Melissa DiMarco

TV Real Weekly, October 29, 2008

Host:
Out There with Melissa DiMarco

There has long been an insatiable appetite for interview shows that get up close and personal to reveal celebrities’ true personalities, and Out There with Melissa DiMarco takes this idea one step further. In a fond send-up to the traditional talk show, the series, distributed by Lightworks Program Distribution, features celebrity sit-downs with a semi-scripted spin. The show’s host, Canadian actress and entertainment journalist Melissa DiMarco, takes a playful approach to dealing with top-name talent, bringing together real-life interviews with scripted comedy to show what life is like behind the scenes for an entertainment journalist.

"In the regular entertainment shows, you see the gloss," DiMarco explains, "which is fine, but people don’t realize that it’s not glossy. It’s hard work! So let’s show this host whose struggling to have a personal life—while she’s glamorous on the red carpet, she’s single in the big city trying to make something of herself. We’re now at 92 episodes and Lightworks is going to take it to a whole new level for us, which is really exciting."

Also giving the show a fresh spin is the willingness of celebrities to play along with DiMarco in her antics, giving them a venue to exercise a different side of their acting chops. "It’s amazing how many times these celebrities are tired of answering the same questions. A lot of actors want to have some fun in comedy," she explains. "They have a lot of fun with it and they feel a sense of relief getting to improvise and when they know that there’s no judgment. They know we’re always going to edit it in their favor. It’s about us being the bumbling idiots in the show, and they’re the superstar."

And a good deal of the show’s humor does come at DiMarco’s expense, but she assures that it’s all in good fun. "I’m the fall guy in a way—well, the fall girl, literally actually. And that’s okay because a lot times on a red carpet or in an interview situation, things don’t run smoothly, and other shows show just the gloss. We want to show that to get there, these people work really hard, they have real lives, they have drama and things fall apart. And we’re not doing it documentary style, we’re doing it so that you really feel the story of this one human being and her team trying to put together this show that supposed to be like the next big show."

While DiMarco admits that she is really quite clumsy in real life—she jokes that she turned to entertainment journalism in college because she was too much of a clutz to waitress—she stresses that she is still playing up a character in her role. "There is a certain persona when you’re hosting an entertainment show," she explains. "There is a certain personality that you need and that’s what my ‘Melissa’ character plays into, and we script all that. There is this character that you have to personify, and people have an expectation. My character plays into the expectation, but we also get to the true story going on behind an interview. And we just up the ante. We take it a little higher. But it’s all based on truth. So when people come to me and say ‘Did that really happen?,’ well unfortunately it did."

In addition to half-hour episodes for Out There, at MIPCOM Lightworks launched short-form digital clips for the series, a move that DiMarco thinks suits the series. "The show formats well. A high-end product, a good sense of humor and star power in short bites. And it was Lightworks that brought that for our show." So, whether it’s a digital short or a full half hour, DiMarco and her roster of celebrity guests are set on putting the laughter back into Hollywood interviews.