Whatever the reason, it seems Bill Clinton is once again entertaining the idea of becoming a daytime talkmeister, according to published reports Wednesday.

Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety reports that syndication giant King World and CBS are "pursuing" a show with the former president described as a cross between Oprah and Nightline.

While King World and CBS reps declined to comment, Variety quotes unnamed sources saying the syndicator ideally would begin distributing the Bubba show via CBS-owned stations in fall 2003.

But to make it happen, the former White House dweller would have to agree to doing the five-day-a-week yakfest by next month. As with his past flirtations with TV talkdom, Clinton has yet to commit.

Wednesday's New York Times says a 2003 Clinton show could be a difficult trick to pull off because King World and CBS executives have yet to even meet with Clinton. However, the Clinton camp has reportedly bandied about format suggestions with the Hollywood folks.

Clinton's reps don't deny the talks, but say no deals are imminent. "The president has received an enormous number of offers from broadcast television, cable television, the Internet, print and radio. We have no immediate plans to make any media deals, and when the time comes a proper announcement will be forthcoming," said Clinton's Washington, D.C., based lawyer, Robert Barnett.

Whether Clinton bites apparently hinges on how much money he'd get paid. His last purported asking price was a whopping $50 million per year--the biggest paycheck ever for a talk-show host, eclipsing even megabucks Oprah Winfrey. The $50 million figure dates back to May, when the former leader of the free world was talking with NBC honchos about headlining a show for their network.

Those talks, launched by Clinton cronies and former Designing Women producers Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason with a May 1 meeting, ended abruptly in mid-July when the two sides couldn't hammer out a deal, according to the Times. (The Thomasons have been exploring a TV gig for Clinton as far back as December 2000.)

It was at that point that CBS stepped in with its bid for a presidential talker with the help of Dennis Swanson, the former head of NBC's flagship station, WNBC Channel 4 in New York, who left to head CBS' stations in July. Sources say Swanson was a driving force behind NBC's original offer when he met with Clinton in May.

The sticking point, both for NBC and now CBS, is exactly what kind of format would best suit Clinton. The Thomasons had been favoring a Meet the Press-style once-a-week affair for the Peacock network, in which Clinton would interview various world leaders.

"They wanted to make a deal before they had a program," an unnamed NBC executive told the Times. "What they were talking about was a talk show but a weird talk show. They wanted a public affairs show, but there might be a band."

One Clinton vehicle nixed early on was a political show, because of potential conflicts of interest involving his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the thought of possibly damaging her presidential ambitions.

So far, Clinton has been reticent on the subject since telling National Public Radio in May that, while he was deeply interested in having his own TV forum for a non-partisan look at world issues, he was doubtful he could juggle his hectic schedule to accommodate a show.

Since leaving office, the ex-prez has been on tour all around the world, giving speeches at $125,000 to $300,000 a pop and reportedly earning $15 million a year (much of the money is going to pay off his lawyers). That doesn't including the $12 million book deal he clinched with Alfred A. Knopf, one of the largest in publishing history.

With Clinton not likely to announce his intentions until September, Oprah can, for the time being at least, breathe easy.