Yahoo Lifestyle How Busy Philipps Turned to QVC to Find Her Voice in Late-Night TV: ‘They’re Gonna Wanna Buy This Stuff’
Busy Philipps knew there was a place for her in late-night TV. When her E! series “Busy Tonight” ended after seven months in 2019, she set her sights on a new home that was a little off the beaten path — but perfect for her Instagram-friendly brand of frank humor and fabulous looks.
Philipps’ faith has paid off. Earlier this year, the multihyphenate actor debuted “Busy This Week,” a weekly talk-variety series that airs on the QVC+ and HSN+ streaming platforms. Philipps detailed how she launched the show with the home shopping giant during her appearance Monday at Variety ‘s Content Meets Commerce presented by Kinesso event in New York held in conjunction with Advertising Week.
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Philipps was blunt about what she sees as a glaring gender gap in talk-variety TV at present. “Busy This Week” has been renewed for Season 2.
“Unfortunately it doesn’t seem that there are too many chairs at the table for women in late-night. So we went to the place that sold the chairs and the table, which ultimately was our plan,” Philipps said in the conversation moderated by Cynthia Littleton, Variety co-Editor in Chief.
“Busy This Week” plays like a traditional talk-variety show, with celebrity guests dishing with Philipps and her fellow executive producer and co-host, Caissie St. Onge. The final batch of Season 1 episodes will begin airing Nov. 6. Philipps, who appeared with Stacie Tedesco, VP of streaming for QVC and HSN parent Qurate Retail Group, explained that the weekly series grew out of a holiday special that she hosted for the shopping platform.
“Once we did that special with them, we had such an incredible working experience, and I turned to Caissie and I was like, ‘Can we talk these people into giving us a talk show?’ She was like, ‘I think we might be able to.’ So that was sort of the impetus,” Philipps said.
“Busy This Week” is a prime example of how brands are taking nontraditional paths to reach consumers by leaning on the fanbases of celebrities. Philipps noted that the integration of sponsor messages and products into entertainment is as old as the industry itself.
“The idea of blending commerce and entertainment is, I mean, it’s like ‘Ovaltine presents this radio show,’ you know what I mean? Like, we’re all selling soap — you know what I mean? So, um, to pretend otherwise is a little bit ridiculous,” Philipps said.
Philipps’ charisma and natural vivaciousness made her a prime target for the younger generation of women that QVC wants to reach.
“As were seeking to expand, the opportunity that came up for a hosted talk show, female-centric, someone welcoming you into her living room with her friends, having a casual conversation and talking about things they’re authentically passionate about — that was the exact next type of iteration that we’ve been playing around with in our original programming,” Tedesco said. “The magic just kind of came together.”
And for QVC, the ROI on “Busy This Week” has been enormous. The weekly series has brought in about 1 million users since its debut — and more than half of them are new to QVC. Tedesco said that the show’s six episodes to date, featuring notable guests such as Tina Fey and Bette Midler, have racked up more than 5 million minute views.
Tedesco observed that Philipps encapsulates the type of professional women reaching a certain life stage that QVC wants to court. That’s also why the company has invested in sports rights for the first time, pacting with USA Pickleball for rights to various matches and tournaments starting next month.
“We’re making a very declarative statement that this is a time to refocus on yourself, whether it’s because your children are getting older and maybe less reliant on you or you have a job that is less reliant on you,” she said. “This can be the very best time of your life, whether you’re in it, whether you’re starting to knock on the door of entering into that time. And this type of authentic, no-facade relationship [fans have with Philipps] is really resonating with them.”
Philipps credited QVC with allowing her and St. Onge, her longtime producing partner, the ability to craft the show that they would want to watch as viewers.
“The reason this partnership has been so successful is truly their ability to trust that they picked the right people and to let us do our jobs without nitpicking,” Philipps said. “They fundamentally understood coming into this partnership that what we do best is create for our audience and what that audience is going to do in return when they feel this authentic expression and connection and content made specifically for them is they’re gonna wanna buy this stuff.”
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