Taking a cue from Hollywood, Cable News Network said it plans to launch He
Said/She Said, a weekly entertainment-review program, Feb. 17.
Rolling Stone writer Peter Travers and Lisa Schwarzbaum, who writes for
CNN's sister company, Entertainment Weekly, will host the weekly program,
based on movie and theater reviews.
The half-hour show will run Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. replacing Style, one
of several shows CNN recently canceled.
The program shares the same name and format of He Said, She Said, a
1991 movie starring Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins. In the film, Bacon and
Perkins, whose characters become lovers, debate everything from theater to
politics on a debate program called He Said, She Said.
A CNN spokeswoman said Travers and Schwarzbaum are not romantically involved.
'The two will engage in lively gender-based combat over what is available each
week in the world of entertainment,' CNN wrote in the announcement of the
show.
Travers and Schwarzman were regular contributors to Showbiz Today,
which CNN also cut from its schedule. Instead of running that half-hour program,
CNN now runs four short entertainment segments periodically throughout the
day.
The He Said/She Said launch expands CNN's new focus on
talking-head-style programs, which have seen much success on rival Fox News
Channel. In addition to its long-standing Crossfire show, CNN now runs
The Spin Room, Wolf Blitzer Reports and The Point with Greta
Van Susteren.
CNN also announced programming changes at its CNNfn business channel, which
it plans to rename CNN Money.
It will launch The Money Gang Feb. 26. The live show, which will run
from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., will focus on Wall Street news and include viewer
calls, online chats and electronic mail.
The network will also change the name of Biz Buzz to The Biz.
That show runs from 11:50 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
