ABC Alters Studio Complexion With Celebrity Guests

(From The USA Today -- by Michael Hiestand)

Eventually, the TV studio show built around big-event coverage might not have much to do with game stats.

As it starts another season of NBA coverage with a Christmas doubleheader, ABC will introduce the latest twist in going
beyond -- its NBA NATION studio show will each week feature guest celebrity panelists who won't necessarily have any connection to the NBA.

Except, that is, that they like the NBA.

NORBY WILLIAMSON, an ABC/ESPN Executive Vice President, suggests the panel will resemble ones the old ABC show POLITICALLY INCORRECT, where host BILL MAHER would often lead a discussion among people who didn' seem to have any obvious connection to each other or to the topics at hand. The NBA show's panelists, he says, might include athletes outside basketball as well as people who aren't big celebrities -- as long as they "have a passion for the NBA."

The ABC panel is another case of using people on sports TV -- think DENNIS MILLER, RUSH LIMBAUGH and FOX NFL comic FRANK CALIENDO -- who aren't sports reporters or former players or coaches.

"We're trying to reinvent the pregame show," Williamson says. "We want people to tune in and say, 'Whoa, how are those people connected?'"

But one new face on ABC's studio show will seem logical -- SCOTTIE PIPPEN. The seven-time NBA All-Star, who retired in 2004 after 17 seasons, will join the show to fill the vacancy created by STEVE JONES and BILL WALTON, who are leaving the studio to call games.

Pippen says he's willing to be "critical. But I only critique guys to give a positive spin, to show the right way things should be done."