DAYTIME TV A new part: Pauley to host talk show

The show will be competing with Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NEW YORK -- Jane Pauley and the folks behind her new daytime talk show are trying to lure female viewers by addressing a highly sensitive issue -- hairstyles.
Pauley's, not theirs. In fact, one of the promo spots for "The Jane Pauley Show," premiering Aug. 30, is a comical montage of the longtime newswoman's many different hairstyles.
See Jane with long, ironed hair in the '70s. See Jane with a pouf of streaked hair in the '80s. See Jane with a short shag in the '90s.
"The deal was, I didn't want to surrender to the little anchorwoman helmeted look," Pauley said, "so in not wanting to surrender to that ubiquitous helmet, I had stranger hairdos."
Nevertheless, women -- the key audience for daytime talkers -- can relate to the hair promos on many levels. What woman hasn't endured a series of embarrassing hair permutations? They also remind viewers that Pauley is human, just like them.
Starting out
Pauley began her national news career in 1976 when she became co-host of NBC's "Today."
"I was 25 on the 'Today' show, and I had precocious broadcast skills," said Pauley. "But as a person, I probably had a pretty fragile grasp on who I was, because I was often told I sounded like Barbara Walters and I was apparently the only one in America who didn't think that was true."
In February 2003, Pauley said she would leave NBC News, where she was then co-anchoring "Dateline." Then in June 2003, she revealed plans for the new talker.
Pauley has since found herself, and a flattering hairstyle. And her new show, she says, will simply be Jane unfiltered.
"It's not 'The Jane Pauley Interprets Daytime Television Show,' it's just me," she said.
"I think of myself as life-size. And having interviewed both Oprah and Dr. Phil, I am fully cognizant of the fact that there are people who are bigger than life. I am not."
Pauley has her work cut out for her. In New York, her show will be up against Walters' "The View." But in many parts of the country, she'll face even more outsize competition -- Oprah Winfrey, the champ of daytime talk.
"Being a known personality does not guarantee success," said Bill Carroll, vice president of programming for Katz Television Group, a firm that advises stations on programming choices. "What helps is being relatable and having the core skills, and certainly with Jane Pauley, you'd have to check both of those columns."
About the show
There will be celebrity guests and there will be makeover segments, said Pauley. As for the celebrities, the show won't be the usual promotional stop for their latest movies or TV shows.
"I invited Matt Damon on the show about two seconds after we were introduced," said Pauley. "I'd been talking about using celebrities with some care. I want to know how they became the person that we see and how they navigate the life they find themselves leading. I would want a celebrity to arrive as a celebrity and leave as a person."
So Damon will appear on Pauley's show with his mom. It's all part of Pauley's stamp of individuality.
"The only show I'm going to do that is successful," said Pauley, "is one that is quite specific to me. My reputation, to the degree that people do know who I am, is based on a perception of being genuine. That's what I've seen from research. That pleased me because apparently I am most liked for being myself; so that means I don't have to do anything but be myself."
Bad hair days and all.