“You will never hear me ask what someone is wearing again,” says Pat O’Brien, talking about his new syndicated entertainment show, “The Insider.”
O’Brien confirmed to The Associated Press that he’ll host Paramount Domestic Television’s new nightly half-hour newsmagazine, which premieres Sept. 13.
“It was time to move on,” the former “Access Hollywood” co-anchor said in a phone interview Friday. He had been with the show since 1997.
“The Insider” will be “more newsy, unpredictable, with longer interviews,” O’Brien said. “It will not be tabloid. If it gets tabloid, you’ll see me get in my pickup truck and leave town. You can hold me to that.”
A former CBS sportscaster, O’Brien, 56, will cover the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, for MSNBC and NBC late-night programming.
Billy Bush, the East Coast correspondent for “Access Hollywood,” will join Nancy O’Dell as co-anchor starting Aug. 12 from the Summer Olympics, executive director Rob Silverstein said Friday.
“Nancy and Billy are unequivocally Hollywood’s ultimate insiders,” Silverstein said in a statement. “The team is set, production is ready, summer ratings are spiking, let’s get it on.”
Bush, 32, has been with “Access Hollywood” for nearly three years. His father, Jonathan, is the brother of former President George H.W. Bush.