SPIEGEL: Why don't you just refuse to do these tabloid stories?
King: Of course I could say no. But then they (the network) would say you've got to keep up with the ratings. And I do understand what they are facing. You win some, you lose some. But if they were to go too far, then I wouldn't do it. A colleague once told me that, "If I put a couple having intercourse on TV at 9 p.m., I could win tonight."
SPIEGEL: The character of news has changed, hasn't it?
King: That's the downside.
SPIEGEL: Even a star like you is powerless to stop it?
King: Sometimes it's easier for management to take the easy way. If you want to do a show on the Middle East you will not get good numbers. Even though you can certainly say that the Middle East is certainly more important than Anna Nicole Smith. Who would deny that?
SPIEGEL: How do you deal with the competition?
King: An absurd competition has broken out between the talk shows. They have Anna Nicole's brother? Then we need her doctor. Or sister. But it isn't important. I mean, it has no effect on your life. Would we have done that years ago? In my radio days and in early television maybe one show would have been done about Anna Nicole. But Anna Nicole Smith wouldn't have been a figure 40 years ago because she didn't do anything. So it's a story because it's a story. Corporations today are run by accountants. In those days they were run by broadcasters, and they understood better what a broadcaster did. Now it comes from accounting and accounting is all about the bottom line.