Dear Gossips,
Yesterday this space was dedicated to the DNC production team’s Show Your Work in how they put together a political event that was also a four-day television miniseries. We’re sticking with that today because Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, aka the showrunner and director, did an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about the experience and, of course, they were asked about Beyoncé – all the hype and speculation and what eventually happened, which is that Beyoncé did not make an appearance.
Ricky and Glenn insist that they were honest with the media, that they denied that Beyoncé was coming every single time they were asked, and no one believed them, not even their own staff, LOL. Because, I guess, when the internet is that convinced of something, there is no unconvincing, until it doesn’t happen. And even if it doesn’t happen, it can result in all kinds of new theories about why it didn’t happen, never mind that it was never supposed to happen in the first place.
The interview with Ricky and Glenn wasn’t just about Beyoncé though. Since I work in TV, I found it so interesting what they said about how they’re adjusting their live production approach to account for social media. As Glenn, the director, said:
“This is the shift of the last few years. I’m thinking with every performer, “How can these get clipped?” I no longer think, “We have a wide shot at the top of last hour; I don’t need it again.” Everything is a stand-alone.”
Right but it still has to feel like a show from beginning to end, because television is not TikTok, it can’t just be a series of choppy 15-second videos. Within the duration of a multi-hour show, though, you can produce and shoot it so that moments can be lifted and repurposed cleanly for added play on other platforms – but you can only make that modification when you understand how the long-form and live elements work. Basically I’m here, once again, to crusade for live TV and the artists and experts who are preserving this skillset.
The DNC, by the way, is not eligible for an Emmy nomination as Ricky mentions at the end of the interview:
“The biggest change I hope for is the TV Academy adding [an Emmy] category of best political live event.”
I’m not sure there are enough political live events year after year to warrant a whole category but it’s an intriguing question: this was, after all, a television show/series that involved television production not unlike the production that goes into the Oscars and the Grammys. Should it be eligible? Or should the politics stay out of the Hollywood awards?
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
