Exclusives
Some Question Mixing Reality TV, TV News
Breaking Greenville, is an eight-episode “character-driven docu-soap” scheduled to debut in December on Turner’s TruTV. It follows the people reporting and producing the news at co-owned ABC affiliate WABG and CBS affiliate WXVT in the country’s 190th market, Greenville, Miss. While some observers are critical of the concept, producer Adam Paul says: “These are real people who value their jobs and go after them, and care about the people they’re serving.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Lisa Kudrow has no problem slipping in and out of her character Valerie Cherish when talking about the return HBO’s “The Comeback”. (The series follows Cherish, […]
TV programmers have a major visibility problem in the advertising marketplace. Executives from Discovery Communications, Walt Disney and Scripps Networks during earnings calls last week described a sense of uncertainty around how marketers will spend through the remainder of the year.
Delcianna Winders, the PETA foundation’s deputy general counsel, said that if Discovery’s promo for Eaten Alive is to be believed, an anaconda snake was tormented and suffered for the sake of ratings. “Shame on this pseudo wildlife expert for tormenting this animal, and shame on the Discovery Channel for giving him the incentive to do so,” Winders said.
Paul Buccieri is exiting his post as head of ITV Studios U.S. to join A+E Networks in a new role overseeing A&E Network and History.
Participant Media announced the change Monday, saying Evan Shapiro had left the company’s cable channel to be succeeded by Kent Rees, who has been the cable network’s EVP of marketing and scheduling.
The stunt hits a 2014 high for Discovery but does not match last year’s Grand Canyon walk. The 6.7 million viewers was almost half the viewers that tuned in at the height of the Grand Canyon coverage. Still, with an average 5.8 million viewers for the the entire telecast, it marks the network’s most watched this year and the second highest since 2010.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was a meltingly hot October day outside the East Los Angeles warehouse converted to a wrestling ring. Inside, things were about to get equally torrid. […]
Next up to jump on the unbundling bandwagon may be Starz: The premium cable channel is planning to launch an online-only subscription service in international markets over the coming months, and Starz CEO Chris Albrecht suggested during the company’s earnings call Thursday that it will likely do the same in the U.S.
Freshmen senators Jeff Flake and Martin Heinrich traveled to an uninhabited tropical island north of Australia this summer for a week documented by the Discovery Channel on a special that airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET. They hope their broader point — that two politicians can oppose each other on policy yet work together to accomplish something — isn’t lost on viewers or their colleagues.
Rich Ross has been named president of Discovery Channel. He will join Discovery Communications in January and be based at the company’s Los Angeles office. Ross will oversee creative and brand strategy, development, production, marketing and all day-to-day operations for the network and report to David Zaslav, president-CEO of Discovery Communications.
Major cable companies are getting worried they could face stiffer competition from online video, thanks to a new government proposal. The FCC is working on a plan to give online TV services all of the same regulatory perks that cable companies get. Putting online companies on equal footing with cable providers like Comcast could usher in a new wave of competition in the TV industry — potentially meaning more choices and lower prices for consumers.
Time Warner Inc.’s HBO is eliminating more than 150 positions, according to a person with knowledge of the plans, joining the job cuts taking place across the company to improve profitability.
Fox Sports’ local streaming talks with MLB have hit a snag, putting a crimp in a years-long negotiation that had picked up in recent weeks, according to several sources. As little as three weeks ago, both sides believed that a deal was close. But talks cooled as Fox Sports simultaneously was negotiating long-term local TV rights extensions with two of its teams: the St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sketch-comedy shows are like frozen-yogurt shops: While there are probably way too many, most are good enough to stay afloat. Still, it takes a special breed […]
