On newsstands April 26, 2017

‘The Voice’ Soars! The Coaches Dish About What it Takes to Win and What Keeps the No. 1 Reality Show on Top

The Voice coaches—Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani, country superstar Blake Shelton and multiple-Grammy winner Alicia Keys—may spend a lot of time together when filming their hit singing competition, but absence (during the break between the Knockout rounds and the live playoffs) sure made the heart grow fonder for this fab four. “I was genuinely excited to see everybody again—it’s very rare,” joked Levine as he geared up to reunite with the team for Season 12’s live shows.

Thanks in part to this camaraderie, the NBC juggernaut remains the No. 1 show in its timeslot, beating competitor Dancing With the Stars in viewers age 18–49 and snagging musical luminaries John Legend, Luke Bryan, Celine Dion and Shania Twain to mentor this season’s contestants.

And though all four coaches desperately want to win (Shelton’s team has claimed victory five times in the show’s history, while Levine’s singers have won three times; Stefani and Keys are looking for their first championship), the mood is light as the competition gets more intense. Each of the coaches has a viable contender—Team Adam’s Jesse Larson, Team Alicia’s Chris Blue, Team Blake’s Lauren Duski and Team Gwen’s Hunter Plake appearing to have an early edge. But now is the time anything can happen.

The coaches sat down with us to talk strategy, their off-screen bond and how long they’ll stay in those big red chairs—turns out not very long for Keys.

Also in this brand-new finale preview issue:

 

  • Finale TV Preview: The scoop on all the biggest season enders, including Scorpion, Blue Bloods, black-ish, Grey’s Anatomy, The Blacklist and many more.

 

  • Kevin Can Wait: It’s a King of Queens reunion! Kevin James and Leah Remini are together again on the CBS comedy’s Season 1 finale.

 

  • Ashley Johnson: I Was a Child Star and Lived to Tell About It: Blindspot star Ashley Johnson talks about what it’s like to go from Growing Pains sweetie Chrissy Seaver to a code-cracking FBI agent.

 

• Plus: The latest on the writers’ strike and how it could affect the shows you love, The Big Bang Theory star Melissa Rauch tells us her TV favorites, Steve Harvey takes over Summer TV, first looks at the Manny’s Modern Family graduation and Animal Kingdom‘s sophomore season, Once Upon a Time‘s musical episode, and the best of streaming, sports and more.

On newsstands April 12, 2017

Taylor Kinney, Jesse Spencer and the Cast of ‘Chicago Fire’: Why the Hit Drama is Hotter Than Ever!

Five years ago, during the filming of the Chicago Fire pilot, legendary producer Dick Wolf was standing on a bridge over the Chicago River with Wolf Films president Peter Jankowski. “I said to him, ‘I can see an interconnected police show here and possibly several more behind that,’” Wolf recalls. The Windy City mother ship, as Wolf describes Fire, “was the perfect starting point because the characters are likable, they interact with police, victims go to the hospital and some of them end up in court.”

Flash forward half a decade. The police drama Chicago P.D., hospital-set Chicago Med and new law series Chicago Justice are all sturdy hits for NBC. With Fire leading the way, the dramas are four of the top seven highest-rated scripted shows on the network.

It’s not surprising that Chicago Fire is the most popular. After all, who doesn’t love firefighters? “These guys are brave enough to run into burning buildings that rats are running out of,” says executive producer Derek Haas.

That courage is on full display in a scene from the April 25 episode that’s being filmed on a snowy March day in Chicago. Lt. Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) has rushed into a smoke-filled tunnel to try to rescue another company’s overcome firefighters. He has only a few minutes to save them, since a gas leak could cause the site to blow at any time. One of those inside turns out to be Jason Kannell (Rosewood’s Kamal Angelo Bolden)—a friend of Casey’s from his old neighborhood—who has stayed in the tunnel to find his missing colleagues.

Fire’s production team has built the realistic structure on the “burn stage,” where all of the show’s interior blazes are filmed. A haze from the harmless water-based smoke used for the effect fills the huge set. With the show’s technical adviser, former CFD chief Steve Chikerotes, hovering nearby to check the accuracy of the scene, each actor carries a minimum of 60 pounds’ worth of equipment, making it a hard slog for Spencer to drag a downed firefighter to a hoist that lifts him out of the tunnel.

As the scene progresses, an explosively loud whoosh suddenly halts the action. After a few seconds of confusion, it’s discovered that oxygen from one of the working tanks an actor is wearing has escaped because he hadn’t sealed his mask tightly enough around his face. (Actors playing firefighters can’t grow beards for that reason.) “That’s something we’d never had happen before,” one crew member notes. In a few minutes, the action starts up again.

Also in this issue:

  • Designated Survivor: Cast member LaMonica Garrett snaps some prime behind-the-scenes photos of his fellow castmates on the ABC White House drama.
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Oprah Winfrey talks about bring the best-selling novel to life in HBO’s film version and taking on her most challenging role yet.
  • Elisabeth Moss: Upon the eve of the debut of the Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale—based on Margaret Atwood’s benchmark novel—the actress looks back at the key TV roles that have led up to this new endeavor, from Picket Fences to The West Wing to Mad Men.
  • Prison Break: Michael and Linc are back! Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller remain true bros to the end, and weigh in on what’s it been like to reunite for Fox’s nine-part revival of the heart-racing action thriller.

• Plus: Speechless star Minnie Driver contributes a new guest column on how the mother has evolved on TV since the days of June Cleaver, Steven Weber on his charismatic NCIS: New Orleans baddie, the long-awaited return of Fargo with Ewan McGregor essaying dual roles, a look at what budget cuts could mean for fervent PBS viewers, The Good Fight‘s Rose Leslie shares her favorite TV-watching rituals, and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.