NEW YORK • The cast of NBC comedy Great News - about a local news producer whose mother joins the show as an intern - is about who you would expect.
They are Briga Heelan, a rising star headlining her first network series; Andrea Martin, a well-known thespian and comedienne; John Michael Higgins, a long-time comic actor; Horatio Sanz of Saturday Night Live fame; and... Nicole Richie?
While Richie, 35, is best known as The Simple Life reality star, her role as a quirky television anchor in Great News has revealed that she is also a great sitcom actor.
Her character, Portia, artfully delivers her many one-liners, especially during the show's news segments: "Next up, a Chicago homicide victim refuses to talk. What is she hiding? Stay with us."
Perhaps more importantly for Richie's future acting prospects, this means she is now officially a Tina Fey-Approved Funny Person, a powerful designation in Hollywood.
Fey and Robert Carlock (30 Rock, 2006-2013; Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 2015-now) are executive producers on Great News - which wrapped its first season on Tuesday night - along with creator Tracey Wigfield, a former 30 Rock writer.
Richie's comic chops took even the producers by surprise.
"(Nicole) was good, but everyone was kind of like, is she an actress?" Wigfield told the Daily Beast about the casting process.
Initially, Portia was "an older, Real Housewives-type figure" until the network wanted someone younger paired with Higgins' veteran news anchor.
"But she was precise and had really good comic timing."
Wigfield added that Fey also thought Richie was funny on Fox's The Simple Life, in which she starred with fellow socialite Paris Hilton.
The series ran from 2003 to 2007 and showcased Hilton and Richie out of their glitzy Hollywood element as they travelled to the American heartland, meeting everyday people and doing manual labour.
At first, Kimrie Lewis-Davis of Scandal played the Portia character in the first version of the Great News pilot. When producers recast the role, Richie had to audition three times. She said she landed the part less than a week before she had to show up on set.
"I was intimidated on every level. First of all, these people had shot a pilot so they already knew each other," she said in an interview with Refinery29.
"So I was walking in not only as the girl who just got her first acting role as a regular on a series, but also as the new kid on the block."
Her character, who co-anchors The Breakdown with the always- cranky Chuck (Higgins), has been described as everything from "sometimes a shrewd social media genius, sometimes a clueless idiot" to "the dingbat co-host... a breezy, demanding, clueless woman whose inane story ideas are given the green light".
Indeed, in the first season, Portia is adept in the ways of digital reporting ("What if we did a segment called 'Am I Snapchatting my vacation wrong?'").
But she has zero interest in traditional journalism, as she wonders about the definition of "a Walter Cronkite" and embarks on an investigation where she goes "undercover as an ugly person".
The late Cronkite won plaudits as a TV news anchorman with plain- spoken grace.
The audience also gets glimpses of Portia's absurd life as a sort-of famous person, including the fact that she is frenemies with Ms Ivanka Trump, United States President Donald Trump's daughter; she is in a sexting relationship with all the Pittsburgh Steelers football players; and her fiance won a National Football League honour for "lewdest touchdown dance".
In one episode, Portia suggests altering the anchor desk so viewers can see her legs: "My mentor Roger Ailes suggested it."
Mr Ailes, who died recently, stepped down as chairman of Fox News after he was dogged by sexual harassment allegations.
As the first season concludes, Portia mostly serves as a sidekick to the other wacky characters, such as when she is the target of an e-mail hack that intrigues the staff.
NBC recently renewed the show for a second season, airing in the network's coveted Thursday night Must See TV line-up this autumn - so Portia might get even more screen time as new viewers tune in and learn that Richie is, simply, very funny.
WASHINGTON POST
