RUSH: Here is Glenn in Cincinnati, as we roll on on Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?

RUSH: Good. Thank you.

CALLER: Hey, I’ve got a great idea for CNN. Since their ratings are terrible, and they want to get out of the news business, I say we start a reality show, and we call it The Next Rush Limbaugh — and the winner gets Piers Morgan’s spot. It would go from 200,000 a night watching Piers Morgan to 10 million a night watching Piers Morgan.

RUSH: Do they have 200,000 watching Piers Morgan?

CALLER: I’m probably being generous.

RUSH: I thought it was like 75 now.

CALLER: Oh, yeah.

RUSH: It’s bad. I mean, it’s so bad, Larry King said that what they ought to do is run SpongeBob SquarePants cartoons and then break in for breaking news.

CALLER: Absolutely. But I think if we had a conservative takeover of CNN —

RUSH: It’s not gonna happen.

CALLER: You don’t think money would push them over the edge for 10 million viewers?

RUSH: Let me ask you a question here, Glenn. You sound like an informed, astute guy when it comes to the media. Okay, now, here’s CNN, or take MSNBC, or take anything out there, and they’re sitting there with 50,000, 70,000, 200,000 viewers. Over here is a radio show with 20 million, and who is the last person they think of that might be able to help? The guy with 20 million.

CALLER: (laughing) They ought to wake up and realize that.

RUSH: It’s just stunning, it’s absolutely stunning — and who do they hire? People that have 20,000 viewers!

CALLER: It doesn’t makes sense. Fox is brilliant. They have —

RUSH: Okay, so what is this idea? Find the Next Rush Limbaugh is the reality show?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: What’s the objective?

CALLER: To find another conservative viewpoint talking head that eventually could steal the position of Piers Morgan – -and you didn’t find him, for one thing — and put a conservative voice on CNN. I know it’s farfetched, but, you know, one of those liberals over there would have to go, “You know, this idea could make a crap load of money.”

RUSH: Let me tell you something. (interruption) That’s right. That’s how stupid they are. “Oh, we can’t make money that way. Oh, no!” Back when Walter Isaacson who wrote the Jobs biography, was running CNN, they approached me about doing a Sunday morning football show and then a Sunday morning political show right after, and the word leaked out, and Roger Ailes heard about it. I said, “I will bet you that Walter Isaacson needs security in his own building for this idea,” meaning, Walter Isaacson put his life at risk by even thinking of having somebody like me at CNN. Nothing ever happened. Nothing came of it. But I’m sitting here. Find the Next Rush Limbaugh? A, there isn’t one.

CALLER: I think it’s a brilliant idea. Fox would pick it up in a heartbeat, but the problem is, Fox is already conservative. I say we wage a war with the liberal media and start taking them over.

RUSH: Fox probably thinks they already have… (laughing) Well, I don’t even want to say that. I’m not gonna go there. It’s an intriguing… (laughing) It’s an intriguing idea. It’s an intriguing idea.

CALLER: You know what? You can give the proceeds or a lot of proceeds to like Wounded Warriors. I’m telling you, the idea is solid.

RUSH: Oh, you just keep striking out. I mean, you’re coming up with things that no way any self-respecting CNN executive would even think of. Wounded Warrior beneficiaries? Find the Next Rush Limbaugh? Do you realize the cocktail invitations end and the awards end? Oh! But I like the way you think. That could be a fun reality show.