Career Continued
After that show was cancelled in 1985, Rivers was offered a job as an entertainment reporter for WPIX-TV New York. Then in 1987, he was hired as a VJ by the American cable television channel VH1. Executives there utilized his comedic and interview skills which led to his own show on the network the following year called Watch Bobby Rivers. Stephen Holden of the New York Times called him "...a master interviewer with a gift for banter." On VH1, he interviewed Paul McCartney, Kirk Douglas, Meryl Streep, Mel Gibson, Carlos Santana, Raúl Juliá, Michael Caine, Mel Blanc, Jodie Foster, Liza Minnelli, Marlo Thomas, and Norman Mailer, among others. He hosted veejay segments with the network's new addition, Rosie O'Donnell until 1990.
Rivers hosted two short-lived syndicated game shows, one called "Bedroom Buddies". In 1992, he was approached to be a lifestyles and entertainment reporter on local WNBC TV's "Weekend Today in New York" and WNYW-TV's "Good Day New York." For the latter, he was hired as a replacement for Australian personality Gordon Elliott who had left. Rivers has performed onstage, and appeared on the television show The Sopranos. In 2000, he was the Entertainment Editor on "Lifetime Live", an ABC News/Lifetime TV weekday magazine hour. He also worked on camera with its hosts, Deborah Roberts and the late Dana Reeve. After the cancellation of "Lifetime Live" he hosted Food Network's "Top 5" in 2002. Production ended in 2004 but the show aired in weekly repeats until 2008.
Whoopi Goldberg, a one-time guest on Rivers' VH1 talk show, picked him to be the weekly film critic/entertainment reporter on her national weekday morning show for Premiere Radio, "Wake Up With Whoopi". The show lasted from 2006 to 2008. Director Steven Soderbergh use footage of Rivers' VH1 interview of Spalding Gray in his documentary on the late monologist/actor. The 2010 release was entitled "And Everything Is Going Fine". Rivers moved into comedic acting playing "Professor Robert Haige" in "'In The Know'", a satirical round-table news segment in The Onion News Network video podcast.
Read more about this topic: Bobby Rivers
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