Friday, July 18, 2008

A day in the life of press tour: CBS/Showtime

Didn't get a chance to do a rundown of yesterday's schedule because I was slammed with Emmy coverage, but after the jump, I'll walk you through today's combined CBS and Showtime jamboree...

9:05-9:35 a.m.:
Executive session with Nina Tassler, in which the "Moonlight," "Jericho" and possibly even "Joan of Arcadia" fans will whine about their show's cancellation. (That, or the critics will whine on their behalf.)

10-10:30 a.m.: A CBS News session with Katie Couric, Jeff Greenfield, Bob Schieffer and CBS News boss Sean McManus. Like the reps of every other network and cable news dvision who've shown up so far, they're here to talk about the election, but I suspect we're going to devote a good chunk of this one to "Katie, are you quitting?" or "Katie, why hasn't it worked out for you here?" questions. And no, I will not be repeating my wardrobe question from Katie's last press tour appearance.

10:30-11:15 a.m.: Writing time, all the East Coast media types who are obsessed with TV news can file stories reporting what Katie said about her job status.

11:15-11:45 a.m.: "Worst Week," which will be something of a relief to discuss as it's one of the few network pilots we actually got to see before tour.

12-12:30 p.m.: "Eleventh Hour," in which we'll ask why we didn't get to see what sounds like it was a completed pilot.

12:30-2 p.m.: Lunch, and more writing time. At some point in there, I may slip over to the parking garage to charge my phone. (A bit of travel advice: if you're going to a two-week conference where you may not be leaving the hotel much, don't only bring a car charger for your cell phone.)

2-2:30 p.m.: "The Mentalist," where I would put the over/under on the "For the creator, are you familiar with the USA show 'Psych'?" at the second or third question. (I'm assuming the first one will be a softball for Simon Baker.)

2:45-3:15 p.m.:
"The Ex-List," one of the few pilots I've both seen and enjoyed, and we'll see if creator (and Jersey girl) Diane Ruggiero can be as quiptastic on a panel as she is with her dialogue.

3:15-3:45 p.m.:
Snack break, as CBS leaves the field (the Jay Mohr sitcom isn't being paneled because Jay is on a second honeymoon or something) and Showtime takes over for the rest of the afternoon.

3:45-4:15 p.m.: Showtime executive session, as Matt Blank and Robert Greenblatt try to resist the urge to say, "Suck it, HBO!" about "Dexter" getting a best drama nomination.

4:30-5:30 p.m.:
A "Sho Stoppers Showcase Q&A," with the star and one producer each from "Brotherhood" (Jason Clarke in this case, not Jason Isaacs), "Californication," "Dexter" and "Weeds." These multi-show panels are always interesting to see who gets a lot of attention (I'm guessing Michael C. Hall and "Dexter" creator Clyde Phillips) and who gets ignored (I'm guessing the "Brotherhood" guys).

6:30 p.m.: Get on the bus for a combined CBS/Showtime/CW non-party party. The guest list is long and full of people I'd like to talk to -- notably Neil Patrick Harris, whom I'm sure will be mobbed with "Dr. Horrible" questions -- but the way these things go, I doubt I'll actually find and be able to talk to half the people on my list.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn. And I was really hoping to hear Katie answer the question "Who are you wearing?"

Anonymous said...

I've seen the Mentalist pilot (thanks bittorrent) and have a major beef with it. It's one thing to claim the guy is observant, but 99% of what he says is never backed up with how he was able to deduce the information. (Ex: Amanda Righetti literally says 2 words to him and he somehow knows her father was a high school football coach?) It all came off as pretty laughable and not even remotely believable. If they'd made him an actual psychic I would have felt like maybe they didn't need to explain things, but it just felt like really lazy writing to have him supposedly be super observant and never explain what observations he was making. It would be like if the CSI team was sitting in the lab and Grissom came in and said "I've looked at the evidence and I'm not going to tell you anything about it, but I know the butler did it. The end."

Agnes B said...

Speaking of...how excited am I that Psych is coming back tonight. I think it's found its footing and distinguished itself from Monk.

Will said...

Thanks for the all the press tour coverage. It's fun to hear about all the inside baseball stuff.