Larry, that is…but maybe not at 9 PM (6 PM Pacific). News stories like this one suggest that CNN is looking for a graceful way to shove Larry King to the side and insert someone else into his choice slot. If I were the guy making the decision, I'd sure move him outta there. At the same time, I'd change the name of his show from Larry King Live to something like Larry King Shmoozes With Famous People and just let him interview every celebrity he can snare — which would be most of them — for non-timely one-on-one chats and then I'd run them during the afternoon or late at night. They could probably build up a huge library and broadcast them forever, and Larry would be quite happy and maybe even useful.
His ratings are way down and I don't think it's precisely because of the reason most reports are offering, which is that viewers prefer partisan shows that advocate a strong left or right slant. There's some of that no doubt…but I think most viewers prefer shows that won't let the guest babble on unchallenged when they try to spin the facts into Fantasyland. We all know that most of what we get from talking heads on news shows is unabashed spin. We just don't want hosts to make it quite that easy for the unabashed spinners.
King likes to boast that he does zero prep for his interviews as if that's a major plus. I guess the premise is that it makes his questions more spontaneous and therefore probing. Did it ever yield that result? I'm not sure but these days, it means that he asks the obvious and if a guest dissembles, Larry doesn't know enough about the topic to call them on it. Or maybe he doesn't want to. At times when he has on a biggie, the main goal seems to be to make sure they're happy enough with how they came off that they'll want to come back.
The best interviewer I see these days on my TV is Jon Stewart, and that's not because I generally agree with the guy. I like the fact that he does challenge his guests. He calls them on illogical or fact-free statements. He engages them in a dialogue that they could not possibly have rehearsed with their handlers. But with the occasional exception of someone like Jim Cramer, he doesn't tear them apart. He's polite. He's funny. He gives them their dignity. He doesn't shout people down or interrupt them before they can make their points. The styles of Hannity and O'Reilly make me think Fox has a policy in place: You can let a Liberal complete one entire sentence, just to give the appearance of fairness. But the host's salary is docked for every additional sentence that gets finished without advancing the official station narrative.
There are probably guests who don't want to appear with Stewart because he doesn't lob softballs or ask the kind of questions that let the interviewee go to the talking points…but I'll bet 98%+ of those who do go on, even guys like Cramer, want to come back. (It doesn't hurt that The Daily Show is one of the best things an author can do to hype book sales. If you're wondering why some Conservatives go on that program, that's the reason.)
What CNN needs in King's time slot is a non-partisan Jon Stewart but with more journalistic chops. There was a time when Ted Koppel managed that with Nightline. It's sad that I can't think of anyone these days with Koppel's credibility as a fair-but-tough interviewer.
Getting back to Larry King: I would not do this celebrity interview show in a studio. I'd do it in a restaurant on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills or maybe at Nate 'n Al's delicatessen one block over on Beverly. He already has an available live audience there. Every time I'm in that area on either of those streets, I see Larry. He's hard to miss because he has this way of letting everyone around know that Larry King is there and Larry King is signing autographs with a loud flourish to invite others to ask and Larry King is lunching with someone famous and Larry King is telling his Larry King stories. (Another thing I'd do on this show is that every fifth program, I'd bring in a guest host and have that person interview Larry.) I am absolutely not knocking the guy. I think he's great at what he does. I just don't think it's hosting a show about what's going on in the world these days. It's Being Larry King.
