Anderson Wants To Be a Mom

ENTERTAINMENT

Exclusive Interview: Anderson Cooper Hints at Becoming a Dad

Posted by Kim Conte on October 5, 2011 at 12:43 PM





To list all of Anderson Cooper's career accomplishments would take way more space than we have here. Not only is he an Emmy award-winning journalist, news anchor, and best-selling author, but he recently added "daytime talk show host" (of the brand new show, Anderson) to his resume. Of course, the one occupation the 44-year-old hasn't had is: parent. But we have every reason to believe it's a role that's not only on his to-do list, but may be closer to the top than we thought. Why? Well, because when we asked him how he hopes to engage moms in his new show (more on that later), he told us:

"I'm not a mom. Yet. It's the one job I haven't done. Yet."

Surely, a media pro like Cooper wouldn't dangle a carrot like THAT in front of a writer and not expect her to bite. But that's not the only reason to suspect he'd like a family sooner rather than later. In fact, watching his new show, it becomes more than obvious: Cooper's got parenthood on the brain.

In addition to featuring the typical talk show fodder we've come to expect from daytime hosts (celebrity interviews, self-help advice, etc.), Cooper has devoted several episodes of Anderson thus far to serious topics that have hit close to home for many parents.

For example, just last week, he did a whole show on picky eaters, which ended with the launch of the "5-Day Family Dinner Challenge" to encourage viewers to eat dinner with their families five nights in a row. This week he interviewed the parents of Jamey Rodemeyer in an eye-opening episode about teen bullying and suicide. Clearly, Cooper is not only well aware that parents -- and moms, specifically -- make up the core of his daytime audience, but he is more than confident in his ability to connect with them:

A lot of people feel isolated from their families, from their friends, from their communities, from the lives they want to have. Daytime TV -- when it’s done well -- has a remarkable ability to help people be connected to these things.

Cooper may be "doing it well," but admittedly it's jarring -- at times, downright weird -- to watch this hard-hitting journalist (who's covered Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Japan, the revolution in Egypt) do things in the middle of the afternoon like eat spinach for the first time and get a spray tan with Snooki. But Cooper is resolute that being a daytime host is just as important as covering breaking news:

For people who have doubts as to whether I can do daytime TV, you know we’re not doing anything that’s not done on morning news programs. We’re telling very human stories that resonate with people.

Cooper's right, of course: It's these human stories that really strike a chord with a lot moms. He's only just started this new gig, and already he's thinking like a parent. Of course, as any parent will tell you, until you actually have a kid, you can't completely know what it's truly like. But if his statement above is to be believed, he might not be too far away from that.