Michele Hewitson: Holmes gets grumpy

Last Wednesday night our time, as the telethon that is the American presidential election dragged on into the early hours of the morning, their time, veteran telly host Larry King chucked it in.

At 70, he was by far the oldest member of CNN's panel and for the last hour he was present he grew grumpier and virtually silent. At one point he was seen yawning. We knew how he felt.

The day before another veteran presenter — although a mere boy by Larry's standards — announced he was leaving TVNZ for a much more modest outfit called Prime.

TVNZ has offered the great host a one-year contract; tantamount to a big fat hint, and a big insult. So Holmes walked. And Prime held a press conference in which its chief executive gave a boring speech.

Then in swaggered Holmes wearing a leather jacket and eating a lolly while the PR flaks clapped. Here was a picture of man in the spring of his career. Holmes said nice things about the talented folk at TVNZ, and that they were like family. He was then asked questions by his erstwhile colleagues. One asked whether he'd include management in his praise of the talented folk at TVNZ.

He might have choked on his lolly, but he didn't. He went on being gracious, although his face always tells you quite a bit about what he's really thinking.

There was no farewell in the form of a last show. There was no gold watch. Of course not: this is television and you go from being persona big ego to persona non grata as fast as changing channels. This was a bit rude of TVNZ. Not to mention hypocritical.

Night after night Holmes went on the telly and talked about "our people today". It's one thing to be rude to the departed host, it's another to be rude to the little people you woo every weeknight. Ian Fraser, TVNZ's chief executive said he expected any new show to "concentrate more on journalism and revolve less around the splendours of a unique personality".

The problem with Holmes was his unique personality involved being journalist and performer, which has unfortunate shades of David Brent's description of himself as a
chilled-out entertainer first and boss second.

There is a fine line between performing and clowning, and Holmes, a good clown, never seemed to understand it is quite difficult to make a deliberate fool of yourself for the sake of entertainment one night, then pull off a tough interview the next. But let's not forget who nurtured the talent.

Larry King, who conducts some truly ghastly fawning interviews (another Holmes speciality) has managed his career so that in his 70s he is still regarded as having enough gravitas to appear on election night. You can't imagine he would be put out to pasture (or to an outfit like Prime) without being allowed a special show where the floral and the oral tributes will be handed over.

TVNZ were happy enough for Holmes to parade his unique personality night after night, until he wasn't and they weren't. So they all got nasty. Holmes, of course, has not been beyond getting nasty himself. When former TVNZ chairman Ross Armstrong got himself into doggy-do Holmes described Armstrong's reign at TVNZ as that of a "prissy bed-and-breakfast owner with a world view".

Back then, Fraser said that "those remarks preoccupied me a bit ... You can either rise to the occasion or sink to it: Paul sank".

Funny thing about Fraser. When you think about who might have had enough of that hard-to-judge thing called gravitas with which to continue an on-screen career into the winter years, he might have been it.

"Paul's view that he's in the summer of his career, well, frankly, it's not TVNZ's view," Fraser said. How kind, how dignified. But he's management now, and being management means sitting in glass telly boxes and throwing stones and sinking to the occasion.