I have a new definition of a good interviewer. A good interviewer can grab your interest even when interviewing someone you don't care about, about something you don't care about. By this measure, Bob Costas is a great interviewer. I have next-to-no interest in sports but I've gotten hooked watching his new HBO series, On The Record with Bob Costas. Each week, he interviews a couple of sports figures, or non-sports figures discussing sports. And even when the focus is one of those games I never follow — which is just about all of them — he's got my attention. If you're by-passing it because you have zero interest in athletics, you might be surprised.
Speaking of sports: Two days ago, I reported that the overnights for last Saturday's XFL game gave it a 2.0 rating which would probably drop further when the nationals came in. Well, the nationals took it down to a 1.6 rating, believed to be the lowest-ever prime-time night in the history of the three major television networks. (Mr. Leno noted this evening that they were getting more of the male audience at The Vagina Monologues…)