"The Conners" To Air Politically-Themed Live Episode on Night of New Hampshire Primary – TCA
by Anita Bennett
January 8, 2020


ABC’s "The Conners" is getting political, with help from guest star Katey Sagal.

The comedy is set to broadcast a live episode on Tuesday, February 11, the night of the New Hampshire Primary, ABC announced today as part of the TCA Winter Press Tour.

In recognition of the nation’s first primary of the 2020 political season, the episode will air live on both the East and West Coasts, and incorporate ABC News coverage of real-time election results into the storyline as well.




According to a description from the network:

The live episode will find Mark (Ames McNamara) watching the results of the primary for a school report with Harris (Emma Kenney), who is apathetic to the electoral process and believes money’s influence in politics means real change is impossible.

The rest of the Conners share their differing takes on why they all think everyone should vote, including their working-class perspective that you may have to vote for a candidate you don’t love but one that will “screw you the least.”

All of this happens against the backdrop of romance when Louise (Katey Sagal) gets an opportunity that might send her away from Lanford, prompting the family to interfere in Dan’s (John Goodman) complicated relationship with her by throwing Louise a surprise going-away party, creating major new tensions between Dan and his daughters.

https://deadline.com/2020/01/the-conners-to-air-live-episode-on-night-of-new-hampshire-primary-1202824240/

The Conners to offer live commentary during the Oscars (https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/the-conners-live-oscar-promo-2020-exclusive-1203495824/)

The third commercial break of Sunday's ceremony will feature a live ad where The Conners characters comment on who won, who lost and/or what other buzzy moment just occurred during the host-less ceremony, showrunner Bruce Helford tells Variety. “We’ll know within a minute or so of the live promo happening what the last award or few awards were and if anything was interesting about them,” he says. “We’ll write something or the cast will chime in and say, ‘Oh I want to say this…'” The writing team will have a short amount of time to come up with the words for the cast to say, but the camera placement for the ad has already been set. “We’re doing a camera watching the actors from behind while they’re watching the live Oscars telecast,” says Helford. “So they find themselves live on the Oscars, but they’re not being themselves as the actors — they’re in character as the Conners. So it’s an odd and very absurd process, but it should be fun.” In case something goes wrong, Helford adds that the show will employ backup generators to keep everything up and running.

Anyone who watchs this garbage is a very sad/confusing person to me.......

SHE DIDNT DO ANYTHING WRONG (No more than than other idiot did calling him a bad word YET NO ONE CARES ABOUT THAT!!!)

People who like this are basically saying they didnt ever care about Rosanne.......

My MeTV affiliate will be showing this instead of the main ABC channel, so that means The Andy Griffith Show won't be shown.

My MeTV affiliate will be showing this instead of the main ABC channel, so that means The Andy Griffith Show won't be shown.

Seriously? They're replacing TAGS with a political episode of The Conners? Who's dumbazzed idea was that? I have to wonder who they think the audience for MeTV is....

Seriously? They're replacing TAGS with a political episode of The Conners? Who's dumbazzed idea was that? I have to wonder who they think the audience for MeTV is....

Yes. When the Donald Trump impeachment trial happened, the MeTV programming was pre-empted.

You're in New Hampshire so it makes a little more sense that they are airing election coverage on the ABC affiliate and moving the regular programming to a sub channel. In my area, they never do that. If breaking news or weather interrupts regular programming, they air the regular stuff after midnight so people can record it. The schedule for the subchannels is never altered. I bet MeTV gets inundated with complaints and they probably have no control over the local affiliate's decisions.

You're in New Hampshire so it makes a little more sense that they are airing election coverage on the ABC affiliate and moving the regular programming to a sub channel. In my area, they never do that. If breaking news or weather interrupts regular programming, they air the regular stuff after midnight so people can record it. The schedule for the subchannels is never altered. I bet MeTV gets inundated with complaints and they probably have no control over the local affiliate's decisions.

It's how it is in Massachusetts as well, because we have the sub channel here in New Hampshire too.

The Conners cast "terrified" for tonight's first-ever live show (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/conners-live-episode-bruce-helford-interview-1278502)

Tonight's The Conners episode will incorporate live ABC News coverage of the New Hampshire primary into its storyline for two live tapings: one for East Coast/Midwest and one for the West Coast. "Believe me, they are terrified," says showrunner Bruce Helford, who oversaw several live shows as co-creator and showrunner of The Drew Carey Show. The Conners stars are going live for the second time this week (https://www.primetimer.com/item/The-Conners-to-offer-live-commentary-during-the-Oscars-NXSo5E) after offering live commentary during an Oscars ad break. Helford tells The Hollywood Reporter "the level of difficulty here is about a 12" due to the political nature of tonight's broadcast. To prepare for tonight, the cast spend extra time in rehearsals. The show also added 12 cameras to the soundstage instead of the usual four. "Right now, the show is running probably about two minutes short," says Helford. "That allows for audience laughs and for more involved discussion of what's going on in the primary, so we're giving ourselves a little leeway. There's almost never a worry about being too short, but there's always a worry about being too long." Helford adds that he wanted to do a live show only for a special night. "I don't like just doing live shows for the sake of live, because then it's like you're just watching to hear somebody flub a line or something," he says. "So I wanted to make sure it was something special. On Drew, we used to do the live improv, which was really without a net, and that was wonderful. When I saw the New Hampshire primary was going to be on our normal air night, I thought, OK, this could be interesting and something that hasn't been done before — actually interacting with the news as it's going on live. You don't have many news events that are predictable like a primary. You know it's going to happen, so it gave us the opportunity to take advantage of that and do something unique."

Anyone who watchs this garbage is a very sad/confusing person to me.......

SHE DIDNT DO ANYTHING WRONG (No more than than other idiot did calling him a bad word YET NO ONE CARES ABOUT THAT!!!)

People who like this are basically daying they didnt ever care about Rosanne.......

:rolleyes:

Hmmmm that icon you posted has kind of a smile,does that mean you agree with my reply buddy?? -- Im not sure maybe ya dont..

Its an eyeroll

This was pretty good. They did great with it but it was Lecy who had me rolling.

The Conners' politics-themed live episode: West Coast airing was able to cover Bernie Sanders' victory in New Hampshire (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/conners-behind-scenes-two-live-new-hampshire-primary-focused-episodes-1278914)

The second live taping, which was delayed two minutes due to an ABC News special report, was also able to deliver punchlines on Amy Klobuchar's surprise third-place finish and Elizabeth Warren's poor showing. ALSO: The Conners hits a season high with live episode (https://tvline.com/2020/02/12/tv-ratings-conners-live-episode/).

Honestly, I didn't like it. It felt like it was trying to cash-in on politics for ratings. When a show gets too political, it's just not as good. These kind of episodes are terrible for re-watchability, in 10 years, are we really going to care what the results of this night were? All the topical references just aren't going to age well. It's a big thumbs down for me. It just felt...I don't know...like a stunt.

The Conners undermined itself by treating its live political episode like it was mostly "pre-packaged" (https://www.fastcompany.com/90462546/the-conners-live-new-hampshire-primary-special-wasnt-all-that-special)

Sure, there were conversations about the Democratic candidates in the New Hampshire primary, but much of Tuesday night's live show felt "pre-packaged" as if it could've been taped in advance. "In essence, 'Live from Lanford' could’ve done away with any mention of the New Hampshire primary and treated it like a regular episode because The Conners and its predecessor Roseanne have never shied away from discussing politics from the point of view of the working class," says KC Ifeanyi, who adds: "'Live from Lanford' had the potential to up the ante even further by bringing in live coverage of a decisive and highly scrutinized election cycle happening in the moment. The excitement wouldn’t have hinged on waiting for an actor to flub a line; it would’ve been about chipping away at the fourth wall in an inventive way, like you’re watching TV with your favorite TV family. Best of all, it would’ve been an organic tie-in given how heavily The Conners leans into politics and societal issues. Remember, this is the show that killed off its problematic matriarch with a prescription pain pill overdose. But, alas, for how well 'Live from Lanford' was executed with nary an actor dropping a line, it wasn’t anything special." ALSO: The Conners cast and crew pulled off a flawless execution, but the live format needed an injection of more acid into the proceedings (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/conners-live-lanford-review-1278953).

A lot of odd homophobic comments in the show...