It’s easy to gripe that writers should be spending more time generating original ideas, but it’s a lot harder to successfully pitch, say, a new series about a high school chemistry teacher who morphs into a terrorizing drug dealer (the once-in-a-lifetime Breaking Bad) than a tried-and-true formula that serves up nostalgia.
As streaming competition heats up over the coveted kids’ demographic, Amazon Studios is teaming up with Genius Brands International, a prominent maker of animated entertainment, to launch a new channel that will target youngsters ranging in age from toddlers to tweens.
Sunday’s premiere of Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access drove a record number of single day sign-ups for CBS’ digital streaming subscription service. While no specific numbers were reported, the network claims that today’s record outstrips the previous one spurred by the 2017 Grammy Awards back in February.
Disney and the cable company once known as Cablevision are at it again. The two companies, whose fractious carriage negotiations in 2010 resulted in viewers in New York and Connecticut missing 13 minutes of ABC’s broadcast of the Oscars awards ceremonies, are heading for an impasse in current discussions, according to Disney.
Exclusives
NEW YORK (AP) — “Saturday Night Live” says it’s kicking off its 43rd season Sept. 30 with guest host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Jay-Z. For Gosling’s encore host appearance […]
Here’s one more lead-up piece to Megyn Kelly’s Today debut on Monday, once again laying out what’s riding on the $17 million star new morning hour. The highlights? Kelly doesn’t care much about the skepticism around her show (little surprise), the program aims to be “fun and uplifting and empowering” (not what she’s known for) and her M.O. will be “I’m just sharing more of who I am” (and who is that again?).
And it’s doing that through sponsorship and brand-integration opportunities in its free original video series. These include Ellen’s Show Me More Show (behind the scenes with Ellen DeGeneres), which nabbed L.L. Bean and STX Entertainment as U.S. sponsors, and Ryan Seacrest’s singing competition Best.Cover.Ever., which will be exclusively sponsored by Johnson & Johnson.
WGBC, WMDM To Launch Newscasts
Mike Reed’s duopoly of WGBC and WMDN will launch Twin State News beginning Sept. 25 at 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. WGBC is a Fox affiliate that carries NBC programming on a subchannel and operates WMDN through an LMA.
Bounce announced its primetime lineup on Thursday. Mon. Oct. 2 will feature the world premiere of the new comedy series, “Grown Folks,” the fifth season premiere of the hit sitcom, “Family Time,” and […]
Matthew Broderick will assume the role of the adult narrator on Fox’s live musical based on the 1983 film “A Christmas Story.” Composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote the show’s music and will add new songs to the television version of their 2013 Broadway musical.
Shannon Bream will host “Fox News @ Night,” which kicks off Oct. 30 (when Laura Ingraham’s new show also debuts). The new show will replace a re-air of Tucker Carlson’s 8 p.m. show.
A salvo of promotions for the forthcoming “Megyn Kelly Today” on NBC aren’t focusing on the hard-edged reporting style that helped make her name. Rather, spots and billboards have her shaking hands, holding up coffee and gushing about her fondness for the film “Overboard.” all part of an effort to emphasize the softer side of the network’s reported $17 million bet on the former Fox anchor.
The head of the ABC O&Os has been named president of Disney International’s Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, effective Jan. 1, succeeding Diego Lerner and reporting to International Chairman Andy Bird. She will be stepping down from the station group, but no word on a replacement there.
“Star Trek: Discovery,” the first new TV series in the franchise in 12 years. will debut on CBS on Sept. 24, with the rest of its 15-episode run streaming on the CBS All Access service. The series gets its closest look yet here, including the turbulent development and production period it weathered and the expectations ahead of it. The show’s ultimate worthiness, its creators say, will lie in “the historical ‘Star Trek’ values it carries forward and battle-tests in settings that a modern audience will recognize.”
CBS has made a 13-episode series order from Dick Wolf for a new procedural that will take him off his usual network and out of his regular corner of law enforcement. The tentatively-titled “FBI” will cover the inner workings of the bureau’s New York office, and it will be Wolf’s first drama series launching off NBC since 2003.
The TV series is called “The Hunt” and is based on real-life events around Nazi hunters in the 1970s. No network is yet attached.
Rob Thomas is adapting the web series into a comedy featuring Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley, who will star and co-write the script. The show’s production follows criticism that CBS has featured a lack of women in its lineup.
‘Live With Kelly,’ ‘Ellen’ Come Back Strong
The week ending Sept. 10 featured strong new season premieres for several talk shows. Second place Live with Kelly and Ryan kicked off its new season jumping 16% from the week before to a 14-week high. Ellen opened its 15th season with a third place 2.1, up 40% from its previous all-rerun frame.
The hurricane relief telethon featuring Justin Bieber, Beyonce, and George Clooney earned $14 million during the telethon itself and another $41 million after it was over. Comic Relief USA will distribute the funds to its partner charities, which include Rebuild Texas Fund, Habitat for Humanity and Save the Children.
