THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 13, 1995 TAG: 9501130093
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
FROM THE LAND of flash floods and $1.55 per gallon gas, I bring you news of what you are missing on television in Hampton Roads, the nation's 40th largest TV market.
You are missing a nicely laid-back late-night interview show with one of the best talkers in the business, Tom Snyder.
The CBS affiliate in Norfolk, WTKR, has chosen not to run ``The Late Late Show'' at 12:35 a.m., beaming out instead a syndicated show that is a clone of ``Entertainment Tonight.'' It's called ``Extra.''
Snyder is scheduled to come on right after David Letterman's 11:35 p.m. talk show, which is seen in Hampton Roads, leading to frustration among some local viewers. That's because as Snyder was launching his show last week, Letterman talked it up on his show.
Letterman has been a regular P.T. Barnum in ballyhooing Snyder, which is no surprise. Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants, conceived and produced the new show and lobbied CBS to put it on.
Viewers in Hampton Roads who got used to seeing Snyder nightly on cable on CNBC - at 57, he's still one of the best interviewers in the business - now get Snyder not at all.
What are you missing?
I'll tell you, having watched Snyder on the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles since I have been in the soggy southland with the Television Critics Association twice-yearly press tour. Snyder's new show on CBS has the look and feel of the hour he used to do on NBC, ``Tomorrow.'' That established him as a major talent in the news and news-talk game.
His studio at CBS Television City is simple, classy, elegant. You can see where CBS has way more money for set design than CNBC.
Snyder in 1995 comes off a bit timid, not the hard-charging horse he was in his youth. Maybe he's just trying to make a good first impression. I hope he opens up and bites a guest or two.
Snyder also looks thinner, grayer, smaller on camera than he used to, which is some trick for a man over 6 feet tall.
With that said, I still regard him as the best in his trade at quietly, painlessly and patiently pulling things out of his guests.
When Snyder met TV reporters here, with Letterman getting in on the press conference by way of a satellite link from Manhattan, he did not grouse about being ignored by WTKR or other CBS affiliates. He'll be seen on about 80 percent of the network affiliates.
``When `Tomorrow' went on the air, we only had half of NBC's 208 stations,'' Snyder said. ``When I started on ABC Radio, only 85 stations carried my show. It was 286 at the end. At CNBC we started with many cable operators missing. We finished well there, too.
``It is a rocky start in terms of getting clearances from CBS stations, but that is nothing new to me.''
Letterman was full of praise for Snyder, saying it was bad judgment on NBC's part to mess with Tom's old ``Tomorrow'' show and turn it into some kind of a late-night variety and gossip hour.
``NBC ruined a great hour of television there,'' said Letterman. ``Tom was treated badly by people with no vision.''
And now Letterman, whose show brings in $65 million in profits for CBS, is Snyder's boss.
How ironic.
It was Letterman who was chosen by NBC to replace Snyder at 11:30 p.m.
Tamara Haddad, who once worked with Larry King at CNN, is Snyder's producer. But make no mistake about it, the Letterman brain trust of Peter Lassaly and Robert Morton have much input.
And what of Letterman himself? Does he toss in his two cents worth?
``Dave calls from New York every day to meddle in my show,'' Snyder said. ``But I don't take his calls.''
If he did, I bet Snyder would hear Letterman tell him to bring back the old, outrageous Tom Snyder.
But in any form, he's out of the picture in the Norfolk area. by CNB