I think all these ideas are excellent.
If I were to set up a chess show, I would not conceive of it in terms of a single event presented face on--ie a tournament or reviewing a single game. Instead, I would have multiple events through the show, let's say a half hour, creating it much as chess.com has presented it but using the differences that exist in visual/audio media offers compared to print and picture on line or magazine.
For example, the shows theme song logo, and credits. 1) You might open up presenting a puzzle of the day and at the end of the show providing the solution and explanation. Music and art selections could be a big part of the show too.
2) There could be an interview one day and the interview can center on chess but diverge to the person's other interests or highlight their quirky characters, a historical bio another, and a current bio on another day. The bios could be about world grandmasters, local up and coming players thereby appealing to local interest, or interesting amateurs such as RZA who have other appealing things they do or players who are also actors, models, scientists, physicians, or hard working people who enjoy a game of chess as part of their lives. There's the chess.com fave--ladies in chess. Models who play chess. Talk show hosts who play chess. Chefs who play chess. Chess in different cities in the world. Chess played in the park. School chess.
3) The third part of the show could be instruction by a teacher on one aspect of the chess game, or going over a tournament game either international, national, or local, explaining the game but also, as is done with other games or with sports, giving some background on the place the game is being played and background on the players as individuals and on their past competitive games with each other. Chess analysis by top players and even argument/discussion over the game.
4) Other--a brief chess news segment, chess jokes, reviews of books about chess both instructional and fiction or historical novels centered on the game, viewer email and questions, and then editorial opinion about a chess related topic such as we have in the forums here.
5) Solution of the daily chess puzzle.
All this could use guidance by a good programmer, people who know how to make the thing visually appealing, researchers to provide info, writers to provide a script, people who know how to sell commercial space (once the demographics of the building audience is known then commercial sales become possible--word of mouth and advertising on line, in mags, etc to get the core group interested and then spread the word, get school teams interested and involved--educators and the like), and a good host with good personality or perhaps hosts--a man woman team is usually a plus (I agree with yeoldewildman on this, attractive hosts help, although it does not necessarily have to be looks alone, someone who is funny or engaging can be more effective than someone who is good looking but bland) (Billium, you're a professional actor, is there a johnny carson in you?). Celebrity player involvement is always a plus too.
If we can involve entrepreneurs and thinkers like Erik, people in the entertainment industry like Billium and RZA, this can become a reality. We're a generally bright group of people. I am sure tons of ideas can flow; look at all the freebie articles people write and the time invested on line by participants here, just for the sheer pleasure of the game. Imagine applying all those thoughts to a show, and how much positive influence that show could have on a game that is an art and can be a positive influence on a world so bored with itself it turns to less mentally engaging pursuits (notice I did not single out specifics since all the specifics I could think of were arguable and while perhaps of lesser value not completely valueless--maybe).
What would we call such a show? How about:
Chess Hop
Double entendre -- Hip Hop or meet you at the Hop (an old word from the fifties). Any others? I am sure there's a million titles out there.
Yes definitely - I think every semi-serious chess player would love to see chess on the small screen, even if it's just a chance to show the naysayers that there's a lot more to the game than intense boredom, big glasses and ill-advised woolly jumpers.
Blitz chess would stand a much bigger chance of making it, simply because of its fast pace, as opposed to the potentially soporific classical time controls. There's a world blitz championship coming up shortly featuring some very strong players indeed, including the naturalised American Gata Kamsky. It's too late for this tournament, but an event of this calibre and nature would be ideal if chess were to be televised.
From what little I can remember of the Kasparov - Short world title match that was televised on Channel 4 here in Britain, it attracted fairly large audiences (around 4 million, I think), which is certainly a viable size. That was quite a large and one-off event, however, so if a regular TV programme were to succeed, it would have to be an attractive package, well balanced between explaining to those not familiar with game, and catering for regular players.
Also, as a side note, I know the RZA (from the Wu Tang Clan, and soundtrack producer for Kill Bill) is very into chess, to the point that he's set up a Hip-Hop Chess Federation. Maybe he could be of some use in appealing to a wider audience?