Hello from the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, where I wrapped my first Television Critics Association Press Tour. Press Tour allows television networks and streamers to show their wares directly to members through a two-week period filled with consistent press conferences — whether with executives or a panel of creatives and cast members. Unless you’re deeply entrenched in following your favorite television journalists on Twitter, there’s a strong possibility you’ve never even heard of Press Tour. Still, as someone who’s followed critics like Myles McNutt, Alan Sepinwall, Mo Ryan, Damian Holbrook, or Dan Fienberg for the better part of almost two decades, Press Tour seemed (from the outside looking in) like the creme de la creme of television events — especially for journalists.
I was a late-stage addition to Winter Tour. The event kicked off with Apple TV+ on February 5, but I didn’t arrive until the 9 for logistical reasons that aren’t worth getting into the weeds about. Coming into press tour halfway meant that I really hit the ground running; I rolled into town on Friday night and immediately jumped right into the Shogun party FX hosted, where I got a bit of facetime with FX publicists I’ve spent the last few years communicating with over email; Out of the fire and into the furnace.
Nothing quite prepares you, however, for the extravagance of some of the day’s events. To wit: I walked downstairs on Saturday morning to quite a bit of hustle, bustle, and music only to turn down a corner and see folks in giant Bluely costumes posing in front of a step and repeat before wondering into a ballroom completely decked out to look like a forest of sorts. There was an embroidery station personalizing embroidered backpacks (I hemmed and hawed about getting one, and by the time I went to stand in line, I was told they’d just cut the line off) and Mickey Mouse-shaped waffles. A coffee cart served espresso drinks with latte prints of Mickey’s face on it — later in the week for NBC Universal, it was Seth Myers, as you can see below. It’s a lot to take in all at once.
And yet, that was my goal. As a latecomer, I didn’t have time to effectively line up coverage before attending, so I went just to be a sponge and absorb as much as possible about how Tour works. It was interesting, in real-time, to see all the complexity in dynamics unfold — whether that be in how networks interacted with the gathered press, the kinds of questions journalists should (or shouldn’t) ask of the panels, what networks have globs money to spend (hint: the espresso cart’s presence, or lack thereof, was a significant indicator) how certain members posed queries to keep the room alive when it looked like folks weren’t engaging, and so forth. Those group dynamics are endlessly fascinating to behold, especially when the room can tell that someone just unequivocally fucked up.
Case-in-point: During a Disney reality television panel on Saturday afternoon, NPR’s Eric Deggans asked Bachelor producers — Bennett Graebner, Jason Ehrlich, and Claire Freeland — about the franchise’s problems with race over the years, and the producers did not have a single response even when pressed about the issue. McNutt’s dispatch put it best:
And while I have a great respect for the transcribers who bring the panels to life, they absolutely failed to capture what happened next. Because while Freeland eventually gave a non-answer that’s not worth publishing, there was a lengthy silence beforehand as Graebner—the only producer onstage who was involved in those seasons—sat there making no movement toward answering the question. And when Deggans pushed the issue further, noting that Freeland had not addressed the core question about why the franchise struggled with race, there was another lengthy silence, leading Deggans to conclude “I guess we have our answer.” If there was ever a time for an editorial “*crickets*” from the transcribers, this was it.
Perhaps this is all a little too inside baseball, but to the point that colleague Kim Renfro makes below. . .
…It’s borderline malpractice that a Disney publicist didn’t prep the producers for this question because 1) the events of Rachel Lindsay and Matt James’ respective seasons are not that far in the rearview (Lindsay was on the show in 2017 with James in 2021) simply to forget about them and 2) it’s quite literally the job of a public relations professional to anticipate these situations and prep their talent accordingly. They had a much better answer when Decider’s Nicole Gallucci followed up after the panel, presumably after the trio spoke with Disney. As a journalist, you anticipate the PR-heavy, nonanswer answer, but to not even have a canned answer available was astonishing to behold.
It’s also fascinating to watch the alignment of how journalists conduct themselves around celebrities. During our set visit day to Warner Bros., the studio brought out Jennifer Hudson during lunch to surprise the gathered group (she has a syndicated talk show), where she recruited a group of writers to go along with her for some singing. Some journalists snapped photos and selfies, while others even asked her to sing. There’s an interesting, often unspoken tension here. Again, McNutt summarizes it best:
I don’t judge the journalists who feel differently: many use their proximity to celebrities to help build their brands on social media (increasingly necessary in the hellscape of entertainment journalism), while others will take their Jennifer Hudson selfies back to their local papers to excite their readership and prove their bona fides as an industry insider. But for me, it feels weird to take a selfie with a celebrity when they’re “working,” effectively contractually obligated to promote a project and tolerate our interest in their life/show.
That relationship gets interesting during the post-panel parties, too, where there’s an understanding that the celebrities in attendance are there to provide additional quotes or one-on-one time in a more social setting. So that gets a little weird when talent is invited to a TCA-specific party but unavailable for onsite interviews. The question then becomes, why are they there? As Dan Fienberg put it during our TCA members meeting, there’s no such thing as a non-working party at TCA — Unless you’re me, who didn’t have specific, assigned coverage. I did, however, approach stalwart actor and writer Mike O’Malley to talk to him about how he felt the Celtics were doing. For the record, he “feels great” about the team.
Myles and I spent the bulk of a dinner talking about this tension, determining that there’s no correct answer to how to approach this. Or rather, that everyone’s beats are inherently different and thus require a radically different approach to an event like TCA. Myles is more academic and critically focused. Kayla Cobb of The Wrap is an out-and-out trade reporter. Damian covers a broad swath of shows for TV Insider. Pal Meghan O’Keefe does a lot of reviews and interviews for Decider. It’s an expansive range — so vast that the name Television Critics Association might not even be the correct nomenclature moving forward for an organization that now composes many different job functions.
I learned a ton in just a few short days, mostly about the little things like where to put myself in the room to better get a microphone to ask a question, what kind of questions to ask, how quick to be in asking them (I’m kind of kicking myself for not asking Renegade Nell showrunner Ben Taylor about stunt coordinator James Embree; a quick look through Embree’s IMBD showed that he’s a long-term stunt performer who doubled for, among others, Daniel Craig during his James Bond era and is now getting his first shot at being the lead stunt coordinator for a series but I waited too long) all matter.
The appeal of TCA is the idea that mentioned attendees going to Tour could bank stories for months by attending. I’m not quite sure how true that is for me, personally. Many of the networks I typically cover (HBO, Netflix, Amazon) weren’t represented at Tour and don’t need to be. House of the Dragon is going to cover itself, for example, and won’t need a bigger push than the normal pre-launch activities — junkets, premieres, etc — it would typically require. But if nothing else, I learned I’m worthy of being in that room. I love being in DC and writing about culture, but I sometimes feel like I’m on the outside looking in since I’m not in an industry-heavy city like LA or New York. It’s hard to elevate yourself accordingly. But Tour validated the work I’ve put in for the last few years in doing this job. My instincts are good. I belong. I’ve just got to continue to show up and do the work. The rest will sort itself out.
Odds and Ends
Speaking of work, I hit the Marvel beat heavy this week at GQ, thanks to a flurry of announcements.
I broke down the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer where I said, “Deadpool is also going to be critical to Marvel Studios' bottom line. After the poor performance of The Marvels—and with the comic-book genre as a whole seemingly on the wane, something Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged last week when he stated there would be a “reduced output” of Marvel content from a studio in need of “a little focus”—the MCU needs Deadpool and Wolverine to be not just a hit, but a massive, record-breaking hit like MCU films of yore. When Wade proclaims himself “Marvel Jesus” in this trailer, the quip isn’t so much a joke as an outright mission statement.”
The Fantastic Four casting felt like the moment from Arrested Development where Michael opens the dead dove bag to see if it’s truly a dead dove only to refrain, “I don’t know what I expected.” Scoopers pegged this exact cast as far back as last November, so it felt a little anti-climactic. What I’m more curious about now is whether or not this movie is truly a period piece like the teaser art indicates or if there’s a Multiversal angle at play.
Finally, I looked at the trailer for X-Men ‘97, which can’t cost on nostalgia alone, as good as the X-Men: The Animated Series theme is when it debuts at the end of March.
See you next week. Here’s a picture from the garden at the hotel that I really liked.
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