Steve Kmetko, by far the best anchor E! News Daily ever had - is getting ready to say goodbye to Hollywood.
Kmetko also anchored E! News Weekend and was E!'s correspondent covering the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Cannes Film Festival and many other high-profile events. He also spent 11 years at KCBS in Los Angeles and appeared frequently as a CBS This Morning entertainment reporter. His most recent regular TV gig was anchoring QTN World News on the now-defunct Q Television Network.
I bumped into Steve at the opening night party for Q-MeCon and asked him what he's been up to. He told me his alma mater, Columbia College in Chicago, has asked him to join the television department and teach some courses starfing with the fall semester in September. "I've lived [in LA] for 25 years and Chicago's my home and I'm ready to go home and do something else - Chapter Three."
He's still open to doing some television and there has been some interest from some Chicago stations "so, you never know what might happen."
Kmetko was disappointed at the financial collapse of Q Television last year, but he is not at all impressed with the two remaining gay channels.
"I think here! and Logo could do a better job than they're doing in reaching the gay community and giving us something substantive to listen to and think about. They need to aim higher - they couldn't aim lower. I thought Q was doing what we're supposed to do in terms of bringing news of interest to the gay community. 'Dante's Cove'? And Logo is like MTV, they show the same thing over and over again. I think there's a place out there for people who are gay to learn something."