‘Abbott Elementary’s’ Tyler James Williams Will School You With His Nielsen Knowledge [Interview]

When Tyler James Williams tells you he’s been acting for 25 of his 29 years he’s not exaggerating. Williams first came to prominence as the Chris in “Everybody Hates Chris.” In the years since he’s appeared in regular roles on “The Walking Dead,” “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” and “Whiskey Caviler,” among others. But, his role as Gregory Eddie in “Abbott Elementary” gifted him not only another hit series but his first Emmy nomination.

READ MORE: Yep, Sheryl Lee Ralph improvised “Sweet Baby Jesus, And The Grown One Too” on “Abbott Elementary” [Interview]

Created by and starring Quinta Burnson, “Abbott” follows the trials and tribulations of a staff of teachers at a Philadelphia public elementary school. Gregory thought he was going to land the school’s open Principal position but instead finds himself in a substitute teaching job he’s not necessarily in love with it (at first anyway). Williams is part of an impressive ensemble including fellow Emmy acting nominees Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James, and Brunson, as well as Chris Perfetti and Lisa Ann Walter.

Speaking to both Ralph and Perfetti earlier in the season, both actors recalled how they realized how big the show was when they were recognized in public more than normal. For Williams, well, let’s just say he’s following the show’s response at a much more detailed level. In fact, his response when asked when he knew the show as a hit was totally unexpected.

“I was tracking the numbers the whole time, because, to me, the numbers don’t lie. And, it was crazy,” Williams recalls. “Quinta would send them to me, and I would kind of try to read the tea leaves and explain what was happening based on what I’d seen before. So, it was episode four. We had pulled a consistent 0.6 every night, and then the +3’s would come in and they would even out to about the same number and it would hold, which suggests a pattern that our audience was already consistent and they were coming back week after week, the exact same people. And, then we would start to build people over time in +3, +7, and you would watch it grow, and then eventually that historic number came out. So, for me, it was at episode four when I realized this isn’t a fluke. The trend is holding, and it continued to hold. And, then I think once we got to like six or seven, usually, there’s a 0.2 drop off that happens with most shows, and it never happened. I’m just like, ‘Huh? This is it. The numbers are showing that the audience is coming back week after week after week after week. They are depending on us to be consistently funny, and they find us dependable. We have something here.'”

If Williams ever gets tired of acting, it goes without saying that he likely has a successful television executive career in front of him. Very few producers and showrunners, let alone actors, understand the Nielsen ratings in that manner.

Over the course of our conversation, Williams recalls Brunson’s initial “Abbott” pitch, explains just how much the Emmy nomination meant to him, and even teases a bit of where Gregory is headed in season two.

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The Playlist: So, I’ve got to ask you, what was your reaction that morning when you got the Emmy nomination?

Tyler James Williams: It was a lot of just conversations that was broken up words. It wasn’t in any full sentences. No full sentences came out of my mouth, and then there were just periods of just silence and staring. Technically, my publicist was the first one to explicitly tell me. Everyone who texted me wasn’t texting full sentences. They were just like, “Dude, yo!” And, I’m like, “What? What is this? What’s happening?” Then my publicist called and he was like, “Congratulations, you’ve been nominated for an Emmy.” And, everything went blank. I don’t know what he said after that. I just. I don’t. That’s all I heard. And, my brother, who lives with me, saw it around the same time, and he came to the living room, through my two rooms, and just stood there in silence, looking at each other like, “Did this just happen? What does this mean now?” And, that’s what it was.

Had you purposely not paid attention to the nominations that morning, or had you forgotten it was that day?

You know what’s crazy? I actually watched the ceremony because I knew Quinta wasn’t. I knew she had some like [conflict] or something and that she may not be. So, I was like, “I’m going to watch it for her, and I’m going to text her at the time of it.” So, after she got nominated and Michelle got nominated, I turned it off. I thought like, “I did my job. Ah, hell yeah. That’s all we’re going to get pretty much,” because I’ve been doing this for a while. Most people can predict sometimes, like, “Here’s probably how this will go.” I thought Quinta and the show had a shot. I thought Sheryl and Janelle for sure had a shot, but definitely Sheryl because she’s been here for so long. I didn’t really think I had that much of a shot this year. I was like, “Maybe down the road, but we’ll see.” So, after I saw Quinta and Michelle, I just turned it off, and then people started texting me.

I forgot that your category wasn’t announced live and that people had to hunt once the long list of all the categories came out. You’re only 29. You are still a young man, but you’ve been in this business almost your entire life. What does this mean to you as someone who’s done so much television and worked so hard in this industry?

Not to be cocky in any way, but it proved a theory of mine, right? I made a promise to myself when I was 17. We had just finished Everybody Hates Chris and I was in this really rough acting class of trying to break old behaviors and just go deeper into the work, and I’d made myself a promise that my best work would be ahead of me for the next 30, 40 years, that it wasn’t behind me. And, to still be able to have mountains to climb, you know what I mean? 25 years later and achievements that I haven’t experienced yet is a blessing, but it was something that it’s a promise I had to keep to myself for sure, and I’m happy that I did.

When did you realize, “Yes, I still want to do this for the rest of my life”? What about acting do you love?

Wow, that’s a big boy question. You’re really good at your job. For me, it’s a purpose thing. Nothing changes people’s opinion about something than like putting them in the shoes of that person. We have this amazing ability. I can bark at you all day long [that] you should feel better about this or you should care about this group of people [but] you’ll never hear me. But, if I show you their story and I walk you through it, it’ll change your whole perspective. That’s what we saw with “Pose” recently, right? Where the trans argument and the trans community had not had something that made people go like, “Y’all see us act.” That’s a powerful ability that we have. You can sit down at the end of a long day at work and turn on “Abbott” and all of a sudden you feel good by the end of the night. That’s what I love about acting. It’s the most effective way to shift people’s emotional perspectives and spectrum, and I have that as an opportunity and as a responsibility. So, that’s what my call is here. That’s where my purpose lies.

You’re making a comedy with “Abbott.” In theory, one would assume it would be fun on set. Do you enjoy that aspect of the job?

A hundred percent. I feel awkward when I’m not. I’ve been doing this for 25 years out of 29. I was kind of bred for this and in this. Nothing feels better than those 60 seconds when it’s working. You know what I mean? I’ll be on set for hours a day, but really only the camera’s rolling for about 60 seconds to a minute and a half at most. When it’s working, there’s no better high than that. There’s nothing that feels better than that. When I wake up at 4:30 in the morning to go to work, that’s what I’m thinking about.

Oh, you’re a better man than me. I can never do that, the 4:30 in the morning. I’ve spoken to both Sheryl and Chris, and they talked about the fact that you were one of the few people who, and correct me if I’m wrong, Quinta had pitched the show to. Is that right?

Mm-hmm, yeah, yes.

What about it got you excited? What made you think that this could be something special in those early days?

Well, first, me and Quinta worked together on “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and that was for a day, and I knew after that I wanted to work with her in something long form. I just knew that from our chemistry. I was like, “We can make some really good stuff here.” So, I knew that I was looking for something in general, but when she pitched it…There’s something about the art form that is the elevator pitch, where you can just say it to somebody really quickly and then get it. And, she was like, “A workplace comedy mockumentary style about teachers in an underprivileged school of Philly.” And, I was like, “Yep, I one hundred percent get it. I’m there.” And, then she followed it up with, “And, I think we have an opportunity here with the character of Gregory to validate the black male experience and rearing of the next generation.” And, I was like, “So, where do I sign? So, what do you need me to do?” I was in before I read the script because I knew her brand of funny, and I knew we had the same brand of funny and that we had a very high bar for that. So, once the story structure was there, I was in. There were other pilots that I was looking at that year, but I think once I actually got the 32 pages of whatever it was, everything else was cleared off the board.

So, you shoot the pilot. It gets picked up. You’re about to shoot the whole season. Did you know that at the end of the first season Gregory would decide, “Yes, I want to be a teacher”? Or was that something that just came along the way?

No, we knew that was going to be the case. Quinta told me that upfront, which is we want to build his argument for staying against his own will. He doesn’t want to be here, but we’re going to slowly pull him in. So, it gave me a good idea of where I was heading, which was nice to give all the ranges of him from a cold “no” to a very enthusiastic “yes.”

I know you guys are shooting this second season, and by the way, I cannot believe this was not originally a 22-episode order. That’s just insane to me, but now that it is, can you give any tease about Gregory’s arc this time around?

Yeah, I think it’s only logical to get it and go, “O.K., so now he has to start a whole school year and he’s never done that.” He’s popped in here and there, followed the curriculum that the other teacher had set, and that was it. He now has to grapple with the load of, from day one to whenever they get out of school, this is you, this is your show, this is your class. You have to make this work. And, I think any teacher in the field will tell you that’s always going to be overwhelming your first time. So, we’re going to watch him handle that and figure it out for himself as an official full-time teacher for the first time.

Should we assume that this “will they or won’t they,” classic TV trope romance with your and Quinta’s character will still be in the background?

I think. Yeah, I think it’s going to. It’ll be in the background, I think. We’re constantly talking about ways to throw you guys off, whatever you expect to go hard left. So, yes, it’ll be going on in the background. I don’t really think you’ll be able to anticipate what’s coming, but that’s our job, you know what I mean? And, she’s doing a really good job at that, as like sitting here thinking, “O.K., what are the five ways people think this will go? Our job is to look through six through 10.” So, yeah, it’ll be there. It’s just not how you would expect.

Now I‘m even more excited. Speaking to Sheryl and Chris, they each had moments when they realized that this just wasn’t a regular gig that they were part of, that the show had popped into the cultural zeitgeist. You have been on a number of shows that have been super popular. Was there a moment that you were like, “Oh, this is one of those?”

I was tracking the numbers the whole time, because, to me, the numbers don’t lie. And, it was crazy. Quinta would send them to me, and I would kind of try to read the tea leaves and explain what was happening based on what I’d seen before. So, it was episode four. We had pulled a consistent 0.6 every night, and then the +3’s would come in and they would even out to about the same number and it would hold, which suggests a pattern that our audience was already consistent and they were coming back week after week, the exact same people. And, then we would start to build people over time in +3, +7, and you would watch it grow, and then eventually that historic number came out. So, for me, it was at episode four when I realized this isn’t a fluke. The trend is holding, and it continued to hold. And, then I think once we got to like six or seven, usually, there’s a 0.2 drop off that happens with most shows, and it never happened. I’m just like, “Huh? This is it. The numbers are showing that the audience is coming back week after week after week after week. They are depending on us to be consistently funny, and they find us dependable. We have something here.”

This is Quinta’s first-time show running a program like this and having this success. How do you keep an environment where people don’t overthink it? For lack of a better question, how do you keep the magic?

Silence the noise. I think that’s really the key is everyone has talked about this show quite a bit. They love it, which is great. You know what I mean? I’m not in any way saying that we’re not grateful for the love that it’s received, but we have to stay in the mentality of that show that was on Warner Brothers live with a bunch of kids that nobody knew about. We have to stay there and hold on our standard as this is what makes this show good. There’s been a lot of talk about who should come into the show and like, “Oh, they can do this, or they can go here.” And, although that conversation is what just comes with something being a hit like this, we have to keep just silence the noise and do what we do in maintaining our creative integrity with this. And, it seems as if we’re doing that so far, which is nice.

“Abbott Elementary” Season 1 is available on Hulu.