Journalists, chat show hosts, spend a lifetime asking questions. But some win over others simply because they manage to master the art of asking great questions. I would say it's all about being a great 'humane' interest journalist; someone who can ask the most personal and graceful questions to celebrities and get home some real beautiful answers about things & situations.

I was on CNN's Larry King Live. Needless to say, but I think Larry has that cutting edge over others when it comes to asking questions. No wonder he's been referred to as the 'master of the mike' by world media. This time around, CNN's top notch show, which has kept loyal viewers glued across the world for years now, had Jane Fonda as the guest.

An actress, a fitness guru and Ted Turner's ex wife, Fonda not just spoke about her life but unraveled all her best kept secrets, hidden for years. Apart from this, she spoke about her sexual exploitation by her first husband Roger Vadim, being a tabloid target, and her book My Life So Far.

In all, what would perhaps be of interest for readers here would be Fonda's romance and later marriage to media tycoon Ted Turner. Turner, who risked his personal wealth way back in 1970 to start CNN. Turner has been credited with changing the nature of news --- from watching something that happened to watching it as it happened. When, Larry tuned in to Fonda, about her marriage to Turner, viewers got a little peek into the maverick tycoon's life. Just a quick recap of the conversation.

Larry - What did you like about Ted Turner?

Fonda - He had such a ribald sense of humor. And he was irresistible.

Larry - When you met Ted Turner, he even said he has friends who were communists, right? He thought you were a communist.

Fonda - I don't know what he thought, Larry. But our very first date, we barely got in the car and sat down, that he turned to me like a little boy bringing home good grades and said, I have lots of friends who are communists. I've been to Cuba three times. Maybe, he wanted me to find it endearing, which I did. I thought it was hysterical. And then you know what he followed that up with, like that wasn't a good way to begin a date. He then said, "I don't really know a lot about you, so I went into the CNN archives and they pulled all your documents in. And it was about a foot high. And he said, so then I had them pull mine and mine was about three feet high. Mine's bigger than yours."

Larry - Why did you fall in love with him? Not that we could explain why we fall in love.

Fonda - You know why I fell in love with him. You know him well. He's the most fascinating, charming, generous, exciting, sexy, good looking, my God, he was good looking. And you know, the big deal is that he wasn't afraid of letting me know that he needed me. We need to be needed. And most men I've been with didn't want to let me know that they needed me, they were kind of intimidated by my success. Not Ted.
Now, why would Ted be intimated with Jane Fonda, I thought it would be the other way around… if at all.

*****

Moving on, back home, news channels have had 360 degree blanket coverage of BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan's fight for life following his shooting by younger brother Pravin. Apart from the 24/7 coverage of Mahajan's critical condition, channels have been exploring all angles to the story. We got to see all the old interviews with Mahajan, which brought out the rise of a man from a rather humble background to the power elite of the country.

Somehow, CNN IBN managed to score over all the others in terms of the treatment of the whole incident. And this coupled with Rajdeep Sardesai's incisive questioning offered a very different perspective.

Apart from a special story on sibling rivalry, citing examples from Indian business families like the Ambanis, the channel got the likes of senior journalists like Kumar Ketkar who have known the Mahajan family for years. A special story named 'inside the mind of a killer' got in psychiatrists to analyse the whole incident. Could there be a killer amongst us? How to recognize the symptoms, analyse a personality etc.

*****

I was wondering as to what could be the reason behind the lacklustre performance of the much hyped Indian Idol on Sony this time round? Towards the end, the fight between Karunya and Sandeep Acharya for the coveted title, somehow didn't manage to connect with viewers the way it did in its first edition. So, how does one explain the lackluctre ratings of this format show which continues to rake in such massive numbers for Fox in the US season after season?

I think, the channel went a bit amiss in terms of bombarding the viewer with an overdose of format shows. Even after the first round of Indian Idol, the channel continued to play on the hype around Abhijeet Sawant. With the same footage doing the rounds, the channel went ahead with Fame Gurukul. Meanwhile, Zee went aggressive on the Sa re ga ma Challenge, turning it into a reality show. This coupled with Star's Kaun Banega Crorepati Dwitiya and Star One's The Indian Laughter Challenge and Nach Baliye.

So, in all the fight was really for the viewer share of the same audience and from the same genre really. An overdose of reality programming… I must say.