By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Thursday, July 30, 2015
If a test run of a new talk show needed an extra dose of publicity, rapper and actor Ice-T and his model wife Coco Austin pulled it off with a baby announcement.
"Honestly, there is no way I could have timed this," said Ice-T, 57, in a phone interview July 27 just a couple of days after the news leaked. "I'm not that good. But we've known for quite awhile. When we started shooting the show, the staff didn't even know. When we told them, they decided it would be great to announce it on the first show."
That episode of "Ice & Coco" was taped July 24 and will air Monday, August 3 in eight markets, including L.A., Washington D.C. and Atlanta. Fox 5 in Atlanta has scheduled the show for a three-week test run at the 1 p.m. slot following a month-long test run by former Atlantans and fellow married couple Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker .
If the show pulls in enough ratings, Warner Brothers will be able to syndicate "Ice & Coco' to a nationwide audience starting in the fall of 2016.
The couple, married 13 years, only began trying to have a baby earlier this year with Coco getting off birth control. She was pregnant almost immediately.
"It was instant," said Coco, who is 35. "I didn't know you could get pregnant that fast!"
"Super sperm!" Ice-T joked. "I told you I could get you pregnant through a brick wall!"
She said her pregnancy has been super easy so far. "If I hadn't taken a test, I probably wouldn't even know I was pregnant," she said. At worst so far, "it feels like I've eaten a big meal and it won't go away."
"It won't go away for 20 years," Ice-T cracked, referencing the child, not her baby weight.
They decided to keep the pregnancy under wraps for awhile. "I'm excited it's finally out," Coco said. "It's hard to keep a secret, especially when people know my body so well." Amazingly, she said, nobody noticed her (so far) slight weight gain.
The talk show was a possibility even before their E! reality show "Ice Loves Coco," which aired for three seasons from 2011 to 2013.
"I was so adamantly against doing a reality show," Ice-T said. "But it turned out to be a great thing. We decided to stop after three seasons before it started to get fake. We figured that was enough."
Fans missed the show, he said, so he felt this was another way for the couple to entertain people. "This wasn't our idea," Ice-T said. "It was people around us."
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
He said they had no game plan going in. They had producers pitch them ideas for guests and segments and they said yes or no. Ice-T said they have been only picking things the couple can get excited about.
The first episode will feature Tamar Braxton, who is part of another talk show airing on Fox "the Real," and Snooki of "Jersey Shore" fame.
Besides celebrity guests, Ice-T said they'll be fashion shows for women and for dogs (they have two English bulldogs) and folks showing off cool gadgets. And he may make fun of psychics, which he believes are all fake.
"We really didn't know what the hell we were doing as talk show hosts," Coco said. "We just decided to have fun. And it turned out to be super fun. We've had a great time so far. We laugh a lot. Ice is full of jokes all the time."
"We didn't have any problems whatsoever," Ice-T said.
Coco said she is more the adventurous type and will try anything. Ice-T? "He just likes to sit back and comment about everything," she said.
"You can't force me to do anything I don't want to do," he added.
Coco said they hope the show will have a cheerful vibe. "When guests come on our show, we will ask really cool question, no negativity. Everything is positive. You'll leave the show feeling good about yourself."
Ice-T said he is not trying to raise expectations for the show's success.
"Other people going into this were way more confident about us doing it than us," he said. "I've been in this business a long time. I tell CoCo we'll remain humble and see what happens. We hope people enjoy it as much as we're having fun making it."
Ice-T has been a long-time cast member of NBC's "Law & Order: SVU." He is signed through 2017 and isn't sure how he would juggle the two shows but he said they'll work it out if need be.
TV PREVIEW
"Ice & CoCo" 1 p.m. weekdays through August 21, WAGA-TV (Fox 5) in Atlanta
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