CNN's "Parker Spitzer" debuts to scathing reviews ("unbearable" "icky" "obnoxious" "vapid")

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 10/5/10 | Jill Serjeant

[NormsRevenge]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – CNN's primetime talk show anchored by disgraced ex-New York governor Eliot Spitzer and journalist Kathleen Parker debuted to scathing reviews, with comments on Tuesday ranging from "unbearable" to "icky" and "obnoxious".

Spitzer, a Democrat who was forced to resign in 2008 for hiring high-priced prostitutes, and Parker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative Washington Post columnist, were hired by CNN in a bid to add some fireworks to its struggling evening news line-up.

But barely a good word could be found on Tuesday for the new "Parker Spitzer" show, which debuted one night earlier as a daily discussion about politics and other hot button issues.

The New York Times said the Spitzer scandal "cast an awkward shadow" over the pair's chemistry and gave the show an "ickiness factor" that was hard to watch.

Time magazine's James Poniewozik also felt uncomfortable, saying the show struggled to find its tone, and he called the closing "round-table" section "just vapid".

The New York Post headlined its review "Freak show unbearable to watch", while the Baltimore Sun summed up the first show as "a load of obnoxious, self-important noise."

[Carley]

Bring back Sanchez.

[GeronL]

for balance they should add a conservative.

Maybe Coulter, Steyn, Malkin or Limbaugh?

[GeronL]

lol

[Freddd]

And in cable news they came in last...numbers are out.

I’m doing the happy dance.

CNN the most Distrusted name in ‘news’!

[colorado tanker]

And now for our next guest . . . .

[Gay State Conservative]

"unbearable" to "icky" and "obnoxious".

OK...so much for Client #9...what about the rest of the show?

[PMAS]

They should have named the show “Client # 9”

[pallis]

All those people at CNN, and they can’t come up with something people want to watch.

[abb]

[JPG]

Bring back Sanchez but team him up w/Iampoor. That would be a shot of 150 proof booze compared to the weak Parker whine Spritzer. Better still, put all four of them together and watch the CNN flame flicker out even faster.

[workerbee]

The reviews are exactly how I’d describe almost every lib talking head show out there.

And really, could they not find a better name than “Parker Spitzer”? It sounds like a disease. (perhaps it was a Freudian pun on the part of the marketing department).

[Brookhaven]

Do you think someone at CNN is trying to sabatoge this effort?

“See, we tried being more balanced; having a liberal and conservatvie on at the same time and it bombed. So, let’s go back to what we were doing before.”

I didn’t think they were taking it serious when then put Parker on (a liberal that calls herself a conservative). Now I know they aren’t serious.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

"Parker Spitzer" made its debut after two weeks of turmoil at CNN, which pioneered 24-hour TV news in the 1980s and has clung to its nonpartisan approach.

nonpartisan to Reuters, that is...

[relictele]

[Zakeet]

Your excerpt failed to record a couple of great quotes, notably:

• Parker Spitzer made its debut after two weeks of turmoil at CNN, which pioneered 24-hour TV news in the 1980s and has clung to its nonpartisan approach.

• Dan Kennedy of Britain's Guardian newspaper said Parker Spitzer did nothing to reverse the notion that CNN is utterly lost ... parts of the show were "wretchedly unwatchable"

Of course, anything that bad just has to be good, if you get my drift

Therefore, we can expect that more people will tune in tonight.

---

Abb:

Ping to an wretchedly unwatchable broadcast from your utterly lost nonpartisan approach friends at Chicken Noodle News.

[Al Gore Vidal]

The name alone is sounds like the violation of a woman.

Park her, Spitz her...

[x]

"Parker Spitzer" would sound like part of the punchline to a dirty joke even if Eliot Spitzer hadn't become America's best known user of prostitutes.

But since he is it makes the ickiness of the title all the more obvious.

[onyx]

The very idea of hiring either one was a ghastly idea.

[abb]