Two Old Sports Try New Games

Will two former sportscasters make it big in prime time in the arena of straight news? Or make it at all?

One is urbane Bryant Gumbel, already widely known after long ago relinquishing sports as his main focus and becoming a star as co-host of the venerable NBC News morning program, “Today.” His main venue is now Wednesday nights as host-interviewer on the underdog new CBS newsmagazine series, “Public Eye With Bryant Gumbel.”

The other sports-to-news convert is acerbic Keith Olbermann, the much-less-known former Los Angeles sportscaster who set a record for the longest uninterrupted smirk ever during a six-year stint co-anchoring “Sportscenter” on ESPN. After fleeing that network in a flurry of public acrimony with his bosses, Olbermann graduated last week to his own weeknight interview hour on the lightly watched cable news network MSNBC. It’s called “The Big Show With Keith Olbermann.”

Titles can be deceptive. After two weeks, Gumbel’s new series is a mere blip in the public eye--both installments have ominously ranked fourth in its time slot--and “The Big Show” is hardly big.

While Olbermann can probably endure indefinitely on MSNBC by gorging on his network’s favorite entree--the interminable Princess Diana post-mortem--the Gumbel series has by far the harder task in seeking to separate itself from a crush of incumbent newsmagazines, from NBC’s ever-spreading “Dateline NBC” to ABC’s “PrimeTime Live.”

Not pandering should do it, although it’s a difficult standard to uphold when fisting it out with the cannibals in this ferocious amphitheater.

Gumbel has spent much of his career being one of television’s men for all seasons. At his worst, he has appeared overly sleek, imperious and facile, at his best a maestro of versatility able to hold his own on “Today” while also performing superbly at one point in the demanding job of hosting NBC’s Olympics coverage. If miscast as stony emcee of this year’s Emmys on CBS, he has shown himself to be the ideal guy for “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel,” his bimonthly HBO series that is flat-out TV’s best sports program, one whose format of interviews, profiles and investigative pieces is not dissimilar to his new newsmagazine on CBS.

Wednesday’s second episode of “The Public Eye” was pretty good--not yet blue chip, but a growth stock worth monitoring. More importantly, it was a nice bounce upward from a premiere whose centerpiece interview and story--on Sgt. Maj. of the Army Gene C. McKinney, now facing a general court-martial on sexual misconduct charges--was devastatingly arid. You could sense public eyelids getting leaden.

In contrast, Wednesday’s lead piece, produced by Joshua Seftel and reported by Steve Hartman of CBS-owned KCBS-TV Channel 2, was a deftly done spread on a sex-education controversy at a Unitarian Universalist church in Concord, Mass. It was provocative without being sensational, giving context to a volatile issue.

Another story, from correspondent Bernard Goldberg and producer David Fitzpatrick, not only reported about the potentially lethal clogging of 911 emergency phone lines by frivolous callers, but also offered a sound bite from an offender. “That was an emergency to me,” explained a guy who had called 911 to get a number for a pizza joint.

Then came a good story, reported by Rita Braver and produced by Bill McGowan, questioning the effectiveness of home monitoring systems intended to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, followed by Bryant’s interview with family maven Stephen Covey that was somewhat perfunctory, but at least found the host being more energetic than in the previous week.

Not a blockbuster but, all in all, a very credible hour.

*

Which is more than can be said of the same night’s sampling of “The Big Show,” whose hopes ride largely on public acceptance of Olbermann’s nasty wit--he can be very funny--and signature attitude. Smart-ass? “Sportscenter,” Shmortscenter. Why, as those recalling his work in Los Angeles on Channel 2, KTLA-TV Channel 5 and KNX radio know, Olbermann practically invented smart-ass.

In fact, “The Big Show” is exactly the kind of show that you might expect Olbermann to assassinate by driving a caustic wisecrack right through its heart. Except that it’s his show.

One that began Wednesday with a vigorous debate about President Clinton’s private parts. In other words, the latest on Paula Jones (arrrggghhh!), with Olbermann chortling snidely as Joe Conason of the New York Observer and Jones mouthpiece Susan Carpenter McMillan argued sarcastically (on this show, it’s catching) about whether Clinton actually did have the “distinguishing characteristics” attributed to him by Jones, but disputed by his lawyer.

After polishing that off in depth, Olbermann moved to “The Big Deal,” an area of the program where he weighs in on cosmic matters, this time giving historical perspective (Was that a smirk on his face?) to the “distinguishing characteristics” dispute vis a vis other presidents. “So this is not new,” he said. He might have been describing the entire hour.

Then it was on to the latest developments about the late Princess Diana (arrrggghhh!), with Olbermann and “royals correspondent” Elaine Lipworth getting real serious about the media’s continued fascination with this topic. “As long as we keep talking about this subject, she’s still with us,” Olbermann interjected, thoughtfully. The “royals correspondent” nodded.

Next came a package about Mary Kay LeTourneau, the married elementary school teacher who gave birth to a child she conceived with one of her sixth graders, the exact piece having already run on NBC’s “Nightly News.” And finally came “The News Without Brian Williams”--a send-up of MSNBC’s lead newscast and its anchor, with Olbermann narrating some light-hearted stories, the first of which Wednesday had aired earlier that day on “Nightly News.” Somehow, that was symbolic.

Olbermann tries mightily to make a unique imprint. As he fishes for laughs in the rubble of life, however, it becomes obvious that there is one quality his show lacks.

Distinguishing characteristics.