Making up for lost stellar sheen and clout

Last year, some popular TV personalities stumbled badly, bringing down careers that they carefully built up and nurtured for years, if not decades. Can they ever recover the stellar territory and reputation they lost?

Well, some of them are making big moves in that direction this season, and their fans hope that those gambits will be enough to turn the tide of public opinion in their favor:

When “star” TV anchor Brian Williams was suspended by NBC last year for enhancing his “heroic” image by tweaking some new reports, his professional future was put in decided jeopardy.

This month, however, his six-month suspension is being lifted and he’s finally going back to on-cam mode—on MSNBC.

Significantly, his comeback is being launched by way of his coverage of a religious event, Pope Francis’ visit to the United States. —Will this spiritual context make it easier for his critics to finally “forgive” Williams, and charitably give his news and public affairs career a new lease on (repentant) life?

For her part, cooking and lifestyle guru Paula Deen got a lot of hate when she uttered some racist remarks on her popular TV show, so she too was given the sack—and a professional black eye, to boot.

She apologized as abjectly and piteously as could be—but, despite her most whining and wheedling efforts to make amends, she still wasn’t given her TV show back.

After mulling her remaining career options for months, Deen is doing the next best thing—she’s being seen again on TV, but not as a program host.

Instead, she’s performing as one of the “celebrity” contestants on “Dancing With the Stars”’ new season, along with Bindi Irwin and Nick Carter.

The tilt’s current frontrunners are Bindi and Nick, while the already relatively old and sluggish Paula is doing her best to just avoid being voted out!

But, her gambit has reminded millions of televiewers of her stellar existence, so if she manages to hold on for a couple more weeks on “Dancing,” she could generate enough recall and buzz to go back on TV—for keeps!

Hopefully, both Brian and Paula have learned their respective lessons, so their past traumas on TV shall have not been for naught.

But, what about the other and even bigger “public sinners” on the tube—when will they express their abject apologies and then try to work their way back into public favor again?

We’re thinking of you, Mr. Cosby—when will you give your 25-plus victims and accusers the closure and justice they demand?