Anderson Cooper Juggles Balls

Cooper praying Phil Donahue rubs off on him. (Anderson Halloween costume H/t Huff Post)

“Although Anderson is quite shy personally, he has an omnivorous appetite for renown. I think it has to do with how he was raised.”  Not-for-attribution friend to NYT's David Carr on why Cooper is all over the TV map.  CNN.  CBS 60 Minutes.  Now six weeks into a ratings unremarkable daytime TV talk show aimed at women who think he's hot.

Great genes: Mommy Gloria Vanderbilt, 87, Monday Nov. 7th.

Cooper to Carr: “Daytime television might seem easy, but I have been surprised, really surprised, at how hard it is to get your arms around it.” 

[Cooper] might be confronting his toughest assignment yet: Wading through the dreck of daytime talk without sliming the rest of his career.

In signing up to do “Anderson,” Mr. Cooper has split his personal franchise: serious newsman by night and chatty host in front of adoring crowds of women during the day. He is probably hoping that the twain never meet. CNN has to hope as much as well.

Though it moved him into the cursed 8 p.m. time slot, Mr. Cooper has done well there, and it would be a problem if his daytime job messed up his real day job.

Still, a daytime hit can be incredibly lucrative, like nothing else in television. In a phone call, Mr. Cooper said that the money was not something he thought much about.

“I am having fun doing this, learning about how to do it right,” he said. “I want to have real conversations with people and tell their stories. I am personally happiest when I do multiple things, and I think people understand that we all have multiple interests.”

Maybe so, but after watching a recent episode of “Anderson” in which Mr. Cooper discussed the merits of plush toilet paper versus bargain brands, and engaged in a race to see which roll runs out first, I wondered if I would watch his next dispatch from a hurricane with new eyes.