Will Larry King Be Booted and Replaced by Nancy Grace?

[kskiska]

From bad to worse…

Larry King is Live But Legal Analyst Is On the Screen

At the close of Larry King’s big 70th-birthday special on Nov. 19, Larry King Live’s executive producer Wendy Whitworth and guest host Dr. Phil McGraw surprised the suspendered superhost by bringing his wife and children onto the set.

"Tonight wouldn’t be complete if you didn’t have the really important people," said Dr. McGraw.

While Mr. King may not have been "surprised" by his family’s appearance—"Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed—he was genuinely taken aback by the other "important" woman hoisting his candlelit birthday cake. It was not his wife, Shawn, but Nancy Grace, the blond prosecutor and TV legal analyst who has become the de facto attack dog for Mr. King’s many Jacko-Kobe-Laci episodes.

Larry King, asked NYTV, do you consider Ms. Grace among your most "important people"?

"No," said Mr. King, "I was surprised she came running on the set."

But while Ms. Grace may not be an honorary King family member—the producer said she was on the set for a scuttled Michael Jackson episode, and an extra hand was needed with the cake—Ms. Grace has become a near-permanent fixture on Mr. King’s show, appearing 44 times in the last six months—six times as guest host—and swallowing up air time almost daily in November, during the Jackson media blowout. Ms. Grace’s hard-nosed style—pointed, often snarling pretrial accusations at everyone from Gary Condit to Mr. Jackson—aren’t exactly manna from heaven for Mr. King.

(snip)

Mr. King said he liked Ms. Grace as a person—they’ve hung out socially a total of four times, he said, since she began appearing on the show in 1999—but privately, some of Mr. King’s friends and associates told The Observer that the host was uncomfortable with Ms. Grace’s rising profile on the show. There have been, needless to say, whispers both inside and outside the company that Ms. Grace is being groomed to eventually replace Mr. King. Certainly, she is emblematic of Larry King Live’s focus on the tacky tabloid trials that have reigned supreme in the past few years. Mr. King said Ms. Grace "represents a kind of thinking—and it might be true in 60 percent of America— if you’re accused, you did it." Then he reiterated: "She’s the kind of personality you either love or hate."

more…
http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/frontpage4.asp

[buff2]

1. She'll probably replace Larry

when he kicks the bucket.....if he ever does. :evilgrin:

[Gloria]

2. During one Jackson program, she got so vehement in her anger about

the earlier settlement, that King was aghast, asking her why she was over the top...she said she wasn't angry, just concerned about "the children."

But she WAS over the top and King basically told her to back off.

I hate that woman. It was a fluke I saw the exchange as I was flipping channels.....

[JackSwift]

3. The nice thing about King's show

is that it is non-confrontational. There's a niche for that. Maybe not a big one. Grace sure as hell isn't of the same cloth.

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

4. Larry King glorifies and validates people like Tripp and Colter and Grace

using them as a mouthpiece to malign others, usually with no rebuttal available.

[kskiska]

5. Remember how Larry had such nice things to say

about Barbara Olsen – what a wonderful person she was…