Drew Barrymore, Nick Cannon Bring the Party to NATPE

What hypes everyone up before they head to NATPE Miami is having a real-life movie star in the mix, and that is what syndication will get with the arrival of Drew Barrymore this fall. But two stars are better than one, and multi-hyphenate Nick Cannon also is joining the daytime party.

Drew Barrymore will bring her Hollywood star power to CBS's new 2020 offering.

When CBS Television Distribution announced it would do a talk show starring Barrymore, the media took notice. Barrymore is a movie star starting with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and moving through films like Scream, The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates whom everyone feels like they grew up with. In 2000, she kicked serious ass in a remake of Charlie's Angels, one of many movies she produced through her company, Flower Films.

More recently, she has executive produced and starred as Timothy Olyphant's bloodthirsty zombie wife in Netflix's Santa Clarita Diet. She also has her own lifestyle brand, Flower, with several lines available in retail chains such as Walmart and CVS.

That kind of longevity and brand power is a valuable commodity in the cluttered environment of daytime TV, where these days it's hard to tear people away from their phones, much less get them to tune into a program at a regular day and time. So when CBS Television Distribution had the opportunity to get into business with a household name, the company jumped on it.

The need in the marketplace aligns with who Drew is: She is the OG optimist, CBS Television Distribution executive VP, development Elaine Bauer Brooks said. I think the marketplace needs an uplifting, fun, escapist kind of show that isn't saccharine, but has a comedic edge.

It's not Barrymore's first go-round in syndication. In 2016, Warner Bros. tried to sell a talker starring Barrymore that would serve as a lead-in to Ellen DeGeneres, whose team would have executive produced the show. But NBCUniversal instead chose to renew Steve Harvey's talker after it migrated to Los Angeles. That meant Warner Bros. couldn't find time slots on major-market stations.

Barrymore didn't lose hope, though. I love this saying that I have on a neon sign in my entryway: Timing is Everything, she said. Sometimes things are seeds being planted and when they don't manifest, we tend to take that as a failure or a missed opportunity. But I have learned that nothing is for naught something will come around and that time and education and investment will pay off somewhere else later.

And she was right. In 2019, CBS decided Barrymore was the person they wanted to take a chance on. This was a year we felt we wanted to take a big swing and we found a person we believed in enough to do that, Bauer Brooks said. This show is a natural extension of who we are as a company.

Barrymore, 44, is a single mother of two. I have had to figure out my whole life in front of everyone, she said. I have had to learn in the last decade how to truly take care of myself. Then I had two girls, and I had to learn what it's like to truly take care of others. I am throwing an all-ages party and everyone's invited. That's how I've made movies and how I've built the companies I have.

Bauer Brooks said the show will be authentic to who Barrymore is. It will include some celebrity, lifestyle, pop culture and humor, she said. I can't wait to tackle all of that with Drew. The audience said it best after watching the pilot: it's like going to a fun party and coming home with a new best friend.

Fox to Launch Nick Cannon

Nick Cannon adds a syndicated talker for Debmar-Mercury.

Meanwhile, Fox will be debuting a talk show starring another celebrity who has lived much of his life in the spotlight: Nick Cannon, who hosts such shows as The Masked Singer on Fox and sketch comedy series Wild 'N Out on MTV, which has become a touring live show and a chain of restaurants. Cannon is friends with daytime talk-show host Wendy Williams, so when she needed guest hosts to fill in for her last February, he was happy to oblige. Hosting three shows, he looked extremely comfortable and grabbed some attention for his performance.

Nick is really creative and really smart but he also understands the business of television, said Ira Bernstein, co-president of Lionsgate-owned Debmar-Mercury, which is producing and distributing the show. Debmar-Mercury tends to test its shows first and then take them nationwide. But in the case of Cannon, they felt at ease with skipping that step.

Nick is so successful in all the things he's doing, plus he was so great when he hosted Wendy, added Mort Marcus, co-president, Debmar-Mercury. We were taken aback in a good way. We felt in this particular case he had already been tested.

This fall, Debmar-Mercury will have its hands full. Besides launching Cannon's show, it's debuting Pop TV's Schitt's Creek in off-network syndication and this year's entertainment magazine test, Central Ave, as a first-run one-hour series for weekends. For Cannon, starring in his own talk show will mean staying in one place probably New York City for a while, and he seems fine with that.

I don't feel like this is settling down, Cannon said. Finally, I'll get a central hub for all of the things I do.

Like Barrymore, Cannon plans to make his show a fun place to hang out. This is a show about good times and escapism, he said. I want to inspire an audience and let them get to know me in a fun and intimate way. I have studied everyone from the greats, like Merv and Oprah, and people who are doing a great job in the space right now, like Ellen and Wendy. I want to tap into that and bring my comedy, fun and knowledge of pop culture.

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LINK:	https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/drew-barrymore-nick-cannon-brin...
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