Baldwin’s debut as a TV talk show host didn’t do him or his audience any favors. The choice to launch a much-hyped national program by devoting a full hour to a candidate for local office—in the midst of a titanic struggle in Washington, no less—was eccentric to say the least, even if you believe (as I do) that New York is the greatest city on earth. It’s difficult to imagine that viewers in California or Colorado were riveted by a stolidly affable gabfest about the ins and outs of affordable housing; the political, cultural and economic tensions between Manhattan and the outer boroughs; the evils of the police department’s stop-and-frisk policy; the self-evident sins of Wall Street; progressive efforts to raise the city’s minimum wage, and whether New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will countenance de Blasio’s platform of hiking taxes on the wealthy.

“You’re mischievous, sir!” de Blasio quipped when Baldwin suggested that Cuomo’s stance on such issues would be influenced by his ambitions for higher office.

Mischievous? If only.

The 55-year-old Baldwin, who has publicly mused about the possibility of running for office himself someday, seemed less motivated by curiosity—a necessary characteristic of any interviewer—than by a wish to portray himself as supremely well-informed, laudably public-spirited, and above all serious.