Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: ‘Vegas Live!’ aces initial chemistry test

Here is our entirely subjective take on Monday's premiere telecast of "Vegas Live! With Clint Holmes and Sheena Easton."

VegasBeat was invited to the studio to watch the initial broadcast of the new Las Vegas ONE morning talk and entertainment show. It airs daily at 9 a.m.

Hosts: Clint Holmes and Sheena Easton are pros. Of course, so were Mike and Maddie and Alana and George Hamilton, whose morning efforts were abject failures. However, this pairing of Strip headliners immediately brings morning powerhouses Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa to mind.

Holmes' often self-deprecating humor was perfect for the occasion and his opening bit on his "metrosexuality" was unscripted and entertaining.

Easton's barbs at Holmes and discussion of her new, comfortable $58 bra struck the right tone for the show.

One big reason that "Live With Regis and Kelly" is a ratings champ is because of the personal attachment their audience feels for them. Same thing is developing here.

Announcer: Initially, Kelly Clinton did not conjure up memories of Ed McMahon, or even Rod Roddy. Her opening intro was choppy, and sounded like she was reading it off a TelePrompTer, which she was. However, her taped bit later on from a fashion show at Tabu gave her a better chance to exhibit her talents.

Newsman: When he is doing his regular KLAS Channel 8 anchor duties, Casey Smith is appropriately serious. Here, his interaction with the hosts and occasional jab at a news story demonstrate to the viewer a side of his personality that most of us didn't even know he had.

Celeb guests: A taped bit with MGM Grand headliner and comedy hero George Carlin was surprisingly good. Holmes proved to be a better interviewer than most of the folks on the evening newsmagazine shows. However, the segment should have been live.

Carlin's comedy colleague Dennis Blair was in studio, and he was funny. But for a show that hopes to be syndicated and will rely on the star power of Las Vegas to do that, future shows need to have larger names.

Makeover: This sponsored segment differs little from similar spots on other shows. The "before" image and the "after" look were, appropriately, startlingly different. Perhaps more of the process could have been seen by viewers, however.

Taped Bits: The aforementioned Clinton segment from Tabu, and a segment on Halloween costumes taped over the weekend at The Rio club BiKiNis were both winners. Luckily, there is no shortage of interesting events for "Vegas Live!" cameras to record.

Overall: Perhaps the only thing that went wrong Monday was show co-producer Rick Garson yelling "That was great!" after the first segment ended -- but before the show had cut to a commercial.

"After weeks of telling us to keep quiet until we are clear, look who goes and blows it!," Holmes joked after the broadcast.

The show was paced just right for a morning audience -- not too manic, not too plodding. The theme music and show logo have an entirely professional look.

Even the bumpers (the short clips shown before and after commercials) were attractive. They were designed by Media Underground, where former Venetian communications exec Kurt Ouchida now works.

All the show needs is a studio audience, which, according to co-producer Howard Lefkowitz, they hope to eventually incorporate.

Yes, friends, "Vegas Live!" and the Las Vegas Sun are both under the same Greenspun Media Group corporate umbrella. Regardless, an undertaking like this is news. And the show is a good one.

'X' returns

The naughty "X" show is set for a comeback. Twice.

A deal is nearly set for the original women in the production to roll into the Stratosphere the week of Nov. 17 to entertain Comdex audiences.

Then after Thanksgiving they plan to start an open-ended Strat run.

Also, they are talking to Harrah's about bringing a parallel version of the show to Lake Tahoe after Christmas. As we first reported, the new point man for Harrah's in that area is Don Marrandino -- who saw "X" several times when he was based in Vegas with Wynn Resorts and earlier at the Hard Rock Hotel.

"X" was displaced from its original Aladdin home by magician Steve Wyrick's new show, which opens at the end of the month.

Misquote

Hopefully, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman won't repeat a recent gaffe over a Frank Sinatra lyric when he comes to town for his Nov. 19 fund-raiser at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

The New York Times tweaked the candidate the other day for a comment he made at Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York.

"I cannot control myself from quoting the great Sinatra, when he sang of New York, 'If you can make it here, you'll make it everywhere', " The Times reported him as saying.

"The line is 'make it anywhere,' " the newspaper scolded.

VegasBits

Diva: She sings, she paints. Donna Summer confirmed Monday that she will attend the opening of an exhibit of her work at the S2Art Group's Entertainment Gallery at The Venetian on Nov. 21 ...

Stage: Jed Bernstein, the influential president of the League of American Theatres and Producers, will be in Vegas next week for his group's biennial conference. Various Nederlanders and Schoenfelds, Cameron Mackintosh and other Broadway royalty are expected to attend ...

From Sun wires

David Letterman had a good excuse for missing work: His girlfriend was in labor with their first child.

Bandleader Paul Shaffer filled in for Letterman as host of the "Late Show" Monday night. There was no word on where Letterman, 56, a Connecticut resident, and girlfriend Regina Lasko were, a spokesman for Letterman's production company said.

Tripp settles: Linda Tripp will get more than $595,000 from the Defense Department to settle a lawsuit over the release of confidential personal information about her to a magazine, her lawyers said Monday.

Based on information supplied by Pentagon officials in 1998, The New Yorker reported Tripp did not admit an arrest on her security application for her job at the Defense Department. She had been arrested for grand larceny when she was a teenager.

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