Shatner Down to Earth on New Talk Show

Jan. 14, 2009— -- William Shatner isn't quite sure what makes celebrities like Kelsey Grammer, Valerie Bertinelli and comedian Jimmy Kimmel spill their guts to him on his new talk show, A&E's "Raw Nerve."

Perhaps it's his restrained panache? Or his own tabloid-traversed past?

"I don't want to back anybody into a corner, but if I probe gently enough so that I don't get too vivid a reaction, I get what I'm looking for," said the icon known to generations of TV fans as "Star Trek's" Captain Kirk, hard-edged cop "T.J. Hooker," "Boston Legal" curmudgeon Denny Crane, as well as from his long-running Priceline gig. "I suppose it's almost like a doctor trying to find a place where he can. He probes a little, if there's not too much pain, he probes a little further."

And much to his viewers' delight, Shatner's strangely understated style has yielded many telling gems from his guests. Bertinelli revealed that she thinks she's going to hell, but that she can live with it. Shatner, as father-figure, said he would absolve her if he could.

Grammer told Shatner that his ex-wife once shot at him -- yes, with a gun. Tim Allen talked about going to prison for three years, just before his comedy career took off. Such unexpected celebrity candor has made the show a critics' darling.

But, Shatner confessed to ABCNews.com in his signature deadpan manner, "What I'm doing has no technique in it whatsoever. It's just me trying to make a conversation. No, you can get it on the corner of Laurel and Ventura in L.A. It's just a conversation, that's what I've been doing my whole life."

Ask Shatner, 77, why A&E chose him to man the hot seat on "Raw Nerve," and he doesn't quite have an answer.

"A&E got a hold of me and asked would I like to do a talk show? I thought about it and I kept saying to myself, 'What do we need another talk show for?'" he said, laughing. "Then the title occurred to me, as well as the slant of it. When I thought of 'Raw Nerve,' I thought, 'That would be interesting to me, to see if I could touch a raw nerve in somebody.'"