Outside of those “My Pillow” commercials, cable news is generally unwatchable now that you basically have three main options: “Love Trump” programming, “Hate Trump” programming and “Hate Trump More” programming.
Cable news’s biggest problem is that they’ve gotten rid of people, for one reason or another, that likely would find some measure of success with better timing or refocusing their shows. Here are three people cable should bring back to the news business:
Bill O’Reilly — The former Fox News star commanded the medium like no one else did and maybe like no one ever will. There are few legitimate debate-style programs on cable news where you can get at least two energetic, equally matched perspectives on an issue anymore, and after O’Reilly was fired by his network last year, there was one fewer.
Fox ousted O’Reilly after the New York Times reported on millions of dollars worth of settlements in sexual harassment disputes, but it’s worth mentioning that the purpose of a settlement is for two parties to agree to drop a contentious matter. In none of the cases did O’Reilly ever admit guilt. He was also never convicted of anything in criminal court. There’s a reason O’Reilly hosted the No. 1 cable news program for nearly two decades. It was good. And Fox should bring him back.
Megyn Kelly — The daytime talk show genre was never going to work for Kelly and NBC paid a ridiculous price for gambling on it. She rose to fame for her steely prosecutorial interviews in Fox’s primetime and for blowing off the party line that the channel became largely known for when facts called for it. She wanted to be Katie Couric, and she failed, most notably when she was forced to apologize after having offered a defense for Halloween costumes worn by people that portray characters of other races. Kelly likely doesn’t want to leave TV forever, and there’s no reason NBC’s cable arm at MSNBC couldn’t accommodate a space for her with a show that played to her legal background.
If MSNBC is going to devote 90 percent of its programming to the special counsel investigation, it would be nice to hear from an unpredictable legal mind — Kelly is a lawyer — to suss things out from a political angle. Besides, does the channel really need two Rachel Maddows?
Piers Morgan — Conservatives loved to hate Piers Morgan before CNN canceled his show in 2014. He was a vehement advocate for gun control in America, despite being annoyingly British. But that aside, he’s one of the few high-profile people in Europe with an open mind about President Trump and the country’s direction under his leadership.
A big reason Morgan’s show failed was its lack of a dedicated focus: He would interview Oprah Winfrey one day and Ann Coulter the next. The hourlong interview with a cross-section of topics no longer works on cable. It died with Larry King, even though he is still alive. Morgan could, however, see success with a show with debate and interviews on the White House and politics. CNN should hire him again.
