CNN journalist and professional silver fox Anderson Cooper got quite the shock on his daytime talk show, Anderson, late last week.
Cooper’s production staff have started a “Mystery Guest” segment on his show where he gets a few hints of whom he’ll be meeting, and is then surprised by his next guest.
After the guest revealed three hints about himself, the giddy Cooper realized it was The Fonz himself, Henry Winkler.
Cooper was so excited by Winkler’s reveal that he tipped the set’s coffee table over right after screaming, “OH MY GOD. HOLY. IS IT FONZIE?”
Anderson is daytime-friendly in every way. His shows vary from interviewing Amy Winehouse’s parents to talking about his own troubled family. It’s a pretty significant departure from the hard news he covers on his CNN show, AC360.
Between his new show and his co-hosting gigs with Kelly Ripa, Cooper is more like the girlfriend you would invite over for drinks than a newsman. Anderson, where are your thick-rimmed glasses? Your gravitas? Your tie? Haven’t you learned anything? Look at Geraldo. Look at Geraldo and then look at your future.
Not that you can’t have it all. Just look at my boyfriend, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. He consistently brings the funny without losing face as NBC’s news authority. (I’m also just looking for excuses to look at his face.)
Cooper, however, has entered fanboy territory. Talk show hosts are perpetually lodged up the collective asses of movie stars, singers, and television psychics. I can’t tell if he’s still a journalist or if he’s one of those housewives who stand outside of The Today Show during the fourth hour, holding a sign that says, “POUR ME A GLASS, HODA,” and stops breathing when Rachael Ray waves to him.
Does Cooper want to be Wolf Blitzer or Oprah?
But, I mean, in his defence, it was The Fonz. Ayyyy.
About the author
Scaachi Koul was the Production Editor of the Summer 2012 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.