While Kevin Smith has been very vocal about leaving directing behind after he makes his gestating hockey movie “Hit Somebody,” he won’t be wanting for things to do. The podcast host, movie personality, Q&A friendly comic book writer and movie producer has about a zillion other projects on the go, but if there is one thing he’s good at utilizing to help bring home the proverbial bacon, it’s his mouth. Whatever you may think about Smith, there’s no denying he’s an always compelling raconteur, with countless stories about the industry, his films, his obsessions and whatever else may be on his mind at the time. So perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised by his next career move.
If you’ve been wanting a daily dose of Kevin Smith — and if his endless Twitter feed just isn’t enough — this may be the news you’ve been waiting for. A daily, syndicated talk show is in the works with none other than Smith himself as the host. For real. Vulture has gotten their hands on the email making the rounds to potential guests, and the program is described as a thirty minute “Regis and Kelly” style talk show, aimed squarely at the 12-34 demographic (that young?) that will have Kevin and his co-host addressing “water-cooler topics at the top of the show, followed by a celebrity interview and a comedy segment from the field.” Yeah, so we have a few thoughts on this.
Firstly, for a guy who spend most of the lead up to Sundance this year deriding the dinsosaur media industry and its inability to adapt to the digital world, it’s totally bizarre that he’s developing a show for the most ancient of mediums — network television. The program is being designed to run “following ‘TMZ,’ in the 6-8pm time period on the Fox stations in all the major markets.” Which brings us to point number two. Smith has also been particularly hostile to the press, so it’s kind of hilarious that he wants his show to follow the biggest skidmark to “reporting” these days “TMZ.” Really, Kev? That’s the audience you’re chasing?
No word yet on what network will take on the show or who his co-host will be — though his SModcast partner Scott Mosier is a safe bet — but it seems television is the next medium Smith wants to make his stamp on. In case you forgot, he’s also developing a reality show for AMC about “the comic book lifestyle.” Will it make it to air? And more importantly, are there enough Joe America types who know who Kevin Smith is to tune to a talk show that he hosts? Guess we’ll soon see.
