It’s show time: Student-produced ‘Princeton Tonight’ to premiere on local TV

By Nathan Phan, Special Writer
Creating a talk show requires pulling together lots of different parts: people call lists of celebrities to invite, writers bounce sketch ideas off each other, members of the marketing team create posters to advertise, and producers try to find ways to fund it all.
A group of Princeton University students have done just that.
This Saturday, “Princeton Tonight,” the first broadcast television show run exclusively by Princeton students, will be premiering its first episode. The program will be hosted by freshman Jordan Salama, the show’s co-creator and show-runner, and it will offer a variety of entertainment.
The show will be available on YouTube as well as shown on Comcast and Verizon channel 20. There will be a premiere showing in the East Pyne building on campus at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, that is free and open to the public. Episodes will also be available on the show’s website, tonight.princeton.edu.
Its first episode will feature an interview with Mike DelGuidice, a member of The Billy Joel band, who played at the university in a concert organized by “Princeton Tonight” on Jan. 13. The episode will also include an original sketch and a comedy segment featuring freshman Paul Shorin.
“There’s something for everybody,” said Mr. Salama. “We have a really interesting interview with a very successful and talented guest. Mike DelGuidice is one of the most talented musicians I’ve heard in a long time.”
Mr. Salama and Ryan Ozminkowski, the co-creator and executive producer, came up with the idea for the show last fall. Over the past month, the two freshmen and other members of the team have been working and producing the first episode in the Princeton University Broadcast Center together with Princeton Film Productions, a student-run filmmaking club started in 2013.
Unlike other groups on campus, “Princeton Tonight” aims for an audience both inside and outside the university and local Princeton community. Airing on cable television, the show will be viewable throughout all of central New Jersey, and the members of the show hope to share their work with a broader audience beyond the school body.
“We’ve set the bar high for ourselves,” said Mr. Ozminkowski. “What we want to give to the people in forms of entertainment — in forms of music and everything — we just want to give them something to enjoy. We just want them to have a good time and just really enjoy themselves, and have something they can share with others.”
Since Mr. DelGuidice’s concert, “Princeton Tonight” has garnered greater attention on campus and has developed into a larger project, bringing in more students to work and contribute to the show. From the technical positions of video editing and filming to the creative roles of sketch writing and music writing, there are a wide variety of positions for students to help. One of the biggest goals for the show is to give students the experience and opportunity to get their start in working in a professional studio and video production, both of which have not had a presence on the university campus.
“It’s an industry where a lot is focused on getting your big break, and we hope to reverse that trend,” said Mr. Salama. “This is an opportunity for people to get the real-world experience in a professional environment that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get without this show.”
As a high school student in Pelham, New York, Mr. Salama developed his own local talk-show called “The Pelican Brief,” where he focused on local topics of his high school and hosted, filmed and edited the show himself. Now working with a team of about 30 students, Mr. Salama describes how his perspective as a television producer has changed after “Princeton Tonight.”
“When I was in high school, it was a lot simpler, but when it’s a lot simpler, the quality of the product is not as good,” said Mr. Salama. “To have a team of people that are so passionate about so many different aspects of production is amazing for everybody who works on the show. That means that people can concentrate on what they enjoy.“
Mr. Salama and Mr. Ozminkowski anticipate that there will be big things ahead for “Princeton Tonight,” hoping for more interviews with high-profile guests. Future guests include John Caglione Jr., a movie make-up artist who worked on the make-up of the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” the Conehead characters of Saturday Night Live, and Khalil Muhammad, an actor on the show “Inside Amy Schumer” and the movie “Trainwreck.”
For a “Princeton Tonight” event,, Mr. Muhammad will be performing his one-man show “Pryor Truth,” free and open to the public, on Friday, Feb. 26 at 8:15 p.m. in Café Viv, located in the Frist Campus Center.
“It’s definitely going to grow into a place consisting of other shows,” said Mr. Ozminkowski. “We have pretty clear goals for the next four years and beyond.”