CNN Readies "Parker Spitzer" Launch

The beleaguered original cable news network CNN is desperately trying to make a comeback with a new brand of talk show. The network hired British journalist Piers Morgan (the Simon Cowell-like judge on the hit TV show, America's Got Talent) to replace legendary interviewer Larry King in January.

But even more startling is what viewers will see on October 4, when Parker Spitzer premieres.

CNN gives a sneak peek at the duo's chemistry in the clip above. The show will be reminiscent of Point/Counterpoint, a regular segment on the news show 60 Minutes in the 1970s that offered audiences the opportunity to hear two sides of an issue.

Parker Spitzer, however, is likely to raise some eyebrows because of one of its co-stars — the disgraced ex-governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who will share the spotlight with Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist, Kathleen Parker.

While both personalities are centrists to some degree, Spitzer is likely to offer a liberal perspective while Parker is decidedly conservative. More than that, Spitzer is widely known as someone who, as his former communications director said, "resisted simplification and would never entertain any kind of rhetorical flourish." That could be the kiss of death for a popular talk show.

That's not the only problem, of course. Richard Wald, formerly president of NBC News, tells the Wall Street Journal that Spitzer's scandalous departure from office (he resigned after consorting with call girls) could prove unappealing to viewers. "If you are aiming at a popular audience with general appeal, taking on a person who has already alienated more than 50% of your audience is a problem," he says.

But that isn't stopping CNN from launching the show. For her part, Kathleen Parker says she "wouldn't do it if I didn't like [Spitzer]." Parker tells the Journal, "Eliot, you know, is a bit more oriented toward policy. And I'm there to make it human."

It will be interesting to see just how Parker Spitzer and Piers Morgan, for that matter, reshape a network that has rapidly lost its share of the television news audience. Will re-inventing CNN with such personalities as Spitzer and Morgan bring back the viewers they need to survive?