Anderson Cooper, whose ratings are looking worse than the toilet renovations at his West Village firehouse, is going to try something new to finagle up some Nielsen numbers: a live studio audience.
“The network is recruiting a crowd for two shows that will serve as a testing ground for a potential new primetime talk format,” reports The Hollywood Reporter. “CNN is calling the trial episodes ‘specials’ in case the project doesn’t make it to the series stage. The network would only confirm the format will be ‘conversational.'”
The studio audience episodes are planned for April 15 and 22, and the only things that will make them “controversial” are: 1) If Cooper makes his entrance on to the set while dancing to Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow”; 2) He invites Bill Donohue and Richard Cohen on as guests.
christopher di spirito
Gurl, puhleeeeeeeeeeeze.
Going the Mama O route by having a live audience isn’t going to save Cooper’s ass. The fact is, most people just don’t buy is soft-as-silk approach to news anchoring.
He needs to come out and replace Simon Cowell on Idol or Regis Philbin when he retires.
BG
The quote said conversational, not controversial.
Jorge
Cute headline, too bad Erica Hill left CNN months ago.
drewbrown
@BG: Uh huh. Queerty literacy fail. (I defended their ability to punctuate a headline already today, just for the record.)
fredo777
how would you know what the toilets at his firehouse even look like?
maybe i don’t want to know…
mk
CNN’s whole prime time line up has its rating in the toilet. Anderson’s show is actually doing a little better than most of the rest their line up, which isn’t saying much. American cable news is in the age of the commentator not the news anchor.
It’s smart of him to get creative. The format he has now doesn’t suit him very well and it can’t compete with HLN’s tabloid shit and FOX and MSNBC’s partisan commentators.
Lucius vorenus
I think he is gorgeous and smart and rich, and perfect. I think most people envy him.
Daniel
100 is the average IQ for a reason. Intelligent journalism is only going to appeal to a minority group – intelligent people, the most underappreciated minority on the planet. The majority (not-so-intelligent people) reap all the benefits of the minority’s existence (medicine, technology, etc.). Fox News (sensationalism, rather than journalism) is popular because it directly appeals to the majority, the not-so-intelligent, who make up 72% or more of the planet.
ossurworld
Mother of Mercy, can this be the end of Anderson Cooper?