Who's Talking to Chris Wallace

While I don't watch every episode of this series of interviews with Chris Wallace the ones I have watched are very well done. This one on one sit down series ranges from guests from the arena of politics, entertainment, sports, music, and more. Wallace has an engaging and enjoyable interview style. He asks thoughtful and hard hitting questions, but is not outrageous for the sake of shock value. The format and timing of the series make each episode a great way to spend some time when you don't have multiple hours to be entertained. The guest clearly respect, and most of all, trust Chris Wallace and that makes this one really good.

I was pleased to see the 3.6 rating when I googled this after watching episodes. I half-heartedly made it through the interview with Shania Twain, then listened to Alex Rodriguez's ego and him fall all over Warren Buffet...a lot...like I stopped listening to it and felt pretty disgusted. It occurred to me as I looked at the rest that I don't care about what any of these people are up to, and not confident Chris Wallace was going to make me care with the right questions. The two I watched struck me as very curated and scripted, lacking any real moments that come from curve ball questions or the right follow-up questions. Add on the tone and cadence of Chris' voice that harkens back to broadcasting yonder and should have died with Cronkite, and I am left wondering who gave this the green light.

Most tv hosts don't make the effort to interview a wide spectrum of guests like Wallace does. His guests have backgrounds in science, religion, sports, entertainment, government. There is no hidden agenda here. If you want to stick to shows that complement your narrative, then this show isn't for you.

But it's a new show, he's still finding his rhythm. He should interview guests in the style of "Inside the Actor's Studio." While it's not the most favored form, I think they should add a live audience who are able to ask individual questions. There's more risk involved, and sometimes these moments go viral.

News programs are too afraid of live audiences. Partisan lectures or entertainers travel to universities, but we don't have this spectrum of guests on weekly televisions shows willing to speak freely, whether it's science, news, or inspirational stories from entertainment industry guests.

Get a live audience who have the ability to be involved. Up the game. Create YouTube shorts. Go viral. Give Chris the publicity he deserves.

Aside from the interview with the verbally minimalist Justice Breyer, I learned absolutely nothing from any of the other interviews. These are soft ball, non-deep dive interviews and you can find the same information on IMDB or just about anywhere. Is this just a CNN filler show? The excessive commercials were more informative. I think they need to start looking for another Sunday evening option to prop up their ratings because this is Entertainment Tonight-level programming at best. I thought that Chris Wallace was more of a heavy hitter. If he's at CNN for a new, less demanding chapter of his life (which I think he is) this will not help CNN in the least. I will not be watching again.

Who's talking to Chris Wallace? Apparently nobody important. It would be better after watching this if he stayed at home and just talked to himself. Boring, horrible, predictable, biased dribble.

He's not his father, he is no Mike Wallace. No matter how hard he tries the truth of the matter is nobody wants to see his puss on TV in any format or on any TV show. What part of that does he not understand? He has no valuable offerings of any type of decent messaging other than his very biased one-sided political views and I'll tell you something, even those are very predictable.

Is HBO that desperate for content? Apparently they are.