New Cable Hosts and Political Opposites

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Neither CNN nor the Fox News Channel is known for comedy, or even much of a sense of humor, so it is a measure of how important a role comedy has played in the 2008 election that these two sober cable news channels now offer lighthearted Saturday night talk shows.

“Huckabee,” on Fox, is hosted by a politician with a whimsical side, while “D. L. Hughley Breaks the News,” on CNN, stars a stand-up comic with a political edge. Not surprisingly, Mike Huckabee, who, before he ran in the Republican presidential primary, was a Southern Baptist minister and an Arkansas governor, is more earnest than funny. Mr. Hughley is more of a cutup than a pundit.

Neither is in the same league as Jon Stewart or David Letterman, but they earn points for collegiality. Mr. Huckabee, who plays the bass guitar, recruits lighting technicians and production assistants to play in his house band, the Little Rockers. Mr. Hughley gives cameos to strait-laced CNN reporters: the business correspondent Ali Velshi gave a list of the five ways to make money in America, and cited “Marry Madonna” and “Divorce Madonna” as two of them.

Their guest lists this Saturday are counterintuitive. Mr. Huckabee’s show, which is so basic that it sometimes looks almost like public-access television, has invited the celebrities Richard Dreyfuss, Kelsey Grammer and Bill Maher to appear.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/arts/television/01watc.html?th&emc=th