Maria Shriver returns to TV

Tonight on NBC, Maria Shriver offers viewers insight into a heroic comeback from a sudden career setback.

Not Roy Horn's -- hers.

The first lady of California, who made her name as a correspondent for NBC News, returns to prime-time television with "Siegfried & Roy: The Miracle," a one-hour special in which she interviews the Las Vegas entertainers about Horn's recovery from a horrific onstage tiger attack last year. It's Shriver's first on-air broadcast gig since her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was elected governor, which led her to take a leave from the news division due to conflict-of-interest concerns.

"One of the goals, when the news division suggested that I go on leave, was, 'I'm going to find my way back on the air,' " Shriver told reporters in a conference call last week. "That was important to me because I felt that I still had a lot to give as a journalist."

But at least for this special, it's hard to see Shriver as a journalist. "Siegfried & Roy" is produced by NBC Studios, the network's in-house entertainment production division. The special is a tie-in designed to help promote NBC's "Father of the Pride," the Tuesday animated sitcom from DreamWorks Television that's based on Siegfried & Roy's act and executive-produced by the duo.

While current and former NBC News staffers joined Shriver in working on the special, spokeswoman Allison Gollust said the news division had nothing to do with it.

On the other hand, NBC executives and Shriver clearly don't mind if viewers continue to regard the first lady as a reporter, which could lend credibility to a special that's essentially a promotional exercise. Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, told TV critics in July that "Siegfried & Roy" would be produced with the same standards used at "Dateline," the network's prime-time newsmagazine. (An advance tape of the special was not made available.)

The fact that Shriver is married to a movie-star governor -- who was elected amid a blaze of international publicity after his predecessor was ousted in a recall -- presumably stokes viewer interest as well.

"They're trading on her cachet as a newsperson ... and the public's interest in her as the first lady of California," said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at Cal State Sacramento.