Preface: Being from the San Francisco area, I've heard Savage pretty much from the start. Interesting to listen to while driving home, sometimes spot on, sometimes off the wall. My very first protest was when Savage had a rally in support of the California Civil Rights Initiative (Prop 209), passed by the majority of voters but blocked by thuggish judge Thelton Henderson. I thank him for that and now Prop 209 is the law of this land (even if state and local governments keep skirting the law). Lately though, my interest in Savage has waned as Savage has a way of alienating people who he should be allies with in the fight to wipe of leftistism. My opinion is that this TV show venture won't last too long, but I wish him well anyway.
As already pointed out, this show was essentially his radio show on television. The only added feature was an ability to use video clips. The visuals don't bother me as much, but television is a visual medium and that's important to many viewers. Without any additional hook, I might as well be Freeping on the 'net while Savage is on in the background. And the constant book plugs need to lessen. Rush was never that bad. But the worst thing to me was that it was boring, but maybe that's because I've heard Savage's schtick for many a year and I was getting nothing new. I'd be interested to see how the Michael UnSavage character would work.
Now to compare this venture with other conservative ventures...
Dr. Laura - While Michael Savage hasn't altered his transition from one medium to the other, Dr. Laura did for her talk show venture. It was essentionally the standard topic-of-the-day talk show that has been done before, only with Dr. Laura doing it. Dr. Laura wasn't going to win over the hateful left that had targeted her show. And those that loved to hear her radio show for whatever reason, those who needed advice or those that loved to hear her rip into confused callers, just didn't show up for her Neilson ratings. I attended on of her tapings and thought she was decent, friendly, professional, and humorous. The show itself was adequate in itself but doomed from the get-go.
Rush's TV show was fabulous. That was my first exposure to him and I'm not the only one I'm sure. Even when shuffled to hours where I had to tape it, it was a great mix of humor and information, with an appreciative studio audience. The only problem with the show was too short. Cut the commercials out and it's just 22 minutes; cut out audience applause and maybe it's just 15 minutes of meat and potatoes. Still great fun though. Wish I could have gone to a taping.
The Alan Keyes show was good-to-great. I'm a big fan of Dr. Keyes' philosophy. The show went through one tinkering in format during its run and later got a bit bogged down in the Middle East issues (I wanted more domestic issues myself), but still good information.