Entertainment NOW

TV Media Weekly | February 7 - 13, 2015 cessful with what the show has accomplished in its first season. Whether you're a Mardi Gras newbie or a Bourbon Street reg- ular, "NCIS: New Orleans" has done all the right things so far in its premiere season. From per- fectly illustrating the colorful culture of New Orleans to raking in some of the best viewer num- bers this season, the show has been a home run for CBS. Be sure to catch an all-new episode of "NCIS: New Orleans" when it airs Tuesday, Feb. 10, on the eye network. came as an actor/director. That was the original plan, but I haven't directed any [epi- sodes]," Harmon said during the "Herald's" lengthy Q&A ses- sion. "To me, it's about filling your quiver with more arrows than you had yesterday, and the idea of learning from that. That's why I still enjoy so much what I do." But after following the Naval Criminal Investigative Services in Washington, D.C., and Los An- geles for more than a decade, how are producers shaking it up to keep audiences from reaching for the remote every week? Harmon says the trick thus far has been the eccentric flavor of the city itself, noting that New Orleans is as much a character as its top agents and the crimes that keep them on their toes. "I think what makes it unusu- al is what makes it potentially work. ... You have New Orleans the city, right in the middle, which has its own environment for hundreds of years — its own sound, its own feel, certainly its own smell and taste, all that," Harmon continued during the same interview. "So our job, in talking about all of this, was saying this is potentially a huge- ly rich opportunity to footprint a show and do something a little bit different." But different doesn't always prove easy, according to the program's casting director, Mea- gan Lewis. The people of New Orleans have an accent like no other, often varying between a southern drawl and what's known as a "port city" accent, much like Boston, Massachu- setts, or Brooklyn, New York. "For the most part, we don't sound like Paula Deen. You can have a Yat accent. You can sound more like you're from Brooklyn than you would the South," she said during a be- hind-the-scenes interview with WNCT 9 News 5 in September. "With it being a port city, that's how most port cities accents have evolved, whether you are in Baltimore, New Orleans, Brooklyn. They all sort of have that ring to it." And critics agree across the board that the southern flavor of the program, location and cast — starring Missouri-born actor Scott Bakula ("Star Trek: Enterprise," "Quantam Leap") as special agent Dwayne Pride — hits all the right marks, in- cluding Brian Lowry of "Vari- ety," who says Bakula "[pro- vides] good company and jus- tice served up faster than street vendor gumbo." Bakula, who plays a native New Orleanian alongside spe- cial agents Christopher LaSalle (Lucas Black, "American Goth- ic," "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," 2006) and Mere- dith Brody (Zoe McLellan, "JAG," "Dirty Sexy Money"), says starring in a spinoff is a first for him, but he's ultimately up for the challenge. "You're being given an audi- ence, so that's the good news," Bakula said during the interview with News 5. "The challenge is you have to earn that audience" to essentially keep them coming back, and that has proved suc- By Meagan Sylvester TV Media I f Paris, as author Ernest Hem- ingway said, is a moveable city, then New Orleans has al- ways been a floating one. As an urban center founded by the French, ruled by the Spanish and inhabited by the Cajuns, NOLA is unlike any other metropolitan in the United States. The city's stark cultural con- trast — embodied in its colonial architecture, southern drawl and cobblestone streets — shows not just in popular cul- ture, but also in the way in which film and television pro- ducers continue to look to The Big Easy as a beacon of story- telling and old world charm. Enter CBS's newest spinoff of the original "NCIS" drama, set in the nation's epicenter for jazz, smoked bourbon, Mardi Gras and French Quarter crime. Be sure to catch an all-new episode of "NCIS: New Orleans" when it airs Tuesday, Feb. 10, on CBS. While the freshman drama only came to life in 2014 follow- ing the 11-year success of its parent program, the Crescent City spinoff has hit the ground running, with a second season already in the works and the numbers to back up such a quick renewal. In fact, "NCIS: New Orleans" is the season's most-watched new series and broadcast televi- sion's No. 2 drama ("NCIS" is No. 1), averaging 18.1 million viewers. While the program's initial success could be attribut- ed to its colorful location on the Gulf coast, the cast also has a familiar face on set to help boost the program's already stellar ratings. Mark Harmon ("Chicago Hope," "Freaky Friday," 2003), widely known for his role as special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the original "NCIS," is one of the leading executive producers on the new show, which is a lit- tle bit different from his original plan, he said during an inter- view with the "Sydney Morning Herald" in September of last year. "It's funny to me because when I first came to 'NCIS,' I Lucas Black as seen in "NCIS: New Orleans" French Quarter crime Colorful new NCIS spinoff hitting all the right notes 2 | Cover story CHANNEL GUIDE Comcast Walton Cable- Vision Sammo ns of Indiana Tipton Cable TV Oak Hill Cable Swayzee AT&T U-Verse

• Cover