The nighttime audience for CNBC was smaller than its cable competitors, causing the network to look for a new direction. While it had been showing mostly business-oriented talk shows, such as "Kudlow & Cramer" and "Capital Report", NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker approached Miller with an offer to do a prime-time political show weeknights in CNBC's 9 p.m. (ET) slot, which placed him against Fox's Bill O'Reilly. Miller accepted the offer and the show, produced by NBC Studios, began on January 26, 2004 called, simply, "Dennis Miller". CNBC announced that they were "comfortable with an unabashed Bush fan in the middle of its prime-time schedule in an election year." Their president Pamela Thomas-Graham said, "When we hired Dennis, we knew exactly what his political beliefs were and his viewers will hear them. The reason we hired him is we think he's witty, smart and interesting. He's part of a lineup. He's not the only person in the lineup." She contrasted his political leanings to that of John McEnroe's, whose own talk show followed Miller's in the lineup. The group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting objected that one of the show's producers was Mike Murphy, who was an adviser to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (Miller's first guest on the show), and charged that CNBC was setting up a conflict of interest. Miller promised to serve as "'an ombudsman' who will tell it like it is and become 'incensed' on the viewer's behalf". Miller said he wanted to change his approach from previous talk-show work, striving for seriousness and substance by researching issues, to avoid becoming an "irony-lalapalooza like it's been in the past. ... I don't want to become some ageing hipster who pisses on everything." Stylistically Miller was seen as "attempting to be serious, angry, and funny all at the same time," and the show was compared to that of Bill Maher. When asked if he had the credentials to do a quasi-news show, Miller stressed he was an entertainer. "I don't have credibility, I'm a comedian. I'm not Ed Murrow up on the roof in a London Fog reporting on the Blitz." In the beginning of the series, Miller had a chimpanzee on the show named Ellie, who was declared a "consultant." This was a nod to the early days of the "Today" show and their mascot J. Fred Muggs.