Exclusive: Warner Bros. to Overhaul Anderson Cooper Talk Show

'Anderson Live' will feature live format, daily cohosts, and more social media

By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/31/2012 4:46:18 PM

Headed into season two, Warner Bros.' Anderson is getting a makeover, including changing its name to Anderson Live and adding more live features to the show.

"Our biggest overall goal for Anderson Live is to take the best elements of daytime and put them in a show that works in 2012. Being live plays to Anderson's strengths, providing immediacy and topicality, which allows us to talk about what is going on in the world," said Terence Noonan, the show's executive producer. "Anderson Live is the show that makes you a little smarter, the one that you have fun watching, and at the end of each episode you can't wait to tune in the next day to see what's happening."

The show, which stars CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, will be renamed Anderson Live and it will be shot in front of a live studio audience, à la Disney-ABC's Live! with Kelly, the show on which Cooper cut his talk teeth. Anderson Live also is moving from the Time Warner Center to a new permanent set at the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, which will have live capabilities that will allow the show to cover events while they are happening.

"Our basic issue with our old studio was that we didn't control that space," says Noonan. "It was a performance space; it wasn't an actual studio. We had to take everything down every night. We can take advantage of the technology at the CBS Broadcast Center because they already do live shows there, such as the CBS Morning Show and the CBS Evening News. We can control our space and make it our home."

As B&C previously reported, in season two, Anderson Live will feature different cohosts every day -- an experiment with which the show had good luck during the May sweeps. Naming a permanent cohost is still a possibility, said Noonan, but it's not as if the show is actively conducting a search.

"We've got a lot of fun, great things planned for the new season. I am really excited to be joined by daily cohosts and look forward to switching to a live format, which allows us more freedom to cover topical issues as well as connect more with the viewer at home," said Cooper in a statement.

Besides a variety of cohosts, Anderson Live is welcoming a new co-executive producer, with George Davilas joining the show. Davilas previously was senior supervising producer at CBS Television Distribution's The Doctors.

Celebrities already booked to appear this season include Richard Gere and the cast of the new movie Arbitrage, Emma Watson and the cast of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and TV stars such as Modern Family's Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell, The Mindy Project's Mindy Kaling, Scandal's Kerry Washington and The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert.

Anderson Live also plans to boost its social-media efforts. The show's companion website, AndersonCooper.com, is launching several new initiatives, including Anderson's Summer Instagram Photo-A-Day Challenge, a month-long photo sharing contest beginning Monday, Aug. 6, on Instagram where fans can post photos for a chance to win prizes; "Stump Anderson," in which fans are encouraged to send Cooper trivia questions that he'll attempt to answer during live webcasts; and "Anderson Seat Tweets," in which fans attending the show will send out live tweets as the show goes on.

TV affiliates that air Anderson Live will receive new promos announcing the changes to season two on Tuesday evening (July 31) that they can start airing on Wednesday, Aug. 1. Anderson Live will premiere season two on Monday, Sept. 10.

Anderson was last season's top-rated rookie, but both stations and Warner Bros. would like to see its ratings improved. Last week, Anderson averaged a 1.1 live plus same day national household rating, putting it at the low end of talk-show ranking