This year, San Diego Comic-Con is receiving journalistic coverage through its award-winning website Comics Beat and OTT app and FAST channel ElectricNOW.
Run by longtime comics journalist Heidi McDonald, the comics news site has partnered with a division of the media company founded by Dean Devlin on ElectricNOW to produce “Con Daily Powered by ComicsBeat,” a daily news show aimed at giving viewers an overview of the top talent attending Comic-Con and daily events.
Comic-Con is North America’s largest annual pop culture festival, drawing more than 135,000 attendees and attracting attention from Hollywood, where studios and streamers spend millions of dollars promoting their films and shows.
Devlin, who made his name in big-budget spectacle films before becoming an executive producer on recent adventure dramas like “The Ark” and “The Librarians,” said one of his goals is to bring the show to people who can’t go to the movies.
“I remember attending early Comic-Cons to promote films like Independence Day and Stargate, long before it became the mainstream conversation it is today,” Devlin said in a statement. “I’ve always felt the convention offered a special sense of community for fantasy and sci-fi fans, and now, by teaming up with the award-winning website ComicBeat, we’re able to provide an up-close, behind-the-scenes experience for viewers at home who can’t make it to the show.”
Con Daily will consist of four special episodes that will premiere after the conclusion of each day of Comic-Con and will be hosted by well-known online personalities such as after-show podcaster Yael Tygiel, comedy content creator Reagan Yorke, video game industry voice Celia Schilling, and geek culture reporter Kari Lane.
Episodes will be available exclusively on Roku and ElectricNOW, and will also be updated daily and available on YouTube.
The show features one-on-one interviews with celebrities, performers and pop culture influencers, and each episode ends with a candid panel where Con Daily correspondents recap the happenings on the show and the news of the day.
The show will be produced by ElectricNow’s Lucas Thompson and directed by Patrick Meaney, known for documentaries such as “Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods,” “Neil Gaiman: Dream Dangerously,” “Chris Claremont’s X-Men” and “The Image Revolution.”