“There’s fairly compelling data out there that digital people get annoyed--they’ve been trained to be able to click something immediately when they see it,” said Mr. Housman, formerly of News Corp. “As soon as we were out there talking about this, we wanted you to be able to see the show.”

Despite the lack of roll-out for Mr. King’s second act after his departure from CNN in 2010, the project has been gestating for some time: Mr. Housman was brought on board to lead the new video company, he said, after a conversation between Mr. King and Carlos Slim Helu led to the notion of bringing Mr. King online. Mr. King had been in Mexico City in September 2010 to speak at a scholarship awards ceremony put on by Mr. Slim Helu; in his memoir, the host wrote, “At age seventy-seven, I was still making friends like Carlos Slim. Which made me feel like the richest man in the world.”

How will Mr. King’s new act, funded by his pal’s deep pockets, differ from his first? “We have flexibility in format, if we have a guest we want to run long on, we have flexibility to have that interview go as long as needed.” (In the first week, an interview with Seth MacFarlane ran nearly 27 minutes, while Matthew McConaughey got just shy of 20. Meghan McCain was in the middle.) Mr. Housman indicated that this show catching on was a matter of booking; speaking hypothetically, he noted, “There are not that many shows where you can talk to a presidential candidate, a world leader, but also Lady Gaga and Ryan Seacrest.” Promoting the show will rely on Mr. King being his irascible self in new platforms: he did an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit this week.

“On social media, he’s one of the most followed media personalities in the world,” raved Mr. Housman.

1. You Will Get Served

Psychologists have discovered the best male dance moves--and the worst--via video footage shown to female test subjects. Good dancers had a variety of moves and they frequently tilted the neck and twisted the torso. Most men stink at dancing, though, displaying "highly repetitive" dance moves involving only the arms and legs. We know these things because according to the Guardian, "37  straight women" agreed on them. Just like the rest of life. Pro tip, guys: your dancing will be much improved if you do it in silence while wearing a full-body, featureless silver suit just like in the animation below. Chicks dig men in featureless body suits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9xThNyPWdc

2. Stephen Colbert Announces That He Will Announce an Announcement Soon

It's beginning to look like T minus whatever to "Buy a Diaper Day" for the "Restoring Truthiness" folks behind ColbertRally.com. A "Restorer of Truthiness" told the Observer that if Stephen Colbert responded they would lose control of a certain bodily function, and Colbert may be preparing to answer their call. He acknowledged the movement to get him to hold his own event on 10/10/10 on his show last night and promised... some kind of announcement that he will make if Jon Stewart makes an equally mysterious announcement at some point in the near future. Somehow, geese may also be involved. It is unlikely there will be any dancing, whatever the case (see earlier item).

Below: the call to Stephen Colbert, Bringer of Truthiness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCQtDkuHGRc

3. Piers Morgan to be Not Larry King

Nice British person and journalist turned talent show judge Piers Morgan will be taking his place on the slow-smoldering ashes of Larry King's funeral pyre in Larry King's comfy office chair at CNN. He will, just as Mr. King did, talk to people about things. The NYT's Brian Stelter reports that Mr. Morgan will take over from Mr. King in January, 2011.

Schlessinger made her announcement during an interview on CNN's Larry King Live. She said she was done with radio and getting out so she could "regain my First Amendment rights."

Schlessinger also indicated that she feels as though she can't speak her mind without "some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent" via protests made to sponsors of her program. Schlessinger, who holds Ph.D. in physiology, said she will explore new venues where she "could say my peace and not have to live in fear anymore."

[CNN]

After making a joke about how his job at The Sun involved picking the topless Page Three girls—a joke that soared right over the heads of the Burbank audience—he went on to describe the romantic way he came to edit The News of the World.

I was the show business columnist at The Sun and then when I was 28, Rupert Murdoch flew me to Miami, walked me along Miami beach for two hours and then at the end of it he made me what was then the youngest newspaper editor for 50 years in Britain. So I had this scary moment when I had to go into The News of the World, the biggest selling newspaper in the world—still is I think—and I had to just try and pretend to be an editor.

He described Murdoch as a "great sort of mentor" to him saying it was even enjoyable to compete with the mogul when he eventually went to the Daily Mail. The New York Times may disagree!

Morgan earned points with the audience for saying that, hypothetically, were he to have his own talk show in the near future, he's love his first guest to be Nelson Mandela. "At a time like now, when everyone's at war, they could probably all do with an hour of Nelson Mandela," he said to whoops and applause.

Video below.           

NBC has agreed to share Mr. Morgan with CNN, according to The Times. America's Got Talent brings in 20 million viewers for the network, and expanding Mr. Morgan's brand onto another platform might drive more viewers to the show.

Mr. Stelter and Mr. Carter had some fun with the write-up:

If completed, the deal would vault Mr. Morgan, a native of Britain, onto the Mount Rushmore of TV’s top interviewers, alongside Oprah, Barbara and Katie. It will also demonstrate that CNN thinks there is still room in primetime for long-form interviews with public servants and starlets, a stark contrast to the partisan pundits on its higher-rated competitors.

Mount Rushmore!

Mr. King said that $51 Million man Ryan Seacrest was his personal favorite for the spot. "If he knows his politics, I couldn't think of a better person than him," Mr. King told the LA Times at the beginning of the summer, but that never materialized.

Mr. King's producer Tammy Haddad thinks Mr. Morgan will be just fine. “Almost every other U.K. TV import has been hugely successful," she told The Times. He has an accent? Done.

Mr. Shales, who isn't known for taking it easy on people, wrote today:

King was indeed chided over the years for lobbing "softball" questions. Controversial guests would appear on King's show above and before all others because, it was said, they could expect an easier time of it. But why should every show and every host have to deliver hardballs over the plate at 100 mph? Must everyone who asks questions on television do it with a 25-pound chip on the shoulder? King let guests have their say. He was gentlemanly. And he got great guests, at least in his long and happy heyday, largely for that reason.

You knew you could go on King's show and try to explain and defend yourself, if need be.

"Snitty British twit Piers Morgan" (that's still Mr. Shales) would inevitably be less kind to his guests in the role.

"I’m incredibly proud," Mr. King added, "that we recently made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest-running show with the same host in the same time slot."

According to second-quarter ratings numbers that were released on Tuesday, Mr. King's 9 p.m. hour had its worst quarter ever, with 674,000 average total viewers.

Campbell Brown, who came on at 8 p.m. before Mr. King, also had her worst quarter ever. She decided to leave her show in May, saying, “The simple fact is that not enough people want to watch my program, and I owe it to myself and to CNN to get out of the way so that CNN can try something else.” Something else, like Crossfire redux.

CNN president Jon Klein told Brian Stelter, who broke the news this evening, that Mr. King is leaving his show on his own terms and a replacement will be named over the summer.

"I'm not getting younger. I want more time with other things. It's time to go," Mr. King told the Los Angeles Times.

Piers Morgan and Katie Couric have both been floated as possible favorites, but Mr. King favors Ryan Seacrest.

There were three alone on today's Page Six: Is Eliot Spitzer going to take Campbell Brown's 8pm spot? Is Larry King out? Will former British tabloid editor Piers Morgan replace him?

All good questions, but no answers yet.

Other good questions, courtesy of Mr. King's Twitter feed:

How do they make string cheese?

Whatever happened to station wagons?

I just fed my dog and on the dog food bag it says "DELICIOUS!" How do they know?

15 Things Larry King Doesn't Know [BuzzFeed]

Larry King: CNN's best, troubled asset. [NYT]

No more "Countess Louise J. Esterhazy" at Stefano Tonchi's W.[NYP]

"Shamed Dutchess of York Sarah Ferguson steps out post-scandal to hawk her new books in New York" [NYDN]

James Bond closes on Tribeca penthouse [WSJ] 

Schumer moves to fight pre-paid cell phones. [NYDN]

No Magnolia for SATC bus tours. [WSJ]

Diane Keaton will play HBO's Nikki Finke-esque blogger. [EW]

Unions battle over Broadway's singers and dancers. [WSJ]

Which New Yorkers spend the most money eating out? [NYM]

Gilt Groupe for restaurants comes to New York. [NYT]