Back at TCA winter press tour, I (nope, still not “Walter Scott”) spoke with Sam Champion for this Parade story about being frenemies with Al Roker, his new Weather Channel show AMHQ and why he left Good Morning America:
If I hadn’t taken this opportunity, I’d regret it the rest of my life. I like a challenge.
‘AMHQ’s’ Sam Champion Wants News Coverage to Help People Survive Weather Disasters
Just when you though it was safe to go back in the water … there’s even more Shark Tank material! Parade has posted the video interviews I conducted with the six Sharks after the photo shoot.
In the first video, I asked them to weigh in on why Shark Tank is so popular.
In the second video, they tell me what makes a successful Shark Tank pitch.
And with that, it’s finally time for me to leave the Shark Tank. What a fantastic story this was to work on — I had a blast!
As part of my extensive Parade cover story on Shark Tank, I wrote up sidebars on each of the six Sharks, packed with info about what makes them tick. Here they are:
Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran on the Deal She’s Proudest Of
Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban: “I Didn’t Think the Show Would Last!”
Shark Tank’s Lori Greiner: ‘I Don’t Pick People Who Are Just Using the Show for Publicity’
Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec: ‘Don’t Mistake My Kindness for Weakness’
Shark Tank’s Daymond John on the Hollywood Star Who Loves the Sharks
Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary: ‘You’ve Got to Know the Numbers—Or I Will Eviscerate You’
At long last, you can finally read the Shark Tank cover story for Parade that I’ve been working so long and hard on! I spent time with all six Sharks — Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec, Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran — and also talked with executive producer Mark Burnett and several of the show’s most successful entrepreneurs. The result is what I think is the definitive Shark Tank story, for newbies and die-hard fans alike!
Shark Tank is one of the quietest successful stories on TV. Ratings have steadily grown each season, which is unprecedented, especially for a reality show. As I wrote at Parade,
In short, the country hasn’t been this shark-obsessed since Jaws. “It’s what America stands for. Everybody’s got a dream,” says executive producer Mark Burnett, who also oversees Survivor and The Voice. Sony Pictures Television produces the show and adapted it from the Japanese-based reality format known in most countries as Dragons’ Den. “It says a lot about the psyche of our culture: Crazy things are possible, even in a down economy,” adds Amy Cosper, editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine. “Entrepreneurs see things that others don’t.”
I’m really proud of how this one turned out, and hope you all enjoy it!
Swimming With Sharks: The Moguls of Shark Tank Tell All About Making Inventors’ Dreams Come True
I’m so excited to finally share the mystery story I’ve spent much of the past six weeks immersed in: my latest Parade cover, on the hit ABC reality competition show Shark Tank.
I spent time with all six Sharks — Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec, Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran — for the cover story. The whole thing will go online tomorrow, but Parade has posted a cover tease today, including an explanation of what happens after the Sharks close the deals they make on the show:
After the deals close, the real work begins for the Sharks. “Filming is the easiest part,” says Cuban. “The hardest part is that you actually have to have a connection and help these companies.” That fact has helped the Sharks change the country’s perception of business moguls, who have long been equated with the toxic likes of Wall Street’s Gordon “Greed Is Good” Gekko. “We’re entrepreneurs helping fledgling businesspeople,” says Greiner. Adds Herjavec, “Shark Tank shows you don’t have to be a jerk to be successful.”
Look for much more tomorrow!
Shark Tank: The TV Hit That’s Reinventing the American Dream
I’ve read plenty of interviews with The Good Wife’s powerhouse showrunners Robert and Michelle King talking about their sensational series, but none that focuses on how they’ve successfully pulled off being married to their job, and each other. So I profiled them for The Daily Beast and talked about that very subject, including their biggest work fight:
But that was far from the duo’s biggest—and oddest—clash. “I think the biggest creative argument we ever had was whether U.S. should be abbreviated with or without periods within a script,” says Michelle. “I mean, it gets down to that level! I think it went on for two days, and I could not tell you which of us had which position or where it landed.” Adds Robert, “Which is the advantage of [being on a] network. There are so many decisions that have to be made, you can’t really fight over one for very long.”
It was a delight spending time with these two, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next.
After an unplanned hiatus, I’m back writing for The Daily Beast with this look at how USA’s Suits evolved from a half-hour, Entourage-like story into a dark and stylish drama. Stars Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams, along with creator Aaron Korsh, talked with me about how the show — which still seems a unusual fit for USA’s “Blue Skies” lineup — has thrived, how it might end, and whether not-a-real-lawyer Mike will ever be held accountable for his deception.
“Recently, I have started giving some thought to it,” says Korsh, who is currently mulling four different outcomes. “One is the truth comes out and Mike goes to jail. That’s a definite possibility. We’ve at least discussed the possibility of the truth coming out and figuring out a way that he does not go to jail. Another option would be the truth would never come out, and another option would be the truth comes out, he goes to jail and you’re able to move past that.”
I particularly enjoyed Macht’s pitch for how the show could successfully, and logically, navigate the dilemma of Mike’s big lie.
How the Dark and Stylish Drama ‘Suits’ Became USA’s Best Show
At TCA winter press tour, I spoke with Denis Leary for this Parade story about his return to cable (he’s writing and producing the new EMT sitcom Sirens for USA, and working on a comedy pilot for FX called Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll), the neverending Ice Age franchise, his 25-year-long marriage and what public service job he might do a TV show about next:
“I don’t know. What’s left? I mean, the sanitation department? They say write what you know, and where I come from, my family was cops and firefighters. And the guys that weren’t were Teamsters and hockey players. My dream is to do a hockey show or a hockey movie. There’s a little bit of hockey in Rescue Me. To go to a rink every day and get paid to play hockey–or to pretend to play hockey–is my dream. But I’m getting to the age where it’s like, now I have to be the coach!”
At Parade, I (not “Walter Scott”) spoke to Minnie Driver about her new NBC comedy About a Boy, motherhood and the demise of her fantastic FX series The Riches, which was canceled back in 2009. Here’s a portion of our chat, back at TCA winter press tour:
“It just kills me. It kills me, because ideas like that don’t come around very often. It was so good, that show. I still think it was the biggest mistake Fox ever made, canceling that show. It was [on hiatus] during the writers’ strike…[and] there was no support when we came back. Everybody had been watching reality television for nine months. When we came back on the air, there was no big campaign to remind people of our presence. I was nominated [for an Emmy and a Golden Globe] for that. I feel like it wasn’t a pile of rubbish that was meant to be discarded. It’s still galling to all of us.”
At TCA winter press tour, I spoke with Gillian Anderson for this Parade profile about the many projects on her plate: her new NBC drama Crisis, her recurring role on NBC’s Hannibal and a new season of her BBC2/Netflix crime drama series The Fall, plus she’s moonlighting as a sci-fi author:
“I don’t know about a conscious decision to amp up my workload. Everything has kind of fallen together at the same time, and it seems doable. I think in the past, when my little ones were younger, it seemed less doable. And on top of that, the fact that I’ve been approached with some projects that were difficult to turn down—I think the mixture of the two of them. If they were difficult to turn down and I didn’t find that they were doable, then I wouldn’t be doing them. But it seems manageable at this point. Talk to me in April [or] May…”