Oprah Winfrey to explain why she loves 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'
Oprah to interview Beasts of the Southern Wild cast and director. NBC doubles down on promoting two new sitcoms. TV tweet of the day so far.
TV Linkzilla Daily for 8/21/12 starts now.
Oprah Winfrey will interview the cast and creators of the Louisiana-made Beasts of the Southern Wild at 10 a.m. Sunday (Aug. 26) on OWN. The special, titled Why Oprah Loves Beasts of the Southern Wild, features interviews with director Benh Zeitlin and stars Dwight Henry and Quvenzhan Wallis.
From the OWN news release:
After being told about Beasts of the Southern Wild by President Obama and others, Oprah Winfrey saw the film and knew immediately she wanted to share the magical and spiritual film with her Super Soul Sunday audience. In the episode, the first devoted exclusively to a feature film, Oprah discusses with 29-year-old co-writer/director Benh Zeitlin the genesis of the film, from creating the production with very little money and a small professional crew to casting the films two unknown leads in Louisiana. In addition, Oprah sits down with eight-year-old lead actress Quvenzhan Wallis (who plays Hushpuppy) and bakery owner turned lead actor Dwight Henry (who plays Hushpuppys father Wink), to hear the amazing story about their first and critically-acclaimed acting roles --- how they were cast, what it took to make the film and how it has changed their lives.
Watch Winfreys preview of the episode, t! hen keep reading.
Why Oprah Loves Beasts of the Southern Wild
Read Times-Picayune critic Mike Scotts review of Beasts."
Here is Scotts account of the films New Orleans premiere.
Here is Scotts interview with Zeitlin and the actors.
Meanwhile,NBC aired sneak previews of two of its new sitcoms, Go On and Animal Practice, during the Summer Olympics, and also offered an extended trailer for the upcoming drama Revolution.
The Animal Practice sneak, which divided the closing ceremonies broadcast and further irked predisposed-to-be-irked-at-NBC viewers to give a first look at one amazing monkey, was watched by 12.8 million viewers, a pretty good crowd.
The first play of Go On, which stars Friends alum Matthew Perry as a sports-talk-radio host with emotional issues, was seen by 16 million viewers on Aug. 8, or about half of its national lead-in from the Olympics, a pretty great crowd despite the falloff.
As Rick Porter @ Zap2It.com pointed out at the time, that number made the episode the most-watched NBC sitcom in years. But since the episode aired commercial-free (same as the later Animal Practice sneak), the ratings didnt really count.
The exposure did, however. It also unleashed early pre-premier reviews from critics.
For example:
Mary McNamara @ LATimes.com:
The best thing about "Go On" is, not surprisingly, Perry, who, like (Charlie) Sheen over at "Anger Management," knows what he does best on TV. If Chandler Bing had lost! Monica, he would be Ryan King, instantly light and dark, funny and sad, a comedic version of a thousand Broken Men who have followed the gimpy footsteps and acidic mutterings of Hugh Laurie's"House."
And:
Hank Stuever @ WashingtonPost.com:
Sunday night, in the pyrotechnogasmic afterglow of Londons Closing Ceremonies, viewers will get an automatic buzzkill from the pilot episode of Animal Practice, a middling, trying-too-hard comedy set in a chaotic (and inexplicably spacious) animal hospital in the big city where everyone has a snappy comeback to everything, even if its just arf. Its Scrubs with a slight risk of rabies, basically.
At any rate, the network doubles down on both shows Tuesday (Aug. 21) night, rerunning their premiere episodes back-to-back at 9 p.m., this time with commercials. Go Ons listed premiere date is Sept. 11. The other starts Sept. 26.
Is there a chance that America will be sick of both by the time the clock strikes 10 tonight? Or is this brilliant out-of-the-box thinking on NBCs part?
Network affiliates, who depend on lead-in audiences to feed their local newscasts, have to live with network decisions.
I applaud the network for scheduling these shows in such a strategic way, giving an audience that we may not otherwise reach on a regular basis an opportunity to see these shows (and to) to build an audience for these programs, said Joel Vilmenay, WDSU general manager. I think it was a really smart decision.
Im inclined to believe that a lot of shows that were promoted during the Olympics will get additional sampling when they start running consistently. I think the ultimate payoff is something we will see in a few weeks when we go through our premier period.
The sound of Russell Brand singing I Am the Walrus is s! till rin ging in my ears, as is a lot of the criticism of NBC for tape-delaying some of the marquee events so that theyd play in prime time. Twitter practically melted down over the issue. And yet, NBC scored ratings records with the London games.
The criticisms about time-delay arent new, Vilmenay said. Weve heard these criticisms for past games, and Im sure that well hear them about future games.
I understand the desire of some of our viewers to see some of these events live on television. It really underscores the appeal of watching the Olympics on TV. But there is an online platform that allows viewers and users to watch these events live. But the ratings, I think, ultimately proved just how appealing the games are. To set records for these games really speaks to how well they were produced by the network.
Vilmenay said the games also drive viewers to sample surrounding local newscasts.
Thats the real win in benefit of having the Olympics, he said. It has a halo effect on all of our programming. We saw a significant increase in viewership to our morning news, to our evening newscast, to our late news even though it was delayed. Its a huge benefit during that 17-18 day window that we have the Olympics.
TV tweet of the day so farmasked scheduler (@maskedscheduler):
The Network of the XXX Olympiad did not win the week following said event.....#FOX did!!!!
TV TuesdaySee above, plus: Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel profiles Steve Gleason at 8 p.m. on HBO. Face Off starts a new season at 8 p.m. on Syfy
Dave Walker can be reached at dwalker@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3429. Read more TV coverage at NOLA.com/tv. Follow him at twitter.com/davewalkertp.
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