Getting back to Chuck: Looking back at the pilot, did you know that it was going to be as successful as it is upon first glance?
You never know. Television especially is so fickle, and pilots, some are the greatest things in the world that are ever shot [and they] never see the light of day. But I had every faith in the world that this could be exactly what it's turning out to be. I read the script and I loved every second of it and was so excited that they cast me in the role, and when we were shooting the pilot, it was fun and exciting every day, getting to do a comedy, drama, action, romance, mystery... It's literally wearing every hat as an actor. I can totally believe that the media would respond to it and appreciate it, but it's also tough because it's a brand-new genre. It's not an action show, it's not a comedy, it's not a drama, it's not even really an action-dramedy — it's so much more layered than that. It's really like watching a mini-movie every week. And I feel like audiences are starting to understand that now, and starting to stay with it. People are starting to say, ''You know what? I used to watch Prison Break, and now I want to watch Chuck.'' Or, ''I used to watching Dancing With the Stars, and now I'll watch Chuck.'' I'm just hoping that continues to happen. And who knows, maybe the strike could end up being a good thing. Maybe in this downtime when nobody has any new episodes, people will go and say, ''You know that show Chuck? I never gave it a chance, or I never had the time to give it a chance, so I'm going to go online and grab those episodes now, and check it out.'' And maybe by the time the strike's over, they're all caught up and they're in love with it and they want to stay with it..

Even before the new episodes stopped airing, there were tons of hard-core fans of Chuck that became so deeply invested in it. Do you think this could get to, say, Comic-Con levels?
I absolutely think that it can. We were at Comic-Con this year, before the premiere. They showed our pilot, even [before] any [advertisements began airing]. [People] packed the room. There were about 2,000 people in there. There were no more seats. We got a standing ovation for the pilot — it was incredible. So I can only assume from that, and all the bloggers and all the fans that have continued to stay with us, by next year, if Comic-Con has us back, I'm hoping to make an even bigger presence and give love back to those fans and thank them for their support. .

Have you found yourself having any fans you haven't expected? Are they all geeks?
I will say that it is a huge cross-section of fans. I've had moms, dads, kids, young guys, young cool guys, young geek guys, young geek girls, young cool girls, some elderly folk. The thing about it, first of all, is that we're an 8 o'clock show, and we're not really racy. So we've got the family-friendly feel before the show even started, which surprised me, because I didn't even really think about that. I was thinking about ''Yeah, this is kind of a cool, hip, blowing-cars-up, making-people-laugh kind of show,'' and not realizing that the concept really is something that parents would be fine with their kids taking in every Monday. And so what I've found so often are entire families are sitting around watching it together. And if it's not entire families, it's a bunch of roommates that will sit around and watch it together. People that I know, and people that I don't know, have just told me, ''We all sit around on Mondays and we watch Chuck. That's what we do together.'' And I'm like, ''Wow, that's awesome.'' I have a whole group of friends that watched Lost when it was on. It wraps you up and takes you in like that. And [knowing that] people are doing that with Chuck, it's the most incredible thing. And I'm so touched by it. I'm just so appreciative of every fan out there. There are fans that come up to me and say, ''I hate television, but I love Chuck.'' That just floors me. .

Since you play a geek so convincingly, I have to ask you one more question: Are you, in fact, a geek in real life, or do you just play one on TV?
I'm totally a geek. People don't realize. Let me just put it this way: I got the videogame Rock Band like four days ago, and I haven't left the house. I've had a group of buddies over for like four days, and [it's] all we've been doing. We're up to about 300,000 fans. I'm not going to lie. We're touring all over the world right now. We've got our jet, we've got our roadies and a PR firm. We're just trying to make it into the hall of fame right now. That's where we're at. Am I a geek? Absolutely. .

Need to catch up on Chuck? Watch full episodes online at NBC.com.