(l-r) Laura Innes, Ian Anthony Dale, Jason Ritter, Bill Smitrovich, Blair Underwood, Lisa Vidal, Željko Ivanek of THE EVENT. [Photo Credit: NBC]

With much fanfare, The Event premiered last September on NBC.  Ratings have been okay considering its competition at the beginning of the season with Dancing with the Stars and Two and a Half Men.  After a hiatus in late 2010, the series has come back with the remaining episodes for this season that are scheduled to air without interruption each week until the season finale.  No word has been given as to whether The Event will be renewed for a second season.  In our earlier interview with series creator Nick Wauters and actor Ian Anthony Dale, we asked whether The Event can wrap up its storylines this season in case it is not renewed.

For this interview we spoke, on different occasions, to Jason Ritter with Sarah Romer and to Blair Underwood with Željko Ivanek.  Much of The Event is told through the eyes of Jason's character, Sean Walker, who gets caught up in circumstances beyond his control when his fiancee (Roemer) disappears while they are on a Caribbean cruise.  In trying to find her, he discovers both that all evidence of her being on the cruise has vanished and that there is a plan to assassinate the President of the United States (played by Blair Underwood) by using a jet plane as a weapon somewhat mirroring the events of 9-11.  Željko Ivanek plays Director of National Intelligence Blake Sterling, who has kept many secrets from the President most notably the existence of a colony of alien beings that have been detained at a secret facility in Alaska for decades.

The series had employed a unique narrative technique in that there would be frequent time jumps back and forth with each change of scene, and that the same action would be viewed through multiple vantage points.  This technique will be scaled back or outright eliminated with the run of episodes beginning with the series' return on March 7.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO JASON RITTER, SARAH ROEMER, BLAIR UNDERWOOD, & ŽELJKO IVANEK OF THE EVENT:

USTH: When you first read that original pilot script, what was it about the initial premise of The Event that appealed to you that you wanted to audition for it?

JASON RITTER: I guess I'll start with selfishly for me I was really intrigued by the journey of the character of Sean Walker that he goes from this regular nice guy who's about to propose to his girlfriend to a guy pulling out a gun on a plane and demanding to be led into the cockpit.

And that was really exciting. And I think on a show that goes back and forth in time, you get to jump back and forth between sort of emotional states much more than you do on a show that's just continuous. So that was exciting.

And I was really just intrigued by everything else in the pilot – the characters. I wanted to know more about every single character that I read. I wanted to know where the plane went, who these people were. So, it was really intriguing in a way that a lot of the other pilots weren't for me.

There were a lot of shows where you read it and you said, "okay, well, I'm sure that there is another body next week" or whatever it is. You know, the sexual tension between the two leads slowly rises up. I don't know. It just wasn't as intriguing as this. But this was a script where I got to the end, and I needed to know what happened. I was intrigued by almost everything about it.

SARAH ROEMER: Yeah. I was intrigued by almost everything about it as well. But, for me it was – I flipped through it so quickly and just the end I need to know what happened. I needed to know how in the world are they going to explain this plane that just disappeared out of the sky. When we were filming it, in my head I was thinking, "How in the world are they going to show that? How are they going to really make that work?"

And I was so impressed when I saw it. I thought it all looked incredible, and the rigging of all the tables and all being blasted away. I mean, I loved the script and I really wanted to be the first to find out what happens next. And I sat down with everybody and talked to them about their ideas and what their vision was for the show, and I was sold and really wanted to be a part of it.

(l-r) Sarah Roemer (Leila Buchanan), Jason Ritter (Sean Walker) [Photo Credit: NBC]

USTH: The Event has such a big ensemble cast. Are there any particular actors or cast members that you would like to work with more that you haven't had the opportunity to do so as of yet?

SARAH ROEMER: You know, I think it's such a terrific cast. I can't wait for the bell to ring. I really want to work with Kristin, Laura, and Blair – everybody – Bill, they're all – I really can't wait for [my character to come] across those characters, which I think is bound to happen. 

JASON RITTER: Yeah, you know, I'm the same way. It's hard to choose, but I would love to do some scenes with Blair and Željko and it's hard to imagine at this point when I'm a fugitive on the run. It's not like I can just waltz into the Oval Office and say, "Hey guys, what's going on. By the way, I got some information for you."

But, I also really want to get to work with Laura Innes and Ian Anthony Dale and yeah, it's the same thing. I keep on having these fantasies about who Sean Walker is going to align himself with because there's two camps now. Actually there's sort of three camps. I mean maybe Clifton Collins Jr. and I join forces against Sophia and the President. I have no idea where it's going. But I hope I get to work with every single one of them before the show is over.

(l-r) Blair Underwood (President Elias Martinez), Željko Ivanek (Blake Sterling) [Photo Credit: NBC]

USTH: What appealed to you about the premise of The Event that made you each want to audition for it, and as actors, did all the secrecy surrounding the plotlines make it more difficult for you to create your characters?

BLAIR UNDERWOOD: Let's see. What intrigued me was the world itself and the fact that it was envisioned to be and has become a hybrid of certain genres. And many people have alluded to it being like Lost meets 24 – a political thriller/science fiction even.

So, that was fascinating to me and to find out how to navigate through the blending of those two genres and beyond that, the character itself. I found him very fascinating in how he was initially drawn and even moreso, not only the plotline – there's a lot of twists and turns – but our characters are constantly evolving and evolving pretty rapidly right now.

ŽELJKO IVANEK: Yeah. I think I had a very similar reaction. The stuff that I find really intriguing is how do ordinary people behave in extraordinary circumstances? And, that's why we have a lot of cop shows and lawyer shows and medical shows is that you're looking for situations that just always heighten the stakes.

This was a situation with very heightened stakes and very real characters caught up in them and watching them try to maneuver in a world that is so quickly getting past their grasp.

It's the kind of thing that I just really respond to and I really like him and that's certainly kind of held true as the season has gone on because you find him constantly having to shift gears and reassess where they are because the events are just coming at them so fast.

And in terms of the secrecy - I should answer that part of your question. I still don't know what "The Event" is. I don't know how many or if any of our cast members do. And in some sense, I respect the process that the writers have and that there's a story that's still evolving here and you're trying to figure out at what pace to tell it and in some sense, I know as much as my character does in that moment and that's kind of not a bad place to be.

BLAIR UNDERWOOD: Yeah. I feel the same way in terms of the secrecy, and I just haven't really pushed the issue and not asked too much because I kind of don't want to know. I just want to take the ride as the character takes the ride.

USTH: The Event has such a large cast that you don't always get to work with each other. Which cast members would each of you like to have more scenes with?

BLAIR UNDERWOOD: You know, most of my scenes are really with Željko, but I would love to have more with my family Christina Martinez [castmate Lisa Vidal] and my son. Geez. We haven't seen my son since the pilot I don't think. But yeah. But that's it.

ŽELJKO IVANEK: I don't know how this would even work plot wise but, I'd love to have some scenes and get a chance to work with Jason because...

BLAIR UNDERWOOD: Yeah.

ŽELJKO IVANEK: I think that's the Everyman heart of the story – watching him navigate all these worlds and all these things that are happening, and I love what he's doing on the show and just how much you get pulled in emotionally watching him struggle with all of this. So, I just really admire his work, and what he's done so I'd love to be able to work with him at some point.

USTH: Thanks to Jason Ritter, Sarah Roemer, Blair Underwood, and Željko Ivanek for speaking with us.  The Event airs Monday nights on NBC.

America's Next Great Restaurant, the new reality series premiering next month on NBC, will potentially give one lucky aspiring restaurateur the chance of a lifetime – the chance to turn that dream into reality.  The series will begin with 21 contestants who will present their restaurant ideas to a panel of four judges, each of whom has achieved success in the food/cooking industries.  These judges are Bobby Flay (Iron Chef America: The Series), Steve Ells (founder, chairman, and co-CEO of Chipotle restaurants), Curtis Stone (The Biggest Loser), and Lorena Garcia, executive chef and restaurateur.  They will quickly eliminate 11 of the 21 contestants, and the remaining 10 will battle it out over the course of the season in various cooking and business challenges.  The prize?  The launching of his or her very own three-restaurant chain in New York City, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis.  The four judges will not only be there to critique the contestants and pick the winner, but they will also be investors in the resulting restaurant enterprise.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO BOBBY FLAY & STEVE ELLS OF AMERICA'S NEXT GREAT RESTAURANT:

USTH: For each of you, In your opinion what makes a really great restaurant?

BOBBY FLAY: That's a short question with a very long answer, but I'll keep it as brief as possible. Basically,there are certain ingredients to make the perfect restaurant. Obviously, terrific food, which is more important than ever. Great service, of course, because service can actually deter people even more than the food sometimes. And then, of course an environment that people are going to enjoy. And there's different environments for every price point.

And then I think fourth, but certainly not last, is value. People want good food. They want good service. They want a good environment. And they want it to cost the right amount of money in their own minds.

STEVE ELLS: We're looking for America's next great restaurant in a fast-casual format. And when we think about fast-casual restaurants, we think about a restaurant that's accessible to people like fast food, but a price point that's not much more than fast food, and service that's very quick.

But we're looking for a concept that elevates the typical fast food experience. And if I look at my experience with Chipotle, we've elevated our offering in a couple of ways.

First of all we seek out the very best quality, sustainably raised ingredients, ingredients that are normally found in high-end restaurants or high-end groceries and making these kinds of ingredients available for everybody in a very convenient format.

And secondly, we want to hire a crew or a staff that is empowered – one that will help develop a culture of high performance so that we can again elevate our restaurant experience from the typical fast food experience.

And so, I think we were looking in our contestants for qualities that would enable them to duplicate this kind of experience, to create an environment and food that's relevant to people, something that people will enjoy eating, but that is elevated above the typical fast food offering.

USTH: Now we've heard that this series will allow contestants to compete in both business and cooking challenges. Can you just give us an idea of some of the specific challenges that the contestants will face over the weeks?

BOBBY FLAY: The challenges are specific to things that you'd have to go through to open a restaurant. I think one of the key elements here that should not be overlooked is that we're not just a panel of judges deciding people's fate week to week, but we're investors. We're putting our money up to open this next great restaurant.

We created challenges to put people through actual skills that they're going to have to utilize when opening a restaurant. So, it could be anything from food and menu development to skill challenges that have to do with slogans and logos, creating a uniform, creating a design for the restaurant. So, they're all basically geared to real life issues that come up when opening a restaurant.

USTH: How did you work it out amongst yourselves – the four judges – when there was disagreement among you? Obviously, there's objective criteria of what is good food and what is a good presentation, but then, there's also subjective criteria. So, when there is some disagreement how do you all negotiate that amongst yourselves?

STEVE ELLS: Well, I think that's a really interesting question. I think that we had debates early on about the different kinds of cuisines and what we thought would be popular and accepted from the public.

But I think what these challenges did along the way was help [us to] understand the character of the contestants. So, not only are we looking at how well they competed with each other accomplishing specific tasks, but you really got an understanding of their passion for the restaurant business, their ability to use judgment and think on their feet.

These concepts that they presented to us in the very first episode evolved. In fact, the better contestants actually evolved their concept. And we watched them learn about the restaurant business from us. I mean, the really good ones asked us a lot of questions. They were curious. They were adaptable.

And so, not only did we look at how well they performed in the particular tasks, but we looked at their ability to demonstrate passion for the business and to use good judgment in how they were presenting themselves during the challenges.

USTH: Among the four judges, who would you say was the hardest on the contestants, and why?

STEVE ELLS: You know, I think it's fascinating because I think that we all showed a level of compassion. And we all got very attached to various contestants. And I think through the episodes we all had the opportunity to be very critical.

And so, I don't think one person stood out as the bad guy, if you will. I think we all had instances where we were quite critical of a particular dish, a particular business decision, things like this.

BOBBY FLAY: I think Steve hit it. We all come from different places. We've all garnered success over sort of a slow period of time. And so, I think that depending on what a contestant or somebody who was trying to pitch us a restaurant was trying to achieve struck each one of us differently. And so I think that we basically took turns being tough – being sort of the tough guy at the table.

(l-r) Steve Ells, Bobby Flay, Lorena Garcia, Curtis Stone, judges/investors on AMERICA'S NEXT GREAT RESTAURANT [Photo Credit: NBC]

USTH: Since you all are investors in this potential restaurant, did you feel that at the end of the contest you could have said, "There is no winner. None of you is good enough to really open your restaurant," or would the format of the TV series require you to have picked a winner anyway?

BOBBY FLAY: Well, it's an interesting question. I have to say that at the beginning we were a little bit concerned because, first of all, people will try anything to garner attention.

And unfortunately, for this show that doesn't cut it because we need quality. And we need something that's going to work. And we need something that when we put our money together, we need a concept that's actually going to be viable.

And so, what I think had happened – I think that early on, we were pretty nervous that we weren't going to find something that was really going to be worthwhile. But the stronger pitches, and the stronger people just get stronger as time goes on. And they start developing their concept more based on the skills that we gave them.

And they also started getting more comfortable talking in front of us. So, that's how, in my opinion, the cream rose to the top. And then, ultimately we had a handful of very, very viable possibilities. And so, we felt a lot better after a few weeks, that's for sure.

STEVE ELLS: I'll just add that I don't know how to answer your question specifically if there were no concepts that we really believed in what would we do. We didn't have to face that.

And Bobby is right. It was tough. We were quite concerned at the beginning, but as the stronger contestants evolved, we came to a place where we had to make very tough calls because each of the finalists had certain qualities and certain aspects of their restaurants that were quite appealing.

So, it was not an easy decision to eliminate towards the end because of the various strengths that we saw in these people and in these concepts.

USTH: Thanks to Bobby Flay and Steve Ells for speaking with us today.  America's Next Great Restaurant premieres on Sunday, March 6, 2011 on NBC.

NBC's new sitcom, Perfect Couples, revolves around the lives of three couples who are each in a different stage in their relationship, but who face similar problems and situations.  There is Dave and Julia, played by Kyle Bornheimer and Christine Woods, who are the so-called "normal" couple with whom anyone in a relationship can identify.  Highly competitive Rex (Hayes MacArthur) and Leigh (Olivia Munn) see themselves as the perfect couple and relationship experts, while Vance (David Walton) and Amy (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) are a couple who are always fighting and making up leading to a very active sex life.  The series was created by Jon Pollack and Scott Silveri.  They, along with Andy Ackerman serve as Executive Producers, and Ackerman directs many of the episodes.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO KYLE BORNHEIMER AND HAYES MACARTHUR: 

USTH: Can each of you describe your characters in Perfect Couples, and tell us how similar or different you are to them?

KYLE BORNHEIMER: I couldn't be more similar. I don't know where my life ends and this begins. When I met with the guys about it who [created Perfect Couples], Scott Silveri and Jon Pollack, we started swapping stories about coupledom and kind of graduating from your 20s into your 30s, and then all of a sudden you're hit with kind of adulthood.

And a lot of this builds with that transition and under the brighter lights of being in a couple too, which was exasperating. There's no manual for it; although, some of the couples in Perfect Couples actually do use a manual. You know, it's constantly putting our show into our life and our life into our show.

HAYES MACARTHUR: I think speaking to that transition from the 20s to the 30s is something that all the characters go through on our show like being single and then now being in relationships and dealing with all the things that come along with it.

And, [my character] Rex is this reformed party guy and an ex-jock who now is really excited about being in a relationship. And I think normally you would see a character like that, an archetype like that, who is an ex-party guy who's in a relationship, and he feels confined and constrained by it.

But one of the things I love so much about what the writers created in Rex is that he's really being into the relationship and he's taken all this competitive energy and he's put it into his own life in making his marriage work which is great.

And I think one of the things when I look at each of the couples, I see little nuances of my relationship. You see, I love even in the pilot episode the way that Dave [played by Kyle Bornheimer] and Julia [played by Christine Woods] discover that they play games just like they think all the other couples play games.

I think it's kind of like you always think everyone else is the crazy one and then you look at yourself and you see your own stuff.

USTH: Kyle, at times you worked in single camera, and at times you've worked in three camera productions. What are the differences that you see in the way those two production models are put together, and do you have any sort of preference for one or the other?

KYLE BORNHEIMER: First of all, the schedule is much different. Amazingly, there's a stark difference in the schedule. And the multi camera, the live audience is – you feel guilty about it. It's barely working. Whereas, single camera the way the Perfect Couples is, it's not rare to have a 17-hour day.

Our show [runs] actually amazingly smoothly. So, we were out [after a] 13 or 14-hour day, but the schedule is different, but I like both. I'm a part of that generation who's embraced single camera quite a bit. And when I did a multi cam last year [on ABC's Romantically Challenged], I didn't know what to expect, actually. And I quite liked it.

I didn't feel confined by the [multi cam] format or anything. I felt I could do what I needed to do, you know. I like both formats, but if I had a preference right now, it might be single cam. I think we might head into an era where both are starting to get quite good. And we're certainly in an era of great single cam comedies, and I just wanted to be in that era. And there's a lot of good ones out there.

HAYES MACARTHUR: We're having a lot of fun with the single camera device in the show the way that we pop back in time and do flashbacks. I think even just performing that, you know, doing a scene and knowing that you're going to pop in and get a joke like they do on 30 Rock in the middle of a scene. It's something that's fun to think of. It's just – it has a clip, a different taste to it.

KYLE BORNHEIMER: And it's neat because Andy Ackerman who directed most of these comes from mainly multi cam. He directed most of the Seinfelds and then New Adventures of Old Christine, and he started out as an editor before he became a director, and so we kind of get that sensibility of both on this show. He knows the best of the sitcom world and the best of the single cam world.

Cast of NBC's Perfect Couples (l-r: Hayes MacArthur, Olivia Munn, David Walton, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Christine Woods, Kyle Bornheimer) [Photo Credit: NBC]

USTH: Hayes, I believe this is your first weekly series. How its been for you to acclimate yourself to a weekly schedule?

HAYES MACARTHUR: I love being on the show because of the people that are involved. So, to go in on a weekly schedule is just really a lot of fun. It's great. I mean, even getting the script and going into the table reads is fun and then all the way through the shooting where you get just a great group of people to be around.

And, as Kyle was saying earlier, all the things, the stories we tell, the bits and the jokes we do all end up finding their way into the show in one way or another. So, just to be working in that environment is great.

KYLE BORNHEIMER: I haven't even actually felt like it was work. I mean, literally, I would come to work to try to see if I could crack up Hayes or crack up Mary Elizabeth Ellis. Hayes is hard to crack up. Hayes doesn't break easily. Dave Walton is easy to make laugh. And Christine Woods I get. Olivia Munn is incredibly easy to make laugh on set.

HAYES MACARTHUR: Yeah. Being on a weekly series you see these people so much and you have these genuine interactions with them [whereas] if you're away doing a film, it's a little different because there's these definite end dates to everything. And it's like when camp is over, it's over. [Doing a weekly series is] more like being in school with people.

KYLE BORNHEIMER: You get to see them more than any job. You see them more than you see your family, really. And, [we're] quite in love with the "six people" scene. Anything that the six of us were in, we started calling them sixers. And sometimes we would drink a sixer before doing a sixer.

USTH: Kyle, a television critic said that you were the next Bob Newhart. Did you hear that compliment? What did you think of it, and are you a fan of Bob Newhart?

KYLE BORNHEIMER: I'm a huge fan of Bob Newhart. My parents were big Bob Newhart fans and that show was on – both shows – [the] first one with Suzanne Pleshette, and then the second one set in Vermont in the 80s were both played in our house quite a bit, and my dad would play Bob Newhart's old records for me and his old telephone gags.

I don't know how much consciously got into me. But, my family was good at one thing, [and that] was being entertained. So, we had a lot of movies and TV going on in the house. And Bob Newhart was certainly part of that rotation.

HAYES MACARTHUR: Did they shoot Newhart on our stages too?

KYLE BORNHEIMER: Oh yeah, we are. And Andy, I think, edited on Newhart. But yeah, Bob Newhart - that's a good point. We're shooting on where Bob Newhart shot.

HAYES MACARTHUR: On the CBS Radford stages where they shot the shows.

KYLE BORNHEIMER: It's just awesome to be on hollowed ground.

USTH: Thanks to both Kyle Bornheimer and Hayes MacArthur for taking the time to speak with us today.

Perfect Couples airs Thursday nights at 8:30pm Eastern on NBC. 

On Monday, February 7, we spoke to Rosie O'Donnell who is promoting her upcoming appearance on Who Do You Think You Are?, a television series that traces the ancestry of a different celebrity guest each episode.  The series is executive produced by Lisa Kudrow, whom fans will remember for her role on the long-running sitcom, Friends.  Who Do You Think You Are? is adapted from the BBC series of the same name, and the American version has recently returned to the airwaves for a second season, which will consist of eight episodes.  The full list of guests to be profiled this season are: Vanessa WIlliams, Tim McGraw, Rosie O'Donnell, Steve Buscemi, Kim Cattrall, Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Lionel Richie.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO ROSIE O'DONNELL:

USTH: Before we talk about your episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, I'm curious about whether any of your children have been bitten by the acting bug, and if so, what advice would you give them?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: None of my kids have been bitten by the acting bug. Although, I tried to be a stage mother and force them; it didn't work. None of them are really into it.

USTH: Regarding the research that was done into your ancestry for Who Do You Think You Are?,do you feel that you learned all that you needed to about your mother's family, or are there any more unanswered questions that you will be researching on your own?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: I would like to know more about who [my mother] was as an adult woman. We found out a lot about her childhood. I think research-wise we've done everything that we could.

But, I've been lately trying to find people who knew her, who went to school with her, who knew her in college or in secretarial school, and try to find out who she was as a grown woman. That's just for my own kind of personal journey of meeting and introducing myself to the woman that my mother was, instead of the child version of the mommy.

And as far as the show goes, I think that they uncovered every stone. You know, there was nothing left to find out, and it is a show about ancestors, so we went back. I did find out stuff about my grandfather, who I never knew, and didn't anything about his family, and so it was pretty surprising stuff that I found out.

But as far as my mother goes, [I want] to find out more about her as a person. I don't think it's necessarily ancestral research. It's more going to find her friends, and seeing if they'll have lunch with me.

USTH: You've always put yourself out there as a fan of celebrities and TV and movies.  So, I'm curious to know, which celebrity would you be interested to see profiled on Who Do You Think You Are? and why?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: I'd say Natasha Lyonne. I got to know her about two years ago doing Love, Loss, and What I Wore, Nora Ephron's Broadway show. I really did not know anything about her. I had not seen any of her movies, [but] since getting to know her, I find her to be one of the smartest women I've ever met. She's only 31 years old.

She has an amazing story about her grandparents being in the Holocaust and what that was like for them. Her grandmother and her sister both survived Auschwitz – her grandmother and her grandmother's sister. And so, Natasha was raised by a child of a Holocaust survivor and the ramifications of that. And I think it's a pretty fascinating story and I would love to be able to see her tale told on that show.

USTH: You've always said that you stepped away from acting because you wanted to raise your kids properly and spend a lot of time with them. But now that your kids are older, do you envision yourself getting back into the acting business full-time whether it be a weekly sitcom or doing more movies? Are there any acting projects coming up from you in the near future that we should know about?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Well, I would love to, but acting roles for women who are 50 and older are hard to come by, and they're hard to come by for Kathy Bates and Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon. So, I don't have any illusions about the desire for me to run back and get these huge parts that are simply waiting. There really aren't any parts like that.

It will be much more single topic oriented. So, I don't know. I think that when I get to be in my 60's there will probably be a lot of roles for me as the grandmother or older mother of the Geraldine Page kind of Trip to Bountiful sort of roles. And that's what I think I'm waiting for.

So until then, if they need me for anything they'll call. I'm there, but if not, I'm going to be doing TV for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

USTH: Our thanks to Rosie O'Donnell for speaking with us today.  Who Do You Think You Are? airs Friday nights at 8pm Eastern on NBC, and Ms. O'Donnell's episode will air February 18, 2011.