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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
As I enter the world of talk TV, I seek out the wisdom of Larry King, master of lowbrow chat, and take notes as self-assured Tim Russert wipes the floor with George "I'm no liberal" Stephanopoulos.
Feb 13, 2003 | I've signed on to host a series of TV talk shows for the cable network CNBC. Whether I will be any good at this remains to be seen. To do TV properly you have to unlearn virtually everything you know as a print journalist. I got some of my best interviews as a magazine profile writer by being a furtive, watchful presence in a low-cut sweater. I suspect TV will require something more forthright. The show's format will be round-table discussions rather than one-on-one interviews. I'm hoping this will minimize the number of long, embarrassing silences.
The round-table discussion genre is a booming niche, amped up to a deafening pitch in time of imminent war. Colin Powell made a knackering visit to all the Sunday morning shows last weekend selling the Time Is Running Out scenario.
It's clear why Tim Russert of NBC is the reigning king of smart TV on Sunday mornings, where he wins the ratings race against Clinton's ex-consigliere George Stephanopoulos on ABC. Russert is a strong-jowled inside-the-Beltway dopester, the transmutation of Irish political operative into network TV operative. He grills his guests with an amphibious glare and the pointed waving of a surgical pen. He usually makes news.
Against him, articulate George looks as if he is still doing a kind of spin. He's so anxious not to be seen as a liberal that he projects a lack of commitment that makes viewers insecure. He shouldn't worry. Being a liberal on political TV right now would be a unique selling proposition. Almost all the other talk shows tilt unapologetically rightwards.
Conservative-leaning cable talk shows get better ratings, but the propaganda from the other side is that it's not because they have more viewers, it's just that they stay tuned longer. CNN viewers watch for an average of about 14 minutes. The typical right-wing talk show fan hangs in there for more than 20 minutes. It seems that CNN viewers watch for news while conservative-talk viewers watch for entertainment. They get their jollies nodding along with potato-faced white guys with an up-yours point of view. (Bill O'Reilly's body slam on the Fox network attracts the largest nightly prime-time audience in cable TV.)
Then there are all the shows that ape CNN's yelling match, "Crossfire," where the hosts function as polarized double acts. There's an epidemic of them now "Hannity & Colmes," "Kudlow & Cramer," "Buchanan and Press." Leopold and Loeb would probably be talk-show hosts rather than thrill killers if they were around today.
Myself, I have a weakness for the show that's a one-on-one interview "Larry King Live." I realize it's not chic to be a fan of Larry King. But I am fascinated by his mastery of the lowbrow and I am in awe of his on-air metabolism, which combines iron-butt stamina with a toddler-like short attention span.
I had lunch with him last week in Hollywood. He looks as familiar as the Brooklyn Bridge when he saunters into the Beverly Wilshire Hotel wearing his outsize TV-screen glasses, short leather jacket and gold wrist chain. At 69, he's wonderfully Elvis-era, somehow. There's the contoured hair with the camera-hypnotic widow's peak, the sharp, avian profile, the big-boned, lean-over manner, the red suspenders. Because he never gives his guests a hard time on his show it's easy to underestimate him. But in real life a shrewd intelligence glitters in the birdlike eyes. He's Marilyn Monroe in reverse: The glasses disguise his smarts.
