was hired to front, depending on whom you believe — was the biggest news in the blogosphere. It was all over Techmeme for days, as everyone pored over her blog posts and comments by Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron (which I wrote about here after he responded to an email).

Now, there are reports (since confirmed) that she has parted company with ABC — where she was doing occasional video reports — and there has been barely a peep. Why? Hard to say, really. I think that the attention she got when she left had a lot to do with Rocketboom, and what her acrimonious departure said about it as a new media venture (hint: don’t give the talent 49 per cent of the venture unless you really mean it). And the fact that she could go from a video-blog to a major TV network also said something about old media turning to new media for talent.

So why the lack of interest now? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that one of the reasons is that she just isn’t very good. She was quirky and refreshing in a way when she was on a show filmed in some guy’s basement (and yes, she has a couple of prominent assets as a video-blogger), but on TV she is just… well, irritating. That hasn’t stopped other people from a successful TV career, but most of them have had actual talent to fall back on.