POP LIFE Host Richard Crouse Reveals Celebrity Guests and What to Expect this Season

Music icons, British historians, a famed journalist and socialite, and a ground-breaking hockey commentator are just some of the eclectic guests that are joining POP LIFE host Richard Crouse for Season 7 of CTV’s weekly in-depth pop culture series. In celebration of its seventh season, The Lede sat down with Crouse to break down the challenges of shooting the series remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of his most memorable guests, and what makes POP LIFE stand out among other talk format series. Each week on POP LIFE, Crouse sits down with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits for candid discussions and debates on hot-button pop culture topics. POP LIFE airs on Canada’s 24-hour all-news network CTV News Channel Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. ET and Saturdays at midnight on CTV. The Lede: What can people look forward to this season on POP LIFE? Crouse: Once again on this season on POP LIFE we’re showcasing interesting stories from some of the world’s most fascinating people. This year we’ll cover everything from the popularity of true crime, to Peter Frampton and what it was like to be one of the biggest rock stars of the 1970s. Earlier this season, Elvis Costello told a poignant story about his mother coming to watch him perform at the Liverpool Olympia, the very place she used to dance after WWII. Barbara Amiel spoke candidly about her public fall from grace, and saxophone player Jake Clemons revealed what it was like to take over for his legendary uncle Clarence in the E Street Band, and Gordon Lightfoot sings the first song he ever wrote, a little ditty called “The Hula Hoop Song. In our upcoming episodes, we talk to Sikh Canadian hockey announcer Harnarayan Singh about his hockey obsession while growing up in rural Alberta (Dec. 5), and sing in the shower with Josh Groban (Dec. 12). It’s an eclectic group of guests bound together by one thing: great storytelling. The Lede: What have been the biggest challenges adapting the format of POP LIFE to a virtual production? Crouse: Retaining the intimate feel of the show is very important to me. POP LIFE was designed to feel different from other talk shows. We want to invite the viewer into the POP LIFE bar to have a glass of whatever floats their boat with us as I talk to the guests. I think we’ve done that by doing fun-but-not-frivolous interviews that inform and entertain. Keeping the conversation natural and off the cuff is the thing our audience responds to and I think we’ve figured out how to do that even though this season we are virtual. The Lede: Do you find it changes the vibe or environment with your guests having to conduct interviews and panels virtually? How so? Crouse: Coming back for this season we worked hard to make sure the show didn’t feel like a Zoom meeting. Watching POP LIFE shouldn’t feel like work. To that end, we redesigned the look of the virtual interviews to make sure they are warm and inviting. I think it works and I also think people like to see where our guests are when they do the interview. The homey touches of catching a glimpse of Elvis Costello’s front porch, or Harnarayan Singh’s memorabilia collection, adds personality to the interviews. The Lede: How do you see the future of entertainment (television, film, and more) evolving in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic? Crouse: I am hopeful that what many in the arts experienced during the pandemic lockdown will lead to exciting new ideas for movies, shows, and music. Creative minds never stop working so somewhere innovative television shows are being written, movies that don’t have a number in the title are being conceived, and songs that will reflect the times we live in right now are being recorded. I am excited and optimistic for what will come out of our collective pandemic experience. The Lede: Besides catching up on POP LIFE, what hidden gems would you recommend that viewers binge over the winter? Crouse: If you haven’t seen it already, run, don’t walk to the television and watch the concert film AMERICAN UTOPIA on Crave. David Byrne and company on fill the screen with intricate choreography, eclectic songs, new and old, and an uplifting social message of fellowship and faith in humanity. Byrne’s enthusiasm is infectious and director Spike Lee captures the jubilant postmodernist performance in glorious fashion. For something bingeable? How about THE AMERICANS? Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star as Soviet KGB intelligence officers posing as an American married couple in a Washington, D.C. suburb. There are 75 episodes to keep you busy, and even though it aired as the same time as THE SOPRANOS and MAD MEN, it didn’t receive the same kind of accolades as those shows. It’s not as flashy as those series but it is every bit as good as they were. The Lede: You’ve welcomed an abundance of incredible guests over the show’s seven seasons, can you tell us some of your most memorable guests, and what made them so memorable? Crouse: We’ve been so lucky to have incredible guests and so many memorable moments. Bobby Flay’s reaction when I asked him about Sloane’s – the grocery store his family shopped at when he was a kid – was priceless. “How do you know this stuff?” Danai Gurira and Lena Waithe talking about diversity in film and television was powerful as was CNN host W. Kamau Bell reflecting on the advice his mother gave him as a child. I’ve gotten the chance to ask some of my childhood heroes, like Bob Geldof, Fran Lebowitz, Elvis Costello, and Sting questions that have rattled around my brain for decades, and trade cooking tips with Nigella Lawson. There are almost too many moments to count! POP LIFE is available as part of CTV News Channel’s free preview, which is available now through participating television service providers across the country through the end of November.