It’s not often we get to go behind the scenes with the editor of our own magazine, but we managed to do just that this week in a new interview with Jennifer Griffin. In addition to running TVPulse Magazine, Jennifer was also the founder and editor of ScreenSpy Magazine, the online publication she created and directed for over 12 years before it was successfully sold to Box Media. She has written extensively about TV and games for longer than she will admit here.
In the following interview she breaks down the current TV cycle, and explains how Networks approach their offerings. She also highlights some of TV and Gaming’s most pivotal entries this year, still somehow manages to slip in a reference to last year’s juggernaut Alan Wake, and tells us her particular fantasy game scenario for a future Silent Hill project.
Ed Bullman: How would you describe the Broadcast TV Slate this year?
Jennifer Griffin: In a word? Familiar! [laughing]. I don’t think Broadcast is where you’re going to find a lot of innovation going on. The audience there is skewed older, and the shows tend to run towards people’s comfort zones. Every year ABC debuts a show with a strong female lead, which I kind of love. In previous years those dramas have been big serious affairs with heavy hitting leads. Maybe they’re looking at recreating a little of that Mare of Easttown vibe? I don’t know. It hasn’t been very successful. This year they went with High Potential which is a light-hearted comedy drama and it seems to be working. I always want a show to get to a second season because then I can build on the traction and try to create a space for fans. If it doesn’t work I have to go back to the starting line along with the Network and look for a new show to connect with. If a show fails, there’s always a sense of “Well Poop! Back to the drawing board” for me.
JUDY REYES, KAITLIN OLSON
Ed Bullman: That’s interesting that you should mention that ABC has a trend. Do the other broadcast Nets do the same thing?
Jennifer Griffin: Yeah. Absolutely. CBS does cop procedurals, and builds on its franchises. You can choose to look at that cynically, or you can stand back and admire their success. You can’t deny it’s a very successful route for them to take, programming wise. Let’s see, FOX has done a lot of soapy stuff in the past. This year they’ve taken a more serious route with shows like Murder in a Small Town. I think Rossif Sutherland is great in that. He brings a wonderful sense of the understated. If I was an actor, I’d want to work with him. I do think that show could do with being 10 degrees darker though. It’s often very fluffy in a CW sort of way. But I’m sure that’s deliberate. The 2024/25 slate is about comfort and the familiar. Which is probably a reaction to all the terrible depressing things going on in the world right now.
Ed Bullman: What about NBC?
Jennifer Griffin: I love NBC. Their programming is the most innovative on Broadcast. They’ll do sci-fi, then a medical drama, then a medical comedy, followed by a heartstring-puller like This is Us or Brilliant Minds. I always feel NBC’s successes are well earned. Also … I’ve had a press relationship with NBC for almost 15 years and I’ve never had a bad day with them. They’re very polite and accommodating, and they’re always happy to help if you have a technical problem, or an interview request. I can’t say enough good things.
Ed Bullman: Is that not always the case with other Networks?
Jennifer Griffin: [pausing] No.
Ed Bullman: Would you like to name names?
Jennifer Griffin: … No, I don’t think I will, but I think I can share a little story I put out on social media about a year ago. This could relate to any Network really, because TV is a fickle heartless business [laughing]. Ok, so apologies in advance if this gets a bit dark, but my oldest friend died of cancer, and very shortly after that my Dad also died of cancer, and if you’ve ever lost someone that close to you, it affects you in ways you might not be able to see coming.
For me, I found I couldn’t write. I would sit at my desk in the afternoon, and nothing would come out. There were tons of press releases coming in, photos, interviews and all the rest of it, but I was only turning about twenty percent of them into articles. My brain was doing this funny thing where I would look at something that landed on my desk, and I would go “No, I don’t need to work on that. It’s not that important. I’ll wait for something important. Like, I’ll just sit here and when something really important comes in, then I’ll handle it.” I think I built a lot of very detailed houses in The Sims in that time. [laughing].
Anyway, I did get back to work, but soon after one of the big Broadcast Networks noticed the dip in my website traffic and cut off my press access to videos. This meant I now couldn’t review any of their shows ahead of time. They didn’t warn me, or reach out in any way. I just found I suddenly couldn’t access anything any more. I got in contact and explained about my Dad. I didn’t mention my friend of 35 years because I thought they’d think I was making it up or gilding the lily or something. I explained about my bereavement and I gave them fresh ‘hey I’m back to work and everything is fine again now’ statistics that showed I’d managed to pull myself out of the slump. They responded by cutting off my access to photos as well.
Ed Bullman: That’s crazy.
Jennifer Griffin: Yeah. Then about a month later they ran a mental health awareness campaign with several actors from their most prominent shows. There were all these familiar faces looking directly into the camera earnestly telling us how the Network cares about our mental health.
Ed Bullman: It’s like something Vought would do in an episode of The Boys.
Jennifer Griffin: [laughing] Yes! Well that’s Hollywood for you, baby!
Ed Bullman: Let’s change the subject.
Jennifer Griffin: Yes, let’s!
Ed Bullman: You’ve seen a lot of them over the years. Do fan campaigns ever actually work?
Jennifer Griffin: No. I mean they have worked, or the press surrounding them has been crafted to look like they work because everyone loves that story better than ‘we cut the license fee and everyone agreed to come back for another year’, but generally TV is a numbers game, and once a deal fails to materialise, it’s game over.
Ed Bullman: What is your favorite show on TV right now?
Jennifer Griffin: Pffft. I always have great difficulty picking favorite things from a collection. What’s your favorite color? Or what’s your favorite ice-cream flavor? Who is your favorite child? … Let’s see… I think Severance on Apple TV is pretty wild. I mean, that Season One finale had to be one of the most tense and exciting setups I’ve seen on TV in years. I also loved Season 2 of The Rings of Power on Prime Video. [whispering] We’re not allowed to call it Amazon Prime! Charles Edwards was a tour de force as Celebrimbor. He brought such humanity to a character who was the poster child for pride coming before a fall. He did such a great job with that character. What else? Oh yes! I just watched the first 3 episodes of Season 2 of Arcane this weekend. That show is something else. It’s visually stunning. And I mean that in the real sense of the expression. I went back and rewatched the whole fight sequence with Sevika with her shiny new ‘one armed bandit’ appendage, and Jinx and Smeech and the Chem Baron dudes. It was spectacular. You don’t often see true art on TV but this was next level good.
Ed Bullman: What Video games are you into right now?
Jennifer Griffin: I just finished the Silent Hill 2 remake. I played the original about 20 years ago, or whenever it was it came out first, but I had forgotten how it ended, or I had gotten it mixed up with another game in the series…. Man, that was bleak!
Ed Bullman: It’s a bleak world.
Jennifer Griffin: Yeah. I don’t know if I have it in me to do another one. I’m quite a sensitive person, and I find the tension hard to take at times. And all the unrelenting misery! Bloober Team did an amazing job at reanimating a classic game, and I know there are more to come. I just don’t know if it’s for me. I appreciate the story most in a game. I think the story in Silent Hill 2 could have been given a bit of an update along with the updates to the graphics and the gameplay. It’s a pretty miserable story, and Mary doesn’t get much of a perspective. I’d play a Silent Hill game where Mary gets to hunt James all over the town with a shotgun:
“You promised you’d take me there again one day, but you never did!” BLAM!
“Even though our life together had to end like this, I wouldn’t trade it for the world” BLAM!
“Better run James!” BLAM! BLAM!
[laughing].
Ed Bullman: How would you compare it to Alan Wake which was last year’s big Halloween entry?
Jennifer Griffin: I adore that game, as the TV Pulse Magazine team well knows! My love of Remedy goes way back to the Max Payne years. I never told anyone this story, but my Dad was going through a bit of a rough time, and I bought him a PC and showed him how to get started with it. The first game I bought him was Max Payne. Every time I’d come to visit him his eyes would light up as he explained what had happened in the story, or how there was this crazy mode in the game called “Bullet Time.” That game sparked a love of video games in him, and many chats over the years. It was our thing, and I have Remedy to thank for that.
Ed Bullman: And you interviewed Alan Wake himself this year?
Jennifer Griffin: Yes I did! Many thanks to Matthew Porretta for being involved. I think I wore poor Matt down with a million requests. He’s what we describe in the industry as a ‘hard get’. That interview was a little nerve-wracking for me actually. Because it was a games project I knew the format would have to be video. The audience skews younger than a Broadcast TV audience, and they’re tech savvy and expect Podcast style interviews. The thing was though, I hadn’t done a Podcast style interview before, so it was a bit of a learning curve in getting everything set up. In the end I chose weird warm yellow lighting that made me look like I had a set of very brown teeth. [laughing].
Also, there’s a point about one minute in where I realize I can either look at Matt when he’s speaking, or look directly at the camera slash audience. So obviously I’m not going to spend the whole interview smiling and nodding at my own reflection like some ego maniac. So I choose to look at Matt instead. He’s funny and gorgeous. I mean, why would I want to be looking at myself instead? But when I saw the finished video I realized that I was looking off to the side the whole time, and all that poor man saw over the course of however many hours was the top of my head, with my headphones — which belong to Sheldon who, I’m sorry to say has a very large head — sliding down my face. [laughing]. I need to up my video interview skills. Apologies Matthew Porretta, you wonderful patient lovely beautiful man!
Ed Bullman: Would you like to do more Remedy interviews?
Jennifer Griffin: I mean maybe. I did reach out after Matt’s interview to a couple of the cast via their agents, but … [shrugging].
Ed Bullman: What?
Jennifer Griffin: Crickets. Maybe they were horrified by my Podcasting skills?
Ed Bullman: Well that’s a pity.
Jennifer Griffin: It’s a vey circular industry. Maybe our paths will cross again on a future project, who knows? Looking back over my career I’ve done some very strange interviews. No names, but I once interviewed an actor who was late to the call, and was trying to get into his apartment during a blackout. He took the call (God love him!) and spent 25 minutes hiking up a flight of stairs to the 15th floor because the elevator was out. He was so out of breath and wheezing on the way up I couldn’t understand any of his answers to the questions I was asking him. I genuinely thought he might die while I’m quizzing him “So, what drew you to this role? Please don’t have a heart attack before you get a chance to tell me.”
Ed Bullman: What did you do?
Jennifer Griffin: Thanked him for his time and then quietly buried the interview. [laughing] He went on to headline another show on NBC later so I don’t think my lack of coverage affected his career too deeply.
Ed Bullman: What are the greatest industry challenges you are facing this season?
Jennifer Griffin: That’s a great question. There’s always a fresh challenge in this business. And every year whatever rough creature is currently slouching towards Bethlehem feels overwhelming. Obviously this year reaching an audience over Social Media will be a challenge. People are leaving Twitter in droves, but they are failing to gather in one new specific hangout. We’ve got some on BlueSky, some on Threads – which isn’t available in Europe. [Edit: Threads is now available in Europe.] Others are on Discord which is a closed club with the owner’s rules. Some are on Tumblr. My bread and butter is engagement. You don’t need a following of 50k plus people if you have 5k people who love what you do and are interested in sharing it and engaging with you. We are not the biggest online magazine out there. We get about a quarter of a million visitors a month during TV season. My job is to keep us afloat this season in very turbulent waters. We’ve come through the pandemic and the writers’ strike. When I’m not having a little cry at my desk — which I like to do about 2-3 times a year and highly recommend — I tell myself we’ll get through this too.
Jennifer Griffin is the owner/editor of TVPulse Magazine. You can find her on X @msjenniferg and on BlueSky @msjenniferg.bsky.social where she tells us she is “disappointingly pedestrian” in her posts.