(August 14, 2006) — Yesterday afternoon, on a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Burbank, a young mother of two innocently struck up a conversation with the guy sitting to her left – yours truly – and unwittingly ended up shaping the future of Access Hollywood.
If you’re a regular reader of the Blog (ha!), you’ll recall that a couple of weeks back The Powers That Be summoned a few of us to a hotel, where we were charged with pouring over the framework of the show, developing new ideas for next season and polishing the tried and true entertainment news format until it gleamed like Celine Dion’s teeth. We were also browbeaten and harangued mercilessly for close to 16 hours by Executive Producer Rob Silverstein, who was sent into a foaming rage by the fact that there were no golden raisins in the massive bowl of imported trail mix he insists on picking through at all times – but I’ll probably be fired if I go into detail about that, and I’m getting off the subject, so…
Anyway…
At that meeting, as in all discussions about the show, we went over the Prime Directive at great length: What Do Women Want To See? (or WDWWTS?) This question is the driving force behind every word you hear on the show, every second of footage, and everything we go shoot – and with very good reason. For the most part, our audience is women. Give them what they want, the show grows. Deny them their entertainment news demands, the show suffers.
Which takes me back to this lovely, energetic, opinionated mother/wife/Access Hollywood devotee I met yesterday. We spoke about quote unquote “Hollywood” for the entire hour or so we sat next to each other, and by the time our 737 pierced the scum layer that floats over the San Fernando Valley and touched town at BUR, I was an enlightened man. Turns out a lot of what she wants to see is the kind of stuff we’re already working on bringing people more of. She also had a few new ideas that I have promised to pass along to my boss once he stops his latest frightening – and frankly immature – marathon tantrum.
– Mathew Baxt
Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.