Late last month it was revealed that BBC America has ordered a full season of Chris Hardwick’s The Nerdist, marking an expansion of the one-off specials they have done with the comedian, podcaster and host.
Hardwick has made a name for himself online with his Nerdist YouTube channel, iTunes podcast and, more recently, as the host of AMC’s The Walking Dead aftershow: The Talking Dead.
Hardwick was on hand at this week's TCA (Television Critics Association) tour to talk about bringing the podcast to weekly TV, his goals for the show and the rise of nerd culture.
"We did a handful of specials that were sort of an inflated version of the podcast, and then when we started talking about what would it look like as a series, we said, 'well, you know, we sort of experimented with a slightly a turbo version of the podcast, but let's make it more like a hangout show, more like a talk show, more like a variety show,'" Hardwick said of the show's structure.
One of Hardwick's primary goals with the series is to create a space for stand-up comedians on television, which he feels has been, sadly, lacking.
"When you think about the comedy boom in the 1980s, every channel had five Caroline's Comedy Hours," he said. "Your job as a stand-up is to get your voice in the world so people know if they should come see you perform, that's what fills up clubs and that all went away. The comedy boom died in the '90s. No more comedy boom. And even now, there's not that much standup comedy on television."
Adding: "Podcasting is a survival mechanism. We, as comedians, just needed a way to express ourselves in the public in a way that would let people know this is who we are. Podcasts are just like a nonstop comedy album, I guess."
Hardwick refers to the The Nerdist TV show as "a snuggie for your brain," describing it as a talk show that will also feature stand-up and adventures into "the field." He expressed a desire to steer clear of the, "What was it like to work on that movie?" "It was great. Things were fun. Thank you. Goodnight." model, and into something more suited to his/a contemporary audience.
"You could never pitch nerd culture shows 10 or 15 years ago," Harwick said reflecting on the rise of nerd culture in media. "They would have laughed in your face and wedgied you and kicked you out. But now, you know, we realize that there's so much power in nerd culture. I mean, if you all look around at the warm artificial glow of light that's reflecting off your face right now, jocks did not build those. So maybe they actually had to do the manual parts of it, but the nerds told them what to do. So there's a lot of power in our culture, in video games and films. There's Doctor Who shirts in Hot Topic for crap's sake."
Hardwick's former Singled Out co-host Jenny McCarthy was also at the TCA press tour that same day to promote her new VH1 series, and as his panel was ending, Hardwick was asked his favorite memory from the 1990s MTV show. Hardwick relayed the following gem to describe the experience:
"Day one of the first show that we're taping, we're all rushing around through makeup. Everyone's freaking out... You know, it's the first day of taping. We're waiting for Jenny. She hasn't come out yet. What's happening? Is she having a famous moment? What's going on? After about 15 minutes, this shock of blonde hair pops out of the door. She's like, 'Excuse me. Does somebody have a plunger?' She had clogged her toilet and spent, like, 15 minutes trying to figure out how to deal with it before she asked for help. And I feel like that really encapsulates what Singled Out was like."
The Nerdist series on BBC will premiere on March 30 as part of the channel's signature Supernatural Saturday programming block.
Source : ign[dot]com
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