ABC News' Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos have been getting reamed by critics for their job moderating the Philadelphia debate last week, spending the first hour on gossipy questions about trivial matters that had nothing to do with the failing economy, education, health care reform or that little thing overseas known as the war.
There was more dead-horse beating over rehashed issues like whether each would pick the other for a running mate or Sen. Barack Obama's association with questionable people.
It was an obvious attempt to get the candidates to snipe at each other for shock value, as if that would keep viewers from switching over to "American Idol" at 8 p.m.
"It was another step downward for network news," the Washington Post's Tom Shales said of the debate.
After watching it myself, I learned more about television news than I did about the candidates. I learned TV news has never tried harder to be entertainment.
Even more distressing is that this was all under the guise of real, important network news. C'mon guys, fess up. You wanted ratings. You wanted showmanship. It was never about the issues affecting the country. It was about riling up candidates on a live broadcast.
If you're going that far to try and nab viewers, don't disguise your shameless attempts - just embrace them. Let go and have fun.
Here are my suggestions to make the next presidential debate even more exciting.
* Moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos out. Moderators Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie in.
* First and most important question of the night: "Um, Sen. Clinton, is that MAC lipstick you're wearing?"
* Second question of the night: "Sen. Obama, what do you want to say to Britney after her meltdown?"
* Get the "Deal or No Deal" models to pull the question cards out of their briefcases.
* Michael Buffer starts the evening with, "Let's get ready to rummblleee!!"
* Forget the candidates' views on health care. Ask them which David is going to win "American Idol."
* Use the "Jeopardy" question jingle to time their answers.
* Do a crossover episode with "Lost" to see which candidate gets off the island first.
* Winner of the debate gets a million dollars and a recording contract with Simon Cowell.
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* VINCE HORIUCHI can be reached at vince@sltrib.com or 801-257-8607.
