TCA coverage starts Tuesday

Two weeks of blogging from the Television Critics Assn.’s semi-annual press tour starts Tuesday.

The Live Feed will have ongoing coverage, as well as links to TCA posts from Ray Richmond and Barry Garron on Past Deadline, and to breaking news on the main site. Ratings coverage will continue.

Notable names taking critic questions during the opening cable portion include the Rev. Al Sharpton, Elvis Costello, Ricky Gervais, Spike Lee, Tommy Lee, Benjamin Bratt, Jamie Foxx, Matthew Weiner, Jane Seymour, Cheech Marin, Daphne Zuniga, David Simon, Alan Ball, Craig Piligian, Wolf Blitzer, Dennis Hopper, Don Cheadle, Mark Cuban, Ludacris, Buzz Aldrin (Aldrin ... Aldrin ... wait, didn't he do a voice "The Simpsons" once?), Peter Bogdanovich, Margaret Cho, George Foreman, Vivica A. Fox, Anna Paquin, Dean Devlin, Timothy Hutton, RJ Cutler, Grace Park, Dave Attell, Bobby Brown, Carson Kressley, Joel McHale, Shirley MacLaine and network executives of every stripe. It's like the talk show of the damned, no?

One point to note is the cable lineup is a pretty diverse group of talent compared to what we likely see during the broadcast portion. 

Here's Richmond with a state of the TCA union addresss that looks at how the event has changed over the years and why its disappearance would make the television industry a much less interesting place.