Meagan Good Is No Kerry Washington, ‘Deception’ Can’t Touch ‘Scandal’

Meagan Good landed her first leading TV role on NBC’s “Deception,” but the new drama isn’t holding up to it’s almost identical counter part “Scandal.”

To be fair “Deception” and “Scandal” do have some differences, especially when it comes down to the details of the plot. As far as audience members are concerned however, they’re picking between one or the other and “Scandal” is continuously coming out on top.

Both of the dramas feature African American women as leading characters with tough skin and witty attitudes, but “Deception” isn’t pulling in nearly as many viewers as the popular drama on ABC.

The new series has had a relatively low viewership although Monday’s episode did reveal just the slightest glimpse of hope for NBC. On Feb. 11, the amount of viewers jumped up to 3.23 million – up 18 percent from the 3.08 million who tuned in the previous week.

Many critics see the new NBC series as being a marriage between ABC’s “Scandal” and “Revenge,” but the show’s creator Liz Heldens is saying that just isn’t true.

“Two of my favorite movies are ‘Donnie Brasco’ and ‘The Departed,’ and then I was sort of thinking about how could you do an undercover show with a female protagonist, and at the same time NBC was looking for a soap,” Heldens explained. “And so then I sort of thought could ‘Donnie Brasco’ and the movie ‘Sabrina’ have a baby? And so they did. So that was how it happened.”

Well no matter how it happened, creators and producers might want to pull out all the stops before NBC decides to pull the plug on the low rating show.

At the end of the day, Meagan Good is a fine actress but she doesn’t exactly have the star power that Mrs. Washington has been flaunting in “Scandal.”

The good news is that she is at least enjoying her job while she has it.

“I really love playing this character, and I’ve really enjoyed being able to do so many things in one character, you know, with action, the drama and the love affair, and it’s just a lot, and it’s very satisfying creatively,” the “Deception” star said.

It’s a good thing that she loves the role despite the fact that it’s been keeping her away from her husband DeVon Franklin.

“It’s sad because obviously you’re away from the person that you just married,” she continued. “You want to spend all your time with them and put all your energy into it.”

Good has been making up for the lack of face time with a lot of phone time while she spends most of her time miles and miles away from her man. She admitted that a lot of Skyping comes into play when DeVon can’t make it out to New York to see her.

The real question is: Is all the time apart worth it when the show is so close to failing already?

If you ask her husband, it’s certainly worth it and he’s actually been extremely supportive of his new wife pursuing the TV opportunity.

After she finished up on the set of the drama filled series, she plans on going back home to just continue life as a normal wife.

“I just want to be home and cook and wash clothes and just be domesticated and enjoy that,” Meagan added.

Well filming for the drama is wrapping up so she should be on her way home in no time… unfortunately she may be getting more time at home with her husband than she planned for if “Deception” doesn’t start pulling on some better ratings.

 

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