Dennis Miller

So the The Dennis Miller Show on CNBC has been canceled and his last show will be on Friday.

This comes as no surprise to me. I'm Dennis' target audience and I wasn't watching the show. I consider myself young, informed and 9/11 changed my view of politics. I'm the target audience. When the show first started - I used to watch it as often as possible but now I can't recall the last time I tuned in.

That doesn't mean I thought it was a bad show. I actually liked it. It's just that my clicker doesn't go by CNBC too often and I usually get my information via the web. Sorry Dennis.

I guess the show was only attracting about 114,000 viewers per night. That's not good.

I hope Dennis isn't too down about this turn of events. I'm sure he'll bounce back and in fact I have some suggestions on some situations that would be perfect for Dennis Miller.

1. Everyone knows that Comedy Central's The Daily Show has an obvious liberal bent. With Dave Chappelle now questionable - Comedy Central could use another 1/2 hour show. Why not boil the current version of The Dennis Miller Show down to a 1/2 hour? Take out some of the more serious stuff and make it a humorous conservative counterbalance to The Daily Show.

2. ABC is looking to replace Nightline. Why not have a show dedicated to examining the Blogosphere and bias in the MSM? You could call it Webline. Have Dennis Miller be the host and tab some unknown (think a young Mort Sahl) as the liberal counterbalance. They could sit there and make humorous observations and snide remarks from both sides of the political fence. Think of it as sort of a video version of James Taranto's Best of the Web.

3. Finally - Miller could take his act online. He could have a website to replace The Dennis Miller Show that would certainly get better than the 114,000 views his TV show was getting. I even have a suggested format for the online version of The Dennis Miller Show.

Monday - Dennis' Monday Rant (Dennis' take on today's headlines) plus an interview of someone interesting or in the news. The interview would take 20 minutes to tape and an hour to transcribe. Not much heavy lifting.

Tuesday - Dennis' Tuesday Rant and a video of one of two weekly Varsity Panels. The panel would be taped live and streamed via his site.

Wednesday - Dennis' Wednesday Rant and an essay by Dennis on whatever subject he picks for the week.

Thursday - Dennis' Thursday Rant and the second Varsity Panel for the week.

Friday - Dennis' Friday Rant and two special Friday features. The special features would be a guest essay and a quest short film or cartoon. Each week Dennis could have bloggers send them an essay and he would pick one to publish. This would give bloggers the exposure we all honestly crave and him some free content. What a country! Plus by selecting the essay - Dennis insures quality control. The film would be something like a Strong Bad or Jib Jab type deal.

With this sort of set up - Dennis Miller could have Glenn Reynolds type web traffic. The blog ads and sponsorships would provide a tidy income and the site would serve to keep Miller's name in the mix. Guests would want to participate on his varsity panels because he could advertise their books on his site (plus get a commission on any books sold via his site). Bloggers would want to send in their essays or films just for the exposure.

This could work!