Logo

‘TMZ’ Turns a TV Genre on Its Head

Jan 18, 2009  •  Post A Comment

In its second season, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution’s “TMZ” has been able to make its presence felt in the competitive genre of entertainment newsmagazine shows. Currently, “TMZ” is third in the genre in household ratings behind newsmagazine juggernaut “Entertainment Tonight” and “Inside Edition.”

What’s “TMZ’s” secret? Attract viewers that newsmagazines have forgotten about: young males. TelevisionWeek reporter Andrew Krukowski talked with TMZ.com editor-in-chief and “TMZ” co-executive producer Harvey Levin about his show being the new kid on the block, what other programs are picking up from “TMZ” and how “TMZ” is like Barack Obama.

Road to NATPE

  • Network-Proven: Names Pull in Syndie Dollars . . . More »
  • The Panelists . . . More »
  • Putting a Fresh Spin on Veterans . . . More »
  • Rolling Dice on Syndie Games . . . More »
  • Producer Fine-Tunes Talk Shows . . . More »
  • ‘TMZ’ Turns a TV Genre on Its Head . . . More »
  • Web Presence Adds Competitive Boost . . . More »
  • Road to NATPE . . . More »

TelevisionWeek: TMZ is in its second season in syndication. Can you talk a little bit about what you feel TMZ’s impact on the newsmagazine genre has been, even in its infancy?

Harvey Levin: Well, I think the TV show is a lot different from the other shows. I’m not even sure I would call our show a magazine show, because it’s really not. We are kind of the X-Games, I think, of the celebrity genre. And we’re not really trying to be a magazine show—we’re just not.

We may cover some of the same material, but it’s just a fundamentally different show. I mean, we don’t do agenda stuff, we don’t do red carpets, we don’t do junkets—we cover celebrities in a real and real fun way. And that’s really the mission here. We’re not covering the world of entertainment, we’re covering celebrities who are entertaining. And that can be A-list celebrities, Z-list celebrities, everybody in between, but it is kind of a fun take on Hollywood and New York and all the people that have celebrities.

TVWeek: I talked with (“TMZ” co-executive producer) Jim Paratore, and he seemed to be under the impression that other newsmagazine shows are picking up elements of “TMZ’s” style. Do you feel the same way?

Mr. Levin: Oh, they are. It’s very clear that a lot of the traditional entertainment magazine shows are now doing things that we do, that we’ve done in a Web site, that we’re doing on the television show. I think in some ways, publicists ran Hollywood for a long time before we came along, and what they would do is basically they would set the agenda, they would set the topics, they would tell a lot of these magazine shows what they can and cannot do and that’s simply the case.

And you know I think the power they had was to say, “Look, we won’t give you the interviews you really want unless you play ball with us,” and those interviews were important enough that these shows would say OK.

We don’t do interviews with stars. We don’t sit down and talk to them …about movies. We’re going to do honest fair stories that are fun, but the publicists realize that they can’t really control us in the way they control the other shows, and I think the other shows are kind of struggling now to figure out, hey, you know, we need to have that voice. We need to be looser.
We need to be honest about what it is that’s going on, and I think you’ve seen a shift in the kinds of stories that they’re covering. … I mean, it’s just a reality. When you watch them, you see that evolution.

TVWeek: What needs to be considered in taking something like “TMZ” on the Web and then adapting it for television?

Mr. Levin: You can’t jam a Web site on TV, nor can you jam a television show and throw it on a Web site and make it successful. When we started the Web site, the notion was never to say, let’s take a TV show and put it in a Web site. I mean, it just wouldn’t work. There are a lot of organizations that have tried that and failed.

You have to really produce for the genre that you’re producing for and the people you’re producing for. And people who look at Web sites don’t digest it the same way they digest television shows. It’s a different experience. I think when we started the Web site we made it really clear we are producing a different form of entertainment, with a different voice, with a different style, with different assets. And then when we turned it into a TV show, it was the same principle, that you can’t just take that Web site and put it on a TV show.

The Web site, our stock in trade, is breaking stories and finding unique angles to stories. You can’t do that on a TV show. I mean the reason the Web site worked is because we don’t have time periods, and we can be urgent, you know, we can be immediate. We can be first. You can’t do it–I mean, we never had a plan to suddenly make the TV show the place where we break stories. That just was never going to happen. It’s the Web site. That’s where we break stories. That’s the essence of the Web site.

So the TV show had to be different. And the TV show was never about let’s break stories, let’s become this news outlet. The TV show was let’s get a fun, interesting, unique take on Hollywood from a lot of the stories we do on the Web site, but contextualize it a little bit more and make it really fun, and that’s what we do on the show. We’re the different voice. We have a different storytelling technique where we use our newsroom and the people in the newsroom to help tell these stories. And I think that does make it different, very different. And the tone of it is different.

TVWeek: What do you attribute your early rating success to? If there is a particular element of the show, what would you say it is?

Mr. Levin: We have pushed the envelope. There has been a safety zone that everybody has played in, in the genre, and I don’t want to be unsafe for sure. But I think the safety zone has always been too narrow. And I think the safety zone has been really exclusionary of men. I think that men have been–they have given up men on all of these shows. I mean, when you start seeing the stars in their Manolos and what they have in the closet, see a man, bye.

And we never surrendered the men. I think men love celebrities who are entertaining, as much as women. And there is an element to that where I mean everybody thinks, ‘Oh my God, if you cater to men you’re going to offend women.’ I think women want to have as much fun as men do. And I think, yeah, everybody has different sensibilities, but I think you can produce for a much broader audience than we’ve seen in the past.

I just think that you can produce more broadly than for just women 34 to 50 or whatever. I think you can go younger and I think you can change it with gender mix. And I think that’s been the success of “TMZ”—we’ve gone for men and women, we’ve gone for younger and older, and I think we’ve made an assumption that the taste level of people who are interested in this stuff is not as restrictive as a lot of people assume.

TVWeek: How do you respond to critics of this envelope-pushing? How do you respond to those complaints that it’s tasteless or goes too far, or is too intrusive?

Mr. Levin: Well, I don’t think we’re intrusive. I mean we are not the bedroom police, never have been. We’re not that on the Web site, we’re not that in the TV show.

I think the show has evolved. Some people have said, ’Oh, you guys pushed it too far,’ and I think there were times, especially in the beginning, when we did. We were experimenting.
This is a new show and I think we tried things that worked, and things that didn’t work. We tried to find that voice. Is the show the same today as it was the first day we aired? Absolutely not. I never worked on any show that was even remotely the same a year into it. It should be evolving.

I think we found a voice now that feels really comfortable. It still has an edge to it and sometimes it gets closer to the line, a lot closer to the line. But I feel like we know where that line is, and for us we don’t go over it. I’m sure for some people they say, ‘Ah, you went over the line.’ But you can’t produce for everybody in America and make everybody feel alike. That’s called pabulum.

You gotta figure out where it is that the proper limit is, that makes sense to you, that’s right. Then you’ve got to produce based on your own compass, and you can’t produce by saying, “Oh my God, if we get one e-mail from somebody that says, ‘How dare you,’ that we’ve done something wrong,” I mean, you can’t panic-produce that way.

You find what you feel is right and comfortable and you produce that way knowing that a lot of people are going to like it and some people are going to say, “How dare you.” But you’ve gotta feel right about what you’re doing and assume that you never get everyone. Barack Obama did not get nearly 100% of the vote and he’s president of the United States. And there are a lot of people who hate him. That doesn’t make him bad.

TVWeek: Are you calling “TMZ” the Barack Obama …

Mr. Levin: No (laughs), I’m not calling it the Barack Obama newsmagazine. Though we will cover Barack Obama. But what I’m saying is that nobody wins 100% of anything. And if you try to win 100% of everything, you’re nothing, because you can’t appeal to everyone.

34 Comments

  1. BS. TMZ SUCKS AT THE RATINGS EACH WEEK. IT CANNOT EVEN PICK UP A THIRD OF WHAT ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT EARNS.

  2. Hello, awesome blog, I truly enjoyed reading it. This article gave me the momentum to attempt my own article, please see my article by clicking my name at the top of this comment, cheers

  3. You absolutely adore superstar chat? Loathe it? Would you take long lunches from labor when you are aware that our trendy issue of Playboy will hit the newstands? I would die to appreciate the amount of everyone actually find celebrities news interesting, and how many absolutely find the fixation from it plain stupid.

  4. I really enjoyed reading your posts. They are all well written and informative. Congratulations on you achievement.

  5. Lohan Moves to Rehabilitation Today, one month later she will be right back at it. Shame to the “star struck” legal courts for making it possible for this girl to spoil her lifetime. After all this she merits consequence not rehabilitation.

  6. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  7. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  8. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  9. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  10. Kudos to you! This is a really good blog here and I love your style of writing. How did you get so good at blogging?

  11. You are such an amazing writer. Wishing you a strength and peace that surpasses all understanding as you continue to walk the high road … you are amazing, and I honor you for being YOU! You represent grace and dignity … with a smile that melts anyone blessed to be on the receiving end of it. God Bless you Always, Carrie!!!!

  12. Great blog!! You should start many more. I love all the info provided. I will stay tuned 🙂

  13. It’s very good, I like it. Thanks very muchwholesale cheap nhl nfl jerseys.

  14. This is the best blog I’ve ever seen in my life! I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to share your this with everyone.

  15. Thanks much for the great document. I am glad I’ve taken the time to learn this.

  16. Nice!! Great Ifo. Great People. Great Blog. Thank you for all the great sharing that is being done here.

  17. Dreamin. I love blogging. You all express your feelings the right way, because they are your feeling, focus on your blog it is great.

  18. I used to have a web site on this subject, but I had so many spam comments I had to close it. You seem to have a better spam filter! Well done!

  19. This is good info! Where else can if ind out more?? Who runs this joint too? Keep up the good work 🙂

  20. Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What host are you using? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol

  21. Great blog!! You should start many more. I love all the info provided. I will stay tuned 🙂

  22. Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What host are you using? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol

  23. Neat blog layout! Very easy on the eyes.. i like the colors you picked out

  24. Kudos for the great article. I am glad I have taken the time to learn this.

  25. I really like the colors here on your blog. did you design this yourself or did you outsource it to a professional?

  26. I watched a news item regarding this on TV yesterday. Thanks for putting more meat on the bones

  27. Hey how are you doing? I just wanted to stop by and say that it’s been a pleasure reading your blog. I have bookmarked your website so that I can come back & read more in the future as well. plz do keep up the quality writing

  28. I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know wheere u got this from. thanks

  29. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  30. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  31. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  32. I love the expression. Everyone needs to express there own opinion and feel free to hear others. Keep it up 🙂

  33. High quality info here! Keep up the great work. I love the feelings being expressed.

  34. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

Your Comment

Email (will not be published)