Edward R. Murrow. Mike Wallace. Kurt Loder. Geoff Keighley? It may sound farfetched, but when it comes to videogames, the 28-year-old Keighley is the most respected journalist on television, bar none. That's because he's one of the only media figures who combines strong credibility with gamers and developers (courtesy of his writings for enthusiast outlets like Electronic Gaming Monthly, Gamespot and the Official Xbox Magazine) with unquestioned mainstream credentials (thanks to his extensive work for such respected print publications as Business 2.0, Entertainment Weekly, Time and Rolling Stone.) Combine that with both "Game Head," Keighley's "Entertainment Tonight"-style show for the SpikeTV cable network, and "Bonus Round" a "McLaughlin Group"-meets-"Around the Horn" talking heads show for the Web site GameTrailers, and it should be pretty clear why we've already promoted him from the "dean of the gaming press" to The Prince of all Media. We spoke with Keighley over the phone late last year as the second episode of "Bonus Round" was hitting the Net, to get a better sense of how all of his various endeavors tie together. Here's what he told us.

Where did the idea for "Bonus Round" come from?

It's the outgrowth of an idea I had a long time ago to bring more discussion to the videogame industry. There are not a lot of forums for experts in the industry to discuss the issues that we all think about, that consumers think about. They debate a lot of these issues on forums, on blogs, amongst friends. But there hasn't been a "Pardon The Interruption" or "Around the Horn" for videogames. I've always been surprised by that, because some of the rivalries between the different console companies are as legendary some of the biggest sports rivalries. I wanted to create a forum where a bunch of industry experts could get together to talk about the issues that everyone's talking about--and hopefully, along the way, have a good time discussing them, but also bring some insight to the table, in terms of consumers being able to watch it and say, "Hey, I agree with this guy," or "That's an interesting new point that I hadn't heard before."

Today people ask, "Is there a Lester Bangs of videogames?" That's certainly an interesting debate. But there's another element. There's not a lot of forums out there for people to express opinions and debate the issues that us journalists think about all the time, but never really filter down to the consumer. I'd done a little bit of that on [the cable network] G4, with a show I had done called G4TV.com. It had a bit of debate on it, and you were a guest on a roundtable that I did last year about the Xbox 360 launch. That was in some ways a test for what I wanted to do with "Bonus Round."

How did you and GameTrailers hook up?

My show on Spike, "Game Head," is part of the MTV family. So last fall, I started doing "Game Head" on Spike, and because GameTrailers was acquired by MTV last year, they started airing some clips from "Game Head" on GameTrailers. Because of that, I met Jon Slusser, who's the head of GameTrailers. I come from a background of doing a lot of print work. Over the past three to four years, I've moved more into the video realm, in part because I think it's under-serviced. Five years ago, I'd write a 20,000-word article on Gamespot about a game, but the video revolution has really happened on the Web. People want to watch things. And not just gameplay videos, but actual content about games. You're seeing that in broadcasts like The 1UP Show and some of the stuff that GameTrailers is doing.

GameTrailers has really been great at serving trailers and content to their readers. But Jon--and I don't mean to speak for him--I think what Jon really wanted to do was build out shows and channels of unique content for the site. So we started talking about what types of shows they would want to do. He asked, would I want to become a correspondent on GameTrailers, but I wanted to push to do something unique. So I said, "What about doing a roundtable show?" Which would basically be me with three or four guests, debating a bunch of issues and having an open forum.

The great thing about GameTrailers is that you can do it online. So there's no limit to the time. When I was working at G4 in the linear world--a show like "Bonus Round" would never happen on G4 or Spike. It's really more for a niche audience, while "Game Head" is a great show for a broad audience on a channel like Spike. It works great, and I love doing that show. But an hour-long roundtable, which is just a bunch of talking heads--it's not quick cut; it's really deep, insightful commentary on the industry--is perfect for online. So Jon and I got together, and we said, "Why don't we try and do a couple of these roundtables and see what we get?"

When did you close the deal and begin work on the show?

We did a deal around September and started talking about the guests we'd want. They've been really great to work with. Jon's trusted my judgment in terms of which guests to bring in and which topics to cover. There was a debate for a while as to whether we were going to have a bunch of other journalists on the panel, or GameTrailers people, with me. What I was really pushing for was, let's bring in some real big names, some experts in their field. Someone like [Wedbush Morgan analyst] Michael Pachter, who, on the surface, someone might say, "Do we really want to listen to a financial analyst talk about the industry?" Normally people would probably say no, but those of us who know Michael Pachter know what an insightful, interesting character he is. You bring him on a show like that, and you put him up with a Jason Rubin, and you get some really interesting interactions. That's the part of the exciting thing that can happen in a roundtable environment: hopefully one plus one equals three, and there's really interesting commentary among the different guests.

You've taped two shows now, and the third will be taped in early 2007. How do you select the guests for your show?

The first thing I focus on is getting people that I think will be good on camera and be willing to step up. Everyone should bring something different to the table, but I also want people who I know are opinionated and smart. We're not looking for pitches from publicists, where we'll just put someone on the panel. Most of the people are friends of mine, people I know, or people I know who are good on camera.

For the first one, we were doing a panel on Playstation 3. I liked the idea of having an analyst on, just to bring not necessarily impartiality, but someone who could bring a business perspective to the table. So Michael Pachter was the obvious choice for that. Jason Rubin, I thought would be a really interesting guest, because no-one's heard from him in a while. Obviously, he was a Sony developer, and now is off doing stuff for the Web, but he still keeps up on the industry. So I thought that would be a really interesting get, if Jason was willing to come on and talk about his views. He's certainly a well-known figure, or was a well-known figure, and respected--

And he was a somewhat controversial figure after his speech at D.I.C.E. a few years ago.

For those of us who were in the audience for the DICE speech, we all still remember it as one of the best speeches that's ever been given at a gaming conference, in terms of something that's stirred the pot. You never know what you're going to get with Jason, but he's certainly opinionated, and not willing to back down. The guests we've had so far are really willing to state their opinions and put something on the line. The last thing I want is three panelists who nod their heads and all agree.

Grant Collier was an interesting choice for your first panel. Even though his Call of Duty games have been hugely successful, he hasn't done a lot of public forums or talks, so he wasn't an obvious choice. Yet he still turned out to be an interesting person for you to have at the table.

Part of my goal has been to bring a lot of these industry figures into the spotlight. The great thing with a forum like "Bonus Round," and even "Game Head" on Spike, is that we can focus on the personalities behind the games. That's something I've always been interested in, even stemming back to the Gamespot "Behind the Games" series, which was profiles of these game developers. There are some people that are at Jason Rubin or Cliffyb's level of recognition. Then there's someone like Grant, who I know really well. Infinity Ward is one of the best developers out there, and he brought a really interesting perspective to the table, because he had the top-selling launch game for the Xbox 360 last year.

I didn't want to do a show that was in the vacuum of what Sony developers think about the Playstation 3. Anyone who's watched "Bonus Round" sees that even though the first one was about the Playstation, we're talking about it in a completive sense: how does it compare to the Xbox 360, how does it compare to Nintendo strategy with the Wii. In order to get that broad perspective, it's important to have different voices.

Next: Keighley reflects on his short, strange trip from being the Cameron Crowe of videogames to its Howard Stern.