TV hosts talk about their dream interview

Interviewing is not an easy job, especially if you’re doing it in front of TV cameras, under hot studio lights, and with over a million televiewers watching you.

Before the interviewer faces the camera, there is the matter of getting the subject to trust him enough to grant an interview. Then the interviewer has to know how to make the subject comfortable so he would answer questions honestly and candidly. The interviewer sometimes has to balance between satisfying the public’s curiosity and being responsible enough not to make a fool of the subject.

Here are some of our country’s most respected TV hosts talking about their dream interview and the questions they most want to ask.

Cito Beltran, Isyu and Straight Talk: God, that’s a hard question. Larry King, well, because he’s the interviewer’s interviewer. He’s probably No. 1 in his field internationally and I’d like to get his insights on people he’s interviewed in the past. What does he feel when they walk away after the interview? Because he gets to know the person off-camera like Giuliani, Hillary Clinton. What’s his impression of them?

Gene Orejana, On-line With Gene Orejana: The Pope. I will ask him if he has experienced what Moses and the others prophets had gone through.

Mike Enriquez, Imbestigador, Saksi: The Pope. I would ask him, "How do you convince people that good has not been overpowered by evil?"

Jessica Soho, GMA News and Public Affairs: Siyempre ang hottest get is Osama bin Laden. Just to find out if he still is alive, where he is, how he has managed to allude arrest and the bombings.

But my dream interview is the Pope. Because his life is really interesting. He’s a very human pope, kumakanta, sumasayaw and at one point he even apologized to the Jews for the Holocaust. He’s the symbol of holiness but he’s also very human. I’ll ask him about how he talks to God, does he whisper to Him?

Pia Hontiveros, Weekend News, TV Patrol: I want to interview the three former presidents: Cory, FVR, Erap and current President Arroyo together. Ang dami kong tatanungin. One of the questions for the former three presidents would be this: What do they regret not doing when they were president? Actually it’s not the question but how they would interact with and react to each other. How they would talk to each other. It would be nice to see all four of them on TV.

Karen Davila, Headlines, The Correspondents: Dream interview? Osama bin Laden. Do you consider yourself a terrorist? Do you fear getting caught alive by the US? How would you like to die? Is September 11 over?

Korina B. Sanchez, TV Patrol, Isyu: I dream of interviewing Osama bin Laden. Such measure of evil and brilliance and principle as misguided as it may be deserves study. In the same way Einstein’s brain accommodated a lot of picking. Bin Laden’s way of thought should be fascinating. If only to know how evil is born, bred and propagated.

Boy Abunda, The Buzz, Private Conversations with Boy Abunda: The Pope. I’ll ask, do you think I will go to hell because I love and live with passion as a gay person?

Ces Drilon, Pipol, Pointblank: My idol is Katharine Graham. Unfortunately she passed away last year. I would have loved to interview her because of her strength of character and convictions. She went up against the Nixon White House. However, in this case, the dream interview would have to be Osama bin Laden (if he is still alive, that is). I would ask him how he can sleep at night and how he has eluded capture all this time.