I just suffered through about ten minutes of MSNBC’s “Weekends with Maury and Connie.” Deplorable television. I mean just plain bad. Local cable bad. Embarrasing bad. Milk-turned-cottage cheese-bad.

They open with the two of them doing a Q&A with a pre-recorded bit by Connie on the topic of Katie Couric moving from Today to CBS Evening News. The “bit” was Connie and Maury “talking” to “Connie” and even getting into an argument with “Connie.” And then the two on the couch get into an “argument.” Connie can be clearly seen glancing over at the TelePrompTer. Connie even tosses in a scripted profanity that is beeped-out.

Then, the next segment with a guest, thirty seconds in, they kick, unannounced, to a spot break likely in error only to return from the break mid-sentence.

Povitch has always been a low-rent bottom-feeder from a TV perspective. Connie, on the other hand, was a ground breaking television journalist with an admirable resume. An Asian-American woman, Chung occupied the most visible of anchor and reporter slots for well over a decade. It is a woeful miscalculation to pair Chung with her husband, Povitch. If it works off-camera, wonderful. Keep it there.