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Anderson Cooper Needs To Get Punchy If His Live Format Is Going To Save CNN

Joe Pompeo | Apr. 17, 2010, 12:49 PM

Yesterday's conversation between Anderson Cooper and Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian gave us a taste of what a live-studio-audience show with the CNN anchor might be like.

Cooper's experimenting with the format, which could be a way for him to rebound from his recent slide in ratings.

The interview, which was a plug both for Kevorkian's appearances this week on Anderson Cooper 360 and the new HBO film "You Don't Know Jack," didn't have the same mass appeal as some of the antics we often see on Cooper's show, like getting ragged on by Kathy Griffin, or yucking it up with Chelsea Handler the way he did the other night.

He was, however, his usual charismatic self.

He kept the mood light considering his subject was a man who helped 130 terminally ill people kill themselves and then went to jail for eight years because of it. He cracked jokes and got the audience laughing when appropriate. He asked a few hard-hitting questions, too.

But overall, the fact that Anderson Cooper was interviewing Kevorkian didn't seem to matter much. We probably would have been just as happy (or even happier) with NPR's Fresh Air host Terry Gross.

Cooper's good when he plays hardball, like when he grilled Oklahoma State Sen. Randy Brogdon on Tuesday about Tea Party leaders in that state calling for the creation of a private volunteer militia.

But the most enjoyable Anderson Cooper moments are those when things go off the cuff — when he trips up and blushes or his guests make the mood a little uncomfortable.

That's probably the type of live-audience Anderson Cooper show we'd tune in to watch.

So if it's more viewers he needs, those more candid, whacky interactions might be the way to go.

And he should book Sarah Palin.