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, Viacom

The 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 Land's "Hot in Cleveland." 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 sitcoms.

Then 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 "Battleground: Rhino Wars."

One of the ID documentaries, "Hood of Suspicion," is part of the network's ongoing "Injustice Files" 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 "every head of household must have a gun." The other ID production, titled "March to Injustice," 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 home.

"Rhino Wars" will chronicle the heroic efforts of four current and former members of the U.S. 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 ballroom.

The rest of the day focused largely on pure entertainment programming. Starz previewed its latest big-budget scripted series, "Da Vinci's Demons," about the Renaissance artist-engineer-inventor-scientist's life during his mid-twenties. (The series was created and written by David S. Goyer, who wrote the recent "Batman" trilogy.) Starz also presented a panel for the second season of its period gangster drama "Magic City."

Sundance Channel hosted a luncheon that included sessions for "Recitfy," 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 "Top of the Lake," a miniseries written and directed by Jane Campion. Stars Holly Hunter and Elisabeth Moss were on hand to talk about the production.

The afternoon continued with sessions for four upcoming series on BBC America, including the scripted period crime thriller "Ripper Street" (about detectives solving crimes in Victorian London during the aftermath of Jack the Ripper's reign of terror) and "Orphan Black," 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 weren't revealing any such potential spoilers.) BBCA also previewed "The Nerdist," a comedy-variety talk show based on Chris Hardwick's popular podcasts, and "Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan," in which the "Lost" star searches for dangerous and/or creepy creatures in remote locations around the world. (Monaghan's apparently fearless cameraman is the true star of this show.)

The day ended with presentations from several of the Viacom Media Networks, including Comedy Central, VH1, Spike, CMT, Logo and BET. The latter two, which don't often appear at TCA tours, made particularly strong impressions with their panels.

Logo introduced "That Sex Show," 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 "expert" advice-givers 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 star.

Each original installment of "That Sex Show" at 11 p.m. eastern time will be followed by a live Web-cast at 11:30 p.m. (in this case on logotv.com). In a move that will set it apart from virtually every other live program on television, a second live installment of "That Sex Show" will run every night at 11 p.m. pacific time (2 a.m. ET).

The day ended with a raucous panel for BET's semi-improvised reality-television satire "Real Husbands of Hollywood," starring recently divorced comedian Kevin Hart and several real-life husbands of female actors and entertainers, including Nick Cannon, Boris Kodjoe, Duane Martin, J.B. Smoove and Robin Thicke. It premieres January 15.