The Site

Overview

The Site, hosted by Soledad O'Brien, was an hour-long TV program devoted to the Internet revolution. It debuted in July 1996 with MSNBC's launch and aired Monday through Saturday, reaching 35 million homes. The Site was a forerunner to an entire technology channel called ZDTV, later renamed TechTV, which merged to become G4. Dev Null, Soledad's animated barista co-host was voiced by Leo Laporte, who later became an anchor personality on TechTV, hosting multiple shows. The Site covered technology in all forms, from technical aspects to news and culture. Musical artists Duncan Sheik and Poe were among many musicians interviewed over how technology influenced their music. The Site was preempted for two weeks in favor of news programs during the death of Diana, Princess of Wales during September 1997. It was never brought back, and the show was pulled without a send-off. Many fans of the show petitioned MSNBC to bring it back to no avail. The Site was reincarnated as The Screen Savers less than one year later, hosted by Leo Laporte beginning with the launch in May 1998 of the new cable network ZDTV, until its cancellation after the takeover by Comcast. A nightly five-minute segment in which O'Brien engaged in spontaneous tech talk with a virtual reality cartoon character, Dev Null, was animated in real time on Silicon Graphics computers. The character was in fact ZDTV journalist Leo Laporte, who did the voice and actions while wearing a motion capture suit. When O'Brien sat at an espresso bar to read email from viewers, Dev Null flirted with her while answering her computer questions. She recalled, "One of the reasons that segment of the show worked is that I could not see him as I was talking to him, and the segment was unscripted. He was funny, and his jokes were not gags."