Twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter, hundreds of TV critics from media outlets across America gather in Los Angeles for the TV Critics Association press tour. There they’ll get the scoop on all the great shows coming out in the upcoming months. TCA represents over 200 journalists across the country, who reach over tens of millions of readers and consumers. This weekend, during the cable portion of the tour, which is organized by our friends at CTAM, we’ll be there to explore the state of television in today’s media culture as well as viewership trends directly from the networks, show producers, directors, writers and the talent themselves.
From large networks like HBO to emerging and niche networks like TVOne and Ovation, we want to find out what it takes to produce the kind of storytelling that keeps viewers engaged and coming back for more. With TV Everywhere on the rise, how do networks and creators tell stories that translate to second screens? We hope to explore the tools creators are using to reach viewers on the devices they use most, and how this impacts the creative process.
As viewers, we don’t always realize the immense labor it takes to produce shows that entertain, inform and expand our imagination. The technology behind the scenes plays a huge role in executing a story that takes place in the future, in another world, or one that plays on the abstract. This is another aspect we hope to dig into a little more to find out how technology helps to make visually compelling narratives.
And with the annual Walter Kaitz dinner coming up in September, the cable industry’s most prestigious fundraising dinner held during Diversity Week, we can’t help but look for and appreciate the diverse storylines and talent that will be present at TCA. We hope to find out what networks are doing to use their influence to promote diversity in programming, and how the actors, producers, and writers are working to reflect our country’s changing demographics.
Last but not least, we plan to talk with the stars of the event, the critics, and delve into the state of TV criticism in America. What challenges do they face in covering television in today’s media culture? We hope to get a variety of perspectives on the evolution of TV criticism, where it’s headed and how it affects our conversations around media and entertainment.
So stay tuned for updates on our experience in Beverly Hills. It’ll be a fun ride!