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The third season of "California Connected" begins on KCET this Thursday at 10 p.m. with a new host. Lisa McRee, the former ABC News reporter and co-host of "Good Morning America," replaces David Brancaccio. On this week's show, titled "Can California be Governed?," McRee interviews Gov. Schwarzenegger alone. Then she sits down as a group with four of the living ex-governors: Jerry Brown, George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis. Only Ronald Reagan isn't there. (The LAT has a story today on the taping, saying they blame the Legislature.)
"California Connected" is co-produced by KCET and three other public television stations in the state. Executive producer Marley Klaus writes in an email message:
When considering what our first show of the new season ought to be, we thought the recall and the election of a charismatic outsider like Arnold Schwarzenegger might give us an opportunity to address some of the substantive issues underlying the headlines of partisan battles, budget woes and capitol gridlock.Whether or not you voted for this governor, it seems there's a tremendous hope that he'll succeed, at the very least, in changing the discussion from finger-pointing to positive action. We thought that, for this nanosecond in time, there is widespread interest in what makes this state a challenge to govern and, more important, what we might do to make it better in the future.
This season, the show also airs on KPCC (89.3 FM) at 10 p.m. on Sundays. And, just because Google is awesome, here's a fan page devoted to Lisa McRee's hair.