Tag Archives: TCA

‘Turn’ Star (and New Dad!) Jamie Bell on Sleepless Nights with Wife Evan Rachel Wood

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At Parade, Jamie Bell spoke with me (back at TCA winter press tour) about his new AMC Revolutionary War drama Turn, fatherhood, the hardest thing about period acting and how he avoided the usual pitfalls that plague child actors as they grow up:

 “I can only speak for myself, really. I was fortunate to have a really good manager who kept me very grounded, [as well as] my family, my mom especially. I was just working all the time. I didn’t really have time to go off the rails in that way. I’m sure I did it in my teenager kind of ways, but I wasn’t publicized. I wasn’t a Disney kid, I wasn’t Bieber, I didn’t have the attention of the world on my shoulders. I did for a second and then I just went and did a bunch of work, and started to live an actor’s life. You go from one to the next to the next to the next. In that regard, I was lucky that the focus wasn’t so heavy on me. I don’t really know another way around it. Just having really good, solid people around you that you trust.”

Turn Star (and New Dad!) Jamie Bell on Sleepless Nights with Wife Evan Rachel Wood

James Van Der Beek on Playing an M.D. and the Chance of a ‘Dawson’s’ Reunion

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Who is “Walter Scott,” and why does he keep taking credit for my interviews? (I kid. Mostly.) At Parade, James Van Der Beek talked to me (from an interview back at TCA winter press tour) about his new CBS sitcom, Friends with Better Lives, the chances of a Dawson’s Creek reunion and what happened the last time he played a doctor on TV:

“I was in the last 10 episodes of Mercy on NBC. I came in for the last 10, and the ratings went up a tick but it wasn’t enough. The show got canceled [and] they used my picture: “James Van Der Beek’s Mercy…” and I was like, “Wait a minute! I wasn’t even in the pilot! How is this my show all of a sudden?”

 James Van Der Beek on Playing an M.D. and the Chance of a ‘Dawson’s’ Reunion

How the Weather Channel Plans to Keep You Tuned In for More Than 15 Minutes

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As the Weather Channel prepares to launch its new morning show, AMHQ with Sam Champion, I spoke with Champion and Weather Channel President David Clark (in interviews I conducted back at TCA winter press tour) about the network’s plans to keep audiences tuned in for more than 15 minutes.

Almost 10 million viewers tune in—and tune out—each morning. During the first eight weeks of 2014, the Weather Channel network enjoyed an enormous “reach” weekdays between 7 and 10am, with 9.5 million adults 25-54 (the advertising demographic most prized in cable news) tuning in for at least one minute. That number dwarfed the reach of the cable news networks during the same period: 8.3 million for CNN, 7.8 million for Fox News and 5.6 million for MSNBC.

But that morning audience isn’t sticking around. The Weather Channel’s average morning tune-in was 15.15 minutes, compared to 25.12 minutes for Fox News, 24.96 for MSNBC and 15.91 for CNN. “We have enormous reach in the morning, but it’s sporadic,” Weather Channel President David Clark told Quartz. “We felt there was an opportunity to put a big show there and change the relationship from a place where people come to check their weather to a place where people come to get a show and be part of their daily routine.”

Champion also talks about why viewers should watch the network as opposed to just getting weather info from the Weather Channel app, and his plans to expand the scope of the network’s weather coverage.

How the Weather Channel plans to keep you tuned in for more than 15 minutes

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 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

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

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denis-leary

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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hank-azaria-fatherhood

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