Sparks exits E's 'Talk Soup'

Host's sked limited other tv, film opportunities

By MICHAEL FLEMING

NEW YORK — Hal Sparks, the host of E! Entertainment’s “Talk Soup,” has flown the coop after one year. Sparks will concentrate on TV and film opportunities, while the E! show employs guest hosts before naming a new permanent host.

Sparks was the third host of “Talk Soup,” an E! staple that employs highlight clips of chat shows for yuks. Greg Kinnear was the first host before leaving for a film career, followed by comic John Henson, whom Sparks was named to replace last year. Sparks taped his final episode last Thursday.

“It just felt like it became time for me to move on,” he said. “There were lots of things I had to pass up because it’s a year-round show, with no hiatus. I did about 250 half hours of television in less than a year, and a whole lot of it I felt good about. But because it’s a daily show, you find a good joke, and it’s gone forever. It’s Be There TV, with no reruns.”

Sparks, relatively unknown before getting the show, got plenty of exposure: Twenty Web sites are devoted to him, as well as fan clubs with monikers like Halcoholics and Hal’s Angels. But the rigorous show schedule forced him to pass up a possible studio film, and he was nixed from being a regular guest on gameshows like Oxygen’s “I’ve Got A Secret” because it was a competing web.

Since coming to agreement with E! that he’d be moving on, Sparks has been booked for that show, and did a segment of MTV’s “What’s Up Karaoke.” He’s out pitching two animated show creations, and hopes to begin working regularly in series and features.

He’s already begun with the latter, starring in an indie feature called “Stages,” which is being directed by Brad Gyori, who’s head writer on “Talk Soup.”

Sparks is repped by Writers & Artists’ David Brownstein, and managed by Sherry Marsh.