CNN host Larry King's ratings have plummeted, but TV experts are unwilling to count him out

larry-king.jpgLarry King

Rumors have been spreading throughout the TV realm that CNN might be preparing to banish its King. That would be Larry King, whose 9-10 weeknight talk show has been a CNN staple since the Reagan administration.

The rumor mill has been churning since a mid-April CNN presentation to advertisers. Most of the news channel's stars were on hand for the Manhattan event, including Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Nancy Grace, John King and Candy Crowley. Conspicuous by his absence: The Suspendered One.

Was it a sign? Could CNN actually be considering a change after "Larry King Live" celebrates its 25th anniversary June 3?

"We're certainly hearing reports that they are thinking about it," said Barbie Zelizer, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. "But there have been rumors that they've been going to let him go for 25 years. So remember that Larry King is a survivor. Still, there's no question he is facing a larger set of daunting factors than ever before."

The most daunting of these is an alarming drop in ratings. The first three months of 2010 saw a 44 percent plunge in viewership from the previous year, according to Nielsen Media Research.

During that three-month stretch, "Larry King Live" had an average audience of 759,000 viewers. At its peak, 12 years ago, the CNN show averaged 1.6 million viewers. Even worse, on most nights, King, 76, is getting beaten by Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.

King's age, much-impersonated style and on-air gaffes have made him a go-to target for late-night hosts and stand-up comics for years.

Recent headlines about his personal life have only put him more in the gun sights for comedians and the tabloid press. King and his wife of nearly 13 years, Shawn, have filed for divorce amid reports that both were having affairs -- he with his sister-in-law. This is his eighth marriage.

This might seem like the perfect storm that will dethrone King, but Zelizer and other media watchers say there might be some life left in "Larry King Live."

How about the ratings? CNN executives can't ignore that big a drop, can they?

"Yes, they have slipped," Zelizer said. "But cable stations like CNN do best when there's big news out there. That's when you want to go to Larry King and see the sideshow to what's going on in the headlines. That hasn't been happening for the first quarter of 2010. The slips in ratings may have to do with his performance, but I don't think we know that for certain yet."

OK, what about the scandal and all the jokes?

"If CNN doesn't give in to panic, that might actually help him in the long run," said Paul Levinson, a media expert and Fordham University professor. "His personal life suddenly makes him more interesting. The idea that this kind of scandal makes a public figure anathema is just wrong. That's been proven over and over. If anything, people get more interested in these public figures involved in scandals."

Even so, CNN might be considering a change because King's act seems stodgy compared to everything else around him.

"Larry King is an anachronism, but he's always been an anachronism," said author and TV historian Robert Thompson, a professor of communications at Syracuse University. "The question is whether that anachronism still is commercially viable on CNN. It's not so much that Larry King hasn't changed, it's that the landscape around him has changed.

"Twenty years ago, Larry King was one item on a menu that had only had four or five choices on it. Now that menu has become 10 pages long. It's a buffet."

And the other choices are dripping with snark, irony and in-your-face opinion. Yet Zelizer, Levinson and Thompson agree that there might be enough snap in those old suspenders to hold up King's career.

"He's certainly not bringing in the numbers he once did, but he's still one of the few stars CNN has had," Thompson said. "If you get rid of Larry King in order to compete better, what is your alternative? I haven't heard a better idea. And as everything gets taken over by snark and irony, there might be value in having one of the last places where this doesn't exist. There might be a high camp value to watching Larry King, but there's still value."

Levinson certainly thinks there's something there for CNN to value: "CNN needs to be very, very careful right now. I think it would be foolish and even crazy to get rid of Larry King at this point. And the main reason is that he's unique. Larry King has this connection with America. There's a certain comfort zone with Larry King.

"Think about how he handled the Michael Jackson story. Now Larry King is the last person you might think would handle that well, and, yet, he had some of the best interviews. I'd say it is a mistake to bet against Larry King."

There has been talk of Katie Couric taking over the talk show.

"It still would be a single-person interview show," Zelizer said. "It won't add the kind of opinion, irony and one-upsmanship that Larry King never had. Will Larry King survive this? Maybe not, but I sure wouldn't bet against him."