CNN’s David Shuster?

In a must read, The New York Observer’s Felix Gillette writes about CNN taping a pilot with MSNBC’s David Shuster…

Recently, according to CNN sources, the network’s in-house team shot a pilot for a news show featuring David Shuster of MSNBC and Michel Martin of NPR as co-anchors. The pilot, we’re told, also featured medical and opinion segments, and included appearances by several current CNN contributors, including Chrystia Freeland, the U.S. managing editor for the Financial Times and Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker.

Reached on Wednesday night, Ms. Martin declined to comment. Ditto Mr. Shuster. Ditto CNN.

Will the project ever see the light of day? It’s a toss-up. You can bet that the CNN cupboard is well stocked with ideas like the Martin-Shuster pairing that might never make it out of TV purgatory–that well-populated land where ideas exist when they are not quite alive and not quite dead.