Chris Hardwick Reveals Details of BBC America Deal, How Nerdist Podcast Will Be Adapted for TV (Q&A) - Hollywood Reporter I couldn’t be happier about this deal.  Find an excerpt below, full interview available here. Look up the word “nerd” in the dictionary and Chris Hardwick’s name will be front and center. But the self-proclaimed Doctor Who ”superfan” isn’t the typical geek. With nearly 1.5 million followers on Twitter, a popular website, host of G4’s Web Soup and leader of the regular Nerdist podcast, Hardwick has successfully turned his passions into a viable career. So it was prime timing when BBC America announced earlier this week it was teaming up with Hardwick for a TV project based on his podcast, which had counted Doctor Who star Matt Smith, Jon Hamm and Lost exec producer Damon Lindelof as some of its guests. Though no specific airdate had been announced for the Nerdist show, Hardwick revealed that the pilot would be shot in June to air at some point later this year. Hardwick chatted with The Hollywood Reporter the day after the BBC America deal was announced on how his podcast will be adapted for television, why the cable network is actually a good fit for comedy and what Hamm ultimately geeked out about. The Hollywood Reporter: How did the BBC America deal come about? Chris Hardwick: I think this all came about because for the last 14 months, I have not shut up about Doctor Who. [Laughs] I actually hired a specific Doctor Who blogger for Nerdist.com. It turned out that Devin Johnson, who works for BBC, I had sort of casually thrown out last May, “Hey, I sure would love to get the new Doctor, Matt Smith, on my podcast,” and he wrote back pretty quickly and said, “I will do my best to make that happen.” And he actually made it happen. Then Craig Ferguson – who is a fellow Doctor Who-phile – asked me if I wanted to come on the episode that he had Matt Smith on of his show and it was one Who-related thing after another. They said, “What do you want to do?” I said, “Well, I have this podcast, it’d be fun to make a TV show out of it.” They said, “We have this Ministry of Laughs thing, what if we mashed them all together?” I said, “I like the way you think, BBC America!” It is probably the best thing that’s come out of rampant fanaticism, for being a superfan.

Chris Hardwick Reveals Details of BBC America Deal, How Nerdist Podcast Will Be Adapted for TV (Q&A) - Hollywood Reporter

I couldn’t be happier about this deal.  Find an excerpt below, full interview available here.

Look up the word “nerd” in the dictionary and Chris Hardwick’s name will be front and center. But the self-proclaimed Doctor Who ”superfan” isn’t the typical geek. With nearly 1.5 million followers on Twitter, a popular website, host of G4’s Web Soup and leader of the regular Nerdist podcast, Hardwick has successfully turned his passions into a viable career. So it was prime timing when BBC America announced earlier this week it was teaming up with Hardwick for a TV project based on his podcast, which had counted Doctor Who star Matt Smith, Jon Hamm and Lost exec producer Damon Lindelof as some of its guests. Though no specific airdate had been announced for the Nerdist show, Hardwick revealed that the pilot would be shot in June to air at some point later this year.

Hardwick chatted with The Hollywood Reporter the day after the BBC America deal was announced on how his podcast will be adapted for television, why the cable network is actually a good fit for comedy and what Hamm ultimately geeked out about.

The Hollywood Reporter: How did the BBC America deal come about?

Chris Hardwick: I think this all came about because for the last 14 months, I have not shut up about Doctor Who. [Laughs] I actually hired a specific Doctor Who blogger for Nerdist.com. It turned out that Devin Johnson, who works for BBC, I had sort of casually thrown out last May, “Hey, I sure would love to get the new Doctor, Matt Smith, on my podcast,” and he wrote back pretty quickly and said, “I will do my best to make that happen.” And he actually made it happen. Then Craig Ferguson – who is a fellow Doctor Who-phile – asked me if I wanted to come on the episode that he had Matt Smith on of his show and it was one Who-related thing after another. They said, “What do you want to do?” I said, “Well, I have this podcast, it’d be fun to make a TV show out of it.” They said, “We have this Ministry of Laughs thing, what if we mashed them all together?” I said, “I like the way you think, BBC America!” It is probably the best thing that’s come out of rampant fanaticism, for being a superfan.