Politics

Halperin and Heilemann’s New Bloomberg TV Show Looks Ambitious

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
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Via Dylan Byers, here is one of the trailers from Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s forthcoming Bloomberg show, “With All Due Respect.”

The previews have me thinking about two things. First, the fact that the footage seems to be taking place outside a studio, and in visually stimulating spaces, reminds me of Anthony Bourdain’s CNN show, “Parts Unknown.” Obviously, the premise is vastly different (I’m guessing they won’t be doing much international travel), but filming outside a studio (assuming this isn’t just a conceit for the promo) is costly and time consuming.

Second, I’m reminded a bit of ESPN’s “Pardon The Interruption,” for this reason: Most political shows pit liberal commentators versus conservative commentators — sometimes with a moderator asking the questions. But on “Pardon The Interruption,” you have two ostensibly unbiased journalists debating each other over questions like “Can Indianapolis beat Manning’s Broncos?” (It turns out the answer is “no.”)

Both the aforementioned shows are fun and irreverent — a departure from a lot of political commentary which, understandably, leans toward the serious.

Give them credit for trying to do something different from anything else in the political space. The temptation is always to make yet another cable news-esque political debate show. They’re relatively cheap, and it’s a format people in politics know how to produce.

This clearly won’t be that.

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I asked Twitter for some feedback…