OPINION: Stuart Elliott in America.(Brief Article)

In all the hype and hoopla over the success of American Idol, the US version of Pop Idol, a salient fact has been overlooked: the show is a microcosm for how television itself operates.

Because of its continuous need to fill airtime, and thus be able to sell commercial time, the TV networks are in a continuous hunt for talent (a word I use in its broadest sense). And if you can't find enough new faces to go around, the alternative is easy: offer comeback bids to familiar faces. After all, surveys show that viewers who routinely refuse to sample unknown personalities will at least tune in to see an old-timer a time or two for auld lang syne.

Even so, it was startling when MSNBC, the cable network devoted to news and talk that is co-owned by NBC and Microsoft, announced that Phil Donahue, a pioneer of the talkshow genre, would emerge from six years of retirement to host a big programme. The show, in the prestigious slot at the start of weeknight primetime (8pm in the Eastern US), is meant to be the flagship for a revamped version of MSNBC, which has lagged badly in the Nielsen ratings behind rivals such as CNN and Fox News Channel.

MSNBC, which now styles itself America's News Channel, is hoping Donahue's age (66), experience (30 years as a chatmeister) and white hair will not turn off the younger viewers so eagerly courted by the network. The hope is that the demographically desirable consumers will recall him from their childhoods and tune in along with their parents and grandparents, who made Donahue such a huge star in the era before Oprah Winfrey and the 'trash talk' genre of Jerry Springer.

One break already benefiting Donahue is the fierce fight for hegemony among the three cable news networks at 8pm. He has been scheduled against the ...