Nina Tassler, Chairman of CBS Entertainment at Summer TCA 2015 Tour Image
Nina Tassler Update (Chairman of CBS Entertainment)
Presenting today at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour is CBS and up first was CBS Chairman, Nina Tassler. Tassler touched lightly on a number of things, but answered some burning questions from the media and fans alike.
The long-running CSI show will end with a two-hour special this season and Tassler promises it will be “very satisfying for fans.”
The Good Wife aired the end of Archie Panjabi’s run with the show this past season and a final scene with Emmy-winning Julianna Margulies and Panjabi where they shared a drink together at a bar, marking the Panjabi’s departure from the show. It ends up that the two actresses never filmed the scene together but that it was all accomplished via CGI. Tassler was asked to comment on that decision and defended, “I’m not going to reveal movie magic,” she said. “The ending was very satisfying for the characters. I stand by how (creators) Robert and Michelle King produce their show.”
Tassler believes that The Good Wife creative team still raises the bar of quality and knowing what is planned for Season 7 is satisfying and “even more.”
Following the Good Wife discussion, a number of questions came up about when CBS will be ending several series, including the number one comedy, The Big Bang Theory. Tassler was emphatic that there is no end-game plan for The Big Bang Theory, giving hope that there may be seasons beyond the already contracted Season 10 for the ever-popular show. She did mention it will start on Monday evenings during Thursday Night Football and will return to it’s normal Thursday night slot after the “beloved” past time is over.
Tassler said that no decisions had been made yet whether Person of Interest and Under the Dome would be their final seasons. “The dome is coming down at the end of this season but that will open a whole new host of questions,” Tassler said. “We will wait until end of the summer to make a decision on Under the Dome and Extant.”
Tassler emphasized that CBS upper management is “happy with our summer strategy” despite the soft linear ratings, “we make money from those shows [regardless of ratings].” Zoo is the most watched scripted series this summer in rankings.
Under the Dome, Extant and Zoo have streaming deals with Amazon/Netflix which also have raised CBS returns. CBS also picked up BrainDead, a new series for next summer.
Tassler was able to confirm that The Briefcase, a reality experiment show over this summer will not be returning “The show didn’t land. The intent was to tell different kinds of stories, but it didn’t work,” explained Tassler.
Tassler talked about the new freshman shows briefly, which include Angel from Hell, Code Black, Life in Pieces, Limitless and Supergirl. Code Black is an Emergency Room focus show. CBS picked up Supergirl “because it spoke to where today’s generation is” and it had “broad appeal” according to Tassler. Life in Pieces, Tassler finds exciting because the characters were very distinctive and how the actors responded to the script was something that she has not seen in a while. Angel from Hell stars Jane Lynch and is perfectly cast.
Tassler was asked if there might be any crossovers between Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl and she said that none were planned at this time.
Late Show with Stephen Colbert will be bringing Colbert’s entire writing team over to CBS. Tassler commented that with James Corden and Colbert, it is the first time that CBS has owned their late night programs. “As long as we’re monetizing our content… we still win at the end,” which seemed to be her overall theme for this tour update. “One of the things that’s key to our business model is our prime position,” she said. “Ownership puts us in a prime position. You go into making the best shows you can. That helps you monetize.” Corden has exceeded expectations as host of Late, Late Show and CBS is thrilled with the results so far. While ratings are important and his have been steady, what is important is “we are now owners, not renters,” according to Tassler.
Putting shows on iTunes like The Good Wife and Scorpion also plays into their new business model. We want to be wherever people want to watch, it doesn’t matter if on TV or tablet or phone,” she said. “It’s a crazy new world where our customers are also our competitors. The truth is we’re all part of one big content universe.”
Tassler went on to emphasize that CBS as a brand to viewers is important. We’re all buyers and sellers as a network and a studio and more importantly as a brand,” she said. “More people watching CBS now than were watching 11 years ago.”
Tassler is very disappointed that CBS did not get more recognition from the Television Academy for upcoming Emmy® Awards this year. “Boo, boo, boo, boo, boo,” she said. “You know, look, I’m bummed. What can I tell you? I think we have phenomenal performances, great writing, great directing.”
David Rhodes Update (CBS News President)
Rhodes is happy that CBS This Morning has the largest audience it has had in 20 years and he is among them. When asked about the hard news approach, Rhodes replied “We’re not going ot drop the basic hard news approach. The audience is looking for higher ground.” He added “When we start CBS This Morning, a lot of people thought that wouldn’t work, but it’s growing. That’s quite extraordinary.”
Rhodes feels that the upcoming election was significant and exciting even before the “summer of Trump.” He did talk about it being a year for politics and that CBS “will have a significant debate with each party. John Dickerson will moderate.” The Democratic debate will be held on November 14, 2015 and the Republican debate will be on February 13, 2016.
Coverage will look different this year. The President and Vice President speeches will be covered and the keynote, but the endless chatter from the air conditioned skyboxes re-interpreting everything for us and explaining what it all means will no longer be a part of the convention coverage. News still happens at conventions, but no longer in thetraditional way, or in front of the traditional presentation,” Rhodes explained. “It usually happens someplace else, because all these people are gathered there. In the past, news divisions spent a wad of money on those air-conditioned sky-boxes in which talking heads navel lint gazed about the speechifying happening down on the floor. Going forward, Rhodes said, they will instead spend the dollars to “have as many assets as we can on the ground trying to find out what all these people are talking about that are gathered.” Rhodes feels that political conventions have for some time“been a kind of dance going on between the parties and the major television networks…They do it because we come; we come because they do it.”
Rhodes went on to talk about the recent debates held on Fox. “In a perfect world, you’d have every serious candidate be in a debate. In the end you are not including everyone.” John Dickerson (Political Director at CBS) added, “I thought they were great, good, tough questions.”
When asked about when it became okay for candidates to begin campaigning two year before an election, Rhodes replied “You do need to allow an enthusiastic panel in a primary cycle to participate in the process.” Dickerson compared campaigning to getting in line for a shuttle bus, “it’s first movers advantage.”
Dickerson talked a bit about the “Donald Trump Story” saying “when are you being played? That is the challenge of the Trump story.” He went on to say that the summer of Trump is outside of Trump…it is a phenomenon.
Talking about how polling plays into candidate decisions and campaigns, Dickerson said “Mitt Romney thought he was going to win on election night. He had ordered the fireworks, but he had been misled by his internal polls.”
News plays a big role in elections. “The minute a candidate makes a mistake in today’s 24/7 news cycle, everybody eggs the same house” Dickerson comments. “People’s trust is hard to gain and easy to lose. It requires constant vigilance. Mistakes happen.”
Supergirl
Panel included: Geoff Johns (Chief Creative Officer at DC Entertainment & Executive Producer ), Ali Adler (Writer & Executive Producer), Greg Berlanti (Writer & Executive Producer) , Andrew Kreisberg (Writer, Creator & Executive Producer), Sarah Schechter (Executive Producer), and cast members Jeremy Jordan, Mechad Brooks, Melissa Benoist, Calista Flockhart, Chyler Leigh and David Harewood.
The highly anticipated new show for CBS is Supergirl, starring Melissa Benoist and Calista Flockhart. But even a newly anticipated show may start off with some grumbling. One of the first questions Greg Berlanti was asked was why Supergirl and not Superwoman for the show’s title. The first quip back was “It is a different character” but Berlanti replied with, “we wanted to keep the title of the show. We knew going in that ‘Supergirl’ might imply a younger audience but we wanted to take the word back and introduce it to a new generation.” He added that his CW shows Arrow and The Flash also received “snarky pushback. and continued with “once they watch a couple episodes they can determine for themselves what they enjoy about the show.”
Flockhart was also prepared for the question about the title and referred to one of the initial released clips where her character, Cat Grant, a media mogul offered a take down of haters of the title “girl,” …“I love that speech. One of the things I love about this show [Supergirl] is it’s a real celebration of girl power. I was attracted to this show because it’s something that moms and daughters can watch together,” said Flockhart. Of course McBeal has championed feminism in the past with her role as a female attorney fighting her way in Ally McBeal.
Asked if there would be further DC characters come on the scene in CBS, Krenisberg revealed that Red Tornado, Non and Lucy Lane’s father, General Same Lane will be introduced in the first nine episodes of Supergirl. This led to a follow on about Superman, will he be making an appearance on the series?
“He will be a factor in her life, but you won’t see him on screen,” said Johns. “He does play a part in her evolution in becoming Supergirl.” Flockhart added that she would love to see Cat Grant have a romantic relationship with Superman if he were to become a regular.
Supergirl premieres October 26th at 8:30 PM on CBS and will move on November 2nd to its regular timeslot at 8 PM.
Angel from Hell
Angel from Hell was the next new series up during the CBS presentation at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour.
The panel consisted of cast members Kyle Bomheimer, Kevin Pollak, Jane Lynch, Maggie Lawson and Creator & Executive Producer Tad Quill.
Angel from Hell is about a homeless , substance-abusing guardian angel named Amy (Lynch) who befriends Allison (Lawson) who can’t figure out if Amy is really her a guardian angel or just a crazy person.
So is the show religious? According to Quill it does not embrace any specific religion but does find “commonality” of many religions, and does have an “element of spirituallity to it. Amy (Lynch) is coming at things from a very spiritual place.”
Quill does not see much difference between spirituality and the supernatural. He views Angel from Hell to be a modern-day Bewitched or I Dream of Jeanie. He feels that the show “brings up questions of faith, but it is first and foremost a comedy.”
Lynch also believes that there are real forms of guardian angels in real life. Lynch feels that the angel role “lines up with where I am right now, just to be in the prsent moment and love each other.”
Amy the Angel also has some limitations. She cannot fall romantically in love with or be sexually intimate with anyone. Quill did confirm that Amy will indeed be active in this regard, however, and “not necessarily gender specific.” Lynch quipped in with “I could go through the whole family if I wanted to.”
Amy also is not supposed to intervene, but that does not stop her. She gets herself into trouble at times.
Kevin Pollack talked about transitioning from Chuck Lorre’s Mom to Angel from Hell. “This window closed and this garage door opened up” he said and then added that Mom had been an extraordinary opportunity to get back to his comedic roots. He went on to say about his demise on Mom “When Chuck Lorre calls and says it’s time to go, it’s this bizarro world honor.”
Angel from Hell will debut November 5 at 9:30 PM on CBS.
Limitless
Panel included cast members Jake McDorman, Jennifer Carpenter, Mary Elizabeth Maastrantonio, Hill Harper and Executive Producers Craig Sweeny and Alex Kurtzman.
Limitless is an adaptation of the film titular film version, about a man who gains the ability to use the full extend of his brain’s capabilities. The cast includes Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Carpenter, Jake McDorman, Mary Elizabeth Maastrantonio, and Hill Harper and more. Cooper could not attend the presentation today.
Limitless is written by Craig Sweeny and directed by Neil Burger and Marc Webb. Executive Producing the project are Bradley Cooper, Neil Burger, Tom Forman, Heather Kadin, Ryan Kavanaugh, Alex Kurtzman, Robero Orci, Todd Phillips, Craig Sweeny, and Tucker Tooley.
Executive Producer Sweeny said that one of the differentiators about Limitless is that it uses a police procedural format to tell the fast-paced and visually innovative stories. The producers for the series worked with the released film version in order to obtain a feature-quality feel each week. Kurtzman said that it also provided a nice continuity between the look of the film and the look of the television series. Kurtzman feels that the goal is to appear that the series is a sequel to the film rather than an adaptation. Cooper helped influence the decision to treat the series as a sequel rather than an adaptation. Knowing Cooper was going to remain involved in the project led to the decision to not recast his film role.
Cooper was “very involved in the very critical DNA of Limitless” Kurtzman revealed. Cooper gave some spoiler-filled input that altered the original pilot and series.
Jake McDorman enjoys the challenge of playing two characters, one on NZT and the other one off of NZT. His character, Brian, is enhanced about 12 hours daily with NZT, allowing McDorman to show both aspects of Brian (on NZT and off of it). “Bradley [Cooper] was a great resource,” McDorman praised. “When you’re on NZT your posture imrpoves. Every gesture is deliberate.”
McDorman said that he “loved” the film Limitless and he is very happy to be a part of the show that isn’t a remake, because he feels that Cooper’s shoes are big ones to fill. McDorman feels it is surreal that Cooper had him in mind for the lead role. While at an Oscar party, Cooper and McDorman ran into each other and Cooper pitched the show to him. Even when Cooper is not available on set, he checks in regularly with McDorman actor-to-actor to touch base and keep abreast of the project.
Also returning to the small-screen is Jennifer Carpenter, who was craving for something new and “a little more buoyant” after her stint on Dexter. Carpenter felt that she could handle the role because she had been well trained with 8 years of being prepared on the show Dexter.
Carpenter, who was 8.5 months pregnant at the making of the pilot, said that filming was “much more fun than I ever imagined work could be. It felt like a perfect opportunity to reintroduce myself as an actress as Rebecca,” Carpenter’s character on Limitless. She revealed that through creative costume design, cropping, camera angles and putting things in front of the baby bump were some of the ways they hid her pregnancy.
Cooper does appear in the first episode on screen as Eddie Morra, who will puzzle the audience as to whether he is good or bad at the beginning. Cooper, he will be back in future episodes, not just the premiere episode according to Kutrzman, “Eddie will return.” Cooper will be used sparingly, however as his “Eddie” will be running for President and will be awfully busy.
Limitless Tuesday, September 22 at 10/9c PM ET on CBS.
Code Black
Panel includes actors Benjamin Hollingsworth, Melanie Chandra, Bonnie Somerville, Raza Jaffrey and William Allen Young (Front row L-R) Actress Marcia Gay Harden, executive producers Michael Seitzman and Ryan McGarry and actor Luis Guzmam.
Code Black is about a Los Angeles County Emergency Room that is under staffed, under funded and spilled over with patients to treat all under difficult circumstances.
Code Black stars Benjamin Hollingsworth, Luis Guzman, Marcia Gay Harden, Melanie Chandra, Raza Jaffrey, Bonnie Somerville and William Allen Young.
Written by Michael Seitzman and directed by David Semel, Code Black is Executive Produced by Michael Seitzman, David Semel, Linda Goldstein Knowlton, Ryan McGarry and Marti Noxon and produced by Scott Printz.
Just as an aside, it was amusing that because the actor Harry Ford could not be present for the panel, a stand-up figure was put in his place.
Michael Seitzman started out saying his entire family is in medicine except for him. He also had dated a proctologist once, who saves what she emancipates. But these are the motivators behind the series. In real life Seitzman witnessed that there were code blacks regularly and that is shown in Code Black as there is one in every episode. Los Angeles County’s USC Medical Center serves 30 million people annually and is the inspiration for the show.
Disney built a 40,000 square foot hospital on their lot for Code Black. Seitzman was stunned that they allowed him to build it. Marcia Gay Harden teased that she gets around on a scooter because of the enormous size of the stages. She loves her character, Leanne saying “the character is SO GOOD! I just couldn’t say no to the role.”
Seitzman said that there is nothing Hollywood about the show. “It feels authentic” said Seitzman who hired 30 nurses to work in front of and behind the cameras on the set of Code Black. “I want viewers to feel different at the end of an episode than when it starts” says Seitzman of his goal for each episode. All of the actors went through a medical bootcamp to gain knowledge and experience of what medical personnel go through while on the job. Approximately 600 extras are used in each episode.
Ryan McGarry commented “it’s not the medicine, it is the amazing amount of intimacy and human drama involved” that he feels about the cast and crew of the series that differentiates Code Black from other medical dramas.
Marcia Gay Harden added “It’s real, it’s raw and actors have a to acquire tons of medical knowledge to make the show authentic. Shooting is documentary style.” Work days have been 15 hour shooting days, leaving them “exhausted.” She continues to tease “If you need a thoracotomy, I can give you one right now.”
Seitzman continued to say that technology is pushed to the background in Code Black. Instead, they “want the audience inside the story.” He feels many medical dramas try hard to be the future of medicine and often keep the audience at arms length. He wants Code Black to have human drama, adding “People have to be at their very best in the face of others’ very worst.”
Raza Jeffrey added “What’s becoming clear to us, is how many stories there really are.”
William Allen Young added ““as a commitment to the authenticity, we trained with the heroes & sheroes [female heroes and role models] of the medical industry.”
Harden then summed up for the cast “we’re so lucky to be the spokes on the wheel that Michael created.”
Code Black debuts on September 30th at 10/9c PM ET on CBS.
Life in Pieces
Panel included Executive Producer & Creator/Writer Justin Adler, James Brolin, Dianne Weist, Colin Hanks, Betsy Brandt.
Life in Pieces is a comedy about a family told through separate stories of different family members. The cast includes James Brolin, Colin Hanks, Angelique Cabral, Dan Bakkendahl, Betsy Brandt, Zoe Lister-Jones, Dianne Weist, and Thomas Sadoski.
Life in Pieces is written by Justin Adler and directed by Jason Winer. Executive producing the series are Justin Adler, Aaron Kaplan and Jeffrey Morton.
Executive Producer and writer Justin Adler said that Looney Tunes was his inspiration for Life in Pieces, which tells independent multiple stories in the same episode. Many of the press tweets said that based on the clips shown they felt it was very much like Looney Tunes in live action.
Adler said that Colin Hanks was the first actor cast in the series and that he nearly called it “Colin in Pieces”. He also enjoys having James Brolin on the cast and is amused by seeing Brolin’s “goofy side.” Brolin quipped that his wife Barbra Streisand’s reaction to his casting in Life in Pieces was “Great! Go to work. Get out of that hammock.”
Earlier CBS Entertainment Chairman, Nina Tassler had said “The actors’ response to this script was one we hadn’t seen in a while.” Hanks said of the series and cast, “The chemistry within the group came quicker than any other show I’ve worked on.”
Dianne Weist said that she literally laughed out loud when she read Adler’s script for Life in Pieces. She thought Adler was kind and smart and she already knew Brolin so accepting the part was a no-brainer. She also praised the cast she works with calling them “a remarkable group of people.”
Brolin said that he is interested to see how the child stars on Life in Pieces grow up because “so many young actors grow up to be so ugly.” Betsy Brandt talked about the children on the show as well and said “I constantly say we hit the jackpot with fake children on the show. They are all fantastic.”
The scene shown where Colin Hanks & Zoe Lister Jones drive their newborn home from the hospital was based on Hanks’ real life.
Brolin talked about the show, “that’s what I love about this show, you are never quite satisfied, but you end up wanting more.” You get a taste of a looney and loveable family in Life in Pieces.
Life in Pieces premieres Monday September 21 at 8:30/7:30 PM ET on CBS, following The Big Bang Theory. On November 5 it will move to it’s regular time period on Thursday’s at 8:30/7:30 PM ET along with The Big Bang Theory which airs right before it.
Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert introduced himself as “weighing in at 181 pounds….this is a natural relationship. This feels right and intimate. Realizing the audience had been sitting in the Beverly Hilton ballroom for so long he quips “Does anyone need clean underwear?” Colbert said that the real Colbert is “the guy that can’t stop laughing.”
Colbert goes on to talk about how George Clooney will be his first guest on the show. He teased “I wish I could’ve done better than George Clooney, but he’ll do for the first guest…. How many guests ahve their own spy satellite? We’re tight.” After bringing in the laughs he did justify Clooney in the prestigious role because he feels Clooney is a great actor and writer and “cares about the world.”
About taking over The Late Show, Colbert said that CBS has “asked nothing of me other than I fill an hour a night Monday through Friday. They liked the show I used to do.” Asked if he’ll do monologue, set piece, guest, guest, musical act, goodnight, Colbert says “that’s boring.” He continues on, “I’m gonna go with ‘no’ on boring.”
Colbert also admitted that he shares one thing in common with his old “character”…he is afraid of bears, “I’m honestly afraid of bears.” Colbert claims he developed his fear of bears from watching Man in the Wild as a kid. “If something’s going wrong in my life, I dream about bears” Colbert admits. When he was young his dad would respond to his fear of bears with “if you are mauled we’d sew you right up.”
Colbert talked of the process a bit sand said of he and his writers, “we do the show for each other all day and my responsibility is to translate that for you.” He talked of his band leader, Jon Batiste, “I’m an improviser and I cannot wait ot play off of his energy on stage.” Colbert’s first musical guest will be Kendrick Lamar, who will appear on September 8th.
Colbert loves doing interviews because they can be surprising. “Sometimes the people you don’t expect to impress you are the best guests,” Colbert confesses and continues with “All I really want from a guest is somebody who has something to say so I can play with them.” One of the reasons that Colber drooped the “character” was so he could express his honest interest in his guests. “I felt like I had done everything I could with [my character], now I feel more freed up.” “I felt like a rodeo clown trying to keep him on that stage” Colbert says of Jon Stewart’s farewell on The Daily Show. “I thought he was going to walk away.”
Colbert wishes to have politicians of “all stripes” on the show, as well as artists, sports figures, writers – “I want them all.” He also wants “non-famous” individuals who have something to say, in addition to the standard famous actor types to guest on his show.
Colbert has already moved his offices to the Ed Sullivan Theater, which currently is completely gutted. “We’re building the Late Show set in the context of a Broadway theater” he explains. He describes it as more intimate. The set building process is about two and a half months long. He said that the theater now will be closer to the 1927 origins and that there was no need for any big equipment and that technical advances were done in 1993.
Colbert has met with David Letterman for tips on doing The Late Show. “He was really gracious” lauded Colbert of Letterman. He went to Letterman because he asked “Who would know to ask these questions? Who would care?” He shared that they had talked about how Letterman approached everyday production and that Letterman advised that he move his desk to the opposite side of the stage, which Colbert is following.
Colbert went on to liken Catholicism like NASCAR saying “You don’t have to win every race, you have to have your points up by the end of the season.” When asked about the fighting among late night hosts he said “the idea of war between hosts doesn’t make sense to me…it doesn’t sound funny. Competition’s not that fun to me. I got picked last ofr dodge-ball and that’s not fun.”
Colbert is “twitching” to get back in front of an audience and admitted that this is the longest he has had to be away from an audience since age 24. He jokes “I wanna do jokes about Donald Trump so badly and I have no venue. So now I’m just dry Trumping.” After which Colbert stops the panel and live tweets. Colbert does feel that the TCA audience is a good practice audience because he cannot wait to get in front of an audience and hear their laughter.
Colbert then goes on to say “if you’re not a little nervous, you’re probably not trying hard enough,” when talking of entering into the late night arena and following some pretty big shoes.
Colbert does hope that Donald Trump “eats his vitamins” and “stays healthy until September 8th” when he comes back on air.
Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert debuts September 8th.