Organizers of the San Diego Comic-Con have slowly but surely been coming to the reality that many TV show panels are as much in demand from convention-goers as movie panels – if not moreso – and over the last few years, the Convention Center’s biggest room, Hall H, has started hosting TV events on Sundays after the movie studios have skipped town. So when Warner Bros. released its Comic-Con plans (the first TV studio to do so this year), it was no surprise to see “Fringe” get a promotion from Ballroom 20 to a Sunday slot in Hall H. But the bigger deal involves “The Big Bang Theory,” which will also be in Hall H, but on Friday – which is typically prime movie studio time.
As other studios and networks announce their own Con plans, it’ll be interesting to see if “Big Bang” is an anomaly, or if other TV shows that generally have to turn many, many people away from Ballroom 20 – say, “Game of Thrones” and “True Blood” – also get the big room on an earlier day.
After the jump, a list of the pilots Warner Bros. will be screening in Ballroom 20 on Wednesday, July 11, and then days, room numbers and tentative guests for the various Warner Bros. panels:
PILOT SCREENINGS
“666 Park Avenue” (ABC)
“Arrow” (CW)
“Cult” (CW)
“The Following” (FOX)
“Revolution” (NBC)
PANELS
Thursday, July 12
“MAD” (Cartoon Network) Producers Kevin Shinick and Mark Marek. Room 6DE
“Nikita” (CW): Series stars Maggie Q, Shane West and Lyndsy Fonseca join executive producer Craig Silverstein. Room 6BCF6BCF
Friday, July 13
“The Big Bang Theory” (CBS) Series stars and producers TBD, Hall H
“Cult” (CW) Series stars Matt Davis, Jessica Lucas, Alona Tal and Robert Knepper joining executive producer Rockne S. O”Bannon. Room 6BCF
“666 Park Avenue” (ABC) Series stars Terry O”Quinn, Rachael Taylor and Dave Annable joining executive producers David Wilcox and Matthew Miller. Room 6BCF
“Arrow” (CW) Series stars, including Stephen Amell, and producers, for a pilot screening and discussion. Ballroom 20
“Childrens Hospital” (Adult Swim): Star/executive producer Rob Corddry and executive producer Jonathan Stern join stars Lake Bell, Erinn Hayes, Rob Huebel, Megan Mullally, Henry Winkler and Ken Marino. Hilton San Diego Bayfront, Indigo Ballroom
Saturday, July 14
“The Vampire Diaries” (CW) Series stars Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder and more join executive producers/writers Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. Ballroom 20
“The Following” (FOX) Series stars Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy join executive producers Kevin Williamson and Marcos Siega. Room 6BCF
“Person of Interest” (CBS) Stars and producers TBD. Room 6BCF
“Revolution” (NBC) Series stars Billy Burke, Giancarlo Esposito and Tracy Spiridakos join creator/executive producer Eric Kripke and director/co-executive producer Jon Favreau. Room 6BCF
(Author’s note: I haven’t watched either pilot yet, but placing both “The Following” and “Revolution” in 6BCF seems like a mistake, given the popularity of Williamson, Kripke and Favreau among the Comic-Con crowd, not to mention the presence of actors like Bacon and Esposito.)
Sunday, July 15
“Supernatural” (CW) Series stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, joined by recurring guest stars Misha Collins, Jim Beaver and Mark A. Sheppard, as well as new executive producer Jeremy Carver and consulting producer Ben Edlund. Hall H
“Fringe” (FOX) The last “Fringe” panel ever is also its first in Hall H, with series stars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Lance Reddick, Blair Brown, Jasika Nicole and John Noble and the show”s executive producers. Hall H
“DC Nation” (Cartoon Network) Sneak previewing a new action-comedy programming bloc. Producers TBD. Room 6BCF