Get Ready For Some ‘Smart Comedy’ as Mayim Bialik is Joined by Ken Jennings to Kick Off The New Season of CALL ME KAT

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede   It’s all fun and games – or rather, fun and game shows! – in the Season 3 premiere of CALL ME KAT, airing Thursday, Sept. 29 at 9:30 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app. The episode is titled Call Me Ken Jennings, which lets the “Kat” out of the bag: Ken Jennings is guest-starring as himself. The main star of CALL ME KAT, of course, is Mayim Bialik, who also is the host of CTV’s CELEBRITY JEOPARDY! (Sundays at 8 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, Bialik and Jennings share hosting duties on JEOPARDY!, with Jennings having previously gained fame by amassing the longest winning streak in the show’s history. On CALL ME KAT, Bialik’s lead character finds herself seated next to Jennings on an airplane. The writers on the show clearly had a good time with the situation. “(Jennings) had a great sense of humour about us teasing him,” said Bialik in a virtual interview with TV reporters. “We think it’s a really fun kind of, you know, tongue-in-cheek crossover. And also, he’s a huge icon in terms of where we’re at in media. Like, he is a big deal. And we’re very happy to have him, it was really, really fun.” Bialik added, “we definitely take some pretty funny cheap shots at him, and he takes some pretty cheap shots at me. There’s definitely a breaking of the fourth wall surrounding the fact that he and I are existing in the same space. And I may or may not develop a crush on him.” So how did Jennings’ participation come about? Was it Bialik’s idea? Did Jennings have to be talked into it, or was he keen right from the start? “Um, that comes about from, you know, higher-ups than me,” said Bialik, who is nonetheless one of the executive producers on CALL ME KAT. “We were trying to think of some really fun way to start Season 3. And I think I was asked, ‘what would you think about (Jennings)?’ It’d be amazing, I said. I don’t think he’ll do it, though, he’s very busy. But apparently, he was happy to do it. He showed up on set so thrilled, he had never been on a set like that before. And we had a great time with him. We were just watching it – they were airing the episode in our dressing rooms, for some reason, on a break yesterday – and he’s terrific. He’s really funny.” As for the full-time characters on CALL ME KAT, Season 3 sees Kat returning from a multi-month journey of self-discovery, only to find that Randi (Kyla Pratt) and Phil (Leslie Jordan) have made a few changes at the café that Kat may not be thrilled about. Meanwhile, Max (Cheyenne Jackson) has been pursuing his music career in Nashville, but has the slightest hint of success gone to his head, both literally and figuratively? Bialik – who has a Doctor of Philosophy degree in neuroscience, in addition to a full acting resume that includes long-running hits such as THE BIG BANG THEORY (available on Crave) and BLOSSOM – was asked if her experiences on JEOPARDY! and CELEBRITY JEOPARDY! have changed her approach on CALL ME KAT. “Just my exhaustion level, mostly,” she said. “I’ve always been a person who talks like I’m speaking from a textbook, so I don’t think JEOPARDY! has made that more so. But it has definitely changed my scheduling, and honestly, it has brought into focus how much energy I do still need for CALL ME KAT. Last year, obviously, it was unusual circumstances to kind of burn the candle at both ends. But this year, I’m actually pacing out a lot more of my responsibilities to JEOPARDY!, in a way that I don’t feel takes away from what we do at CALL ME KAT. So I guess that’s kind of a difference. Plus, I’m very relieved I get to wear sneakers on CALL ME KAT most of the time, because on JEOPARDY! I always have to wear heels.”   billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv