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Peter Bart: Do We Want A Kinder, Gentler Bill Maher?
Bill Maher now describes himself as a “centrist".” B" -- but do we really want a kinder, gentler 'Real Time' host? Deadline's Peter Bart offers his insights.
At their annual upfronts, TV executives two weeks ago no longer were obsessed by that premium 18-49 age group, acknowledging that their remaining audience is becoming geriatric – 66 for the ABC network, for example, and 69 for Fox News. A curious stratum of humanity, stand-up comics are by nature restless and raunchy and rarely can be counted on as “friends.” Don Rickles once confided to me that he was amazed that producers actually paid him so well to insult people. When Maher visited Greg Gutfeld on his Fox News show recently, viewers could intuit the competitive tension behind the surface civility.
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