'Bethenny' Could Be To Blame For Killing 'Anderson Cooper Live'

Is 'Bethenny' To Blame For Killing 'Anderson Cooper Live'?
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 06: Bethenny Frankel attends Fashion's Night Out at Macy's Herald Square on September 6, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images for Macy's)
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 06: Bethenny Frankel attends Fashion's Night Out at Macy's Herald Square on September 6, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images for Macy's)

Anderson Cooper has to be wondering how he'll spend his afternoons now that Warner Bros. has decided to discontinue his daily talk show, "Anderson Live," after two seasons. And though the series will not disappear until after the summer of 2013, a new program is already circling Anderson’s prized time slots like a vulture.

"Bethenny," hosted by "Real Housewives of New York" veteran Bethenny Frankel, recently finished a try-out period on Fox, with extremely promising results. “Without any doubt, Bethenny’s six-week test did great," one person associated with both shows said. "She found her voice, but more importantly she found her audience."

Now all she needs to find is a time slot.

“Syndication is a super tough market,” veteran producer Amy Rosenblum told The Huffington Post. “You have a lineup of new shows waiting for current shows to get cancelled in order to take that slot. There are only so many hours of daytime TV each network has to program. It’s the survival of the fittest. If you think a new show is going to get more viewers and advertising dollars than an old show, the choice is obvious.”

In other words, "Bethenny" could very well wind up filling the holes left by "Anderson Cooper Live."

Ironically, the same subsidiary of Warner Bros., Telepictures, produces both Cooper’s ill-fated talk show and Frankel's new one. An then there's the fact Frankel and Cooper are friends. She even co-hosted his troubled show on one occasion in an attempt to get more him more viewers.

But even friends have to bow to ratings reality. "Is she sad her pal’s show, or anyone else’s, had to get cancelled for hers to live? Yes. But that's how the business works," said the person with ties to both shows, who added, "We are very excited for Bethenny's show."

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