Candice Bergen says she owes her recent “Murphy Brown” success to President Trump, telling “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert Wednesday night that the show never would have come back if Hillary Clinton had won the presidency.
“We wouldn’t have come back if the election had gone differently,” the actress, 72, said. “So it’s really the only thing that I owe the president.”
Ms. Bergen, who took home five Emmys and two Golden Globes for her role as a TV journalist in the original sitcom, which concluded in 1998, said CBS’ reboot of the show will seek to restore America’s faith in the media.
“There was no social media [back then] and people still had respect for the press. They weren’t the ’enemy of the people,’” she said, quoting Mr. Trump. “So that’s a big change. So we’re trying to restore respect for the press. Or certain parts of the press.”
The “Murphy Brown” reboot is set to debut Thursday night on CBS. Reviews for the premiere episode have been lackluster at best, with Deadline labeling it “yesterday’s news” and Entertainment Weekly saying it put “outrage before comedy.”
Mr. Colbert joked Wednesday that the premiere episode about Ms. Brown getting in a Twitter spat with Mr. Trump was “actually the most plausible storyline I could think of.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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