Dan Rather raring to go on his new cable show

[Herman Munster]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/456768p-384382c.html

Tan and rested? Not Dan Rather. He's ruddy and revved up.

"We're going full throttle," the ex-CBS News anchor told me yesterday about "Dan Rather Reports," his upcoming weekly show on Texas zillionaire Mark Cuban's HDNet cable network, which reaches just 4 million households. Rather's shooting for a late October or early November debut.

"Cuban has given me absolute and complete editorial control," Rather said over lunch at Table XII. "Cuban told me, 'I want you to have whatever you need for a quality program,' and he's been as good as his word, and in many instances better than his word. Budgeting is one of the things I'm learning. I'm taking a crash course in the MBA school of hard knocks."

The 74-year-old Rather just flew back from Fort Stewart, Ga., where he was interviewing soldiers just returned from and headed for Iraq. "We don't hear enough from what Ernie Pyle called the dogfaces," Rather said, adding that he and his staff of 16, who yesterday settled into spacious new midtown offices, also have a couple investigative pieces in the works.

[ceile]

1. Excellent!

I wish I had the money to get HDNet. Maybe they'll have the episodes on the web.

[madokie]

2. Wow comes to mind first

now I need to see if direct satelite will have it on. 'pumping fist'