Another one-on-one from TVNewser columnist, Gail Shister:
Mika Brzezinski to Paris Hilton: I owe you three million.
With her June 26 “Who Cares About Hilton” tirade at three-million hits and counting on YouTube, MSNBC freelancer Brzezinski has been flooded with offers. Not bad for the former CBS “it” girl, who left The Eye unhappily in July 2006.
After her on-air Paris snit, “I was hoping I didn’t come off as a train wreck,” says Mika B., a regular on Joe Scarborough’s Morning Joe and host of her own 10am ET hour. Suddenly, “my BlackBerry and phone were ringing off the hook. It was outrageous. I think I touched a nerve; that people were sick of this crap. Within the next couple of weeks, I got my own show and NBC was firming up a contract.”
The irony isn’t lost on Brzezinski. “A year ago, no one would hire me. I just turned 40 and I felt washed up. It was pretty obvious what was going on at CBS, but there was nothing I could do about it.” Under then-CBS News boss Andrew Heyward, there was talk of Brzezinski and then-CBS Washington ace John Roberts succeeding Dan Rather on CBS Evening News. The two even made a demo tape, sources say.
All that changed, of course, when Katie Couric entered the picture and CBS Sports president Sean McManus replaced Heyward. Brzezinski, then making an estimated $500,000 salary, says her departure “could have been much worse,” and that she and McManuus “are fine.”
Four months ago, Mika B. joined MSNBC as a freelancer, doing news updates. Now the cable network, among others, is offering a fulltime contract that would include work for the mothership. Her preference is to stay at NBC, she says. As for her YouTube notoriety, Brzezinski has a major fan in former Carter administration National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski. “Dad checks my hits,” she says. “He loves it. He thinks this celebrity coverage is insipid.”