| By Wing Chun | pg 1 of 18 |
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My path recently crossed, randomly, with that of B.J. Novak, a writer and actor on NBC's hit sitcom The Office, via email. He was immediately receptive when I suggested an interview for the site, and couldn't have been lovelier. I...well, since The Office is one of my very favourite shows, I just tried to keep my inner fangirl from busting out, screeching through an hour's worth of tape, and embarrassing me horribly.
Wing Chun: So! The Office has saved NBC! How does that feel?
B.J. Novak: Has it?
WC:
Has it not? That's what I read in Entertainment Weekly.BJN: Um...really?
WC: Hasn't it?
BJN: I thought [My Name Is] Earl gave it CPR. Earl gave it mouth-to-mouth and then...we gave it CPR? What's the order of emergency rescue?
WC: So are you saying that you feel like your show is in the shadow of Earl?
BJN: No, I was trying to give them props for leading the ratings surge -- as they did; they came out of the gates a hit.
WC: Did they?
BJN: Yeah. I heard NBC poured about ten million [dollars] into advertising for them.
WC: Holy shit.
BJN: And they delivered, and it took us a while. We were retaining something like 67%, 70% of [their audience] at the start of the year.