Fri May 13, 4:03 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Financial cable TV network CNBC has canceled comedian Dennis Miller's prime-time program as part of a plan to boost its business news coverage in the evening, according to an internal memo circulated on Thursday.

CNBC hopes that by airing more financial news during U.S. East Coast night hours, it will retain West Coast viewers who are watching during their late business and early evening hours.

"Dennis Miller" aired at 9 p.m. EDT/6 p.m. PDT. The former "Saturday Night Live" comedian and "Monday Night Football" color commentator mixed humor with serious newsmaker interviews and political discussion. His show will be replaced by "Mad Money with Jim Cramer," featuring financial markets commentator Cramer.

In the memo obtained by Reuters, CNBC President Mark Hoffman called Miller "an exceptionally talented comedian."

"I have spoken with Dennis Miller about these plans, and he has let me know that his strong preference is to leave his program immediately," Hoffman wrote.

The show's final airdate will be Friday, May 13.

A CNBC spokeswoman confirmed the existence of the memo, but declined to comment.

CNBC has a loyal audience during the daytime, but has struggled to retain viewers at night. Miller's show launched in January 2004 and averaged around 168,000 viewers a night. But this year, its audience has fallen to an average 114,000.

Along with replacing Miller's show, CNBC plans to air a new business program in the 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT slot currently held by reruns of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," which first airs on CNBC sister network, NBC.

The replacement program will begin airing in the third quarter, but exact details and timing were not disclosed.

CNBC's "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" will continue in its 10 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. PDT slot.

CNBC and NBC are part of the NBC Universal media division of General Electric Co .

Reuters/VNU


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(In the late 80's I thought he was great, back when his jokes had actual clever punchlines and he didn't schill for parties and products)

The few times I watched it were dreadful. About 1/2 step in front of J. McEnroe's lame-ass effort.

Fuck that guy. For a while, I thought he might have some brains in his head. But he likes Bush.

Fuck him. In the ass with a busted bottle.

fp

Here's the thing - he's not unfunny now because he likes Bush. And he's not unfunny now because he's gone "conservative".

He's not funny anymore because he's fucking SCARED.

Nothing wrong with that...9-11 scared a lot of people.

But you CANNOT be both scared & funny. Fear Kills Funny.

I think Miller's finished because people are just tired of him. He's not very likeable as a person. On the other hand, you have people such as Jon Stewart and Bill Maher who still have successful shows because they're down to earth and it just seems like they're having fun with their comedy even when tackling serious issues. They also attack both sides of the political spectrum unlike Miller who turned into a total Bush freak.

"like they're having fun with their comedy"=funny.

In my book, at least.

We're not disagreeing, really...Miller's fear made him strident, which is NOT funny ( see Ann Coulter, & yes, Michael Moore at times ) .

i fucking hate bull maher. I mean, i'm sure he's a nice enough guy and i tend to agree with 90% of the points he makes, but for some reason i can't. fucking. stand. him.

Dennis Miller also sold out very ungracefully.

David Spade makes horrible commercials, but he's the first to make fun of himself, and he never seem sto be into the commerecial. I wish he wouldn't do them, but i don't hate him because of it. Dennis Miller is on those things talking about Net Zero like it's the greatest fucking thing ever and with a real smarmy cocky vibe about it.

it's pathetic.

that's always been him, and why I aways turned him off then and now. i guess about a third of his very small audience was over him by now too

He's not funny because he reads Republican talking points and then gussies them up with his act. I like observational and topical humor, but IMO it is a comedian's job to skewer people in power, and he just stopped doing that.

And what Diggity said.

He was funny when his act was nudge-wink smarm.

Now that he's just a dick, the smarm isn't funny.

You know I don't think most of you guys are the intended audience for Miller's CNBC show. And its not like he just became conservative, he's always been a republican. The CNBC show was supposed to be a different type of show than his HBO show. I'm not a big fan of his show either, but complaining that he's a republican shill on it is kind of missing the point that's what the whole idea of the show was.

Its kind of like making your main complaint about Chevy Chase's shortlived talk show being that there were a bunch of people sitting in chairs by a desk talking about stuff, rather than having him fall into Christmas trees and stuff. That's the Chevy I liked, not this sitting behind a desk one.

np: The Records "Smashes, Crashes, & Near Misses"