Jane Pauley's Midlife Crisis
In May of 2003, Jane Pauley bid farewell to NBC after 27 years. The following month, she signed a deal with the Peacock network to host her own nationally syndicated daytime talk show. At the time, TV-industry wags wondered if Pauley exited Dateline in disgust at the TV newsmag's increasingly tabloidy flavor. Last year was all about Jacko, after all...
"Actually, no. The state of television at the time I left Dateline was kind of a coincidence," Pauley says diplomatically. "I would have left under any circumstances."
According to Pauley, she was a lady of a certain age, taking stock of her life. "It was like a perfect storm," she recalls. "You're looking at a woman who is now 53. At the time, I was a little younger, but not much. I had just put two children in college. I'd lost both my parents. So there are markers in a woman's life that say, 'You're in a new place.'"
So rather than re-up her contract at NBC News, she opted to do The Jane Pauley Show, which debuts Aug. 30. She says her chatfest is directed at women over 30: "Women with some life experience — that's who I have in my head."
Like other daytime shows, she'll do makeovers and celebrity interviews. But Pauley wants to "see [celebs] life-size," meaning she wants to interview them when they have something to say about life, not just when they have movies to plug.
We've heard that stuff before, but at least Pauley recognizes she's not doing anything particularly innovative by launching a talk show. She just wants to be on par with the current chatterbox heavyweights. "I handed Ellen her Daytime Emmy and was absolutely thrilled to do so," she says. "And I've watched Oprah for virtually all of her 20 years. I see Dr. Phil quite a lot. I take heart from [their success]."
