Calbuzz Classics: The First Time Gavin Cosplayed a Big Shot Media Interview Guy

Positioning himself for a 2028 presidential run, California's attention-hog governor launches a podcast, the latest version of a play he first ran more than a decade ago.

In 2012, Gavin Newsom was bored with his allegedly full time job as Lieutenant Governor of California, and so took on new duties hosting a weekly cable TV talk show called…wait for it…the “Gavin Newsom Show.”

In recent days, now apparently bored with his current, allegedly full time job, as California’s governor, Newsom has sought attention among the pundit and social media classes by launching a podcast titled…wait for it…”This is Gavin Newsom.”

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Prince Gavin’s original talk show ran for about eight months on a short-lived, San Francisco-based cable operation called “Current TV.” The outfit was owned and operated by a pack of liberal lions from Bill Clinton’s orbit, led by Al Gore and L.A. moneyman Ron Burkle.

In the spring of 2012, Current TV was in a pickle when its top talent, Keith Olbermann, departed (is there any media operation in America that Olbermann has not departed?) and turned to Prince Gavin to hold down the emcee’s desk.

In an interview, with then-SF Chronicle political writter (and now Newsmaker Emerita) Carla Marinucci, Newsom said it was public service, not personal political ambition, that was motivating him:

“Newsom said he grabbed the opportunity to interview and hold conversations with "the remarkable people of this amazing state" - business leaders, creative stars and innovators - in what he calls "a search for ideas" that could help solve the problems facing the nation.

"My emphasis is, we have a treasure trove of talent here in California," Newsom said, "and so many of these shows have an East Coast bias. There are so many people here who are not getting the exposure I think they deserve.

"I'm not a pundit. I don't want to be a pundit," Newsom said. "The show is not about who's to blame, but what to do. It's about ideas. I've said it before: The best politics is a better idea."

Uh-huh.

It didn’t take long for Calbuzz, the irreverent, sui generis state politics blog, to pitch in casting and script ideas for what my late partner, Phil Trounstine, and I called “Gavin’s Amateur Hour,” starting with a wholly imagined interview with Kim Kardashian, who at that time was mulling a run for mayor of Glendale.

Within the tangled Politics-Media-Entertainment complex, it’s hard to find two people more self-absorbed, self-important and self-regarding than Kim Kardashian and Gavin Newsom.

That’s why our Department of Pilot Script Development and Low Rent Cable Fare was completely stoked this week upon hearing the news that Prince Gavin is getting his own TV show while celeb Kim K has decided to run for mayor of Glendale.

Talk about cross-dressing crossover infotainment!

It also didn’t take long for Prince Gavin to step in it on his own set.

Less than a month after the show’s launch, a Sacramento Bee reporter who was doing a feature caught the lieutenant governor complaining off camera to a guest, hotel execuctive Chip Conley, how much he hated Sacramento, comments that were reprised in every other news outlet in the state.

As Calbuzz recounted the episode:

Poor, poor Prince Gavin. It’s not enough that he had to go get his own TV show because he’s sooo bored with his crummy $136,000 lite governor gig with its crummy staff, benies, perks and pension. No, he actually has to go to Sacramento one — sometimes two! — days a week, as he understandably complained on the set of the show to his buddy, hotel man Chip Conley: From the Chronicle:

“Between segments of the show, Conley asked, ‘How often are you up in Sacramento?’
’Like one day a week, tops,’ Newsom said. ‘There’s no reason…It’s just so dull…Sadly, I just, ugh, God.’

And so.

Six years into his governorship, it’s no wonder that the guy’s once again so bored he needs a podcast.

On his new show, Newsom has platformed leading creeps, liars and criminals of the authoritarian movement, purportedly to show he’s open-minded enough to bro it up with Trump henchmen, lackeys and acolytes, a not-too-subtle maneuver to tone down his California lefty identity as he positions himself for the future.

It’s fair to say the early returns are not great, as captured by the LAT’s maestro columnist Mark Z. Barabak:

“This Is Gavin Newsom” is full-on cringe. With its forced bonhomie, the show is neither informative nor engaging. It delivers all the pleasures of a bad office party.”

It’s hard to disagree with Mark’s bottom line on “This is Gavin Newsom.”

If Newsom really hopes to be president someday, the best thing he could do is a bang-up job in his final 22 months as governor. Not waste time on glib and self-flattering diversions. People have told Newsom as much. But the only voice he seems to care about his own.

Check out the Calbuzz Classic look back at the “Gavin Newsom Show” here. You can find the complete Calbuzz archive, 2009-22, here.