Actually, I'm among Anderson Cooper's fans. But not of his CNN work, where he does his chameleon act to fit in. Anderson is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt, raised in the Hamptons of Lon Ghisland. He worked briefly for NBC News Overnight, did some free-lance, and then was hired by Stone-Stanley (a production company in LA) to be the host of the reality show "The Mole" and "The Mole II." The show was sold to and ran on ABC. The Moles were a real thinking-man's reality series and developed a mid-sized and loyal following, despite ABC's general disdain for reality TV.
After The Mole II, Stone-Stanley signed Anderson to a multi-series deal for more moles.
And then, along came CNN. CNN hired Anderson on a temp basis to do some fill-in, which included stints on the Morning show, which at the time had Pauler Zahn on it. They liked him enough to offer him a full-timer, but there was that contract with Stone-Stanley. CNN bought that contract off, paid Cooper what he would have made had more Moles been produced, and tried to figger out a place for him.
At first, they slugged him in to Aaron Brown's Newsnight show when Brown went on vacation. Viewer mail indicates that Cooper was far more popular - admitted to BY Brown - and so Brown was instrumental in getting Anderson his own show so he could never again fill in for Brown. Lots of politicking at CNN.
Anderson is quietly gay, but it's not a big issue for him, and is said by all who know him to be a genuine nice-guy honest dude.
Michael