Q&A
Q: Several people, including me, are really disappointed that Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews have been replaced on “Dancing With the Stars.”Why did they do it?
A: It was the dreaded “new creative direction,” which is generally code for a shakeup for a shakeup's sake.
That's not to say they didn't have a reason to do it — the show's ratings have been plunging over the past few years (though from a pretty high peak, to be fair) — but the idea behind a high-profile move like changing a reality show's host is to attract interest and get people to tune in just to see what's different.
The early returns say it was a smart move in that sense. The Season 29 premiere — the first episode with Tyra Banks as the new face of the show — drew an extra 50,000 viewers over last season's premiere. That's not a lot in terms of raw numbers, but it's still an increase, instead of the decrease that ABC has come to expect from “DWTS.”
Of course, you can only really judge this sort of decision in the longer run, since it risks alienating long-standing fans such as yourself in the name of novelty.
But you can take some comfort from their choice of replacement. They picked Banks as the new host — just about the safest pair of hands you can get in the reality show game.
Her own show, “America's Next Top Model,” is a reality TV institution, she had her own Emmy-winning talk show and she's single-handedly altered the English language with terms like “smize” and “tooch.”
Picking an established star like Banks shows that ABC is concerned with keeping its current audience while also drawing a new one.
In an interview with Glamour magazine, Banks said
she hopes fans give her new vision for the show a chance. “I hope they say, `You know what? I'm going to stick with this.'”
Q: I'm loving “Lovecraft Country.”Who is Misha Green and what else has she done?
A: Misha Green has been working her way up slowly as a TV writer for a few years now. If you're a fan of her unique voice, good news: you're going to get a whole lot more of it.
As the creator, executive producer and head writer of HBO's newest TV phenomenon “Lovecraft Country,” Green's hands are pretty full right now. She may continue to keep those hands firmly on the show going forward (she's already planning out the second season), or she may let the show's other writers do the heavy lifting while she focuses on the multiple other projects she has on the backburner.
That backburner was already full when “Lovecraft Country” debuted because, popular though it is, it wasn't actually her breakout moment. That came in 2016,
when “Underground” premiered on WGN.
She co-created that one, another show that told Black history (specifically regarding the Underground Railroad) in a way that gleefully smashed some conventions of TV storytelling. Though it was canceled after its second season, it was a critical hit that put Green on the industry's map.
Prior to that she was a jobbing writer, albeit on some pretty big shows (namely “Sons of Anarchy,” “Spartacus” and “Heroes”).
But by the time “Underground” ended, she was a sought-after name and was signing numerous other TV deals — seven, including “Lovecraft Country.” It remains to be seen when or if she'll get around to the other six (all of which are either related to either horror or the Black experience in America, or both, so “Lovecraft Country” fans can hope).