The Crusaders

The idea behind The Crusaders was that journalists could do more than just report a story. In this show the reporters did something about the problems they reported. For example, making sure a disabled man was able to live in assisted living rather than a nursing home, putting phones on the Golden Gate bridge to stop people from committing suicide, or helping flood victims.

It was neat to see a show where the media did something to fix bad news rather than just reporting it to us. Granted, it did do have some cheesy lines: "we hope this time we made a difference for you" and the show patted itself on the back too much. A weekday version was planned but the weekly ratings were never high enough to justify it.

Unfortunately, it never took off and viewers had to be forced to watching terrible news and feeling hopeless, just like before.