“Inside Edition” host Deborah Norville has found Elvis — 34 years after his death.
OK, so it’s not that Elvis — but the connection is still there.
Norville, whose first job in radio was covering the death of Elvis Presley in 1977, joins Elvis Duran for a fun “Inside Edition” report, airing here tomorrow (noon/Ch. 5), on what it’s like to be the person who answers the phones at Duran’s nationally syndicated Z100 morning show. Norville sat in last week, as herself, for a morning shift (6-10 a.m.), answering the Z100 phones — and has tales to tell.
“The callers are amazingly well-trained,” she says. “They know if they call between 6:05 and 6:12, they’ve got a shot at winning a free T-shirt — and the phones just lit up like a nuclear attack [at that time]. Then there are people who want to react to what Elvis and his crew are talking about, so I had to help them form their questions — to parse it down so they don’t waste a lot of airtime.
“You don’t want to hear their life story but you’ve got to be diplomatic — you may be the only contact with the show they’ll have.
“You also have to determine if a person is fully in control of their faculties,” she says. “You’d be surprised how many people are drunk or crazy as a coot.
“It’s fun for folks to see how many moving parts there are behind-the-scenes,” she says. “Consumers don’t really appreciate how many individuals are part of the one solitary thing they see and/or listen to.”
One of the guests at Z100 that day was “Dr. Oz” host and cardiothoracic surgeon Mehmet Oz — who frowned upon the doughnuts Norville brought along. “He was like, ‘Who the heck brought this crap in here?’ ” she says, laughing. “He was standing there with a bottle of nasty green juice he claimed he created in his blender.”
Norville says her stint brought back memories of her summer 1977 internship at WQMT, a small FM station in Chatsworth, Ga. She was in journalism school at the University of Georgia, interning at WQMT in August 1977, when “The King” passed away at the age of 42.
“It reminded me of what I loved about radio when I first started my career,” she says.
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Timing is everything — even if it’s transatlantic serendipity.
British talk show host Jeremy Kyle, who kicks off “The Jeremy Kyle Show” this Monday (4 p.m./Ch. 9), was flying back to Manhattan yesterday after his UK talk show — also called “The Jeremy Kyle Show” — won Best Daytime Series in that country’s TV Choice Awards (the British equivalent of the People’s Choice Awards).
Kyle’s British talk show premiered in 2005 on ITV. Whether he’ll be able to replicate his UK success in the tough US TV market remains to be seen. We’ll find out soon enough.
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“Different is the New Normal,” which details teen Ariel Small’s struggle with Tourette syndrome, airs tonight (8 p.m.) on Ch. 13. The documentary includes a scene featuring Ariel talking to former “American Idol” contestant James Durbin, who’s been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome (and Asperger’s syndrome) and, like Ariel, was bullied because of his tics. “Different is the New Normal” will also air on Ch. 21 Sept. 27 at 10 p.m.
Speaking of Ch. 21, the Long Island PBS station will air the exclusive New York-area seventh-season premiere of British drama “MI-5” next Wednesday (9 p.m.). Rupert Penry-Jones, Richard Armitage and Peter Firth star.
Last, but not least:
* Part One of Phil McGraw’s interview with George and Cindy Anthony averaged a 4.6 overnight rating on Tuesday’s “Dr. Phil” — up 109 percent from the show’s year-ago number . . . Trevor Donovan (“90210”) shopping at Superdry USA(718 Broadway) . . . Ch. 2’s Maurice DuBois emcees the National Urban Technology Center’s annual gala next Tuesday night at Capitale . . . “Perry Mason: The Sixth Season, Volume One” is out on DVD Oct. 4. About time.
Contact The Starr Report: mstarr@nypost.com.