Category Archives: Stories

Daylight Saving is the Worst Thing That Happens to Television

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daylight saving is the worst

As Daylight Saving Time returns today, I wrote at Quartz why this is the worst time each year for TV execs and advertisers.

That’s because when the time change arrives, the industry must grapple with a corresponding drop in viewership (measured as Households Using Television, or HUT levels). That, in turn, translates into ratings declines across the board—especially in DST’s first week— for programs airing in the early evening, as some viewers choose to enjoy their additional hour of daylight away from their TV.

I was inspired to do this story by an observation that Kevin Reilly made at TCA winter press tour. Once again, I’m using my Quartz platform to tackle TV-related issues that few outside of the industry are aware of.

Daylight saving is the worst thing that happens to television

The Great Marriage Behind ‘The Good Wife’

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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.

The Great Marriage Behind ‘The Good Wife’

How the Dark and Stylish Drama ‘Suits’ Became USA’s Best Show

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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

The Biggest TV Drama in America Gets No Attention

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During TCA winter press tour, I had an opportunity to speak with NCIS showrunner Gary Glasberg for this Quartz story about how his show is one of the biggest on TV, yet receives on a fraction of the media attention and respect paid to all of the other shows it soundly trounces each week.

At this point, the show’s producers are resigned to NCIS’ fate as the Rodney Dangerfield of TV shows (i.e. gets no respect). “I try to stay really focused on the fact that as much as I would love for our cast and crew to get some attention, at the end of the day it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards,” the show’s executive producer and showrunner Gary Glasberg tells Quartz. “And I have to appreciate at the end of the day that although they haven’t gotten that kind of attention, that 20 million people every week are watching. The fact that I’m getting 20 million viewers in this landscape is kind of crazy.”

Glasberg also talked about the show’s success around the world — and how much longer he expects the run to last.

The biggest TV drama in America gets no attention

No, One Billion People Do Not Watch the Oscars

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Every year at the Oscars, someone notes that the ceremony is being watched by “a billion people.” That’s an impressive figure, to be sure. It’s also a complete fiction. As I explained at Quartz,

Last year’s Oscar ceremony drew a United States audience of 40.3 million, making it the seventh highest-rated telecast of 2013 (the other top 10 shows were all NFL-related). That would mean that elsewhere in the world—the Academy says Sunday’s telecast will be seen in “more than 225 countries”—an additional 960 million people are interested enough to tune in and see what gown Cate Blanchett will wear and which film will win best production design. Roughly 13% of Americans watched last year’s ceremony; 14% of the remaining global population would also need to view the show in order to reach that mythical billion-viewer figure. Comparatively, the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies in Beijing were viewed by an estimated billion people, but those numbers were bolstered by more than half of China’s 1.3 billion population.

I trace the origin of the “billion audience” myth, and talk about why, despite all rational evidence to the contrary, the b-word won’t be going away anytime soon.

No, one billion people do not watch the Oscars

Denis Leary’s Secret to Lasting Love: ‘I Married Up’

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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!”

Denis Leary’s Secret to Lasting Love: ‘I Married Up’

Minnie Driver: ‘I’m Not a Neurotic Mother’

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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.”

Minnie Driver: ‘I’m Not a Neurotic Mother’

Gillian Anderson: My Kids Don’t Know I’m an Actress

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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…”

 Gillian Anderson: My Kids Don’t Know I’m an Actress

Hank Azaria Reveals His Biggest Parenting Mistake

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While at TCA winter press tour, I spoke with Hank Azaria for this Parade piece about his terrific new web documentary series Fatherhood, his biggest parenting mistake and why his son is “freaked out” by his voice acting:

“He doesn’t like when I do voices! He’s four and a half. He’s still a little freaked out by it. He’ll often stipulate before I read a story, ‘No voices, just normal!’ I think he’s particularly worried that the villain is going to have a scary voice. A couple of times, I would kind of go with one of these [he says in a deep-throated, sinister growl]. And he’s like… I kind of knew that from The Simpsons. Kids don’t like it…it flips them out a little bit. It’s too much for them.

Hank Azaria Reveals His Biggest Parenting Mistake