The AT&T-owned company is seeking to reduce costs by as much as 20% as the pandemic drains income from movie tickets, cable subscriptions and TV ads, according to people familiar with the matter.
Conan O’Brien is heading to Largo at The Coronet in Los Angeles to shoot his TBS talk show, becoming the first of the latenight hosts to move his show out of his house and make tentative steps to a return to full production. Conan will begin filming at the comedy club from Monday, July 6, in accordance with government and industry health and safety protocols.
Exclusives
With most of the TV industry shutting down production because of the COVID-19 emergency, Conan O’Brien will be making new episodes of his TBS show from his home. Conan will be shot on an iPhone and the comic will interview guests via video chat. “The quality of my work will not go down because technically that’s not possible,” O’Brien said.
The march to the launch of HBO Max in May is driving changes across WarnerMedia. John Stankey, AT&T chief operating officer and WarnerMedia chairman, told investors on Wednesday that cable powerhouses TNT and TBS will lean into more unscripted programming as WarnerMedia steers its investment in high-end scripted programming to the nascent subscription streaming platform.
Following through on plans articulated at TCA winter press tour, WarnerMedia emphasized its new strategic direction during a brisk upfront pitch, highlighting a more blended approach to the formerly drama-centric TNT and comedy-focused TBS.
TNT’s Executive Vice President of Original Programming Sarah Aubrey has been named the head of original content for WarnerMedia Streaming Service. In addition, Brett Weitz was also named general manager of TBS and TNT.
After 25 years on late-night TV, Conan O’Brien hosted his final hour-long show on Thursday night. Don’t worry — O’Brien isn’t really going anywhere. In January, Conan will return to TBS with a new 30-minute format. The network unveiled this plan in May, though on Thursday, O’Brien revealed the show will take a three-month hiatus.
The telecast of the New York Yankees’ 7-2 win over the Oakland Athletics was the most-watched program on cable Wednesday night, based on overnight delivery. It reached a peak of 7.5 million viewers, the best for an AL wild-card game ever on TBS. Its average viewership of 6.4 million was up 51% from TBS’s 2016 broadcast of the AL game between Baltimore and Toronto and 45% from last year’s NL game between Arizona and Colorado.
Fox, MLB, TBS Turn Up The Tech To 11
The three networks carrying post-season baseball have an enhanced technological playbook that includes ubiquitous on-field audio, high-quality slo-mo from new perspectives, data-enhanced graphics, some 4K UHD and, possibly, player- and coach-mounted cameras.
Monday night’s NCAA championship game, which saw Villanova crush Michigan 79-62, drew the lowest overnight rating in the history of the tournament. Across TBS, TNT and TruTV, the tournament’s championship game earned a 10.3 overnight rating. The previous low for a NCAA championship game was the 11.2 for the 2004 contest between UConn and Georgia Tech.
A CBS spokeswoman said Lundquist had back surgery last fall and decided to pass on doing this year’s men’s college basketball tournament. Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery and Grant Hill will continue to announce the Final Four and championship game.
Conan has the trappings of a traditional latenight show, but Conan O’Brien may be taking more artistic risks than anyone else in that time slot.
Among various tech innovations at this fall’s coverage of baseball’s post-season play are new — and more — infield mics that drive enhanced audio production through an IP routing infrastructure.
Kevin Reilly, a veteran network executive, aims to transform two cable networks that have come to be known for the repeats they carry.
