CNN Parker Spitzer Ratings Cure? Eliot Spitzer Must Have Hooker As Guest

CNN's replacement for Campbell Brown, Parker / Spitzer, is a ratings and reviews failure.

The show, featuring former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and Conservative Columnist Kathleen Parker, is in big trouble. Right out of the gate, its debut show attracted just 460,000 viewers, more than 500,000 less than for Campbell Brown's start, and its never recovered.

Moreover, Bill O'Reilly's show had over 3 million viewers, and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann drew just over 1 million viewers in the same time slots.

While CNN should be alarmed by this news, it's not clear it is.  Instead of provocative shows, Parker / Spitzer gives us more of CNN's crack-fiend-level coverage of Sarah Palin.  (When will CNN's minders realize the country's not going to elect a quitter for President?  And on that note, how funny is it that Palin's new show is on, of all places, The Learning Channel?)

What CNN and Parker / Spitzer should give us viewers is what we all really crave.  To see Eliot Spitzer interview his hooker Ashley Dupre (in igossip.com photo) and have co-host Kathleen Parker right there to deliver the "What were you thinking? questions to Spitzer.  Meanwhile, Dupre (in photo can ask Spitzer why she wasn't his favorite hooker after all.

Geez.

Can you say "classic television?"  Can you say "CNN ratings skyrocket?"  Can you say "big fantasy."  I can, but given how badly the show's performing, it's not outside the realm of possibility.

Client Nine: The Rise & Fall of Eliot Spitzer


One documentary making the festival rounds may provide the backrop for Parker / Spitzer's ratings recovery. It's called Client Nine: The Rise & Fall of Eliot Spitzer, and features a talkative Spitzer, explaining what was going on in his mind during his sex scandalous romps...



The movie was released November 5th, and is already generating more buzz than Parker / Spitzer has managed to muster. So, instead of Sarah Palin for the hundreth time on CNN, how about a segment that would generate real ad dollars: Eliot Spitzer talking with his ladies of the evening and with Kathleen Parker, on hand (to excuse the pun)?

Does CNN have the guts?

Stay tuned.  The bet in this corner is CNN doesn't have the fire in the belly to do it.

Too bad.