Half a decade after signing on as executive producer for E!’s cult hit The Soup, K.P. Anderson, the stand-up comic turned TV producer has something of a lock on the clip-show market, a format that is at once popular and cost-effective.
Anderson and I sat down after a Soup taping earlier this month to discuss on the appeal of clip-shows, the future of The Soup and his hilarious plan to create reality show fodder for his other shows to poke fun at.
Now that you have that development deal with E!, what do you have planned?I’ve got a mini little slate of stuff that I want to develop. I’ve just started doing the meetings with the execs around here at E! I’m being very particular about
the E! type stuff simply because I really like my role at E!, in terms of this type of show and take on pop culture, but I don’t think and I don’t think E! thinks there’s a ton of space for much more of it. Chelsea [Handler] has her thing and we have ours.
So there are no Kardashians in your future?Actually, we’ve talked about the reality show stuff. They were more into the idea of me bringing in something reality than I thought they’d be. They said, ‘nobody knows what a good Soup clip looks like better than you.’ And I thought, yeah, I guess they’re right. [laughs]
So you’ll provide the show that you’re then going to make fun of on The Soup? Exactly. I thought, you want me to be the car-wreck, farm and refinery all at the same time? Nice. So I’m open to reality. I’m really interested in finding something funny for E! that captures a unique look at celebrity or the entertainment industry. Honestly, the thing I’m most interested in right now is finding celebrities who are likeable and human.
Do they exist?Yeah, I think so. [laughs] And then putting them in situations where they’re embracing of their flaws without being purposeful disasters. That’s probably as far as I can lead you with that one, except to say there are a lot of people who we’ve come across in our dealings around here who I found were a lot more charming once I got next to them than they were when we were running a clip of them on the show and skinning them alive. The first person that comes to mind is [The Hills’] Stephanie Pratt. I love her. I don’t know what she’s got going on or how far it goes but if you can figure out the right format for her, I think she’s one of the more charming people I’ve met since I got to Hollywood. Unlike her brother [and co-star Spencer Pratt], who is the biggest d*** alive.
I thought something might be up when Steph kept mentioning E. Check out these tweets:
@stephaniepratt (August 3rd) "Now rushing to E!!! For a big meeting!!!"
@stephaniepratt (August 8th) "At E! For another meeting!!!!"
@stephaniepratt (August 20th) "Headed back to E! For another exciting meeting!!!!!!!!!! and then "Meeting at E! Was great!!"
I LOVE the idea of Steph having her own show - I really hope this comes to fruition!
