Spitzer has tough time hooking guests for CNN’s show

NEW YORK - CNN’s new nighttime panel show, ‘Parker Spitzer’, co-hosted by former governor Eliot Spitzer and conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, is said to be having a hard time booking guests.

According to TV news insiders, politicians and other newsmakers are giving the show the cold shoulder, and it has much to do with the two hosts, who are both new to TV.

“The booking process on ‘Parker Spitzer’ hasn’t been easy,” the New York Post quoted an industry insider as saying.

“It’s about the fact that the show has a new, young staff with little understanding of and connection to politics . . . and everything with ‘Parker Spitzer’ being a new show with no track record and on a third-place cable network,” the insider stated.

Booking guests on the show has been so last minute that CNN has not been able to issue press releases on upcoming names, as it does for its other shows.

“If I were looking for a CNN outlet for a client, I wouldn’t start with ‘Parker Spitzer’,” one source said.

“Yes, their ratings are lower than their colleagues, but there are also still too many unknowns.

“Why risk having a client on this new, unpopular show when clients could potentially be on CNN’s ‘The Situation Room’ or on John King’s show?” the source added.

‘Parker Spitzer’ had averaged less than 500,000 viewers in its debut week, finishing a distant third behind Bill O’Reilly on Fox News Channel and liberal Keith Olbermann on MSNBC.

“‘Parker Spitzer’ has had no difficulty booking guests for the program,” a CNN spokesperson said, revealing the show’s first-week guests including Elizabeth Warren, Dick Armey, Paul Krugman, Oliver Stone and Henry Blodget. (ANI)