Box on (Courier-Mail, Brisbane)

From a TV column in the Courier-Mail, commenting
on one of Michael’s recent appearances.

 
By Dianne Butler
 
THIS is why you and I don't have our own TV show. Talk us through the mind of a suicide bomber, Kerri-Anne Kennerley urged a studio guest yesterday, nano-seconds after a truly dazzling demonstration of a vacuum cleaner, abetted by Rozz, KAK's upbeat sales whiz. Don't be surprised if one day you read a limerick using some combination of the words Rozz and whiz in this column. Rozz is from Brisbane and used to go out with a big footballer, can't think which one now. She had quite a morning yesterday, wrangling white goods. And then, total non sequitur, in comes Michael Ware, Baghdad-based foreign correspondent and reliably impressive talk show guest. He used to work here, and can I just say to the Australian Story people, if he agrees to be on your program, there are quite a number of people in this building who could give you some fantastic anecdotes. Not sure you could put any of them to air, but the offer's there anyway.
 
I'd been watching a stained carpet segment and wondering how KAK was going to link Ware and cleaning products -- they'd be messy, those suicide bomb sites, maybe there's something there -- and I started thinking, only KAK could pull this off. She really is something. It's one thing to talk to a reporter about the geo-politics of the Middle East -- anyone can do that -- but a pasta cooker that also makes hot dogs? I'd like to see you do that, Kerry O'Brien.
 
People who work in television will tell you there is no bigger turn-off than the Iraq war. I find that astounding. Have these people not seen It Takes Two ? And doesn't it say something about this boneheaded conflict that Mornings with Kerri-Anne is now the venue where we can see footage of nutters detonating themselves? You won't be seeing it tonight on the news, that's for sure. But nobody cares about daytime television so KAK gets to screen anything she wants. If you'd seen those hot dogs . . . they looked like carbon rods lined up in a test tube. Horrible.
 
I wonder who the audience is who watches KAK each day? Any of you? Are you engaged by the Iraq war at all? And did KAK pat Michael Ware's knee yesterday or did I imagine that?
 
Ware did Sunrise yesterday as well, and amazingly was in the studio. You wouldn't think there'd be room for another alpha male alongside Kochie, but there you are.