It’s not quite McEnroe’s game ...

John McEnroe, tennis player, rock star manque, sometime art dealer, father of six and husband of celebrities, made his bow Wednesday night as the host of his own nightly CNBC talk show, in one of the ugliest shirts ever seen on television; it did not return Thursday night, though its wearer did.

“McEnroe,” which follows “Dennis Miller” at 7 and 10 p.m., is the latest expansion of the business-news cable network into entertainment prime time. Given his well-earned reputation as a loudmouth and loose cannon, and his extensive on-air experience as a tennis commentator, a McEnroe talk show -- his leftish sympathies might be seen to balance Miller’s rightward leanings -- would not seem a totally insane proposition, despite the failure of “The Chair,” the game show he emceed a couple of years back on ABC, or poor notices for his “Late Show” substitute-hosting during David Letterman’s sick leave. And he already has a catch phrase, “You cannot be serious,” though his guests seem to use it more than he does.

“I’m going to say exactly what’s on my mind,” McEnroe announced early, to nervous laughter from his small studio audience. So far he has not had anything too outrageous to share.

There is, of course, a sidekick, John Fugelsang -- co-host with Daisy Fuentes of the post-Saget “America’s Funniest Home Videos” -- to watch his back. Fugelsang, who seemed at times unsure whether he should have taken the job, is not any funnier than McEnroe, but he is a little quicker off the mark, and stepped in at the very top when his new boss seemed unable to focus. “We’ve got to do a show now, right?” said Fugelsang, who for a second seemed the host, with McEnroe the guest.

That McEnroe is stiff there is no denying -- for an athlete he seems remarkably uncertain in his body, and he speaks in a slightly grating New Yorkified monotone. And for a man famous for his temper and tantrums, he’s queerly affectless. And yet he’s natural -- that is, he can’t help being himself, whether scratching the underside of his thigh, or laughing at Will Ferrell, or performing poorly in occasional planned bits of comedy.

And this is appealing.

Opening-night guests were Ferrell, promoting “Anchorman”; Sting, sort of promoting “Sacred Love,” but more important, a personal friend of the host; and McEnroe’s wife, the singer Patty Smyth, still the new-wave pixie and the composer of the show’s theme song, which in its refrain contains the words “anger management.”

They talked about sex, which I suppose is just what happens when Sting’s around. “It’s a way of reaching the sacred, like music is,” Sting said.

“Could you repeat that?” McEnroe asked.

“It’s a form of God realization,” Fugelsang cut in, a sentence one can scarcely imagine passing the lips of Ed McMahon.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Sting sighed.

Night two brought “my buddies” Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield from Metallica (pushing their new movie), Ralph Nader (pushing his candidacy) and volleyball champ Karch Kiraly, just chilling. McEnroe seemed excited to have made it to a second show. If he didn’t know exactly how to handle Nader, who was less interested in conversation than in speechifying, McEnroe also wouldn’t quit trying to get him to promise not to throw the election to George Bush, and to admit he might have had something to do with that happening the last time around. “I just hope it ends in a better way than it did in 2000,” the concerned host said.

Tennis popped up in unlikely ways. Nader compared American politics to Wimbledon. (“What would Wimbledon be like if no one could compete except the top two seeded players?” “If I was one of the top two seeds I might consider it.”) Lars Ulrich, meanwhile, turned out to be the son of Danish pro Torben Ulrich.

McEnroe may be a bit of a dilettante -- we also got to see him play guitar -- but there’s nothing wrong with being a dilettante, after all; it’s a sensible response to the fact that you only live once.

If he does not seem born to the job, that may not be the worst thing: Professional TV talk is mostly predictable and rarely revealing, whether it’s being managed by Charlie Rose or Jay Leno. McEnroe’s show is more like what you find on public-access television, but with better production values and celebrities -- it feels amateur, but alive. There is a chance for things to go wrong.

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‘McEnroe’

Where: CNBC

When: 7-8 p.m. weekdays, repeated at 10 p.m.

John McEnroe...Host

John Fugelsang...Co-host

Executive in charge of production, Douglas Warshaw. Executive producer, Gary Swain.