From the creators of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Mock the Week, Trust Us with Your Life is a brand-new studio-based improvisation series that redefines both the chat show and television improv formats. Hosted by Fred Willard (Best in Show, Modern Family), the exciting new format finds each celebrity reminiscing about key episodes that have happened in his or her life, then brilliant improvisers acting out those moments that the celebrity has just described. Serena Williams will be the first special guest for the series premiere of Trust Us with Your Life, tonight (9:00-9:30 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. Jack and Kelly Osbourne will be the special guests in the episode that immediately follows (9:30-10:00 p.m., ET).
And for a full year, ABC News cameras had unprecedented access to document the mayhem and the miracles that occur daily inside the walls of Columbia and Weill Cornell Medical Centers—the crown jewels of the prestigious New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City—for eight-part series NY Med. Lutheran Medical Center also participated, adding a Brooklyn dimension to the series.
In the premiere episode of NY Med, airing tonight (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network, viewers will meet the following patients, doctors and nurses:
- Rhonda Fernandez is a mother of two with a brain tumor that will be fatal if her surgeons cannot extract it. In a tricky neurosurgery called “wide awake,” she will have to talk to her neurosurgeons, Guy McKhann and Jeffery Bruce, so that they know they are not damaging crucial motor control areas.
- Mehmet Oz may be the most famous doctor in the world due to his high profile on TV talk shows and magazines, but what most people don’t know is that he is still one of the world’s most highly skilled heart surgeons. In this episode, Dr. Oz repairs Jack Abramson’s heart and does a little work on his soul at the same time.
- Marina Dedivanovic is a brassy, Bronx-born ER nurse whose knock ‘em dead good looks leave some admiring patients stammering. In the emergency room she will confront some peculiar cases, including a man whose erection has not subsided for 12 hours. But in a trauma situation, there is no doubt that Marina’s chief attribute is competence.
- Arundi Mahendran hails from a Sri Lankan-British family and describes herself as “small, brown and female.” A resident in abdominal transplant surgery, her non-medical talents include miming American accents and singing opera. Viewers are likely to remember her as much for her superlative voice as for her compassion and professionalism with patients.
- Anthony Watkins is Arundi’s fellow transplant resident and office mate. On the verge of becoming an attending, Anthony promises to be an outstanding transplant surgeon and has an easy outgoing personality. He and Arundi represent the changing face of medicine today—a face that is increasingly more inclusive of physicians from other communities and cultures.
NY Med follows the irascible, compassionate and, at times, cocky attending surgeons who try to change the trajectory of lives by relying on sheer medical brilliance and a healthy dose of old fashioned good luck. The eight-part series takes a candid look at how cutting edge medicine often makes the difference, although even the best surgeons can find themselves flirting with disaster. The raucous ER staff trades jibes with strong-willed New Yorkers in moments that can be poignantly heartbreaking or off-the-hook hilarious. These doctors spend far more time with each other than with their families, developing complicated and intertwined personal relationships.
