Producer Will Packer & Host Nephew Tommy Talk OWN’s Ready To LovePosted by Wilson Morales
October 27, 2018
Tonight on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, Saturday, October 27 (10-11 p.m. ET/PT) is part 2 of the two-night premiere of its new dating series Ready to Love, from hitmaking producer Will Packer (Night School, Girls Trip).
The series, hosted by Thomas “Nephew Tommy” Miles of “The STEVE HARVEY Morning Show” will air Saturdays at 10 p.m. for the remainder of its series run.
“Ready to Love” a dating series from Will Packer Media and Lighthearted Entertainment, explores the real-life dating interactions of sexy, successful and grown Black men and women in their 30s and 40s who are each looking for lasting love and an authentic relationship. A unique twist on a typical dating show, “Ready to Love,” highlights the men’s observations and experiences in the search for true love in Atlanta.
Will Packer is executive producer. Will Packer Media’s Kelly Smith, Lighthearted’s Rob LaPlante and Jeff Spangler also executive produce along with Anthony Sylvester.
Will, you’ve done TV series before but this is a new platform. What was the attraction behind this inception?
Will Packer: You know I wanted to do a dating show and it was interesting because with my new production deal over at OWN, Oprah actually was looking for a dating show as well and I said, well, one thing that would make it different is if we took grown folk, not just 20 somethings. People in their 30s and 40s that have lived a little bit and been through some things. Have a kind of different perspective on life and on dating. And I thought it would also be interesting if we went in and focused on the perspective of men. It allows women viewers to see what do men think when they aren’t around. How they feel about dating and how they feel about the ladies when the women aren’t around. Nephew Tommy was the perfect host to come in and bring that all together because he pushes the guys to be really honest and unfiltered every episode in terms of talking about their perspectives on the ladies.
Tommy, what are you bringing to the table? What’s your personality like that you’re able to bring this stuff out of men?
Nephew Tommy: I’ve been married for 17 years, I’ve been knowing my wife for actually 32 years so I got quite a bit of experience on guiding men from dos and don’ts of what they need to do when they try to really search for a mate so I thought I brought a good amount to the table of just a history and you know, just what I know.
Is this different from the bachelorette or the bachelor. You mentioned it’s for 30 somethings, it’s older men, older individuals. What’s the big difference between those two things?
Nephew Tommy: This is totally different. You got people that are in their 30s and in their 40s. This dating show, they’re meeting the moms, they’re meeting the best friend, they’re meeting their children, so this is a little bit different than what you would see on a normal dating show and we gathering these men together, eight me. We started out with eight men, but we get these guys together, I get them alone and this is when we hash it out and get to the nuts and bolts and pull out all the layers and when women are viewing the show actually get to see what men are really saying when they are not there.
Unlike the other shows, is this going to boil down to one person. Where is the end result of this?
Nephew Tommy: Well, it’s actually going to boil down to six people, which is actually three couples and the result is that you fall in love. That’s the hope is that they fall in love with one another.
Will Packer: We wanted a show that in one of the cities that people say it is hardest, most difficult to find love that we could have three organic, authentic couples who actually did find someone that they want to settle down and be in love with.
Now, Will, you’re a producer, I’m sure you’ve done your test results and all that stuff before you decided to launch this. What were the challenges before you said, “Okay we can do this”?
Will Packer: Launching any kind of content today is challenging because as you know Wilson, there’s such a saturation. There are so many reality shows out there, it’s just hard to cut through the clutter. So our hope with this is that because it is a little bit of a different perspective because we’ve got a fresh new voice in terms of our host Tommy, because we are looking at dating from a perspective that most dating shows don’t focus on and don’t tend to, we felt that we could be a provocative, loud show to get people to tune in. The biggest challenge with content today is to get people to care about it because they have so many options and they just don’t. If it’s not something that really speaks to them they’re just onto the next.
I read somewhere, where you said there’s going to be drama in there. Is the drama going to be real?
Nephew Tommy: It’s all real. Every last bit of it is real. There’s nothing that is made up, there’s nothing that’s written. This is the real deal.
Will Packer: That’s right. We don’t do that, Wilson. We’re just going to get real people, put them together and see what happens.
Nephew Tommy: Turn the camera on.
Will Packer: Because we have that elimination component in the show, that’s when things really start to get interesting between the women and the men.
Where are the contestants or individuals coming from?
Will Packer: Well they’re from Atlanta. Yeah, ’cause we had auditions in Atlanta and a very extensive interview process along with extensive background check. You can’t just give everybody a national television platform, although a lot of people want it, everybody is not appropriate, shall we say, for that platform. So we went and we did an extensive search around Atlanta for 20 of the most eligible singles, and I feel really good that we got a really right mix, we got various shakes and shades. Various career backgrounds, various educations backgrounds. We got a good mix of amazing people.
Tommy, as the host, do you get a chance to bond with these individuals or is it just work?
Nephew Tommy: You know what, I actually do, I get a chance to bond with the fellas as well as the ladies. I meet with them individually, I meet with the group of guys, I meet with the ladies as a group and you know we get to sit back and talk about what they’re going through, what they experience when they date, what they liked and didn’t like and even baggage that they’re carrying from past relationships that have been bothering them. Things that they’ve been holding in for a long time and finally, after talking to them, they get to actually open up and let it out and you really find out what has been bothering you in the past and what has not allowed you to move forward and go on dates.
Now that they’ve been able to let it out, you’d be surprised how free they feel, like, oh my god, I needed to cry, I needed to tell somebody what I’ve been going through. I needed to let somebody know what my pain was and that is a healing process. They begin to heal and begin to actually think, I’ll put that behind me now, now I want to find me somebody.
You knew your wife years before you got married, so are you the voice of reason for the show?
Nephew Tommy: Oh, definitely the voice of reason. I’m your voice of reason, I’m your coach and I’m also the one cracking the whip to make sure you stay in line too.
Now, Will, you’ve got a lot of projects, how are you micromanaging your time on this show as well as the films that you’re doing and the TV shows?
Will Packer: It’s all about balance, Wilson. It is all about figuring out the best way to focus your time, energy and resources on the things that need them the most and it may be a movie one week, a TV show one week, digital the next week, a non scripted. It doesn’t … First of all, I have an amazing team around me which I have ’cause I’m only as strong as my team, and then I have to consolidate my time appropriately. It’s what I’m constantly learning and trying to do and the most important thing with my career is the fact that I have a family and I put my family first no matter what. They’re the reason I do what I do and I still got kids that are at the home so I gotta make sure even though dad is out chasing this Hollywood career, that I’m there to help them with the homework and make it for their plays and presentations and stuff. That’s really who I am at the end of the day is a father who is out as a producer, not the other way around.
Now, are all of the episodes shot already or is it more or less that we’re gonna see how it plays out?
Nephew Tommy: Everything is completely done. Ten episodes.
So, you don’t have to worry about social media guiding you as to what to do next.
Will Packer: No, but they will have an opinion, I can guarantee you that. It is the type of show where people are going to … They’re gonna be talking about these contestants and some of the choices that they’re making and some of the behaviors that they will bring. People are going to have an opinion about this. The social media will be an important part of this show and talking back to the screen to the contestants.
Tommy, I guess when people are watching it if they don’t get it in the first episode, at what point should they be ready to watch or is everything introduced in the first episode?
Nephew Tommy: No, you’re gonna get it in the first episode. We start out with 12 beautiful ladies, we have eight guys. It’s imbalanced because of the ratio of 20 to 1 … It’s 20 women to one man in Atlanta, Georgia and you know the first day, we eliminate three people. The ladies get together after mingling for four or five hours, hanging out and getting to know each other, the ladies get together and have to immediately eliminate three men on the first day, so it jumps off the first episode.
Now, going back to the beginning, why 30 and 40 year olds, not the 20 year olds, not the millennials?
Will Packer: That’s a whole different perspective, Wilson. When we first started talking about this show, we meaning Oprah and I, we talked about what do we do for the grown folks out there. When you’re in your 20s, you’re trying out things, you don’t really know who you are yet. Very few people find true love in their 20s that last for their entire lives versus when you’re in your 30s and 40s, maybe you’ve been through a long term relationship, been through some heartbreak, maybe had kids, maybe you were even married. But if you find yourself single in your 30s and 40s, the chances of you ending up with somebody that you spend the rest of your life will be much greater and I think part of that is because you know who you are. You know what you will put up with and what you want. You know what you bring to the table and what you’re looking for somebody else to bring. So, I just think that this is a demographic that we don’t typically see on a dating show, and I think that’s gonna be part of our secret weapon.
Will, what else is coming up from you?
Will Packer: Well, you know my stuff Wilson, ’cause you have always been the major supporter and I appreciate that, you and the whole Blackfilm.com family. Next up is What Men Want, and that drops in February, that’s our comedy with Taraji, it’s a role of the Mel Gibson character from What Women Want. She can hear what men are thinking. Her and Erykah Badu and Wendi [inaudible 00:12:08], Stevie Robertson, Tracy Morgan, Pete Davidson, very very strong ensemble cast. And then we’ve got Little, which is starring Marsai Martin, Regina Hall and Issa Rae and that is where Regina wakes up in the body of her 13 year old self played by Marsai and Issa Rae is her dutiful assistant and together they gotta figure out how to reverse the curse, so those are my best two features that I’m really excited about.
Congrats on Night School being your tenth number film. Is there going to be a sequel to a Girl’s Trip 2?
Will Packer: Listen, I would work with Malcolm again. He was the most professional director that I’ve worked with, he knows what he wants, he knows how to get it, his rapport with actors is impeccable, he’s my guy, I would work with him in a minute and we’re actually working behind the scenes right now on Girl’s Trip 2, you know everybody’s busy. That’s the thing. Everybody’s rolling and doing stuff but it is something that we all wanna do so I think that we’ll figure it out when the time is right.
Tommy, besides the show, where else can we see you at?
Nephew Tommy: Oh man, plenty of standup comedy and don’t be surprised if I put out another standup comedy special. I’m working on it.
