Two of Fox News Channel’s most alliterative on-air personalities have had their fashion choices put under the microscope recently. On Thursday, “The Five” co-host Bob Beckel shared his story of how and why he started wearing suspenders. Spoiler alert: it involves the suspender savant himself, Larry King.

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Then there is “Special Report” anchor Bret Baier, whose red tie drew comparisons to the legendary licorice candy Twizzlers, even prompting a seal of approval from the sweet treat itself, or at least its brand manager:
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Former CNN host Larry King is getting back into the business of cable news. King will host a new political talk show for the English-language Russian cable news channel RT, “Politics with Larry King.” RT has also acquired the TV rights to “Larry king Now,” which runs on Hulu. Ora.TV will produce both series, which will be available on Hulu, Ora.TV and RT.com and on the TV network which claims to reach more than 85 million viewers in the U.S.

King moderated a Presidential debate between the third-party candidates in October of last year, airing on RT. King’s new show will record at RT’s studio in Washington DC and at the Ora studios in Los Angeles.

“I have interviewed every US president since Nixon, and lest people forget, I helped usher Ross Perot into the national conversation during the 1992 presidential contest,” King says. “I appreciate the importance of providing a platform to those with real alternative visions for our country’s future.”

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Tributes continue to come in following the death Tuesday of Pat Summerall, the former NFL football player turned broadcaster who spent 40 years in the booth. Summerall called games on CBS from 1962 to 1994 and on FOX from 1994 to 2002. In 1981, Summerall was paired with former coach John Madden. The team would last for 22 seasons on the two networks.

Summerall, 82, died of a heart attack at a Dallas hospital yesterday. He’d gone in for hip surgery. Some tributes on Twitter:

“He was a terrific broadcaster, a great guy, they didn’t come any better on TV,” Larry King.

“The late Pat Summerall was a great broadcaster who once happened to be a good football player. Early on, was a NYC radio morning host. RIP,” Keith Olbermann.

“Pat was not only good, he was easy to listen to. That’s a rarity in today’s show biz TV sports world,” Len Berman.

“For those of us who make a living in front of a microphone, Pat Summerall was one of the guys who defined the job,” Steve Inskeep, NPR

“RIP Pat Summerall. I will remember you as an entrepreneur first and foremost,” Mark Cuban

On tomorrow’s edition of “Katie,” Katie Couric talks to her longtime friend Wendy Walker, who was also Larry King‘s producer at CNN. As it happens, the former CNN host decided to make a surprise visit to Couric’s show, where the two discussed the heavily disputed date they went on.

Yes, that date.

Couric: “I even remember what you ate, you ordered veal poached in chicken stock because you just had bypass surgery. That was hot.”

King: “We sat next to each other, you wanted to see my scar.”

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Former CNN host Larry King is profiled in the Wall Street Journal. The Journal accompanies King to his hometown of Brooklyn, New York. King attends a Brooklyn Nets game at the new Barclays Center: as the WSJ notes, it will be the first professional sporting event King has attended in Brooklyn since 1957.

King now has a web-show on Ora.tv, although as he found out, that isn’t entirely well-known. Also: when he wants to tweet he calls someone, who tweets his thoughts for him:

He was at the Nets game early, because he hated being late. The Nets asked him to do an interview before the game. Strangers walked up and said they missed seeing him on TV. He was on TV, he told them—on the Internet. He had a show on Ora.TV, called Larry King Now. They’d built him a handsome set in L.A. He’d also been doing shows in New York.

“I just did Kevin Bacon today,” he said. “Was he terrific! Wow.”

He and Marty took their seats at center court, about seven rows up. Larry pulled a clamshell phone from his leather jacket.

“I’m going to call in a tweet!” he announced.

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• CNN is changing the name of Piers Morgan‘s program. Starting Monday the 9pmET show will be called “Piers Morgan Live,” and it will be, yes, live. The name is a throwback to the days of “Larry King Live.” Morgan explains the move here.

• Senator Rand Paul is making the rounds following his 13-hour filibuster yesterday. Paul spoke to Glenn Beck on his radio show and TV channel TheBlaze this morning, spoke to Dana Bash on CNN and will be on Fox News this afternoon to speak to Megyn Kelly.

• “Anchorman 2″ has started filming in Atlanta. ABC News has pictures from the set, including shots of Harrison Ford who plays the “Tom Brokaw” to Will Ferrell‘s “Ron Burgundy.”

• Katie Couric‘s daytime talk show is adding to its executive ranks after losing EP Jeff Zucker to CNN, according to THR’s Marisa Guthrie. Ethan Nelson and Matt Strauss have been named co-EPs. Nelson comes from ABC News, where he oversaw “Good Afternoon America,” while Strauss gets a bump from producer.

• Speaking of Katie Couric, Larry King responded to Couric’s recollection of a date they had together on Ora TV. He says it didn’t exactly turn out the way she said it did, and asked Jimmy Kimmel for equal time to give his side of the story.

• ABC News chief investigative producer Richard Esposito is leaving the network for NBC, according to Dylan Byers at Politico. He is yet another long-time ABC talent to depart in the last few weeks, following Chris Cuomo, Jake Tapper and Sharyn Alfonsi.

Daytime talk show host and former NBC and CBS news anchor Katie Couric was on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” last night. During the interview she recalled a remarkable story about going on a date with former CNN anchor Larry King.

“I cannot believe… I refuse to believe that is true,” Kimmel said.

The actual story has to be heard to be believed.

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In a very good interview with Politico’s Dylan Byers, CNN anchor Piers Morgan talks about everything from his position on gun control to the different types of news he covers. There were also two elements that really stood out.

The first was when talking about new CNN president Jeff Zucker, and the sorts of changes he may bring to the network, and the second was the frankest talk yet about his predecessor, Larry King.

On Zucker:

“Jeff Zucker believes you’ve got to be unafraid to expand the breadth of what news is,” he said. “There are many different ways of categorizing news. It doesn’t have to be just war and famine and serious politics. And CNN has veered too much to that in the past few years, and been too afraid to go after other stories.”

“We’re still the best when it matters, when the big stuff happens. But we have been a little bit slow to react to the competition, and we should have more personalities on the network unafraid to express opinions,” he continued. “It should be more lively, independent programming, unique to each hour. Because when there’s not much happening, having that on a repeat cycle hour after hour after hour is dull television.”

On King, who gently criticized Morgan by saying that his show is too much about him, and not the guests:
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NBC recently launched a comedy series about a dysfunctional family in the White House, “1600 Penn.” Given the political undercurrent of the program, it is no surprise that news reports can occasionally play a role in the show’s plot.

According to “1600 Penn”‘s creator, speaking at the Television Critics Association Winter press tour, the program will feature a number of cameos from NBC News personalities, including Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie. The show will also a feature a cameo from the always-available Larry King.

Of course, NBC news anchors aren’t limiting themselves to NBC shows. On last night’s “Family Guy,” Brian Williams played himself. Watch the clip after the jump.
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