Wheaton’s Wil Wheaton Project
2 min read
Several episodes in, Wil Wheaton is still having a good time creating The Wil Wheaton Project.
The show is “The Soup with a geek twist.”
“I get to enjoy [the show] on a bunch of levels,” said Wheaton. “I get to enjoy it when I’m writing the show, working with the writers and producers. Then I get to enjoy performing it. Then I get to enjoy seeing how the audience reacts and sharing that experience with the audience. So I’m getting to have a bunch of fun in a bunch of different ways.”
But it’s hard work doing a weekly show, and part of that is due to when it airs. “It’s tough,” said Wheaton. “It would be a lot easier if we aired on Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays because we have to go into the room super-early in the morning on Monday and write about what happened over the weekend. So we have to do that for… Game of Thrones, Penny Dreadful, The Walking Dead and Orphan Black are all weekend shows, plus all sorts of things are happening with movie openings over the weekend. So we have to anticipate, ‘OK, we may get to do something about this movie’ or ‘Based on this show’s trailer for what’s happening next, we expect something like this is going to happen, so maybe we can do this kind of joke or that kind of joke.” But it’s tough. We lock almost all of our scripts down on Friday and then we have about three hours on Monday morning to put together our first act.”
So far, the ratings are good for The Wil Wheaton Project; in fact, they’re climbing. “So far the audience loves it,” said Wheaton. “The critical response has been overwhelmingly positive. Our audience numbers are growing with every repeat. Somebody at the network told me that our Friday night at 11 p.m. repeat actually got the highest numbers of already pretty decent numbers in our opening week. That says people are talking about the show, that they’re hearing about it from friends, that they’re seeing the clips we’re sharing online. People are starting to look for it.”
Wheaton would not be averse to doing the program for several years, although he’s concentrating more on today. “At the moment, I’m just trying to get through one week at a time and do the best show that we can do,” he said. “If I get the opportunity and the privilege to do more of this, then I will be super-super-happy because I’m having such an incredibly good time with the people that I get to work with on this show.”
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Hey Wil – A gotee on you is okay. But a full beard – it’s like looking at Macaulay Culkin; jarring.
Hmmm, what would Gene have thought if Wesley had one day decided to go full-on nautical?
Methinks it’s WW trying to say “I’m not that annoying kid anymore.” Doesn’t work tho.