The Television Critics Association press tour is cuurently underway and today brought us some more news (including a premiere date) about Elvis Costello‘s new TV variety show, “Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…”.

Sundance will be debuting Elvis Costello’s new show Spectacle: Elvis Costello with… on December 3rd at 9:00 p.m. ET / PT. Spectacle, a talk show that features artists talking about music and their influences, is produced by Elton John’s company Rocket Pictures. John is also one of Costello’s guests.

Costello attended TCA yesterday and explained the premise of the show. He wants the artists to talk about things they normally wouldn’t discuss in the classic five minute late night network interview.

From the video package, we saw that Bill Clinton is also one of Costello’s guests. On why the former president would be included on a talk show about music (other than his awesome sax playing), Costello said that he felt politicians need the same qualtiies musicians do for success: the ability to command an audience and a grasp of proper cadence. He added that Clinton was probably happy to be on a show just talking about music.

Costello explained that each show will open with a musical number either by the artist or in reference to the artist. “If they’ve just written a song and they want to sing it that’s fine,” he says of the artists promoting their work. But the host points out that the show gives artists an opportunity to showcase themselves in a different light. [TVSquad.com]