CNN hires Spitzer, Parker to co-host new program

CNN is pairing former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and conservative columnist Kathleen Parker for a combative new prime-time program it insists won't be the second coming of "Crossfire."

The network is hoping for twin comebacks: for its own struggling nightly lineup and for the former Democratic governor who resigned in disgrace following a prostitution scandal. The new show will replace one hosted by Campbell Brown at 8 p.m. EDT, going against Bill O'Reilly at Fox News Channel and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, the top personalities at CNN's competitors.

The two said they'll discuss the type of issues heard around the kitchen table at dinner, "minus the cocktails," Parker said.

"We will bring in interesting guests and some regular contributors and offer the television audience an alternative to the strictly ideological format," she said.

They took pains to distance themselves from "Crossfire," the original cable TV debate program that CNN U.S. President Jon Klein canceled in 2005, saying he was tired of the arguments. Since then, however, the big winners on prime-time cable news have been opinionated programs on Fox and MSNBC while CNN has struggled to hold a middle ground. Brown tried, then left because she said she couldn't hold up to her rivals in the ratings.

Spitzer said he and Parker hold strong views but aren't afraid to be persuaded to change them, and the public will find them agreeing in places they didn't expect.

"We respect all of the other shows out there, but we want to be different — a bit more upbeat, affirmative, funny and also informative," he said.

The former governor has emerged publicly in the past few months following his resignation two years ago, slowly becoming a go-to guest at cable news programs. Earlier this month he was guest host of an afternoon hour on MSNBC for a week.

Spitzer adroitly ducked a question about whether the show with Parker, which has no name yet and is expected to debut in September, is a waiting area for a return to politics.

"Every chapter is its own chapter," he said. "I try to succeed in whatever chapter I'm working on."

The Princeton and Harvard-educated Spitzer, a crusading attorney general against Wall Street abuses before being elected governor, will contrast with a South Carolina resident who has been a newspaper columnist for much of her life outside of the self-obsessed Northeast. Parker has won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. She said she'll continue to write while hosting the New York-based show.

Veteran newswoman Connie Chung, who held that time slot on CNN for a year before being abruptly dropped in 2003, said she didn't understand what a show like Spitzer and Parker are planning has anything to do with journalism. She questioned giving a politician with little TV experience the prime-time platform.

"It's been very hard for CNN," Chung said. "I empathize with them because CNN's competitors have gone off in extreme directions and what is CNN going to do? But I don't understand this attempt at regaining viewers."

As someone watching, she'd much rather see an hour of witty television news like that hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central, she said.

Klein said CNN had considered scores of different personalities for the time slot but Spitzer and Parker stood out as iconoclasts. CNN arranged a meeting between the two about three weeks ago and was impressed by "an organic chemistry" between them, he said.

Klein said he wasn't interested in becoming part of any comeback story for a fallen politician.

"I think Eliot is very focused on becoming a huge success on television," he said, "and so are we."