A couple hundred TV critics walk into a bar: A press tour preview
The Television Critics Association winter press tour starts today
Among the questions I intend to ask at press tour: why would "Scandal" boss Shonda Rhimes make Henry Ian Cusick ditch his Scottish accent for the show?
Credit: ABC
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It's that time of year again, TV fans, when the a couple of hundred TV critics and reporters from the U.S. and Canada descend on a single Los Angeles area hotel for the Television Critics Association winter press tour.
If you've been reading me for any decent length of time, you know most of what there is to know about the tour already, and if it's new to you, my old press tour primer is still up at NJ.com to peruse. The very short version: dozens of networks and 100+ shows move their way in and out of the same ballroom for a series of press conferences in which the people on stage often have a very different agenda ("Please write flattering things about our shows!") than the ones in the audience ("Please tell me why I shouldn't be skeptical of your show").
The tour started this morning on the West Coast, with Fienberg covering the first couple of days solo until I arrive in time for NBC's presentations on Friday. As with all the tours I've covered since I came to HitFix, there's going to be a lot of improvisation about who covers what and when and why, but you'll definitely want to keep checking this blog, as well as The Fien Print and Starr Raving for updates.
(If you're on Twitter, it would also be wise to follow me, Dan and Liane for more up-to-the-minute observations and links to the longer pieces. There's always a danger during tour of having 70 people tweeting the same quotes and observations over and over again; at the very least, Fienberg and I will do our best to not overlap.)
It's always hard to say what panels will get written about immediately (though Dan tends to live-blog most of the sessions with the network presidents) and which will be saved for later. But to give you some sense of who and what we'll be seeing from now through the 15th, here's a brief run down of what each day will feature:
Wednesday, Jan. 4 & Thursday, Jan. 5: PBS opens the tour with two typically eclectic days of panels, including documentaries on President Clinton, Johnny Carson and koalas, the gang from "Sherlock," plus several musical performances by Michael Feinstein, The B-52's and Tony Bennett. (PBS has a harder time getting critics to attend their days, especially when they're on the outer edge of a tour like this, so they try to compensate with fancy evening events.)
Friday, Jan. 6: The first of two days devoted to NBC and its affiliated cable channels. The focus on this day will be NBC itself and its wave of new mid-season shows, including "Smash," "The Firm," "Awake" and "Are You There, Chelsea?" With a lot of new mid-season inventory, the only returning show to get a panel is "The Voice."
Saturday, Jan. 7: NBC Universal's cable arm takes over, with panels for MSNBC, Bravo, Syfy and E! In the evening, there's a reception for TCA members to mingle with and interview members of the Directors Guild, who are often overshadowed by their writing counterparts.
Sunday, Jan. 8: FOX also has a whole lot of new mid-season shows, including "Touch," "Alcatraz," "Napoleon Dynamite" and "The Finder," but there will also be the annual "American Idol" panel plus a mid-afternoon break where we can chat with the cast of "Bob's Burgers."
Monday, Jan. 9: The first of two days for ABC and its siblings, this one is mainly about the latter, including several ABC Family and Disney Channel sessions, plus a panel with the head of ABC News. There will also be visits to the set of "Suburgatory" and "New Girl" for critics who want to go off-campus. Because there was no evening event scheduled, the "Cougar Town" folks decided it would be a fine night to host an unofficial gathering to promote their currently homeless show, featuring the cast, the creators and a lot of wine.
Tuesday, Jan. 10: This time the focus is on ABC in primetime, with panels for all their new mid-season shows - including "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23" (which, like "Cougar Town," has no premiere date or timeslot yet), Shonda Rhimes' "Scandal," the horror thriller "The River," Ashley Judd kicking ass in "Missing," the Texas soap "GCB" and more - plus a group panel with the showrunners of all the Wednesday comedies and a farewell panel for "Desperate Housewives." ABC is not, by the way, paneling "Work It," which isn't unprecedented - sometimes networks don't bother with shows that already debuted before that day in the tour - but is still relatively rare.
Wednesday, Jan. 11: CBS arrives, and because their mid-season inventory is much lighter than their counterparts (for now, only "¡Rob!" and "Undercover Boss"), we're also getting an "NCIS" panel to talk about the show hitting 200 episodes, a panel of all the Monday comedy showrunners and a panel with the revamped "CBS This Morning" team.
Thursday, Jan. 12: The CBS-affiliated CW and Showtime split the day, with Showtime bringing in the casts of "Shameless," "The Borgias" and "House of Lies," followed by the CW paneling its new reality show "Remodeled" doing a panel titled "The Bad-Ass Boys of the CW," and featuring a farewell cocktail reception with the cast of "One Tree Hill."
Friday, Jan. 13: The first of several days for various cable networks that aren't connected to the broadcasters. HBO is the big deal here, with panels for Gervais and Merchant's "Life's Too Short," Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow for "Girls," Armando Iannucci and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for "Veep," a couple of movie panels (Ed Harris and Julianne Moore for "Game Change" and Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen for "Hemingway & Gellhorn") and - in what's my most-anticipated panel of the tour for a number of reasons - Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte, David Milch and Michael Mann to discuss "Luck." Other channels presenting include Starz (which is paneling "Spartacus: Vengeance" in addition to the new "Magic City"), National Geographic ("Dog Whisperer"), various Discovery networks, Current (including an appearance by Al Gore), Lifetime (Jennifer Love Hewitt and "The Client List"), A&E ("Longmire") and GMC TV.
Saturday, Jan. 14: The last full day of the tour features more cable. AMC's going to be there with Veena Sud and the cast of "The Killing," plus Kevin Smith and his new comic book store reality series "Comic Men," and TNT is paneling their "Dallas" update and their "The Closer" spin-off "Major Crimes." We're also getting panels from most of the MTV-related networks, The Weather Channel, We TV, Sundance Channel, Ovation and TV One.
Sunday, Jan. 15: FX closes things out with a half-day including "Justified," "Louie," "Unsupervised," "Wilfred" and "Archer," followed by a lunch with people from Hulu .
So that's that with that, to quote the great David Paymer. I'll see you on the other side of the looking glass.
Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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About This Blog
All through his childhood, Alan Sepinwall's relatives told his parents, "All that boy does is watch television! How's he going to make a living doing that?" His career as a TV critic has been 15 years and counting of his attempt to answer their concerns. "What's Alan Watching" is a blog whose title is self-explanatory: Alan watches TV shows, then writes about what he watched. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupJason
January 4, 2012 at 2:29PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, is Best Friends Forever on the NBC panel? I might be the only person curious about it, but I'm a fan of the creators.
sepinwall It is not, no. Though Bent is. BFF might wind up relegated to summer the way Friends With Benefits was last season.
January 4, 2012 at 2:44PM ESTalynch
January 4, 2012 at 2:40PM EST Reply to CommentGlad to know NBC is giving Awake a panel. I had been beginning to fear that they were planning on dumping it in summer.
exiledjerseyite
January 4, 2012 at 2:45PM EST Reply to CommentIs there any reason FX Network and FOX don't go together, like some of the other network/cable groups? Seems odd to be scheduled on the last day of a stressful ten days. Or is it because they have shows premiering so soon afterward?
Yay, "Sherlock"! I'm also anticipating "The Killing" panel. Feel like there should be popcorn for that.
sepinwall The FX thing is complicated, but the short version is that it has more to do with the TCA's scheduling needs than any issues between broadcast and cable siblings. (Peter Rice will be there for both days.)
January 4, 2012 at 2:52PM ESTlouisjab
January 4, 2012 at 2:54PM EST Reply to CommentYou've detailed HBO panels, but I'll ask anyway: anything about Game of Thrones?
sepinwall No panel, no. HBO doesn't tend to bring the same shows back year after year, especially in a year when they have so much new product. If we see those people again on the tour, it'll be several years into the show's run, or possibly at the end of it.
January 4, 2012 at 3:00PM ESTsangs
January 4, 2012 at 3:05PM EST Reply to CommentAre we going to get new "Cougar Town" episodes before summer?
Guest No one knows. Hopefully, though. Maybe after "Work It" crashes and burns.
January 4, 2012 at 3:25PM ESTEJPike
January 4, 2012 at 3:19PM EST Reply to CommentAhh, remember when In The Line Of Fire proved that deep, nuanced crime dramas were not only the domain of cable networks? Neither do I. Bleep you for making me remember that train wreck.
David
January 4, 2012 at 3:28PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, might AMC announce the return date for Mad Men during its TCA slot? I'm hoping!
sepinwall That seems to make a lot of sense, David - though there's always the chance Deadline or one of the trades winds up scooping the announcement.
January 4, 2012 at 3:47PM ESTTruck
January 4, 2012 at 3:49PM EST Reply to CommentI'm not exactly sure how this works, but in the future will Netflix be involved in this? I still don't really understand where Lilyhammer came from, but it premieres in a month. Then of course House of... Cards? comes out later this year.
Also, while the page loaded I thought the photograph up there was a heavily photoshopped Dustin Hoffman.
M Lilyhammer was originally developed for Norwegian television (in English,) but Netflix picked up the US rights. Similarly, Tom Fontana created an English language series about the Borgias for French and German TV, which is available in the US on Netflix. These shows are basically like what happened with The Firm, which was created outside of the networks and then bought by NBC to air in the US. But in this case the one who bought the shows was Netflix.
January 4, 2012 at 4:14PM ESTHouse of Cards and Jenji Kohan's new show were bought by Netflix during the development stage, which is why you've heard more about them prior to their release here.
I assume at some point Netflix will be included in TCAs and Upfronts or at the very least host some kind of separate event to drum up publicity for their shows.
berkowit28
January 4, 2012 at 3:51PM EST Reply to CommentLooks interesting.
On the NBC-Universal day Jan. 7 (and NBC day Jan 6), there's no mention of USA channel. ?
On AMC day Jan. 14, there's no mention of Mad Men. Really?
sepinwall USA's doing a lunch during NBC's day, I believe.
January 4, 2012 at 4:10PM ESTAnd networks - particularly cable channels that only have a few hours to work with - don't panel every hit show every tour. Mad Men doesn't need more coverage from us, and from their perspective the cost and time can be better served going to one new show (Comic Men) and a younger one that has to do some media damage control (The Killing).
r1pvanw1nkl3
January 4, 2012 at 3:57PM EST Reply to CommentI'm very excited to hear what TV critics have to say to Veena Sud.
Also I'm assuming Louis CK is going to be at the FX panel, considering he's really the only person who can say anything about his show with any authority.
FX has a really great lineup of shows, don't they?
r1pvanw1nkl3 Oh, and I'm delighted to see that NBC hasn't forgotten about Awake! Hooray!
January 4, 2012 at 3:58PM ESTBlake
January 4, 2012 at 4:02PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, I hope you'll be bearing a poster at the NBC panel for Community.
If so, what will your slogan be?
Lisa I too am curious if the critics will ask about Community, or if NBC will make a statement about its return date. OK, I'm not just curious, I am hoping like hell we will get good news!
January 5, 2012 at 4:09PM ESTRoy
January 4, 2012 at 4:32PM EST Reply to CommentSherlock premiered on BBC last Sunday. Without getting into any details, the episode was great. I'm looking forward to the coverage of that panel.
Angela Ok, just to be clear, you're talking about the BBC UK, right? Also isn't Sherlock airing on PBS in America sometime in the spring? Anyone? I *can not* miss this!
January 4, 2012 at 8:39PM ESTJosh Angela, I'm pretty sure its airing on pbs on May 28.
January 5, 2012 at 12:09AM ESTClay
January 4, 2012 at 5:27PM EST Reply to CommentAMC is actually having a "Killing," panel? Alan, are you allowed within 100 ft of those folks? What are the ground rules?
AMC must have something else they'd rather talk about. I feel like it would be more productive for everyone if Jon Hamm just talked about the Cardinals for 30 minutes.
fresser28
January 4, 2012 at 5:51PM EST Reply to CommentRimes is probably having Cusick ditch his Scottish accent for the same reason Damien Lewis, Hugh Laurie, Alex O'Loughlin, Andrew Lincoln et al have ditched their various accents: he's playing an American.
sepinwall But the other characters to varying degrees need to be an American, and/or Lewis and Laurie do really good American accents. Having seen 2 episodes, there is nothing about who Cusick plays that couldn't involve a transplanted Scotsman, and his American accent is *horrible*.
January 4, 2012 at 5:56PM ESTPotatoSolution
January 4, 2012 at 7:15PM EST Reply to CommentMan, that is a long haul. You're a braver man than I, Alan, for enduring 12 striaght days of schmoozing. Yikes.
eakawie
January 4, 2012 at 8:24PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, I hope you're going to ask NBC if they took a different approach to filming the football scenes in Smash than they did in Friday Night Lights, and how that affects the storytelling.
Or you can let Daniel have that question.
Lisa
January 4, 2012 at 8:55PM EST Reply to CommentI assume NCIS is a series non grata around here because it's so uncool, but does reaching the 200-episode mark get them any coverage here during the tour?
bitchstolemyremote
January 5, 2012 at 10:26AM EST Reply to CommentTake Sud to task for us, Alan. And give our love to Cougar Town and remind them that we love them!
Dan3320
January 5, 2012 at 11:22AM EST Reply to CommentMaybe I'm missing something here, but why on the first day for ABC do they have visits to the set of "New Girl"? Isn't that a FOX comedy?
Alice
January 6, 2012 at 2:13PM EST Reply to CommentPlease ask about Henry Ian Cusick. Ugh. Honestly, they can still change it back, even after the pilot. The first episode of Heroes had Sendhil Ramamurthy using a really heavy Indian accent, and afterwards he used a posh English accent. No one minded. Can't they do the same thing here?
A
January 7, 2012 at 4:21PM EST Reply to CommentGlad bob's burgers is getting some attention!
A
January 7, 2012 at 4:23PM EST Reply to CommentGlad Bob's Burgers is getting some attention. I miss it.