Vinay Menon: CNN’s new deal with Bill Maher’s ‘Overtime’ is a total waste of time

How does Chris Licht decompress after a long day at work?

He can’t meditate. Upon closing his eyes, all he’d see is CNN’s ratings. He can’t jog. The failure of CNN Plus would compel him to keep running until he started wheezing in tongues: “Don Lemon pie in the sky chyron ad buy prime time baby Jesus hug me.”

Running a media company these days is more challenging than discovering alien life. And Mr. Licht’s job, as head honcho at CNN, is more challenging than most.

His network is trying to reinvent during an identity crisis and industry tailwinds.

Maybe Licht relaxes by listening to Smokey Robinson: “I’ll try something new.”

CNN’s latest move? Starting Friday, it will begin airing the “Overtime” segment from HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.” This is a curious and largely inconsequential move. Unless there is a natural disaster or terrorist attack, the only people watching CNN at 11:30 on a Friday night are insomniacs with dead batteries in the remote.

Also, “Overtime” is the coda to “Real Time.” It’s a roughly 10-minute afterthought that was created to give the franchise a YouTube foothold. It features Maher’s guests answering two or three questions from viewers. But you need to watch the preceding hour to get the full context. “Overtime” without “Real Time” is like arriving famished for dinner at a swish bistro and then only ordering a low-fat dessert.

Is this merely a corporate synergy move? Both CNN and HBO are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The media behemoth also includes, among other stations, Food Network, TNT, HLN, TBS, TLC, WB, HGTV and why am I now imagining a new Sunday show: “Reno Your Kitchen With Anderson Cooper.”

You can understand why CNN wants Maher. He is arguably the most entertaining and compelling talk show host on the air. It’s why Maher is routinely attacked by the left and the right. He’s out there calling balls and strikes as raging partisans on both sides of the political bleachers cry foul and throw beer.

But … “Overtime”? This is a total waste of time for CNN.

If Mr. Licht really wants to think outside of the cable box, he should strike a deal to air Maher’s podcast, “Club Random.” Some of those interviews — including with Bryan Cranston, Sean Penn, Richard Dawkins, Dana Carvey, Kris Jenner, Sam Harris — showcase a depth, nuance and honest dialogue that is often lacking on TV.

Licht told the Los Angeles Times this week that “one of our missions is to restore our reputation as the most trusted name in news.” Adding “Overtime” will not help with that mission. But figuring out why the topical discussions on “Real Time” are such a cultural breath of fresh air could supply CNN with an oxygen machine.

When “Real Time” started its new season last month, the first three guests on the first episode were conservatives: Bill Barr, Nancy Mace and Andrew Sullivan.

Yet, somehow, the conversation was refreshingly apolitical.

Licht is tinkering when he should be reimagining. No, he can’t alienate the news junkies who power CNN’s viewership. He can’t violate the brand by offering Beyoncé money to Fox’s Greg Gutfeld, even though that right-wing stooge and quasi-comedian is delivering a ratings beat down to all the late-night hosts on conventional TV.

Licht told the Times that CNN is now “completely uninterested in partisan hackery and ideological talking points.” All the more reason to start a talent search in the podcast sphere. There’s a reason Joe Rogan is the most powerful media personality on the planet. Much like Maher, Rogan is not on any political team. He engages in long-form interviews with subjects that are often banished from the MSM.

I listen to the “The Joe Rogan Experience” because I want to.

I watch CNN because I must. Flipping that around is the key.

Throughout its existence, cable news has operated with one guiding principle: people have short attention spans. You need to shock and awe viewers into drooling submission with rapid fire segments. You need flashy graphics and alarmist framing and a shameless devotion to worst-case scenarios. I bet you Wolf Blitzer can’t have brunch without hearing a harrowing interior monologue: “CNN has learned these crepes are disgusting. Sources tell CNN this orange juice could inflame tensions in the Middle East. As CNN was first to report, marmalade fuelled the insurrection.”

Podcasting has fired a confetti cannon at cable’s guiding principle.

People do have long attention spans — so long as you hold their attention. Rogan’s interview with Jordan Peterson this weekend clocked in at over three hours and breezed by faster than a CNN commercial break with ads for car insurance and a shingles vaccine. CNN’s problem is not “partisan hackery.” The real problem is that the so-called legacy media has forfeited public intellectualism to podcasters.

Conservatives who love to hate on CNN would never watch the network even if it created a new prime-time show co-hosted by that MyPillow lunatic and a hologram of Ronald Reagan. Conservatives despise CNN in the same way liberals can’t stand Fox.

The programming solution? Move to the middle. More importantly, start covering subjects that don’t exist elsewhere on the dial. Don’t trudge in lockstep with conventional wisdom. Question cultural pieties. Don’t fear the outrage mob.

Let brutal honesty be the new guiding principle.

Chris Licht is on a mission to elevate CNN in the cable galaxy.

He could start by studying the podcast charts to see what people actually want.

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