CNN's 'Parker Spitzer', Client Number 9 can

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Reviews were universally awful for the debut of CNN’s new “Parker Spitzer.” That’s OK, nobody was watching anyway.


Disgraced Ex-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, also known as Client Number 9 from when the feds were investigating a high-priced prostitution ring, is co-hosting “Parker Spitzer” as the liberal host pared with conservative columnist Kathleen Parker. CNN hoped the new show leading off primetime at 8:00 pm ET would boost ratings for the hour, where it trails badly behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC.

Because of Spitzer’s presence, TV critics across the country tuned in for Monday’s debut. Out of all those critics, if there was one positive review it has escaped notice.

The ratings were just as bad as the reviews. Only 454,000 viewers tuned in, which was on par with what Rick Sanchez had been drawing as the temporary fill-in for the time slot. Of course, he’s not available to fill in again.

Not only was Parker Spitzer walloped by FNC’s “The O’Reilly Factor” with about 3.1 million viewers and MSNBC’s “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” at about 1.1 million, it was also beaten by “Nancy Grace” with 468,000 on CNN’s little sister network HLN.

RBR-TVBR observation: Did Jon Klein already know his days were numbered when he gave the green light to this horrid talk show? Like most people, we didn’t watch the first night, but the clips we watched afterward made us cringe.