Practicalmadness

IMDB's StudioBriefing has this very, very welcome news:

In an apparent move to place more emphasis on hard news in order to differentiate itself from rival Fox News Channel, CNN announced Friday that it has canceled TalkBack Live , its afternoon show hosted by entertainment reporter Arthel Neville and featuring weekly appearances by former basketball star Charles Barkley.

I've always hated that show. The current incarnation is perhaps the most tolerable, but the format -- a talk show with constant comments from the studio audience, peppered with e-mails and IMs from viewers at home -- becomes really, really unbearable after a while. The interviewers don't ask tough enough questions, and the armchair cowboys sending the IMs generally have nothing to add but expressions of their ignorance.