Showtime’s ‘The Circus’ is to politics what ‘Inside the NFL’ is to football
For almost 40 years, “Inside the NFL” has been able to capture the attention of football fans despite airing several days after the action on the field has occurred. While the basic elements of the show are the same as any other sports recap show, featuring highlights of the week’s games and discussion of events around the league, the fact that there are no commercials allows the panel to discuss subjects at length without the normal network time restrictions. In other words, in a sports news environment where ESPN’s SportsCenter is ubiquitous and other outlets’ highlight shows hammer viewers over the heads with one catchphrase-driven recap after another, “Inside the NFL” works because of its stately pace. Of course, having the highlight reels produced by NFL Films, with its lavish production values, also makes “Inside the NFL” must-see TV. Watching the latest episode of Showtime’s “The Circus,” I kept thinking I was watching a more compelling version of “Inside,” except instead of football, the game at the center of the show is politics. Like “Inside, “The Circus” benefits from its all-star panel — Bloomberg reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann and strategist Mark McKinnon — being able to take a breath and put the Most Important Week Ever in much-needed context. The show offers the same highlights as “Morning Joe” and “Meet the Press,” but it’s able to tell us, like “Inside the NFL” does with football, which highlights really mattered and which didn’t. The show has the urgency of being shot in real time, but it is assembled and produced after all involved have had time to digest the full scope of the previous seven days. And what a week it was that the latest episode of “The Circus” had to cover, beginning with the FBI’s decision to recommend no prosecution in the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a home-brewed server and ending with the tragic shooting of police officers in Dallas. It was not a slow news week. Yet for Halperin, Heilemann, and to a lesser extent McKinnon, who was caught away from a television during FBI Director James Comey‘s press conference, there is no hyperventilating. They continue to give the sense that this presidential campaign will be a long season. If there’s one element missing from “The Circus,” it’s disagreement between the two lead reporters. Whether it’s over a round of drinks at a New York restaurant or during a very meta-clip of them during “Pardon the Interruption,” err I mean, “With All Due Respect,” (their daily show for Bloomberg), Halperin or Heilemann rarely suggest to the other that, well, they’re full of crap. As someone who talks politics with hundreds of other people who enjoy talking about politics, I find myself disagreeing as much as I concur — even with those I consider allies or simpatico. It would be refreshing to see one of the two “Game Change boys” say to the other, “No, you’re wrong about that.” In one way, it really doesn’t matter what Halperin, Heilemann, or McKinnon have to say because the visuals of “The Circus” are alone worth tuning in. Showtime gives the 2016 presidential campaign trail the same treatment NFL Films gives Drew Brees or Lambeau Field. Hillary Clinton never looked so good as she does during one of the slow-motion shots of her on “The Circus.” To extend the football metaphor further, I worry that “The Circus,” which now must focus on Clinton and Donald Trump, could turn into an episode of “Inside the NFL” that focused only on the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots. Those two teams are probably the most recognizable — and least liked — franchises in the league, just like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the most recognizable — and least liked —politicians in the country. Early episodes of “The Circus” were fun to watch because viewers got to see a side of Ted Cruz that rarely made its way into the mainstream media. Viewers got to meet the energetic Jeb Bush they kept hearing rumors about but never saw on the campaign trail. Viewers got to see all of this and a dozen more characters running for president who, while unable to win elections, were interesting enough to fill up 30 minutes of TV programming. Now all we are left with is Clinton and Trump, the Tom Brady‘s of American politics.
Mark McKinnon says The Circus will evolve when presidential race becomes two-person contest
Mark McKinnon is a man of many hats. Cowboy hats, that is, which is his signature look. He’s done a lot of things in his life, but he’ll probably always be best known for his association as an ad man for George W. Bush‘s presidential campaigns. He’s also the co-creator, co-executive producer and co-host of “The Circus,” a weekly Showtime documentary series on the presidential campaign. The show is a co-production between Showtime and Bloomberg Politics. FloridaPolitics.com spoke with McKinnon last week from Columbus, Ohio, on Super Tuesday III. We mentioned to him how we’ve seen him twice on the campaign trail this year – A week earlier at the Tampa Convention Center for a Marco Rubio rally, and in Derry, New Hampshire when Barbara Bush came out in a much-publicized announcement for a campaign appearance with son Jeb. Florida Politics: You’ve been constantly covering the campaign for The Circus since mid-January. Do you ever get home these days? Mark McKinnon: I get home about one day every couple of weeks. This has been such a circus, and a fascinating one. We got really lucky picking this election to do this, but there’s been no absence of drama. So yeah, I’ve been kicking around in New Hampshire like you were, in Florida where you are, in Columbus today. Sometimes I don’t know until 11 p.m. at night where I’m going to be, which was the case before last, where I thought I was going to Florida, then I got a call that Romney was going to be with (John) Kasich, so I just flipped my plans at midnight and went to Ohio. FP: How big of a crew do you have to capture so much footage for your show each week, and get it edited each Sunday night? MMK: Well, it’s a massive challenge. When I pitched this to television networks – I could write a whole book about how that works – I had the idea 10 years ago. That’s how long it took to get on. The real challenge, and what scared most television executives, was this notion of doing it weekly. Because they’re used to seeing shows months ahead of time. In this case, Showtime only sees it hours before it airs, and at that point, they can’t change much. But to me, the whole idea behind the concept was to produce a great documentary that shows this fascinating world of a presidential campaign. The public sees maybe 1 percent of what really goes on the news. So there’s all this other stuff that happens which is really interesting and entertaining and informative, so I thought it’d be fascinating and dramatic for viewers to see this and see sort of human side of politics and what these people go through. Also importantly, I thought it needed to be in real time as much as possible. So that people were not only seeing an interesting world, but seeing it as it was unfolding, so that it was topical and they feel like they were kind of up on what’s happening. I thought the political junkies would love it — which they do — but people who are casually interested in politics would love it as well because of the way in which every Sunday night they can tune in and in a way that’s much more interesting than a Sunday talk show or reading the newspaper, they can get up to speed on what’s happening. We have 60 people working on this and four crews spanning out across the country, and we have to make a full-blown documentary every week and then wake up every Monday morning, and make another one. So, the production challenge, I mean, it’s a crushing schedule. The logistics of managing of the schedules and moving these crews around is incredible, but Showtime gave us the best in the business, and we’re really excited to be doing it. FP: One of the most interesting scenes to date in the show is one I viewed online dealing with the Trump phenomenon and the general freaking out by the Republican Party establishment. You showed this private lunch in D.C. with of GOP establishment figures, lamenting the rise of Trump and discussing, what if anything can be done about it (Those six men were Ron Hohlt, Vin Weber, Ron Kaufman, Ed Rogers, Ed Goeas and Mike Duncan). MMK: That scene has been one of the most provocative of the season, and it’s gotten a huge response. The idea was that we would find what’s left of the establishment and take them to lunch, and it turns out that there’s six guys left who are the establishment, and we found them, and they’re right out of central casting: They couldn’t be less diverse (laughs). It’s just a bunch of old white guys who have been around Washington forever, and they’re super smart, and they’ve been in every presidential campaign as far back as you can remember, and they’re movers and shakers, and they’re the go-to guys. If you randomly picked 100 people and said who were the six most influential guys, they’d picked these six guys. But the fascinating thing was they agreed to join us at a classic Washington restaurant with black leather and chrome and martinis, but they just opened up and they were completely candid, which you feel sort like you dropped in on a Mafia Boss meeting. But what was surprising about it was A) how candid they are in the situation they find themselves in, but B) that they were very clear that they don’t have a clue about what to do. They have no clear idea or consensus how to approach it. In fact, all six at the table basically had six different ideas on what to do. FP: Your show began in January, when there was so much interest heading into Iowa. We’ll see how soon this race turns into a one-on-one race between the Democratic and Republican nominee. Right now there’s still so much to cover, but do you have any concerns when it slows down to two people and one race. Will the show be able to
Showtime starting weekly series on campaign
Showtime is jumping into politics, announcing Tuesday that it will air a weekly documentary series giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the 2016 presidential campaign. “The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth” will premiere the week before the Iowa caucus, which is scheduled for Feb. 1. Showtime has not yet determined its weekly airtime. Showtime is making it together with Bloomberg Politics, and it will be hosted by that company’s Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, along with campaign strategist Mark McKinnon. Halperin and Heilemann are the authors of the political books “Game Change” and “Double Down.” Even before election year, the 2016 campaign has been a big television hit, with record viewerships for debates. “There’s more interest in this campaign than any in my lifetime,” said David Nevins, Showtime president. “The opportunity to do a weekly verite show is very interesting.” Post-campaign documentaries like “The War Room” are his model for a program that reaches behind the headlines. The candor in those projects, however, is enhanced by being aired after all the voting has taken place. The question for Showtime is whether it will get enough access for such compelling material ahead of time. If the cameras are left on long enough, people’s true natures will emerge, Nevins said. It will make for a busy campaign year for Halperin and Heilemann, who have a daily program on Bloomberg TV that is also aired on MSNBC. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Lindsey Graham on MSNBC: ‘How am I losing to these people?’
Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham boggled at his competition Monday, wondering how he was trailing at 11th place in the polls. “How am I losing to these people?” he said, during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, during which he also called former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush “whiny.” “Just look at Donald Trump‘s foreign policy. What is it?” Graham said. “What is he going to do about (Islamic State)? What is it? What is it? What is his game plan to destroy ISIL? Does anybody know? “…(T)o substitute Trump for Obama, what’s the difference?” he added. “When it comes to Syria, what’s the difference between any of our own candidates and Barack Obama?” Graham, a U.S. senator from South Carolina since 2003, stands at 0.8 percent, according to Huffington Post’s average of polls for the 2016 national Republican primary. Panelist John Heilemann of Bloomberg Politics referred to Trump and pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who also has never held elective office, and asked what it said about the GOP “that those two guys are the consistent top tier at this point, in this late point, in the Republican nominating contest?” “This outsider phenomenon is so bad that we have to get somebody new and different, not tainted by the process,” Graham said. “But here is what I think. I think experience will begin to matter the closer we get to the election. “Does it matter if you have any experience to be commander in chief?” he said. “Like, Ben Carson said he would have declared energy independence as the reactions of 9/11. That’s kind of different. You know, ‘I hereby declare,’ you know, bullhorn out here at the World Trade Center, ‘I hereby declare energy independence’ is not what I would be looking for. “Dr. Carson is a fine man, but his foreign policy is hard for me to follow,” Graham said. Graham later was asked about Bush’s “tone (and) presence on the campaign trail.” “It did come across as a bit whiny,” Graham said. “At the end of the day, I think Jeb is a very viable candidate; he is reengineering his campaign.” Last week, Bush decided to significantly cut his campaign spending, including staff pay decreases. He is currently at fourth in the polls among GOP contenders, trailing behind Trump, Carson and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. “For all of us if we don’t step up our game on the establishment side, whatever you want to call it, and start challenging these guys more effectively, I think we’re letting the cause down because Donald Trump will get killed in a general election … Hillary Clinton will mop up the floor with this guy.” The video can be watched here.
