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Fall TV's Big Hurdles; Disney's Ben Sherwood Talks; 'South Park' Oral History; Norman Lear on Matt Lauer and Trump

September 14, 2016

It's magazine day: For THR's Emmy issue cover, host Jimmy Kimmel gets dressed up as a certain OJ Simpson prosecutor. Plus: Fall TV's challenges for the Big 5 networks, Ben Sherwood opens up about ABC's "mistakes," Fox buys Stan Lee's life rights and South Park gets the oral history it deserves. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman.

First up: Jimmy Kimmel sits down with longtime friend and THR chief TV critic Tim Goodman to share his admiration for David Letterman (who bequeathed Kimmel all his ties), his bizarre diet (he doesn't eat two days per week) and his thoughts on "for your consideration" campaigns. Notable quotes:

► On awards campaigning: "It makes you feel like a real piece of shit in a way. People shouldn't vote for you because they like you or they met you at a bowling alley, they should vote for you if they think you're the best one. And I don't see myself doing that kind of thing ever again."

► On his late-night show: "I have a contract that I signed recently for three more years after the end of this year and that will take me to 17 years. I don't know. I really don't know. I guess I'll figure out at that time whether I feel like I'm doing a good job and I'm still interested. I never want to get to a point where I feel like it's a bummer to come to work."

► On hosting the Emmys: "Mostly I just want to do well as host. I would rather get a laugh than the trophy. I'd rather have a funny ... even when I'm presenting or whatever, right? I just want it to go well and afterward everybody to say 'Oh, that was funny.' That's to me its own reward."

► Full cover story | Hosting Tips | Listen to the cover story chat as a podcast.

How to Win Fall TV

Fall TV is upon us: As the new season begins, network chiefs each face very different problems and have devised their own strategies for new and returning shows, Michael O'Connell notes in his preview. The game plans, in brief:

ABC: The network, which fell to the No. 4 slot during a 2015-16 season, is targeting broader audiences at 10 p.m.

CBS: It's relying on a larger commitment to comedy, with a total of eight on the schedule this fall.

The CW: A lot is riding on Supergirl, which is being promoted like it's a CW freshman. "If it pulls half of the CBS audience, it will be our No. 1 or No. 2 show."

Fox: Making sure Empire retains its audience is its first priority. If there's a new show that most needs to be a success, it's likely time-slot partner Lethal Weapon.

NBC: Moving sitcoms back to Thursday is the network's way of rebuilding its comedy brand.

THR Takeaway: In this era of diminished ratings expectations, where flat is the new up, each of the Big 5 likely can "win" the season by launching a single legitimate hit.

^^ Two competing online audience engagement firms have evaluated viewer interest and come up with the buzziest shows this fall. See what tops the lists.

Elsewhere in TV...

↱ Watch: Ahead of Documentary Now!'s season-two premiere, the creators of the Emmy-nominated IFC docu-parody Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Seth Meyers sat down last night with THR president/chief creative officer Janice Min at 92Y in New York. Full video. ↲

► Nashville casts transgender actress. Jen Richards has joined the country music drama in a recurring role for season five. She will play a tough but understanding physical therapist. Her casting marks CMT’s first transgender character.

► Lee Daniels' Star finds new showrunner. Chuck Pratt (Desperate Housewives) has come onboard the Fox series as an exec producer. Pratt replaces Charles Murray, who departed because his vision for the series differed from Daniels and co-creator Tom Donaghy.

► G.I. Joe's animated history. An in-depth look back with the cast at the series that changed the toy business and left a complicated political legacy. Full story.

► Dancing With the Stars ramps up security. The show's production team is taking a closer look at its security after Ryan Lochte protesters rushed the stage during Monday's season 23 premiere.

↱ Exec suite visit: Ben Sherwood: In an interview at his Burbank office with Marisa Guthrie, the Disney/ABC TV chief shares his dream of a Star Wars show, his ideal Oscars host and Michael Strahan's exit from Live: "We made some mistakes, we fixed them quickly and we moved on." Full Q&A. ↲

► Tony Shalhoub is headed for Amazon. The three-time Emmy winner has joined the company's drama pilot The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino.

► Great British Bake Off hosts to quit. Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc say they will leave the U.K. ratings hit when it moves from the BBC to Channel 4 after the end of the current season. The fate of judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood isn't yet clear.

► Mad Men heads to Vimeo. The AMC hit, Orange Is the New Black and The Royals will soon be accessible on Vimeo, as Lionsgate becomes the first Hollywood studio partner for its global television store, launching next month.

↱ Quoted, Norman Lear: The TV legend's latest political THR op-ed takes aim at Matt Lauer and the media: "And even for the best journalists, Trump is hard to take on. It turns out, the bigger the lie, the harder it is, it seems, to call it out." Full column. ↲

Must read: The final days of Alexis Arquette. Living in low-income housing and resistant to treating a rapidly progressing HIV, the transgender trailblazer, who died Sunday at age 47, spent her last days living as a man and struggling to make ends meet, one of her closest friends tells Seth Abramovitch. Full story.

Spielberg, Weinstein Prep Dueling Films

After flirting with combining forces, Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein are moving forward with separate projects about the 1858 kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, Tatiana Siegel and Borys Kit report:

The Weinstein Co. has a drama in the works based on the true story of the 6-year-old Italian boy who was taken from his Jewish parents by police and raised Catholic, with Robert De Niro circling the role of Pope Pius IX. Meanwhile, Bridge of Spies Oscar winner Mark Rylance is set to star as the pope in the Spielberg project.

The TWC plan is to be in production in January to beat Spielberg's project. Spielberg is looking to shoot his version in spring 2017 and turn the film around in time for a release during awards season.

The idea of combining forces was unlikely given the fraught history between them (a bruising 1999 Oscar campaign that saw Weinstein's Shakespeare in Love beat Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan). When Spielberg decided in April to move forward solo, Weinstein put his own version on the fast track.

Elsewhere in film...

↱ Toronto's critical winners: Chief film critic Todd McCarthy explains why La La Land, Arrival and Moonlight have won over the film fest. Also: Mark Wahlberg's Deepwater Horizon gets a thumbs-up and Raw, the cannibal film, made several moviegoers pass out. ↲

► (!) Fox buys Stan Lee's life rights. The studio has acquired the Marvel co-founder's life rights with a goal of creating an action adventure movie set in the 1970s. It's described as being in the tone of, as one insider put it, "Roger Moore’s 007." Exec Matt Reilly is overseeing for Fox.

► John Krasinski enlisted for Detroit race drama. Kathryn Bigelow is directing the movie that is currently in production in the Boston area, and has actors John Boyega, Will Poulter, Jacob Latimore, Algee Smith joining The Office alum.

► Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time finds star. Rising actress Storm Reid has nabbed the lead role in Disney’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s children’s book. Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling are the A-listers in various stages of talks.

↱ Trailer watch: Fifty Shades Darker, which hits theaters in February, debuted its first full trailer, and a teaser for Tupic biopic All Eyez on Me was released on the 20th anniversary of his death. ↲

► Jason Clarke joins Winchester House thriller. The Zero Dark Thirty actor will star alongside Helen Mirren in the project. Predestination helmers Michael and Peter Spierig will direct from a screenplay they wrote with Tom Vaughan. Production will begin in March 2017.

► Doctor Strange adds Asian character. Marvel's upcoming movie has come under fire for whitewashing the character of the Ancient One, played by Tilda Swinton onscreen. Director Scott Derrickson has now cast for an Asian manservant, Wong.

► Katie Couric, Under the Gun director face $13M defamation lawsuit. A pro-gun group contends that deceptive editing made them look stumped at Couric's questioning.

Gotham Group hires Stacey Lubliner. The literary agent-turned-producer is known for her tenure at ICM and for producing the critically-acclaimed drama A Better Life starring Oscar nominee Demian Bichir. She joins Gotham as a manager. Details.

South Park's 20-Year Saga

This is the South Park oral history you're looking for: Matt Stone, Trey Parker and more than 15 others involved in the show's early development open up to Ryan Parker (a Colorado native), sharing details about fan-favorites and Scientology's role in Isaac Hayes exit. A newsy excerpt:

Doug Herzog, Comedy Central exec: I never heard from Tom Cruise's camp [about the infamous 2005 episode "Trapped in the Closet," in which the star is depicted hiding in an actual closet, refusing to get out], but we did our best to let everyone know that it was coming. I let the people over at Paramount [Comedy Central's sister company that has Cruise's Mission: Impossible franchise] know, gave them a heads up. But I think everyone understands Matt and Trey are going to do what they're going to do.

Matt Stone When we did the Scientology episode, [Isaac Hayes, who was a Scientologist] came over, and I sat with him. It was like a day or two after, and it was pretty obvious from the conversation that somebody had sent him to ask us to pull the episode. It had already gone on the air, and we didn't tell him because we didn't want him to be held accountable. Plausible deniability. [Four months after "Closet" aired, Hayes quit the show via a statement, supposedly in protest.]

Isaac Hayes III, son of the late Chef voice actor. Isaac Hayes did not quit South Park; someone quit South Park for him. What happened was that in January 2006 my dad had a stroke and lost the ability to speak. He really didn't have that much comprehension, and he had to relearn to play the piano and a lot of different things. He was in no position to resign under his own knowledge. At the time, everybody around my father was involved in Scientology — his assistants, the core group of people. So someone quit South Park on Isaac Hayes' behalf. We don't know who.

► Full oral history I Season 20 promo (mocking Colin Kaepernick)