Nobody could replace the legendary Larry King on CNN, but Colin Cowherd apparently once tried.
In an interview on The Ryen Russillo Podcast released this week, Cowherd revealed that ahead of his last contract at ESPN before moving to Fox Sports, he nearly left the sports world behind to launch a show at CNN that would replace Larry King Live.
Cowherd was so coveted by the network that he interviewed directly with former president Jeff Zucker — and was ready to overhaul King’s formula.
“Larry King had moved off, and I told Jeff … ‘you can’t do the interview anymore,'” Cowherd said. “There’s like six people in the country [good enough] for an interview. This was pre-podcasting, but Larry King, how many people can you interview and get a number? I broke down the show; I said I would do 6 minutes sort of Bill Maher, I would do two or three really smart, funny people, and I would end with a couple of pieces of funny video. Forty minutes of content, 20 [of] ads, I’m out.”
If that sounds exactly like a Real Time with Bill Maher ripoff, that’s because it is. Cowherd wasn’t reinventing the wheel back then, but there’s no issue with borrowing what works.
And CNN was apparently not the only network that wanted the longtime host of The Herd.
“I interviewed with MSNBC … and I was interested,” Cowherd added.
Cowherd often wavers between being staunchly anti-politics and chiming in on the news of the day. It’s as if Cowherd knows his political opinions are relatively uninformed but can’t help himself.
At ESPN, Cowherd said he once interviewed Condoleeza Rice while filling in on one of Keith Olbermann’s shows. But despite that opportunity and interviews with many news network bigwigs, the appeal never entirely overtook him.
“I’ve had two opportunities to go to politics,” Cowherd said. “My takeaway is it is a miserable life and even more repetitive than sports. Every night I get a new game, every night I get a new narrative. A war breaks out, and you are on it for a year and a half.”
Given Cowherd’s speaking style and how his brain works, it’s no surprise he would consider a talk show outside sports. He is effective at boiling down an issue into a simple metaphor or turn of phrase.
For better or worse, that type of argument works on political television. Maybe Cowherd can follow Will Cain’s path and get a gig at his sister network, Fox News.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.