Jada Pinkett Smith Says U.S. TV Shows Aren’t Given Chance To Succeed

[Brian Damage]

Pinkett Smith, in London on Monday promoting the launch of Sony Entertainment Television, the studio’s first branded UK channel, says the economy has made the U.S. TV marketplace even more brutal. “Shows are not being given enough time to find their feet,” says the star and executive producer of TNT's Sony TV-produced Hawthorne. “The economy has hit the TV industry very hard; lots of people have lost their jobs.”

Pinkett Smith admits she finds both starring in and producing Hawthorne a strain. But she wanted to earn her producer chops quickly, which is why she was attracted to doing a weekly TV show. On a big movie like Karate Kid -- which she also produced -- everything moves slowly by comparison. “I felt that I wasn’t acquiring the skills that I wanted to," she says. "Moving to TV, my skills got tight very quickly. On a television show you’ve got seven days to make it happen. We’re making a movie every single week.”

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