SpongeBob SquarePants, the Property Brothers, Ricky Schroder, and Susan Lucci Attend a Cable TV Party (Photos)

Members of the cable television industry are in town this week for an annual confab
at the Convention Center called the Cable Show, and Tuesday evening we stopped by
the chairman’s reception at the National Portrait Gallery. The crowd was mostly men,
mostly in gray suits, but the main attractions were colorful—a handful of cable TV
stars.

What did we see last night, in addition to all those gray-suited men?
Susan Lucci, who is so small she’s barely there, and
Naomi Judd, just about as petite. Handsome identical twins
Drew and Jonathan Scott of Property Brothers (shown on both W Network and HGTV), who seemed to be the stars with whom most guests, male and female, wanted to be
photographed. Also in attendance were
Ricky Schroder, who stars in the Hallmark Movie Channel’s
Goodnight for Justice and attended with his family; and
Mark Cuban, who owns a cable channel, in his trademark untucked polo shirt. More familiar to
DC were Vermont senator
Patrick Leahy and FCC commissioner
Mignon Clyburn. Last but not least, SpongeBob SquarePants, who had his own escort.

Watching the packed party in the Kogod Auditorium from a second-floor window in the
adjoining Portrait Gallery were a gaggle of tourists, including teenagers with cameras
and a baby. We could make a joke about them watching the animals in the zoo, but of
course we know they were observing the serious business of their nation’s capital.

The Cable Show convention ends Wednesday with an appearance by superstar J. Lo, a.k.a.

Jennifer Lopez. As the new chief creative officer of the English-language Latino network NuvoTV,
Lopez will appear onstage and be interviewed about the challenges of finding content
for cable shows.

Carol Ross Joynt