The syndicated entertainment news and talk variety strip will fade to black on April 28 after two seasons.
‘Hollywood Today Live’ Renewed For Season 2
With the support of Fox Television Stations, Media General agrees to a sophomore season for its syndicated entertainment news strip. Garcelle Beauvais becomes its fourth co-host.
Tony Optican, head of programming at Media General, says both his company and the Fox Television Stations are working to figure out how to increase the distribution of the entertainment-news show despite the fact that Media General has no syndication sales apparatus set up to market the freshman syndie.
WFTC Drops Local Show For ‘Hollywood Today Live’
The daily hour-long entertainment news and variety show from Media General’s BiteSize TV, which got a summer test run last year, returns to weekday syndication on Sept. 14 on Fox and Media General stations.
Exclusives
BiteSize’s Hollywood Today Live, which started on the Web in 2012, makes its network TV debut on Fox, marking first time the network has launched a series based on an online show. The move shows how online content producers are expanding their reach with conventional media.
The Fox station group’s new originals, Hollywood Today Live and The Daily Helpline, are posting modest ratings in the first week of their six-week summer tests on select stations.
Fox is testing three shows that are a good fit for its stations, and that make financial sense for Fox and its syndication partners, even if the shows don’t roll out nationally. “If these shows don’t go into national syndication and they work for us, and we can afford to do them, I don’t care if they’re on anywhere else,” says Frank Cicha, SVP of programming at Fox Television Stations.
Hollywood Today Live and The Daily Help Line will debut on July 14, with Laughs premiering Aug. 2 on select Fox Television Stations.
