Al Gore was all excited earlier this month announcing the newest show for his Current TV schedule at the TV critics press tour.
Who needs another political talk show? Well this one is hosted by former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm.
“With the launch of Jennifer’s show,” Gore says, “We will have a full primetime lineup, kind of occupy primetime. It is news and information from a progressive point of view. We have a lot to say.”
For her part, the former governor says, “It’s called ‘The War Room with Jennifer Granholm’ because it’s going to take you inside what it’s like to be in a campaign. We’re going to do a studio that is a mockup of a campaign office war room — without the pizza boxes.
“We’re going to make sure that we end up taking you to big campaign offices across the country,” she says. “For the political junkies out there, this is going to be great. I love this stuff. I follow it all the time. I’m a political junkie myself, so I know what’s interesting, but we want to make sure that it is the place to go for folks who want to see what’s going on inside.”
What will make the show different?
“Now, since I’ve been there, I’m the only person on, cable or otherwise TV, that is a former governor that’s focused on the election, politics, and policy, and so I’ll be able to show you something and listen to these guests and tell the viewers what are talking points and what aren’t talking points. I’ve delivered talking points. I know them when I hear them, and I want to be able to open the door for the viewers so they come inside and know what it’s like to be able to confront people who may be spinning.”
(Speaking of spinning, isn’t Mike Huckabee a former governor with a political talk show on TV?)
But Granholm says she brings some passion to the job, which begins tonight. “As former governor of the state that had the highest unemployment rate in the nation for two terms, I’m obsessed with job creation in the United States,” she says.
“So the second half of the show is going to be focused on policies that real people in America care about: What is out there in the United States or somewhere else that’s working to create jobs? What is it that we need to do as a country and the laboratories of democracy across the nation? What’s working that can be taken to scale?”
Overall, she says, “ I think it will add a great perspective to this wonderful primetime lineup that Current TV is starting up.”
“The War Room with Jennifer Granholm” begins tonight at 9 on Current TV.