TCA 2012: NBC talks about SMASH Season 2 and why changes were made

By CARL CORTEZ / Editor in Chief

Posted: July 25th, 2012 / 12:04 PM

Despite an uneven first season, NBC renewed SMASH for a second season and brought in new showrunner Josh Safron to get the show focused.

At the NBCUniversal Summer 2012 Press Tour, Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt discussed the changes on the horizon and why they were made.

“I’m inordinately proud of SMASH on so many levels,” explains Greenblatt. “The complexity of producing that show every week is just incredible. And as a television producer and as a Broadway producer, which I once was, I am in awe of what we can do on that show every week. It’s a big soap with a number of characters with arcing storylines, and I think with every soap, at the end of the season relationships end and people leave the show. And you look at the characters and evaluate whether they’re great characters or not or whether they have a future on the show. And we did all of that. And we had some ups and downs creatively as the season went on, which is true of any show. Just compound that by the production that we go through in terms of original songwriting and recordings, and all that is happening simultaneously.”

As for what Safron will bring to the mix, Greenblatt says he’s already doing a great job of “arcing storylines and the consistency of going in one direction with a character and continuing in a really interesting way with that arc.”

“I think we were inconsistent [first season] going back and forth with some things,” adds Greenblatt.

NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke agrees that the vision of second season of the show is very much on track

“The new showrunner came in and pitched out his vision of the season,” says Salke. “And it was so specific and you were on the edge of your seat – it just felt like there’s a real plan in place and thing are coming together in a way that feels more consistent.”

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