The Hollywood Reporter brings word that The Shop, the barbershop-set talk show from LeBron James and Maverick Carter, has been picked up at HBO for a multi-episode order. The first episode, featuring Jon Stewart, Snoop Dogg, Odell Beckham Jr., and Candace Parker, was filmed in Los Angeles last week at West Hollywood’s Barber Surgeons Guild. You can check out two new clips from The Shop, featuring James and Snoop Dogg, in the player below!
James described the series to the outlet, saying: “This show is real, it’s candid and it’s the essence of conversation. And we know with social media and text being the way people communicate, the form of conversation, actually talking, is kind of lost art.” James added that The Shop was partly inspired by his experience as a kid listening to adults in barbershops “talk about sports, clothing, politics, music” and everything else.
Each episode of the show will gather a mix of personalities in a barbershop setting for unconstructed, frank talk while the cameras roll. The episodes will air as 30-minute segments on the premium cable network. Executive VP of HBO Sports, Peter Nelson, explained that they will produce episodes as “frequently as the conversation warrants” and that it’s “LeBron’s baby, so he very much wants to do it.”
James and Caters’ business partners Randy Mims and Paul Rivera first pitched the series which initially debuted in 2016 on James’ digital site Uninterrupted. The first episode of The Shop is set to premiere on August 28 at 11:00 p.m. on HBO.
James, who signed a four-year $154 million contract to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, has stayed busy in Hollywood with a number of slated projects coming from his SpringHill Entertainment company, including an untitled comedy recently bought by Paramount Players, the Netflix series On Her Own Ground starring Octavia Spencer, and Legendary Entertainment’s Hustle.
