We always knew the CEO’s corner office at Googleplex was no place for an acerbic wit like Eric Schmidt’s. Say something like “The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it. I would argue that implanting something in your brain is beyond the creepy line — at least for the moment, until the technology gets better” onstage during a product demo, and you’re a PR nightmare. Say it from behind the anchor’s desk, and you’re giving Joe Scarborough and Bill Maher a run for their money. So it’s only natural that Schmidt has been working with Parker Spitzer executive producer Liza McGuirk to shop a pilot for a talk show. (The two met when McGuirk executive produced Fareed Zakaria GPS, where Schmidt was a regular guest.) An insider at CNN tells “Page Six” that Schmidt has actually been shopping himself around for more than a year, “but the pilot he filmed with Liza was a complete disaster.” That’s cable news’ loss as far as we’re concerned. Sure, he may make Spitzer look telegenic by comparison, but the guy is a one-man unsettling soundbite machine. Or a harbinger of a collective privacy nightmare. But we’re pretty sure it’s the former. Schmidt’s quote that people who don’t like Streetview “can just move” was probably the best press Parker Spitzer got last year. If a deal does come to fruition, the networks are welcome to borrow our Photoshop for promotional use, as long as we get a producer’s fee.
Google’s Schmidt eyeing TV [PageSix/NYP]
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