Move over, Oprah: Bill Clinton is looking for his own chat show

"And now, from the Clinton Show studios at NBC, let's hear it for your regular host... Biiiiiillllll CLINTON!" Cut to star, holding hands aloft and grinning inanely at the audience, like a politician.

Fantasy? It seems to be a Clintonian one. Sixteen months after he left the White House, the ex-president has apparently been in talks with TV executives to discuss the possibility of running his own talk show.

It may be a sign of the desperation that overtakes people when they are 55, out of work and distinctly overqualified for most of the part-time jobs suitable for middle-aged men in the classified sections.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Mr Clinton had talks on Wednesday with NBC executives. One source told the paper that he was demanding $50m (£34m) a year and wanted to become "the next Oprah Winfrey". There has been no suggestion that he wants to be the next Jerry Springer.

There have, however, been rumours that he was also having discussions with CBS, the network that really does want the next Oprah Winfrey, though possibly not until her scheduled retirement in 2006. CBS is also after a successor to its breakfast show star, Bryant Gumbel, who is quitting shortly. However, the station's chief executive, Leslie Moonves, called the idea of a Clinton chat show ridiculous.

Most observers responded the same way, partly because it is hard to imagine Mr Clinton submitting to a regime that would normally require daily broadcasts for three-quarters of the year, circumscribing his personality to let his guests shine and, above all, turning up on time - a notorious failing of his - especially for breakfast TV. It also seems improbable that a TV show would be the ideal way to protect his patchy reputation as a global statesman.

Mr Clinton is not short of money, since he is said to have earned up to $15m in the past year from making speeches and a record $12m advance for his biography. However, as can easily happen to those who find themselves ex-presidents in the prime of life, he has seemed somewhat short of purpose. He may be temperamentally disinclined to emulate Jimmy Carter and devote the rest of his life to good works.

A husband and wife production team, Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who were close to the White House throughout the Clinton presidency, are believed to be advising him and would be in line to produce any programme that might emerge. Mr Clinton may be influenced by the success of his former aide, George Stephanopoulos, who has become a star of ABC News. His former political consultant, James Carville, is big on cable TV.

He might do better to study the case of the late British prime minister, Harold Wilson, who did a one-off stint in retirement as host of a BBC2 chat show, Friday Night, Saturday Morning. His performance was included as one of the 100 TV Moments from Hell on Channel 4 two years ago.