As we get nearer to the 2020 presidential election, numerous networks are launching voting campaigns to verify viewers are registered and ready to vote on or earlier than Nov. 3. For Freeform, the non-partisan initiative is cheekily titled, “Kick 2020 within the Ballots,” and is centered on the brand new sequence Kal Penn Approves This Message. The six-episode discuss present will give attention to particular subjects and is aiming to tell and empower younger voters as they head out to the polls.
Calling the present a hybrid of The Daily Show and CBS Sunday Morning, Designated Survivor star and former Obama-staffer Kal Penn is utilizing the chance to tell younger voters and present that whereas the youth vote will not be a monolith, there really are points on which opposing sides of the political spectrum can agree. From the 26th Modification, which lowered the voting age to from 21 to 18, to Supreme Court docket Justice appointments to local weather change, Penn will interview consultants and neighborhood leaders in respective fields about what’s subsequent for these actions and what it takes to make precise change.
TV Information spoke with Penn forward of the premiere of the sequence to speak about how he needs to perform these hefty targets with simply weeks till Election Day, and what the present may appear like in a post-Nov. Three world.
This has been coming collectively in a short time. What made now the proper time to do that sequence?
Kal Penn: Previously, I’ve had individuals attain out and say, “Hey, here is an thought for a political present. We’re on the lookout for a number.” In plenty of these circumstances, I regarded on the pitch decks and so they have been both somewhat too vitriolic for me, or somewhat too polarizing and that is not likely what I do. So then my writing companion Robin and I type of sat down and stated, “Nicely, what if we may like do considered one of our personal? What would that appear like?” Two exhibits that I completely love are The Each day Present and CBS Sunday Morning. What when you mix the 2? In the event you mix the 2, then you definately nonetheless have a gap monologue, however as a substitute of reacting to the 24-hour information cycle, you might do what they do on CBS Sunday Morning, which is speaking a few specific challenge. [My show is] solely 22 minutes and it airs on Freeform and Hulu, so you do not have that a lot time, however you give attention to one specific challenge for every episode. It is aspirational. You finish the episode and the hope is that the viewer appears like they have been concerned in one thing and may take the following steps in the event that they really feel keen about it, together with going to go vote.
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With these two exhibits in thoughts, you are doing this for Freeform which has a devoted Gen-Z viewers. How are you speaking particularly to that viewers? Ought to we anticipate TikTok montages?
Penn: It is humorous you point out the TikTok montages as a result of one of many issues we have been most adamant about after we pitched the present was — I’m not a fan of pandering and that is like throughout the board. Each time you get some e-mail about one thing, particularly election associated, it is like, “Hey Kal, Candidate X cares about Indian-People too!” And I am like, “Okay, that is good and it is essential, however I additionally care about 80 points that don’t have anything to do with being Brown. Do not pander to me simply since you suppose that that is the proper method to do it.” It is a related factor with with younger voters. I feel that there is so many individuals asking questions like, “What’s the proper TikTok? And what’s the proper tweet?” That is a advertising and marketing query, however the greater query is, what’s the proper coverage? What’s the proper factor that younger individuals care about that you need to be addressing? So for us, it was about addressing these issues. It is about respecting our viewers. I feel we’re respecting the truth that a youthful viewers will tune in to a present the place we’re not speaking all the way down to them. We’re treating them with the respect that we predict they deserve.
So how did you select the subjects for these episodes?
Penn: We checked out what younger voters or younger audiences each collectively are speaking about. First episode, no brainer, you are speaking concerning the youth vote. So we’re speaking concerning the 26th Modification, which is the factor that lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. I did not know rather more about it on the time. Then we began trying into it and also you notice that the voting age obtained lowered as a result of after World Struggle II, you had all these veterans coming again. They have been 18 years previous, 19 years previous, 20 years previous, and so they could not vote, though they went and fought to liberate international locations from the Nazis and fought for our freedom. In order that began this lengthy motion of reducing the voting age from 21 to 18, the age at which you’ll take part in navy service. However it took a long time. It took till 1971, for the 26th modification to get handed. So one of many massive classes there may be we reside in a world the place it feels so good to tweet one thing nasty at any individual, particularly any individual you disagree with, however that is not how the three branches of presidency work. The three branches of presidency work so slowly on function, as a result of we’re in a democracy, we’re not in a dictatorship. So outlining why that exists after which speaking about like, what is the takeaway? If I would like one thing to vary, what can I really do about it?
Kal Penn, Kal Penn Approves This Message
What does that appear like, precisely?
Penn: Our subject piece for the primary episode is finished by Moses Storm. He went to San Francisco as a result of he discovered this group of younger those who obtained a poll measure on the poll for November, that if it passes, will decrease the voting age farther from 18 to 16. That is an instance of we’re not taking a stance on whether or not you must or should not vote at 16. The individuals of San Francisco will resolve that. However for us, it was an important instance of what do individuals do if they are not proud of the established order? What can they do exterior of occurring cable information exhibits and yelling at one another on Twitter? There’s obtained to be one thing else, and there’s something else.
One other instance I will provide you with is there’s an episode on local weather change. We’re ideally going to function younger progressives, who you historically consider once you consider local weather change, but additionally younger Evangelical Christian conservatives. They’re actually concerned within the local weather change motion. They strategy it from the angle of religion, whereas other people may strategy it from an angle of science. However it does not matter as a result of they’re each engaged on options collectively. These options are local weather change laws, native and metropolis ordinances which may influence air pollution, and taking good care of the planet. So it is a possibility for us to essentially have a look at a difficulty with recent eyes in a method that illustrates how a lot time am I losing, yelling and screaming about what is not the best way I would like issues? How as a substitute, can I companion with individuals who I’d disagree with on 90 different points — however on the one challenge that we will come collectively on, how will we try this? There are individuals doing that. Let’s do not forget that that is the factor we will do.
Talking of partisanship, it is a well-known truth that you simply have been a part of the Obama Administration. Are you taking any further steps to emphasise that this can be a non-partisan present when persons are very conscious of your political leanings?
Penn: A few of it simply comes out very organically, as a result of our friends are usually not politicians. There is perhaps a few random contradictions to that, but when we do have politicians on, I do not actually wish to ask them about politics. I would wish to ask them about issues like youth organizing. Of their earlier elections, did they win or lose as a result of younger individuals turned out? Was that turnout what they anticipated or was it decrease? Was it greater than that? Do they want that they had modified their insurance policies early on, to encourage younger individuals to vote? That type of stuff. The examples that we’re selecting are issue-based. I do not suppose we’re ever speaking a few specific candidate operating for something. The one time we even contact on the presidential election straight is the episode we’ve got on judicial nominations, as a result of whoever turns into the following president will nominate plenty of judges and people judges will resolve some circumstances that can influence individuals’s views. So we should always simply remember on how the system works.
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Do you see a future for this present past the 2020 election?
Penn: It has a few totally different iterations. I’m an enormous Chappelle fan and The Chappelle Present fan. I actually favored, as problematic because it was for a number of causes, I did just like the previous Tracey Ullman Present or In Dwelling Colour — mainly sketch exhibits the place you may can play a number of characters. Principally no matter Lily Singh is about to do for NBC — I can not wait to see it as a result of she’s taking part in all of the characters — it is like there is a model of that for our sketches that I’d like to do if we get like a 20-episode pickup. I feel there’s plenty of room to mess around with the sphere items in that sense. There isn’t any scarcity of points that we will deal with. So I feel you’d see that as a substitute of this main as much as an election, it simply turns into how can we get extra concerned in our personal communities and in civic engagement?
Kal Penn Approves This Message airs Tuesdays starting Sept. 22 at 10:30/9:30c on Freeform, with episodes accessible on Hulu the next day.