eye_on_pr 42 TV Talk Show Magazine Producers Bookers

"Eye On PR"

Email: 818.340.5300

MAYO uses

MAYO enters a fourth year with a popular feature on its website: "Eye On PR" Everything from tricks of the trade to getting on the radar of industry analysts to making your company newsworthy.

Nationally recognized and award-winning writer George McQuade reports on the PR industry. We also feature guest writers. If you'd like to share your media experience please let us know, or feel free to comment.

April 21, 2003

By George S. Mc Quade III

TV TALK SHOW PRODUCERS AND
BOOKERS SHARE PITCH TIPS

From (l-R) Richard Ayoub, unit head, Extra, Bradly Bessey, supervising producer Entertainment Tonight, Claudia Cagan, producer, Hollywood Squares, Leilani Decena, producer, KTLA-TV CH.5 Morning News, RicEnriquez, talent executive, The Wayne Brady Show and Sandi Padnos, EPPS board member, FineLiving Networks moderates a TV panel at the Wyndham Bel-Age Hotel, Hollywood, CA, April 17, 2003.

"No one is pro-war, but we have to be sensitive to what's going on,"
says Entertainment Tonight's Producer Brad Bessey

"We have to be sensitive to what's going on," Supervising Producer Bradly Bessey, Entertainment Tonight told about 150 publicists at an Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS), PR NewsWire sponsored workshop recently in Hollywood (April 17, 2003). Responding a question: What impact has war and celebrities like Actor Martin Sheen and Actress Susan Sarandon had on the entertainment shows? "We are obliged to report the news, but we also need to be sensitive and not give celebrities a national platform, that's not what we do. The troops are fighting in Iraq and we don't want to turn people off." Bessey is involved in all aspects of ET, including story selection, planning, and promotion strategy, staff and talent development and heads the show's Internet component, ET Online. Bessey can be reached at brad_bessey@paramount.com.

Bradly Bessey, ET Producer

"If you want your clients on Entertainment Tonight, it's important to get up early, read the newspapers, become familiar with the wires, that you know what American is thinking about. If you have a story or anyone, who could fit into Lacey Peterson (pregnant Modesto, CA woman who was murdered) or if you have a story that fits into the P.O.W.'s, now is the time to pitch it," explained Bessey. "I'm not the person to pitch, because we have someone who oversees films and someone who oversees news, but it is important that you call early and really be familiar with the television show."

"I like personal pitches," says Extra's Richard Ayoub

"TV news needs to be balance, but we are entertainment programming," said Richard Ayoub, Unit Head EXTRA. "We did find that viewers were turning away form our shows when we aired celebrity anti-war messages. As for pitches, I like personalized pitches when you pitch it to me and to my show. A lot of times publicists think they're pitching Entertainment Tonight when they're pitching EXTRA. That doesn't really work well. And sometimes it's an old pitch that was pitched to ET or Access and you finally came to us and you forgot to change the Access Hollywood to EXTRA. So that doesn't work either. Make sure you know who your pitching to and what the show is about."

Richard Ayoub, Extra Producer

Ayoub launched "The CyberGuy," a syndicated news segment about computers, the Internet and technology. He then helped KABC-TV revitalize its morning show. His stints also include producing Hard Copy and the NBC primetime program "World's Most Amazing Videos." He joint Extra as supervising producer three years ago and can be reached at Richard.ayoub@warnerbros.com .

"Having work on every TV show, except KTLA's morning show I can tell you that there is nothing more important than watching a show," said Claudi Cagan, producer, Hollywood Squares, which has about 20 million viewers a week.

"If I get a call a clothing designer pitching me the owners of a company, I'm just wishing that I had a videophone so they can see my face. Hollywood Squares is about the big face in the square. We need classic, instantly recognizable faces in the squares such as Don Rickles. Publicists have to think about who is the biggest personality you represent. We've had every game show hosting a square, which helps because they do a lot of publicity for us. Keep in mind big faces, instantly recognizable, however I do book young comedians who I think will be wonderful, funny and clever. We had this young guy and host from TNN call 'Taboo Chris Wild.' Somebody said just book him. Sometime that happens."

Claudia Cagan, Hollywood Squares

Cagan has a long list of TV shows over the past two decades including: Hour Magazine, The Joan Rivers Show, The Arsenio Hall Show, EXTRA, Entertainment Tonight, Politically Incorrect and Hollywood Squares. She has received two Daytime Emmy nominations. Cagan can be reached at 323.965.6905, Fax: 323.965.6999 or email: cbcagan@cbs.com.

"I think following up is so important," says KTLA Morning News Producer Leilani Decena.

"We like to have celebrities, fun and interaction on our morning show, said KTLA Morning Show Supervising Producer Leilani Decena. "For example we had a segment on how to find a great bed. We had all of these beds laid out in our parking lot. We had Mark Christi and we had 'Big Boy' from KPWR 106 FM (weighs several hundred pounds). 'One and one=Big Boy and Mark in bed together'. It was quite fun and I think Big Boys was about a 100 pounds heavier than he is today. He's lost a lot of weight since then. We ran that clip over and over and over again, because it was just hilarious."

Leilani Decena, KTLA Producer

"Half of our story ideas come from us the producers, and the other half from the public and publicists. So we're looking for A-1 celebrities and newsmakers in the war in Iraq. Now that it is almost over, we're trying to get back on track again. So we are looking for fun and zany things. I think I take publicists more serious than most other producers when they email me and they call to follow-up. I think following up is so important. You can imagine the types of faxes and email we get constantly. It adds a little bit more when the publicists calls up hey just following up on my pitch."

Decena wanted to be a doctor, but changed her mind and graduated form Temple University in Philadelphia with a major in Radio-Television Film hoping to be a filmmaker. After stints at KYW-TV, Philadelphia, New York 1 News and Good Morning America, she pursued an on air career at CBS affiliate WHLT-TV in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; NBC affiliate KTTC in Rochester, Minnesota; NBC affiliate KGNS-TV, Laredo, TX, eventually landing in Los Angeles as a news writer at KTLA, KTTV AND KCAL 9. Then KTLA hired her to be a staff producer, where's she's been since 1998. Decena can be reached at 323.460.5729, Fax: 323.460.5404 and email: ldecena@tribune.com.

We're different from the other shows when it comes to pitches," says Wayne Brady Show Producer Rich Enriquez

Leilani Decena, KTLA producer listens to Ric Enrique, The Wayne Brady Show.

"I think everyone on this panel has touch on some great truths in this balancing act that bookers and producers do," said Talent Executive Ric Enriquez, who is wrapping up the first season of the Emmy nominated Wayne Brady Show. "As far as pitching the Wayne Brady Show we're kind of different in the sense that we don't have the dogmatic standards of news and we don't have to worry about creating a weeks work of programming from one day like Hollywood Squares, which I worked on for three years." Enriquez joined the daytime talk show after finishing his third season as a talent executive on Hollywood Squares with Whoopi Goldberg.

"We're able to do a good five minutes, we can do a joke that's great for four minutes as apposed to like a Hollywood Squares that needs something that's going to sustained a half hour for five days. So a one shot deal works better for daytime. The Wayne Brady Show is definitely a daytime show, and it shouldn't be confused with a primetime talk show. There arte a lot of things that don't work. Our audience is women ages 35 - 49. For some reason they have a real adversity to overtly sexy, or beautiful women. No matter how big the star is I can show you ratings material that a woman comes on and our viewers just turn away. Unless an incredibly beautiful woman, who is going to come on and talk about how she takes blind children shopping on the weekends or how she wasn't asked to the high school Prom, our audience doesn't want to hear about it. They just don't care.

Ric Enriquez, The Wayne Brady Show fields questions.

We also don't don anything that's very serious. Sometimes we touch upon serious issues, but we always try to look at it from the very lightest side. For example we had TV's Barbara Feldon on the week of Valentines Day. She played 'Agent 99' in TV's 'Smart' and she is a woman, who is a lady living as a single adult for about 30 years and she wrote a book basically saying 'So I'm Single And I'm Not Married, What's the Big Deal?' But in every show she had been doing in New York, where she lives the segments were very serious and intellectual about living alone. When it was pitched to me I knew it would be perfect for Valentines Day, but not under that dire circumstance of that reflective, merchant Ivory thing. It was better for her to just come on the Wayne Brady Show and be asked 'So your single? and have her say 'Yea, what's the big deal,'" explained Enriquez.

"Our show is light, and we basically have four to five guests on the show, " he said. Enriquez can be reach at 323.575.7115, Fax; 323.575.7150 or email: ric.enriquez@bradyshow.com.

- 30 -

Archives...click on other
Eye on PR articles below

Los Angeles Times Announces Overhaul

2003 State of the PR Industry

WE NEED MORE ‘CHUTZPAH' PR

PR Pros Comment on the challenge of war strategy

Tips for pitching Wire Service Editors and Reporters

Winning Ink With Los Angeles Times Magazine

Pitching Entertainment Reporters

Pitching Political Reporters

Pitching to Broadcast Media

The Untapped Latino Media Market