Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer is hitting prime time with his very own show, a plum spot at the top of CNN’s nightly lineup — in a move that has longtime staffers as down as the troubled cable network’s ratings.
“CNN just lost the struggle for its soul,” sighed one exasperated worker at the once-dominant cable station, whose ratings have slumped in recent years.
“It’s the destruction of a brand. It’s like Campbell’s Soup putting O.J. Simpson on the can.”
CNN made it official yesterday that the love gov will co-host an 8 p.m. show on weeknights with syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, a conservative who made headlines in 2008 for accusing Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin of being out of her league.
CNN’s decision to plop a hooker-loving pol with scant TV experience in its choice prime-time slot — against powerhouses Bill O’Reilly, of Fox News Channel, and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann — signals its desperation for ratings, according to the source.
“Everyone thinks it’s a ‘Hail Mary’ to get the ratings up,” said the source.
Another CNN insider called Spitzer’s hire “ugly, even from a distance.”
“Are they this desperate?” asked that source.
Veteran journalist Connie Chung, who hosted a show in that time slot in 2003, was stunned at CNN’s decision to hand its nighttime programming to a broadcasting nobody. “It’s sadly comical . . . and this is terribly disillusioning. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will give you more solid journalism than this program could possibly give,” she said.
The still-unnamed show, which will air live starting in the fall, will feature the right-of-center Parker and Spitzer, a Democrat, quizzing a rotating cast of guests about the issues of the day.
In a press release announcing its decision, CNN yesterday extolled Spitzer as the “Sheriff of Wall Street” and touted his credentials as a former attorney general and governor — but failed to mention that he resigned in disgrace in 2008 after admitting that he frequented hookers.
Spitzer — a prostitution service’s notorious “Client 9” — promised the show would be “high-minded, amusing, and challenging.”
The son of one of the city’s richest real-estate developers, he will be paid about $400,000, while Parker will earn around $700,000.
Ashley Dupre, the high-priced escort whose dalliance with Spitzer led to his resignation, said, “I think everyone in life deserves a second chance . . . As for the show, if it’s not on Fox, I’m not watching it.”