By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Wyatt Cenac, the latest entrant in late-night television comedy with a series that debuts Friday on HBO, took inspiration from John Oliver in his desire to inform along with being entertaining.
Cenac's "Problem Areas" is described as a comedy "docu-series," and resembles Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" in how each episode has a central story approached with journalistic rigor, and quicker comedic bits. Oliver is an executive producer and the show's backstage is populated with people who worked with him and also at their shared alma mater, "The Daily Show."
That's where the similarities end. Cenac's more laid-back style replaces Oliver's hyperactivity. "Problem Areas" has no studio audience, and in each episode, Cenac travels somewhere different in the country to explore aspects of the main story. His entire 10-episode season concentrates on different facets of one story, in this case policing and how it affects different communities.
The show will air Fridays at 11:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times.
Oliver's success "definitely gave me a lot of confidence that there could be an appetite for a show like mine," Cenac said. "I looked at his show for inspiration in that way."
Podcasts like "Serial" also convinced Cenac that some people are interested in stories told in depth, spread over several episodes.
With its creative graphics and a cool vibe, "Problem Areas" establishes right away that viewers have landed in a different spot than other late-night comedy shows.
Cenac also makes that clear. He looks into the camera early in the opening episode and says that it's probably the point at which he's supposed to talk about Donald Trump and all the trouble everyone's in. "But you already knew that," he says.
"It was less about thinking about making something original and more about thinking about building something for my skill set, and what I feel my strengths as a performer and storyteller are," he said.
Like many black men and women, Cenac has his own uncomfortable experiences being pulled over by the police. Besides looking into some well-known cases where police actions were questioned, the show also looks into how police officers are trained and interact with certain communities.
"I come in with the curiosity of a concerned citizen," Cenac said. "I live in this country, too. It's not enough for me to simply demand better on social media, or go to a march when there's a march and have a sign," he said. "The one thing that I have, that I've been given, is a platform. And if I can use that platform to ask the questions that I'm generally asking in life, and I can find a way to do it that's entertaining, I feel like it's a win-win."
Cenac felt more comfortable doing away with a studio audience, figuring its central value to a show is telling a television audience when to laugh.
"If I take that out of the equation, I can take the story directly to the viewer, and the audience can decide how to feel," he said.
In working hard to complete the episodes for his first season, Cenac said he hasn't thought about how "Problem Areas" would continue in future seasons, whether it would again concentrate on one main story.
He conceded he hadn't looked carefully enough in his contract for what it says about continuing past one season — perhaps falling prey to a pitfall that has afflicted performers for ages.
"That's certainly something about the business," he said. "You're hungry enough and you say, sure, and the next thing you know, you're starring in 'Beverly Hills Cop 17.'"
Epic Games sues Google and Samsung over phone settings, accusing them of violating antitrust laws
Video game maker Epic Games sued Google and Samsung on Monday, accusing the tech companies of coordinating to block third-party competition in application distribution on Samsung devices.
At issue is Samsung's "Auto Blocker" feature, which only allows for apps from authorized sources, such as the Samsung Galaxy Store or Google Play Store, to be installed. The feature is turned on by default but can be changed in a phone's settings. The tool prevents the installation of applications from unauthorized sources and blocks "malicious activity," according to Samsung.
In a lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court — Epic's second against Google — the company said Auto Blocker "is virtually guaranteed to entrench Google's dominance over Android app distribution." Epic, developer of the popular game "Fortnite," filed the suit to prevent Google from "negating the long overdue promise of competition in the Android App Distribution Market," according to the complaint.
"Allowing this coordinated illegal anti-competitive dealing to proceed hurts developers and consumers and undermines both the jury's verdict and regulatory and legislative progress around the world," Epic Games said in a post on its website.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Samsung said it "actively fosters market competition, enhances consumer choice, and conducts its operations fairly."
"The features integrated into our devices are designed in accordance with Samsung's core principles of security, privacy, and user control, and we remain fully committed to safeguarding users' personal data. Users have the choice to disable Auto Blocker at any time," Samsung said, adding that it plans to "vigorously contest Epic Game's baseless... Read More