An Emmy Winner, an Oscar Winner and a Porn Star Brighten Cable's Second Day at TCA - Ed Martin

Ed Martin Reports on TV Land Discovery Starz Sundance BBC America ViacomThe second cable day at the Winter 2013 Television Critics Association tour started with a terrific little event An informal and very early breakfast with the four stars of TV Land39s quotHot in Clevelandquot Mingling with Betty White Valerie Bertinelli Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick proved to be the highlight of the day at least for those of us who have spent years watching these ladies in a number of classic television sitcomsThen it was on to more serious matters with presentations for a number of significant television series and specials from the many Discovery Networks Two panels proved to be particularly impactful One for two upcoming documentaries on Investigation Discovery that deal with racial profiling and Civil Rights injustices the other for a new Animal Planet series quotBattleground Rhino WarsquotOne of the ID documentaries quotHood of Suspicionquot is part of the network39s ongoing quotInjustice Filesquot franchise It will focus on racial profiling practices and controversial stand your ground laws Keith Beauchamp the director of the project stunned the room when he revealed that in the city of Kennesaw Georgia there is an ordinance that states quotevery head of household must have a gunquot The other ID production titled quotMarch to Injusticequot will explore events that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act The panel included a woman named Carolyn McKinstry who survived the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama and six months later the bombing of her homequotRhino Warsquot will chronicle the heroic efforts of four current and former members of the US Special Ops who are working in tandem with the South African government to stop the barbaric poaching of rhinoceroses which results in the brutal deaths of approximately 500 rhinos and 100 humans per year Graphic footage from Sundance this program had many critics turning away from the screen at the front of the ballroomThe rest of the day focused largely on pure entertainment programming Starz previewed its latest bigbudget scripted series quotDa Vinci39s Demonsquot about the Renaissance artistengineerinventorscientist39s life during his midtwenties The series was created and written by David S Goyer who wrote the recent quotBatmanquot trilogy Starz also presented a panel for the second season of its period gangster drama quotMagic CityquotSundance Channel hosted a luncheon that included sessions for quotRecitfyquot its first wholly owned scripted series about a man returning to his life after spending 19 years on Death Row for a crime he apparently did not commit and quotTop of the Lakequot a miniseries written and directed by Jane Campion Stars Holly Hunter and Elisabeth Moss were on hand to talk about the productionThe afternoon continued with sessions for four upcoming series on BBC America including the scripted period crime thriller quotRipper Streetquot about detectives solving crimes in Victorian London during the aftermath of Jack the Ripper39s reign of terror and quotOrphan Blackquot a mystery about a young woman who witnesses the death of a woman who looks exactly like her Critics are convinced this is a show about clones but the producers weren39t revealing any such potential spoilers BBCA also previewed quotThe Nerdistquot a comedyvariety talk show based on Chris Hardwick39s popular podcasts and quotWild Things with Dominic Monaghanquot in which the quotLostquot star searches for dangerous andor creepy creatures in remote locations around the world Monaghan39s apparently fearless cameraman is the true star of this showThe day ended with presentations from several of the Viacom Media Networks including Comedy Central VH1 Spike CMT Logo and BET The latter two which don39t often appear at TCA tours made particularly strong impressions with their panelsLogo introduced quotThat Sex Showquot a nightly live relationship and sex advice show set to premiere February 4 that will allow viewers to interact via phone video and social networking platforms One of the quotexpertquot advicegivers on the program is former adult film actress Katie Morgan and her appearance on the panel helped illustrate the unique brilliance of the cable days at TCA tours That is the day began with breakfast with a multiple Emmy winner Betty White continued on to lunch with an Academy Award winner Holly Hunter and concluded with a session featuring a porn starEach original installment of quotThat Sex Showquot at 11 pm eastern time will be followed by a live Webcast at 1130 pm in this case on logotvcom In a move that will set it apart from virtually every other live program on television a second live installment of quotThat Sex Showquot will run every night at 11 pm pacific time 2 am ETThe day ended with a raucous panel for BET39s semiimprovised realitytelevision satire quotReal Husbands of Hollywoodquot starring recently divorced comedian Kevin Hart and several reallife husbands of female actors and entertainers including Nick Cannon Boris Kodjoe Duane Martin JB Smoove and Robin Thicke It premieres January 15

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An Emmy Winner, an Oscar Winner and a Porn Star Brighten Cable's Second Day at TCA - Ed Martin

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An Emmy Winner, an Oscar Winner and a Porn Star Brighten Cable's Second Day at TCA - Ed Martin

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