The New York Post
MILLER TAKES A BREAK TO TWEAK FORMAT
By MICHAEL STARR
February 27, 2004 --
DENNIS Miller is taking a two- week hiatus from his new CNBC talk show -
which
is being remade while he's gone.
"The main thing we're going to do differently is to have a studio
audience,"
consulting producer Steve Friedman told The Post. "We're not doing the
'Tonight
Show' - we want it more like a nightclub, and we're looking at an audience
of
around 100 people a day." Miller has, thus far, worked without a studio
audience - relying only on laughs from his crew.
"Dennis' comedy is terrific, and it really helps if somebody is there to
respond to it," Friedman said. "I love the crew, but that's not enough."
Friedman was brought in recently to consult on "Dennis Miller," which has
averaged 303,000 viewers (9 p.m.) on CNBC since premiering Jan. 26 - up
131
percent over the timeslot's fourth quarter '03 average. "They were
planning on
bringing somebody in, and it happened to be me," said Friedman, who
formerly
oversaw CBS' "The Early Show" and spent years at NBC's "Today" show before
that.
"The best way to look at it is that's the way TV is - it's trial and
error, and
you want to keep the trials and eliminate the errors," Friedman said. "No
TV
show starts off 100 percent great."
Friedman said that when "Dennis Miller" returns March 9, it will once
again
open with Miller's "Rorschach" segment and will retain the roundtable
discussion.
"We'll have little tweaks here and there," he said. "What we're doing is a
comedy/talk show and the key element to it all is trying to figure out how
to
get the proper balance."
And, Friedman stressed, Miller's 10-day vacation was pre-planned - in
fact,
he'll take another hiatus April 19.
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