CNN’s Eliot Spitzer Answers His Pre-Show Critics… And The “Couric Question”

Mediaite: How much will ratings matter in the short term?

Spitzer: I came from a world where you watched poll numbers with recognition they bounce up and down. You’d drive yourself crazy if you react day to day when you’re in elected office. Everybody gets the hype from drops in poll numbers, but Barack Obama in September was exactly where Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were in their administration. It takes time for most successful shows to build an audience. There will be interest from the beginning, and we hope to entice some of those people to stick around. We also know these things do not happen overnight. I don’t think our TV show will bow to the whim of others. It is very much a product Kathleen and I believe in, and care about.

Mediaite: You talked to Larry King about certain segments on your show, like the “Opening Argument.” Tell me a little more about what viewers can expect from day one.

Spitzer: At the top of the show we’ll stake out a position on an issue. Sometimes it will be the same issue, sometimes it won’t be. Sometimes it will be the same issue and we actually agree. That’s what will make it interesting. Then we’ll have a sequence of interviews, with one person or two or three around a table. It will be a good combination of traditional interviews with an author of the most compelling book, that we’ll give time to discuss it and explain it, or a more free-flowing segment with two or three people, talking about the political world or a fun issue.

Mediaite: Right now the show has a Twitter account. Will you get on there personally?

Spitzer: I will have to talk to the wiser folks around here. I have never tweeted before, but if they tell me to tweet I’ll do my best bird imitation and learn to be skilled. I may be the last person who actually picks up a piece of paper in the morning.

Mediaite: Well how about we ask the “Couric question.” What papers do you read?

Spitzer: The Times, the Journal, the Financial Times. I’ll glance at the tabloids just for fun. The Washington Post. Those are the ones I actually get hard copies of.

(This has been edited for length and clarity.)

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