http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050511/ap_en_tv/tv_bill_maherLOS ANGELES - It's an unlikely suspicion, but a kinder, gentler Bill Maher seems to be emerging on television. On a recent episode of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," he made sure conservatives were as well-represented in the audience as on the panel.
These days, Maher also prides himself on hosting a talk show as opposed to a shouting show, a dominant TV genre that he admits included his old ABC program "Politically Incorrect."
Asked if he's softening even as so many others in a polarized America become more brittle and intractable, Maher offers a quick reply: No.
Fairness and good television, he said, are why he seeks a political balance in the audience when his panel includes such guests as Republican politicians Christie Whitman and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
"For a guest to come out and have to expect that everything he says is automatically going to be dismissed before he even gets to the end of a sentence, that's not fair.
"It's a way to reach out to guests, be a good host and, I think, it makes for a better show," said Maher, whose program (11 p.m. EDT Friday) wraps up its current season this week.
As for the series' relatively civil tone, Maher said that reflects his evolution as a host. On "Politically Incorrect," "we would purposely try to pit a snake against a mongoose" by letting people of different ideologies go at it.
"But not this show. ... I want it to be like three people who may not agree on everything but are sitting down as if you were at dinner or a cocktail party.
"Even people who disagree rarely start screaming at each other — they only do that when they're on camera," Maher told The Associated Press.