TV That Made Me: Charlie Puth

What’s next for a pop singer-songwriter who’s maxed out his own musical stardom? Transition to television, naturally.

That’s the cheeky, super-meta premise of The Charlie Puth Show, a mockumentary series released by The Roku Channel on Oct. 4. At the top of the show’s six episodes, the beloved pop star (known for radio earworms like “We Don’t Talk Anymore,” “Light Switch” and “Attention”) is told by his team that it’s no longer “enough” to just be a musician. He needs multi-hyphenate status, and a reality TV show is the way to get there.

The improv-heavy comedy marks the first time Grammy-nominated Puth fronts a television project, but he does so with a slew of celebrity friends in tow. Names from across the pop culture landscape — Will Ferrell, John Legend, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Courteney Cox among them — join him on camera, and hijinks ensue. “I've always wanted to make a show about me, which I guess is why it's called The Charlie Puth Show,” Puth tells emmy. “But I always cringe and squint my half–right eyebrow when artists take themselves so seriously and make these really self-righteous, grandiose shows. So, I thought, why not show my life but exaggerate it and be self-deprecating and be human?”

The show, which Puth also executive-produces, takes its comedy cues from some of the pop star’s favorite film franchises and TV series: The Naked Gun, Police Academy, Airplane! and Family Guy. “I'm not a comedian, and I don't claim to be a comedian,” says Puth, “but I love how comedians can command an audience and make them feel an emotion they didn't feel five seconds prior to them getting onstage. It's what I can do as a musician, but those are songs about heartbreak, real life and real things going on in my life. And I just simply like to do things that I haven’t done before. And I've never done anything like this before.”

Here are some additional TV projects that help define Charlie Puth:

The shows that were formative for me as a teen: The golden age of MTV

Well, I didn't watch a whole lot; I was in band camp. But MTV, when MTV didn't just play 9 million episodes of Ridiculousness — when there was Pimp My Ride and Ciara music videos … just MTV in general. We were in the golden age of it.

A show that inspired my work as a musician: American Idol

It’s maybe a boring answer, but American Idol — how there was a life after the show ended. When Kelly Clarkson won, there was what felt like a show in itself: Now you're following Kelly Clarkson's career, now you're following Ruben Studdard's career, now you're following Fantasia Barrino's career, after being so heavily invested in the TV show. It's like listening to a really good song. They jam it on the radio, and everybody loves it. But you listen to it five years later, and the song has a completely new meaning. It just lives on forever.

The shows I can watch over and over again: ‘90s Nickelodeon shows

I’m grouping them all together: Hey Arnold!, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Rugrats. There are so many. It's comedy, and it's entertaining. But when you watch as an adult, I'm like, “I can't believe they let that air.” It’s sophisticated humor. I don't know if that exists so much anymore. I was watching a new episode of SpongeBob SquarePants today right before this, and it just doesn't feel anything like it did in the very beginning. I mean, great respect for that still being on [after 25 seasons]. But it just didn't feel anything like it did in the first couple of seasons.

The SpongeBob episode “Band Geeks,” I think, is one of the best episodes of television. When you watch that, you'll understand where all this stuff comes from in [my] show.

Shows I love that might surprise people: Pawn Stars, Antiques Roadshow

The backstory of Pawn Stars is it completely saving the History Channel. The History Channel was going out of business, they were going to take it off everywhere, and Pawn Stars came along. I might be paraphrasing this, but I'm pretty sure that show saved the entire network. And I'm fascinated with Antiques Roadshow. Really anything where there are real-life people — just normal people — on TV, I find it fascinating, because everybody has such a cool story.

All six episodes of The Charlie Puth Show will be released Oct. 4 on The Roku Channel.