McEnroe Set to Host Talk Show on CNBC

Goliko · July 8, 2004, 2:54am

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A34712-2004Mar29&notFound=tru

Tuesday, March 30, 2004; Page D02

John McEnroe, whose Hall of Fame tennis career included 77 singles titles and frequent on-court tirades, will host a prime-time talk show on CNBC called “McEnroe” starting July 7, the network said.

McEnroe will lead a changing panel of guests in discussing top sports, entertainment and political news. The show will be broadcast each weekday night at 10 p.m., with a delayed broadcast at 10 p.m. on the West Coast, the General Electric Co. cable network said.

“We’ve designed it to be the antidote to the typical primetime talk show,” McEnroe said in a statement. “We’ll be thoughtful and insightful when it is appropriate, and wreak havoc when necessary.”

Joining McEnroe on the nightly panel will be John Fugelsang, a host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” the past two seasons and frequent guest on “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.”

McEnroe and his agent, Gary Swain, will be co-executive producers of the program, which will be taped at CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

CNBC, which specializes in financial news, is available in about 86 million households in the United States and Canada. The network has carried non-financial shows, including portions of the Olympics.

McEnroe will continue his television commentary work for Viacom Inc.'s CBS at the U.S. Open and GE’s NBC at the French Open and Wimbledon.

– From News Services

Goliko · July 8, 2004, 3:00am

Tennis great John McEnroe’s talk show premieres July 7.

McEnroe ready to serve, volley on cable chatfest

Everyone grows up at some point. But for The Brat, tennis great John McEnroe, it just took a bit longer — say, 45 years.

How else to explain the famously self-centered McEnroe, who once blew up routinely at umpires, saying, “I have a genuine interest in stopping talking about myself, spreading my wings and learning more about others, in being interested from the other side.”

Of course, such a cognitive shift — seismic, perhaps, in his case — helps when you’re plugging your upcoming weeknight talk show. McEnroe makes its debut July 7 on CNBC at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

But McEnroe seems genuine. And let’s lighten up: He’s not hosting a cable version of Nightline but rather a talk/humor/music show akin to what his idol, David Letterman, does at CBS. McEnroe will have a sidekick, comedian John Fugelsang.

“The key for me is to have some fun,” McEnroe said last week from Wimbledon, where he did commentary. "The reason I have had some success as a commentator is that I feel people know I don’t take myself too seriously. I pride myself on honesty and being straightforward.

“I hope to show a side of my personality that people didn’t see when I played tennis: some self-deprecation and humor.”

It was while subbing for Letterman when the host had heart surgery that McEnroe says he thought: “I could get into this. It would be very nice to have a show like this.”

McEnroe is the latest attempt by ratings-challenged CNBC to lure viewers back to prime time with topical humor programming like The Dennis Miller Show, which precedes McEnroe at 9.

The game plan, says CNBC general manager Bob Meyers, is to move CNBC, which is all business all the time during the day, to lighter fare at night that does not compete with news talk programming on sister channel MSNBC. “Fast-paced, somewhat irreverent, often funny, but not necessarily business-related,” he says.

McEnroe plays the electric guitar, and he plans to have musicians as guests. But he isn’t counting on them to ask him to play with them. “Somehow I doubt it,” he says.

His wife, singer Patty Smyth, wrote the theme music to the show, and “even she didn’t ask me to play.”

http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2004-06-27-media-mix_x.htm