coronavirus

Production has paused on the new NBC series due to a positive Covid test in Zone A, which traditionally includes on-screen talent. The network has asked those in close contact to self-isolate as required by state and county guidelines. It’s not clear when production will resume but the April 1 premiere date is not expected to be affected.

New camera angles and innovative AR graphics will mark Tampa’s Super Bowl LV with a sparser crowd allowing for novel camera positions and experimentation.

The National Association of Broadcasters said it has done research that shows there is growing sense that the 2021 NAB Show could be an in-person convention this October. Not surprisingly, NAB said that the availability of a vaccine for COVID-19 will be the biggest influencer (for three in five respondents) in whether to attend an in-person event.

Calling a hospital to see if a bed was available for a COVID patient isn’t part of the job description for Chauncy Glover, news anchor at KTRK Houston. Neither is guiding a viewer online to find a place to be vaccinated. He’s done both, and isn’t alone. Listeners and readers across the country are reaching out directly to journalists for help during the coronavirus pandemic, and many are responding.

Keeping announcers separated until game day has been CBS’ protocol this season. With many of the ancillary events surrounding Super Bowl week either canceled or happening virtually — along with the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers remaining at their own complexes to practice — the week is nearly structured like their first meeting on Nov. 29. Tony Romo and Jim Nantz were inseparable when CBS broadcast the Super Bowl two years ago. Next week, they won’t see each other until they are in the broadcast booth a couple hours prior to kickoff.

After calling for a pause in productions, entertainment industry groups said that the easing of COVID-19 restrictions locally means filming of commercials can resume.

The Good Morning America host is currently not experiencing any severe symptoms from COVID-19, according to people familiar with the situation. Strahan, who also provides analysis on the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, appeared remotely during last Sunday’s NFC championship game.

More than a dozen projects from studios like Warner Bros., Disney, Universal and CBS are resuming shooting or planning to do so in February.

With coronavirus infections dipping nationwide, one might think Major League Baseball’s owners would feel a bit more optimistic about spring training starting in a few weeks. Instead, they want to delay or even shorten the upcoming season, hoping that widespread vaccine distribution would create safer conditions for players and allow fans to buy tickets to attend again. The Players Association, however, argues that MLB has no legal grounds to deviate from the 2021 schedule that has been set since July without its consent and expects to push ahead with a full slate.

Dick Lippin, a veteran communications executive, offers perspective on how the entertainment industry can help the nation rebound from the COVID-19 crisis.

In its post-Volicon period, compliance monitoring companies vying to fill the void are expanding their offerings; tapping artificial intelligence for automation and cloud-based methods; and building more versatile tools. Above, TAG Video recently received certification to monitor Dolby Atmos.

“No new episode of #ThisIsUs tonight – Covid-related production delays in LA have forced us to delay a few weeks,” series creator Dan Fogelman tweeted Tuesday. “But the next few are big ones, and we are close, so we hope you’ll hang in there with us. Sorry!”

Instead of a countdown celebration to the Tokyo Olympics, the focus is on the virus and speculation around the Olympics being canceled. Should they take place during a spreading pandemic — vaccine or no vaccine? Organizers say they will with exact details yet to be revealed. It’s been this way since the Olympics were postponed almost 10 months ago. There are always more questions than answers.

The media needs to be discerning about the vaccination-related events it reports, and how it does so, and avoid sensationalizing such incidents.

Oliver Darcy: “As we cover D.C. politics and the fallout from last week’s attack, we should not forget that thousands of Americans continue to lose their lives each day to this ruthless virus. And while the vaccine rollout is gradually improving, the situation right now is, frankly, very alarming and urgent.”

The CW CEO Mark Pedowitz talks about doing more straight-to-series orders, the future of the DC brand and finding hope in freshman fare like Walker, Superman & Lois and Kung Fu.

After a brief pause following County Health Department recommendations, Hollywood’s major studios are getting cameras rolling again. The industry had paused much of its Los Angeles-based filming around the holidays and into the early part of January when it became clear a coronavirus surge was underway.

Nielsen said its local ratings service is now not accredited because the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted its ability to manage the panels it uses to measure what viewers are watching. The Media Rating Council accreditation of Nielsen’s local people meter and set meter service in large- and mid-sized markets has been put on “hiatus” while the company develops new ways to recruit and maintain its panels. Nielsen’s system for measuring viewership in the smallest markets is not MRC accredited.

Julie Wolfe, news director at Tegna’s WHAS Louisville, Ky., has tackled hiring and training new personnel during COVID by leaning on pre-pandemic habits. Those include constantly networking even before newsroom positions open, lots of one-on-one communication with new personnel and building a newsroom culture with a ready embrace of digital tools.

The syndicated talk show from WB’s Telepictures Productions stayed dark this week rather than returning to production as scheduled because of the surge in coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County. Ellen has been airing reruns since Dec. 10 after the host was diagnosed with COVID-19. The plan had been to resume production on Jan. 4, but that was untenable given the health risk and the fact that Southern California’s hospitals are already over-extended.

Fremantle is the latest company to extend the holiday production hiatus on a number of its shows to protect against the latest surge in COVID-19 numbers. Daytime game shows The Price Is Right and Let’s Make A Deal have extended their breaks coming out of the Christmas holidays. Both were originally set to return to production in the first two weeks of January but will now not start back until the end of the month.

The 2021 Grammys, originally scheduled for Jan. 31, have been postponed due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19, multiple sources confirm to Rolling Stone. Organizers have not confirmed a new date, but sources say they are aiming to hold the event sometime in March.

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, two additional members of the coaching staff and two players have tested positive for COVID-19 and will not be available for the AFC wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night if the game remains as scheduled. In making the announcement Tuesday, the Browns said special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer will serve as the acting head coach. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt is expected to call the offensive plays in place of Stefanski, a source told ESPN.

The National Association of Broadcasters has joined the COVID Collaborative, which comprises groups and experts working on a unified approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. NAB President Gordon Smith will serve as a member of the collaborative’s advisory council.

Film and TV production in Los Angeles has been exempt from COVID restrictions and continued after the current new stay-at-home order was instituted in early December. But, amid an unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections and COVID-19 deaths in L.A. County, the vast majority of TV studios and streamers have postponed January production for one or more weeks. Like its traditional media counterparts, Netflix also has hit the pause button on its Los Angeles-based productions, which had been slated to start filming this week, until at least mid-January.

Confirming a plan it started exploring last fall, the NCAA said it will host the entire men’s basketball tournament — the event known as March Madness — in Indiana due to Covid-19. The extraordinary initiative is aimed at ensuring that this year’s 67-game extravaganza does not meet the same fate as the 2020 edition. The cancellation of the tournament last year was one of the most jarring spectacles of the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Around the country, educators and local television stations have teamed up to help teachers make their broadcast debuts and engage children who are stuck in the doldrums of distance learning. The idea — in some ways a throwback to the early days of public television — has supplemented online lessons for some families, and serves a more critical role: reaching students who, without reliable internet access or a laptop at home, have been left behind.

On-set commercial production has been shuttered temporarily in Southern California because of surging coronavirus outbreaks in the region, effective immediately. The major studios and streamers, meanwhile, are already on production hiatus in Southern California until mid-January. The agreement to halt local commercial production was announced Sunday night by SAG-AFTRA, the Producer Guild of America and the Joint Policy Committee of the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

Citing an unidentified person close to the family, CNN says the 87-year-old King is undergoing treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Disney Television Studios has joined other major TV studios in pushing the post-holidays start of production for Los Angeles-based shows amid an unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections and Covid-19 deaths in Los Angeles County. Sixteen scripted series produced by Disney TV Studios’ ABC Signature and 20th Television divisions will remain on holiday hiatus until Jan. 18, when production will resume. The shows had previously been slated to return to production on Jan. 11 or a few days earlier.

Universal Television will be extending the holiday hiatus on six productions amid a COVID-19 spike which include Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Good Girls, the company announced on Thursday. Other affected series include Hacks, Never Have I Ever, Mr. Mayor and Kenan. Production is expected to resume Jan. 11. Brooklyn Nine-Nine will start back on Jan. 18.

Warner Bros. Television has become the second major TV studios to push the production return date for the series that had been slated to resume filming in Los Angeles next week. It joins CBS Studios, with other studios and streamers expected to follow. All American, Bob ❤️ Abishola, B Positive, Call Me Kat, Mom, Shameless, and You, which had been scheduled to return from the holiday break the week of Jan. 4 will all prolong their production hiatus.