MISMATCH

Outside the Beltway

CC0 Public Domain

MISMATCH

James Joyner

January 7, 2004

Comments

Oh, yeah. This is going to work: MSNBC hires Norville to take on King at 9 p.m.

MSNBC is hoping Georgia native Deborah Norville can help the network claw its way out of third place.

The network Wednesday confirmed speculation that Norville will host a 9 p.m. interview show on the network. The show, “Deborah Norville Tonight” will launch Jan. 21 and will have an interview format similar to “Larry King Live,” which airs on rival CNN at the same time.

I believe I can save MSNBC some suspense: No, she can’t.

3 responses to “MISMATCH”

John Lemon

January 7, 2004 at 6:30 pm

Yeah, that’s a good question and a good answer. But the bigger mystery of life is how Larry King ever became successful. He is THE WORST interviewer I have ever seen. He doesn’t understand the jokes that his guests tell, he generally seems disinterested in his guests, he is five times as fawning as BaBa WaWa, and he never ever follows up on interesting threads in a discussion.

I could eventually imagine a future Larry King Live interview.

King: So, Juice, how is it going?
OJ: Larry, I think I need to come clean about what happened to my former wife.
King: Great, but first lets talk about those Trojans — split champions, eh?
OJ: No really, Larry, I have a confession to make.
King: Well, we have a caller from Springfield, Illinois that wants to know what dandruff shampoo you use.
John Lemon

January 7, 2004 at 6:31 pm

Why did I say “eventually imagine”? That was a very odd phrase. It is 1:30 in the morning where I am and I’m waiting for a taxi.
Bob Hawkins

January 7, 2004 at 10:07 pm

I used to listen to King’s midnight-to-whenever radio show, the show that made him. (I was in grad school at the time, so those were normal hours.) Since he was unknown then, he couldn’t get the A-list guests. He had to settle for second-best, people who were interesting. He did some great shows.

But once he got big enough to attract the celebrities, the quality went down the drain immediately. He was never a workaholic. I guess when you can get ratings based on the name of the guest, you can really slack off.

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