Starz Blunt Talk premiere: Seth MacFarlane calls Patrick Stewart a 'comedian being wasted on drama'

The upcoming Starz comedy series - Blunt Talk will showcase actor Patrick Stewart in a very different light. Stewart, who has been a part of the super successful X-Men film franchise as Professor X and the earlier Star Trek films, will be seen as a British journalist Walter Blunt, who tries to fix America's problems using his news show in Los Angeles.

Blunt Talk's executive producer Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) revealed that he wanted to see Stewart, who has generally been associated with drama, play the part of Walter Blunt in this "outrageous comedy".

"I watched a lot of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' as a kid, and I had the same thought that I'm sure everyone here had," MacFarlane told Variety. "Why is this great comedian being wasted on drama? I wanted to put right what I saw as a great wrong."

Meanwhile, Stewart stated that he met British journalist and TV personality Piers Morgan to understand the role better and get an insight on what it means to lead a newsroom.

"I had breakfast with Piers," Stewart said. "I was really interested in what it felt like being an English journalist coming to work on an American TV show. He talked a lot about that and gave me a lot of other advice too. And I'm pretty certain we will be inviting Piers to be on the show."

The 10-episode season of Blunt Talk premieres at 9pm ET/PT on 22 August on Starz.