Channel Surfing
by Laura Nachman
Bucks County Courier Times
April 26, 2005

Guests are for wimps!  At least that’s what Jackie Mason implied when he talked about his new talk show that debuted last night on CN8. 

“I can do my own show.  It’s the guy that has no personality that needs others to entertain the audience for him,” Mason said in a telephone interview from his apartment in Manhattan.

The veteran comedian who refused to give his age - “Why does everybody ask old people their age?  Is it so they can feel better that they are younger? Nobody ever asks a young person” – will commute to the CN8 studio in Union, New Jersey to do the live, half-hour show each week.  The remainder of the week, Mason is starring in his new hit Broadway show “Freshly Squeezed.”

There will not be a studio audience, but viewers will be invited to call in to talk about the hot topics of the day.  When asked what will be discussed on the show, Mason said,   “I’m jammed with opinions, but I’m not going to give it away for free.  You have to watch yourself,” he joked. 

However, during the interview Mason had plenty of opinions on a variety of topics:

On marriage – The never-married Mason said, “I don’t believe in it.  When you see two bored-looking people together, you know they are married.”

On show business – “It is a business for sick people.  I am sick.”

On his new partnership with CN8 –“They need me more than I need them.”

On computers – “I’ve never seen my own web site.  I don’t want to get my news by looking into a box.”

“The Jackie Mason Show” airs Mondays at 6 p.m. on CN8.

Former WTXF news anchor Jill Chernekoff was spotted at the CN8 studios in New Castle, DE.  Her former news director at Channel 29, John Mussoni is the news director at CN8.  There is an anchor slot available at 10 p.m., since Connie Colla moved to “Your Morning.”  Besides Mussoni, there are a half dozen other former WTXF employees working at CN8.  Chernekoff runs her own communications firm.