After completing her first successful season as host of the Amazing America series on the cable TV Sportsman Channel -- and being renewed for a second run of 12 episodes -- is former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin also interested in joining the depleted ranks of panelists on ABC's The View?
Judging from an email interview with Marisa Guthrie of The Hollywood Reporter, Palin has already given some serious thought regarding how to revitalize the weekday morning series: give it “a punch of reality and a voice of reason from America's heartland.”
When Guthrie asked the former Alaska governor if she had “any interest in doing a political talk show,” she responded that “the politics would have to be interspersed with a whole lot of fun and real life and inspiration showcasing American work ethic.”
Those topics “are all pretty much the antithesis of today's politics,” Palin stated, “which I find incorrigibly disastrous!”
She continued:
It'd be so much fun to shake it up, taking on issues that make audiences objectively consider all sides, and I'd do it with my own real-life groundedness, candor and common sense that I'm known for.
Media needs that today, versus the condescension that oozes from TV and radio.
After noting that Barbara Walters is going into semi-retirement and liberal panelists Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy are leaving The View, Palin asserted that “maybe a show like that needs a punch of reality and a voice of reason from America's heartland to knock some humble sense into their scripts.”
“You know, someone willing to go rogue,” she continued.
However, the conservative activist already has a series of her own called Amazing America, “which has her introducing viewers to the great outdoors as well as the country's unsung heroes,” Guthrie reported.
That program “has brought significant attention to the niche cable channel, propelling Sportsman to triple-digit year-over-year growth in households and key male demographics,” the interviewer added, and executives of the channel -- which reaches about 36 million homes -- are counting on Palin "to be their linchpin in an ongoing effort to launch more original programming.”
When work on the new run of episodes begins later this year for an early 2015 premiere, Craig Piligian's Pilgrim Studios will return to produce the series, as well as “Camp Stew, a Talk Soup-like clip show” that will feature illusionist-comedian Penn Jillette “commenting on outdoor bloopers and caught-on-camera mishaps” beginning July 17.
After being asked which episode in the first season was her favorite, Pail replied: “It’s hard to pick just one because they all told such interesting and inspiring stories!”
Looking forward to her next season, Palin declared: "We’re working on stories about people who go above and beyond to help others, really inspirational stuff that will encourage the entire nation."
As NewsBusters previously reported, Palin has had more than her share of bad experiences with the panelists on The View.
In February of 2010, Walters accused her of saying that President Barack Obama should declare war on Iran. Actually, Palin asserted that a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities was one way Obama could revive his sagging political fortunes.
During the past few years, one of the guests on The View who has slammed Palin on a regular basis is Bill Maher, host of the HBO series Real Time.
In June of 2013, Maher made a tasteless joke calling Trig, Sarah Palin's son with Down Syndrome, “retarded” during a stand-up comedy performance in Las Vegas, and she fired back with a tweet in which she slammed him as “a bully.”
The situation became even more volatile when Barbara Walters actually defended Maher's use of the word because she didn't think he intended it to be “mean-spirited.”
Palin concluded the interview by stating that even after all the lies and insults sent her way, “I'm still standing! So flipping proud to be an American where I know first hand that anything is possible if you work hard, put your life in God's hands, serve something greater than self and live life vibrantly!”
So will she become a panelist on The View? Let's hope so, since then they'd actually have “fair and balanced” discussions for a change.
