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Debate show to exit, not format

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Times Staff Writer

The career of conservative commentator Tucker Carlson took a curious, high-profile turn this week as CNN executives said they would fold the “Crossfire” show and not offer him anything to keep him from going to lower-rated MSNBC.

While MSNBC executives have yet to announce a formal job offer to Carlson, who co-hosted “Crossfire” for the last time Thursday, Carlson himself proclaimed: “I’m going to New York and I’m psyched. It will be fun.”

Carlson’s exit from CNN triggered speculation about the future of cable news programming itself, with liberals either gloating that Carlson had lost favor or worrying that his move signifies a continued swing to the right for cable news. CNN/U.S. President Jonathan Klein said Thursday that Carlson had decided earlier last year to leave “Crossfire.”

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“I was told when I got here [in December] that he no longer wanted to do [‘Crossfire’]” and that he wanted to anchor a prime-time show, Klein said.

After watching Carlson substitute for Aaron Brown last week in prime time, Klein said, “What was unmistakable was that he was more turned on by the live debate and discussion and head-butting than the storytelling aspect of the show he anchored. That told me volumes.”

Klein said Carlson’s departure is unconnected to CNN’s decision to drop “Crossfire” as a program within a few months.

Klein said the true personalities of “Crossfire’s” hosts -- James Carville, Paul Begala, Carlson and Bob Novak -- are hidden by all the shouting on the talk show. By folding the “Crossfire” crew into another afternoon news program, CNN’s “Inside Politics,” Klein said he hopes to bring their “wealth of knowledge and expertise” to the audience.

When he watched a confrontation last fall between Carlson and Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart, Klein said, he found himself siding with Stewart’s general contention that “Crossfire” trivialized the news with theatrics. Stewart called both Carlson and Begala “partisan hacks.”

Peter Hart, media analyst at Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal media watchdog group, said: “I think it’s a convenient line. ‘Crossfire’ is not a very successful show anymore.”

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“Crossfire’s” peak viewership month was in July 1994, the month of the O.J. Simpson car chase and arrest, with a total 1.7 million viewers. The show aired from 7:30 to 8 p.m. ET. Last month, an average 418,000 total viewers tuned in to the afternoon program from 4:30 to 5 p.m. ET. It is CNN’s seventh-highest-ranked program.

Even though the show itself will disappear, Hart said the “Crossfire” debate format remains popular on cable: a strong right-wing personality matched with a moderate liberal. “It will show up in CNN’s programming and the rest of the cable universe,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said MSNBC, which trails CNN and Fox News Channel in the ratings, is hoping to retool its prime-time lineup with a “lurch to the right.”

MSNBC has confirmed it has been courting Carlson to fill the 9 p.m. slot vacated by Deborah Norville.

His show would lead into “Scarborough Country,” hosted by former Florida Republican Rep. Joe Scarborough.

Despite the popularity of more liberal news programming such as Stewart’s “Daily Show” or PBS programs hosted by Bill Moyers, the trend in cable is to play it conservative and do what Fox is doing, Hart said.

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“The whole debate of ‘If you don’t like what’s on, change the channel’ [doesn’t wash] if there’s no channel to turn to,” he said. “Until that reality exists for people who might be wanting something liberal, we’re stuck with right and righter.”

Klein joked that he might want to woo Jon Stewart.

But he added: “We’re happy to let Jon keep delivering the fake news.”

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