Posted on 01/22/2003 7:41:32 PM PST by GeneD
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Long-time "Wheel of Fortune" host Pat Sajak is moving back into the talk-show arena.
The Fox News Channel has hired Sajak to serve as host of a weekly Sunday-night talk show, according to the Wall Street Journal. The show is scheduled to air at 8 p.m. ET, leading into "At Large with Geraldo Rivera."
Sajak is not a stranger to talk shows, although his last foray into the genre didn't go so well. He hosted "The Pat Sajak Show" on CBS in 1989 and '90. It was first attempt in many years to challenge "The Tonight Show," and it failed, generally trailing both "Tonight" and the syndicated "Arsenio" in the ratings.
Sajak's show on Fox News will feature celebrities and other newsmakers, a la Larry King on CNN. They will not compete directly; "Larry King Weekend" airs a 9 p.m. ET Sundays. Sajak will keep his day job as host of "Wheel of Fortune."
The Sajak show is bumping "FOX Wire with Rita Cosby" from the Fox News schedule. Cosby will remain with the network as host of "Big Story Weekend Edition."
A dispute over a parking space in Tallahassee, the state capital, has seen a leading network journalist arrested and taken to jail.
Fox News, the first television network to announce prematurely that George W Bush had been elected president, suffered further embarrassment over the weekend when Shepherd Smith, 36, was involved in an ugly altercation with a female rival.
With his Friday afternoon live broadcast due within a few minutes, Smith was trying to park outside Tallahassee's Capitol building when he spotted a rare space. Camera equipment and a traffic cone had been placed there but he leapt out and removed it. The space was being watched by Maureen Walsh, 39, a reporter with a local station, while her camera crew went to order lunch. Seeing it about to be taken she rushed over and stood in Smith's way.
According to Sergeant Edwin Maxwell of the Capitol Police, Smith swore at Walsh and then "hit the gas", driving into the space and knocking her onto his bonnet. He said: "She was thrown onto the hood of the car and ended up on the ground. Smith then parked the car, turned off the engine, and walked across the street to get on the air with Fox."
The police were called and tracked down Smith while he was live on national television giving an account of the latest legal twists in the presidential race. They waited patiently until he had handed back to the studio before arresting him. He was then handcuffed and taken into Leon County jail. Walsh went to hospital suffering from bruised legs but was able to return to the Capitol and continue broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Smith was negotiating being freed on $10,000 (£6,250) bail while Fox hastily arranged to anchor their evening show from New York instead of Florida. He faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of a felony charge of aggravated battery with a motor vehicle.
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