Singing Chung soars on Web

Alongside videos of alcohol-drinking monkeys and balletic race cars, the newest Web sensation is a crooning Connie Chung.

On Saturday’s finale of MSNBC’s “Weekends with Maury & Connie,” Chung sang a version of Bob Hope’s old theme song “Thanks for the Memories” to her husband and co-host, Maury Povich.

A clip of the performance – complete with mood-setting candles and an accompanying grand piano – is one of the most popular clips of the week on the video Web site YouTube.

As of Thursday, almost 600,000 people had viewed the video of Chung – an audience that might have saved “Weekends with Maury & Connie” from being canceled.

Decked out in a pink gown, Chung sings: “We came to do a show, for very little dough/ By little, I mean I could make more working on skid row/ That’s cable.”

Chung, 59, sang a similar tune for Dan Rather (with whom she briefly co-anchored the “CBS Evening News”) when he was given an award in 2001, and did the same for former “20/20” colleague Barbara Walters when Walters left for “The View.”

“All I want to be sure of is that viewers understood it was a giant self-parody,” Chung, who enjoys singing because Povich “so hates it,” says of Saturday’s performance.

“If anyone took it seriously, they really need to get a life.”

– Jake Coyle, Associated Press