Why Rose Bowed Out Two Months After Show’s Start : News: The veteran anchor sought to reach a new audience with ‘Personalities.’ He didn’t.

He’s interviewed world leaders, entertainers, literary figures, Nobel Prize winners, athletes and politicians, getting rave reviews for his work. When it comes to asking questions and eliciting information, one on one, the man is tops, the cream, a pro’s pro.

So . . . .

In the wake of his quitting as anchor of “Personalities”--less than two months after the debut of this syndicated series, which he had dubbed “solid, compelling nonfiction television”--what would Charlie Rose ask Charlie Rose?

A pause. But only a short one, for the 48-year-old Rose didn’t spend nearly six years conducting blue-ribbon interviews on CBS’ “Nightwatch” without learning how to give answers too.

He replied: “I’d ask me, ‘What went wrong, why did you do that show (‘Personalities’) in the first place and was it hard to give up all that money (Rose says his contract paid him $500,000 annually) to be true to yourself?’ ”

And? “It was a chance to do something different and, yes, it was hard giving up the money. I don’t have to sell my car tomorrow, but I can’t go two years without working, either, and I have no options.”

As for why Rose abandoned the classy wee-hours “Nightwatch” for a series that echoes the style, resonance and shrill shallowness of tabloid TV? Flashback.

“Did I really say this was ‘solid, compelling nonfiction television?’ ” Rose asked. Actually, the entire quote, attributed to Rose in a press release for the Twentieth Television series, was as follows: “This is solid, compelling nonfiction television, a broadcast with the right mission whose time has come. The quality of our research and the nature of our storytelling enables us to bring the world’s most interesting people to life.”

Another pause from Rose.

“Well, that was clearly written before we started. I believed that at the time, and that’s why I came here (from Washington). I viewed this as an opportunity to reach a different audience with a daily magazine show that would take a small amount of time and be not about issues or analysis but about people who make news, influence our life, attract our curiousity, entertain us, all of that.

“If you look at Time or Vanity Fair, the focus is about people--Saddam Hussein, George Bush, Jim Bakker, Rupert Murdoch, Evander Holyfield and all of those people. That’s what I wanted the broadcast to be. But we ended up with too many stories, samples of everything and meals of nothing, once over lightly and little new.”

It’s the comings and goings of the rich and famous--in large part entertainment celebrities--that preoccupy “Personalities.” Janet Zappala “tells all” from her gossipy Update Desk, and the tape segments themselves generally fill space with fluff.

An excerpt from Zappala’s narration of a profile on supporting player Jim Carrey of Fox’s “In Living Color” reflects the level of reporting: “Jim is right at home in ‘In Living Color’ and admits he’s loving every minute of it.” Yes, and a good time is had by all.

“Personalities” is an extension of the tabloiding of TV. Airing locally at 7 p.m. weekdays on KTTV Channel 11, it comfortably dissolves into the show that follows it, “A Current Affair,” which is largely indistinguishable from “Hard Copy,” which looks a lot like “Inside Edition,” which in many respects resembles “Entertainment Tonight,” whose elements are cloned by local newscasts and also by “Personalities.”

All of this is what Rose calls the “MTV instinct”: Sound bite, clip, sound bite, clip, sound bite, clip. A music track to hype emotion. A pace tailored to a 3-year-old’s attention span.

On “Nightwatch,” his interviews averaged 20 minutes and sometimes went to an hour. Although he believes that every “Personalities” episode should contain a “defining” piece of up to 10 minutes, his longest “Personalities” interview--with “In Living Color” creator Keenan Ivory Wayans--went only 7 1/2 minutes.

“I talked to Walter Cronkite for 25 or 30 minutes, and the show cut it to 3 1/2 minutes. I talked to Steven Bochco (co-creator of ‘L.A. Law’ and ‘Cop Rock’) and they cut it to 6 minutes. I talked to Grant Tinker (former NBC chairman and now head of GTG Entertainment, which produces ‘WIOU’) for a long time, and it ended up being 3 1/2 minutes.”

Of course, tabloid TV didn’t invent sound-bite journalism, witness the obsession with brevity on traditional newscasts and the network morning programs. “I don’t think we respect the concentration threshold of the audience,” Rose said. “Everybody is obsessed with being fast-paced, but fast-paced can come within the body of a piece too.”

Rose said that he repeatedly lobbied for change with executive producer Joel Cheatwood and senior producer Mark Toney. “I wrote memoranda. I talked to them, and they listened. But they look at the numbers (‘Personalities’ ranks 63rd out of 152 syndicated shows in the Nielsen ratings). They said to me that people want to know about the rich and the famous and Madonna, and I agree that they do. I’m not saying the producers are wrong. They are a couple of hard-working, decent guys who are going to do what they think is right. But that’s not what I do.”

Yes, but wasn’t Charlie wearing rose-colored glasses when he went into this venture? Before “Personalities,” after all, Cheatwood had been executive producer of the now defunct “Inside Report,” the tawdriest tabloid of them all.

Rose said that he had not been aware of that, and pleads guilty to naivete. “Maybe I’m to blame. I’ve never seen ‘Inside Report.’ ”

Rose, who will be replaced by Bill Sternoff, said that his worst moment at “Personalities” came when it did a story that also was headlined that day by the trashy Star and National Enquirer.

His proudest moment on the show? This time he paused for a very long time before replying. “I think when I realized I was gonna give it up.”

And a good time was not had by all.