Elizabeth Edwards Battles Back, An Elephant Scare, And Polar Bears In Crisis (Thursday's First Hour)

Hi everybody. Maria Shriver hosting Larry King? Wha? Anyway, we're still in Cambodia and 360 has some video from their day that they must show us right now. Apparently Jeff Corwin got a bigger animal adventure than he bargained for. We're shown a clip of Jeff and Anderson standing and talking in water with elephants around. Suddenly one of the elephants wraps its trunk around Jeff's left arm and pulls hard, sending him flying back. OMG, Jeff! From the sound of his screams it did not feel good. Anderson and some other dudes who pop out of no where then quickly help Jeff out of the water. Geez. Cameraman Neal gets critter-attacked in Brazil and now Jeff gets flung by an elephant. What's going to happen in the next location and to who?

Transitioning back to New York with John Roberts and he talks about the horrible news that Elizabeth Edwards' cancer is back and it has spread to her bones. This intros into a Candy Crowley piece where we learn that John Edwards' campaign will go on because Elizabeth doesn't want him to quit. Elizabeth was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 at the time of the election and then went into remission. However, now it's back and at stage 4. This means that while the cancer is treatable, it can no longer be cured. The Edwards are fighters though, having survived the death of their 16 year old son in a car accident. For now they soldier on. After Candy's piece we get a profile piece on Elizabeth from John. We learn that Elizabeth was a military brat and spent much of her childhood in Japan. She then went to law school and married John. Elizabeth practiced law until her son Wade was killed in 1996. After some intense mourning she and John decided to get on with living and they had two more children with the help of hormone treatment. A recurring theme here seems to be that Elizabeth is a fighter. I haven't seen/heard anything that would make me disagree.

Next up John has an interview with Dr. Eric Winer, director of the Breast Oncology Center at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. John wonders what it means that the cancer is treatable. It means they can hold it at bay and even make it better. Well that actually sounds better than what I thought. They then talk about treatment and related issues. After the interview we're joined in studio by Elizabeth's brother, Jay Anania, and John asks how Elizabeth is doing. Jay says she's holding up really well and her sunny disposition at the press conference and in general is discussed. It is also noted that while this news is bad, Elizabeth originally thought her diagnosis was going to be much worse. Thank God it wasn't.

Moving on now to an interview with democratic strategist Paul Begala and he and John talk a bit about Elizabeth's grace and poise. Honestly, I have never heard anything bad said about this women. She really does seem to be as great as everyone is saying, which makes the fact that this is happening to her seem even worse. John then reads a snippet from Time's website that wonders if Edwards will be able to stay in the race to the end. Paul says that staying power is a question with every candidate and he thinks that Edwards is the one to watch. I wonder if Paul has always been on the Edwards bandwagon or if he just jumped. Paul also thinks that Edwards was the winner of the week simply because it came out that Obama's campaign was behind the anti-Clinton ad. Uh, wait. Is that even true? I thought the guy who made it worked for a company that was affiliated with Obama, but they did not know he was making the ad. How does that translate to him being behind the ad? Let's keep 'em honest here folks. We then get a clip of Anderson trying to throw us out to commercial as an elephant plays with his head. Okay, that was hilariously adorable.

Transitioning now to Anderson and he intros us into a piece of him and Jeff Corwin at Cambodia's Phnom Tamao Rescue Center. We meet a young Asian elephant named Chook who had his foot ripped off, probably by a poacher's snare. Chook's injuries are severe and in order to perform treatment and dress his wounds workers have to sedate him with a blow dart. When they're done they give him another shot to wake him up. It is unclear whether he will survive. In another clip an elephant uses it's trunk to smell Anderson and then proceeds to try to strangle him. "All you have to say is uncle," jokes Jeff. Anderson giggles and so do I, but there's another part of me that is remembering the footage we saw at the top of the hour and realizing that elephant could have just as easily snapped his neck into Anderson Cooper 180. We also see Jeff talking with a man in front of a tiger cage when the tiger decides it does not wish to be filmed today. Since it can't get out and eat them it settles for some peeing. Yeah, the cameraman gets it. Was that you Neal? Poor Neal.

Our adventurers then move on to a pond where they help bathe the elephants. This is where Jeff almost gets a broken arm, but first Anderson gets it a little too. I don't know if he got kicked by an elephant foot or what, but suddenly he goes flying back in the water with a "whoa" sound. Elephants are strong. Right after Jeff's incident we get a clip of him wet and frazzled, but still eager to show his wounds. He thinks he's okay, but now he knows "what it feels like to be a circus peanut, going down the gullet of an elephant." Back live in Cambodia we have Jeff joining us in a sling. He tells us that he has some crushed (possibly torn) tendons, but it could have been so much worse. Yes it could, but tendon injuries are nothing to sneeze at. Jeff jokes about having a six week vacation on behalf of CNN. Dude, Jeff, I can totally do your work comp report for you. After the recounting of injuries there's some endangered species talk. I wonder how Jeff feels about his injured arm being their hook for the night. They must have played that clip almost a dozen times.

Next up we have a cute clip of Anderson and Jeff playing with a bear and then live Anderson intros us into a piece he did on an adorable polar bear cub named Knut that one animal rights activist wants killed. Wha? The mother rejected the cub at birth and the German Zoo he was born in has decided to raise him in captivity because polar bears are under threat of extinction. However, animal rights dude doesn't care about this. All he cares about is that it's not natural and now he won't be able to live in the wild. Well, duh. Anyway, as you might guess, proclaiming something that adorable should be killed has been quite controversial. Now the guy is kind of backing down. Whatever. You know, I would think one of the main animal rights would be the right to not be killed.

Moving on to an interview with Steve Lehr, caretaker of two popular polar bears at SeaWorld in Orlando. Anderson wonders if animal rights guy makes sense at all and Steve is as comfuzzled as the rest of us. Anderson asks if it's difficult to raise a polar bear in captivity. Steve doesn't think so, though it seems he wishes he could try. We also learn that polar bears are almost classified as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Steven then tells us a little bit about the polar bears he cares for. Then we're onto Kiran with the headlines. The Shot tonight is "Inmate Idle," the "American Idol" for the prison crowd. Oh you've got to be kidding me. They're even going to have celebrity judges Alice Cooper and Charles Barkley. Good Lord. John says he "can only imagine what Simon would say." Probably something like, "how much am I getting paid for this?" Just a guess. Oh and rewrite that "Shot" copy, 360! Even John's having trouble.

I had mixed feelings about the show tonight. The entertaining/cute factor was through the roof, but I'm not sure why Jeff's injury suddenly became the main story. As for the New York coverage, I am deeply saddened by Elizabeth Edwards' diagnosis, but I think some of the coverage could have been consolidated to make room for other stories. What's going on with attorney-gate? How about the House withdrawl plan that might pass? B-

Screencaps by stormi0611.