Larry King Live Television Program

Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Republican challenger Mike Huffington carried the animosity and tension of their heated U.S. Senate race into Larry King's television studio Thursday night during a live national broadcast of their first face-to-face debate. The exchange between the two candidates, who are nearly even in opinion polls on the race, was so acrimonious at times that their feuding was only interrupted by commercial breaks.

Paris Hilton's post-jail chat with Larry King drew 3.2 million viewers Wednesday night, three times the CNN host's average audience this year, according to Nielsen Media Research. King landed the interview after the broadcast news divisions pulled themselves out of running, declaring they had no interest in interviewing the hotel heiress after her family's efforts to secure a financial payment for the exclusive were made public.

The cable news fixation on Natalee Holloway's disappearance in Aruba has at least one high-profile dissenter. Veteran sports broadcaster Bob Costas declined to fill in as host on CNN's "Larry King Live" Thursday night because of the program's focus that night on the missing Alabama teenager and on Dennis Rader, the BTK serial killer.

Paris Hilton says she doesn't have a drinking problem, has never taken drugs and doesn't believe she deserved to be behind bars. "I think the crime did not fit the punishment," the hotel heiress told CNN's Larry King in a taped interview that aired Wednesday night. Hilton, whose life has become a virtual pop opera, began a quest for image rehabilitation barely 24 hours after she was released from jail in Los Angeles.

CNN's last stronghold against the growing strength of Fox News Channel has fallen: "Larry King Live," CNN's top-rated program, has lost for the first time to the Fox show that airs at the same time, "Hannity & Colmes." Fox already beats CNN handily in prime time, but now the domination extends even to the AOL-Time Warner Inc. subsidiary's flagship show. This month, the Fox program has drawn an average of 1.65 million viewers to King's 1.58 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

It gets to you after a while, all this wild guessing on TV about President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and Kenneth Starr, a case of conjecture based on speculation evolving into common wisdom through repeated exposure. But still, I find myself falling into the same trap. "I wonder who Larry King has on CNN tonight," I said to my wife Tuesday morning. "I'm betting Wolf Blitzer," she said. "Fifty-fifty it's Oliver North," I said. "If Larry does have on Oliver North, what do you think he'll say?"

Paris Hilton's post-jail chat with Larry King drew 3.2 million viewers Wednesday night, three times the CNN host's average audience this year, according to Nielsen Media Research. King landed the interview after the broadcast news divisions pulled themselves out of running, declaring they had no interest in interviewing the hotel heiress after her family's efforts to secure a financial payment for the exclusive were made public.

It's a rare week when the Baltimore cops of "Homicide: Life on the Street" and CNN's Larry King find themselves in the same fix. But this is such a week. NBC's fictional police tonight get nowhere grilling an accused killer in an episode airing two evenings after the overmatched King's own grueling TV session with accused presidential hopeful Ross Perot.

Mixing policy talk with personal reflections, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton told a live TV audience Thursday night that she chafes at the confines of White House life but loves to see what's getting done. Mrs. Clinton, in an hourlong interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," said she found it "profoundly sad" that rumors circulated about her relationship with Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster after his suicide last summer. "It's so sad that when something tragic happens that people . . .

It's his year. Some of the public already knew about him. But the 1992 political campaign--from the candidacy he launched on CNN in February to the amazing show he put on in Dallas Monday--gold-plated him as an American institution. And on Sunday, in an appearance that symbolized his new epic status as Someone Who Matters, he was even interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press," sounding a populist theme about Washington politicians. "Don't these people work for us?" he asked.

After being spurned by the three broadcast networks, Paris Hilton is turning to CNN's Larry King to spill the details of her 23-day incarceration in Los Angeles County jails. The celebutante has agreed to do a one-hour live interview with King after she is released from a Lynwood facility this week, CNN said Saturday. The sit-down is set for Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT. Both CNN and Michael Sitrick, a spokesman for Hilton, said she was not being compensated in any way for the interview.

The cable news fixation on Natalee Holloway's disappearance in Aruba has at least one high-profile dissenter. Veteran sports broadcaster Bob Costas declined to fill in as host on CNN's "Larry King Live" Thursday night because of the program's focus that night on the missing Alabama teenager and on Dennis Rader, the BTK serial killer.

CNN's last stronghold against the growing strength of Fox News Channel has fallen: "Larry King Live," CNN's top-rated program, has lost for the first time to the Fox show that airs at the same time, "Hannity & Colmes." Fox already beats CNN handily in prime time, but now the domination extends even to the AOL-Time Warner Inc. subsidiary's flagship show. This month, the Fox program has drawn an average of 1.65 million viewers to King's 1.58 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

It gets to you after a while, all this wild guessing on TV about President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and Kenneth Starr, a case of conjecture based on speculation evolving into common wisdom through repeated exposure. But still, I find myself falling into the same trap. "I wonder who Larry King has on CNN tonight," I said to my wife Tuesday morning. "I'm betting Wolf Blitzer," she said. "Fifty-fifty it's Oliver North," I said. "If Larry does have on Oliver North, what do you think he'll say?"

The eternal Howard Stern caravan of self-glorification rolled on this week, first returning to David Letterman's show on CBS and then making a Tuesday night stop at the Cushion You Sit On. "Tonight, the one and only, yes, Howard Stern is here!" announced the Cushion, otherwise known as Larry King.

It's a rare week when the Baltimore cops of "Homicide: Life on the Street" and CNN's Larry King find themselves in the same fix. But this is such a week. NBC's fictional police tonight get nowhere grilling an accused killer in an episode airing two evenings after the overmatched King's own grueling TV session with accused presidential hopeful Ross Perot.

After being spurned by the three broadcast networks, Paris Hilton is turning to CNN's Larry King to spill the details of her 23-day incarceration in Los Angeles County jails. The celebutante has agreed to do a one-hour live interview with King after she is released from a Lynwood facility this week, CNN said Saturday. The sit-down is set for Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT. Both CNN and Michael Sitrick, a spokesman for Hilton, said she was not being compensated in any way for the interview.

P residential politics are now zooming toward 1996. Thus, Larry King had powerbroker Ross Perot on his CNN talk show the other night, and as usual proved a rapt listener while letting the Texas billionaire and former presidential candidate plug his pet enterprises, be evasive and pretty much have his own way.

"Larry gets better every year," declares famed media critic Ross Perot in a CNN publicity kit packed with Larry King endorsements. "I'd want to be on 'Larry King Live' the night I announce my candidacy," says hallucinating Henry A. Kissinger. "This is like dancing with Fred Astaire," says twinkletoes House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia. "The road to the White House these days runs right through Larry's studio," says roadrunning Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas.

P residential politics are now zooming toward 1996. Thus, Larry King had powerbroker Ross Perot on his CNN talk show the other night, and as usual proved a rapt listener while letting the Texas billionaire and former presidential candidate plug his pet enterprises, be evasive and pretty much have his own way.