TCA Summer Press Tour

Despite CBS programming programming chiefs touting their strides with diversity in front of and behind the camera today, they continued to come under fire by the TCA press corps for mismanaging inclusivity on the network’s reality programs like Big Brother and Survivor. 

CBS Entertainment chief Kelly Kahl and his new programming EVP, Thom Sherman, were peppered with questions about their slate’s comparative lack of female-fronted shows and series featuring people of color yesterday at the summer meeting of the Television Critics Association. “We are absolutely moving in the right direction,” said Kahl, citing a 60% lift in non-white series regulars and ongoing efforts to include more people of color behind the scenes. “We are making progress.”

“PBS itself will not go away, but a number of our stations will,” says PBS President Paula Kerger, cautioning the press about what’s on the line if federal funding is truly yanked. “There Isn’t a Plan B.”

CTAM released its schedule for summer press tour Wednesday. That schedule, which for the first time includes streaming services alongside pay-cable channels such as HBO, Discovery, and TNT, did not include dates for Netflix or Amazon.

Diversity and each of the networks’ track records of hiring women and minorities on both sides of the camera was the overriding theme of the 16-day Television Critics Assn. press tour, which ended Aug. 11. The number of inquiries from journalists on the subject made it clear that the question of when primetime will really begin to resemble America is far from settled, despite the fact that television has made big strides during the past decade.

Glenn Geller, head of CBS Entertainment, when asked about the network’s lack of diversity in its programming, said: “We need to do better. I understand the inclination to look at leads,” he said. “In the terms of ensemble diversity in our new shows, we are more diverse than we were last year. That’s our commitment to diversity, it’s ongoing.”

With a greater supply of U.S. television than can be profitably produced, the industry is “ballooning into a condition of oversupply” that will likely peak in the next two years and then slowly deflate, FX Networks chief John Landgraf said Tuesday.

The Fox hit’s producers say there’s lots of discussion about how the lead characters might fare in another part of the universe. First, there’s room for a crossover between Empire and Lee Daniels’ other musical show, Star, and possibly even more, including spinoffs.

Fox is negotiating with creator Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson for another round of new X-Files episodes, network executives announced during the Television Critics Association fall previews today. Fox is “in significant talks with the three principals,” Fox Entertainment President David Madden said.

Harry Connick Jr.’s new NBCUniversal-produced daytime show will feature many of the trappings of a traditional talker — a live band, celebrity interviews. But what’s also notable is what it won’t have. “We’re not going to play games,” Connick said of his guests Wednesday at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour. “I’m not going to put them in dunk tanks.”

NBC Research President Alan Wurtzel laid out a stat-heavy case for the notion that the pace of change, the accelerating advances of technology, shifts in consumer attitudes and the mainstreaming of new behaviors has effectively dramatically and quickly the TV business.

“I was part of the team that invented how to campaign for Emmy awards,” Starz CEO Chris Albrecht told TV writers Monday at the Television Critics Association meeting. “Trust me, it’s not a level playing field. I spent years inside the TV Academy, working it. It took a lot of money, and there’s a certain momentum that goes along with that.”

Turner’s experiment with reduced ad loads of up to 50% on TNT’s new drama Animal Kingdom this summer has been so successful that the company is already planning on expanding its scope over the next two years.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Three female anchors on cable’s HLN channel saluted Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News Channel newswoman who recently sued the network’s chairman alleging years of […]

This year’s auction to shift public airwaves from carrying TV signals to delivering wireless services for mobile devices has PBS President Paula Kerger concerned a “great deal.” Kerger, speaking Thursday during the PBS portion of the Television Critics Association media tour, said that FCC rules prevent her from discussing individual stations. But she stressed the potential impact of stations going dark.

A week-and-a-half after Netflix revealed a slowdown in subscriber growth, Ted Sarandos took the stage Wednesday at the TV industry’s summer press tour to talk about an area in which the streamer is growing at a rapid clip: original programming. The chief content officer used his platform in front of the Television Critics Association to reveal that he plans to spend more than the already sky-high $6 billion that Netflix has allocated for originals and acquisitions.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Newcomer TV series “Supergirl” landed not at CW, home to fellow DC Comics series “Arrow” and “The Flash,” but at CBS. Why? Precisely because CW […]

CBS Research boss David Poltrack says within five years, more sophisticated measurements will prove that the audience for CBS program content is growing across all platforms.

CSI, which debuted in 2000, will wrap with a two-hour finale on Sept. 27. Original cast members including William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger are returning for the send-off.

Hulu doesn’t want its subscribers to find themselves in a TV coma, so it’s opting to release its upcoming original series in weekly episodes. “With all of our new originals, we will release episodes weekly,” Craig Erwich, head of content at Hulu says. “We want to give viewers the opportunity to discover their favorite shows every week. Like you, we value the shared experience and the joy of the watercooler that is television.”

Empire may have been snubbed by the Television Academy when it comes to the Emmy Awards, but it won redemption from the Television Critics Association, winning the organization’s top prize, Program of the Year.

How much TV is too much? FX’s CEO John Landgraf has been meticulousy keeping tally of the original scripted series on TV, and reported at TCA today that the final number for 2014 was 371. His projection is that the amount will surpass 400 in 2015. “There is too much television,” Landgraf said.

HBO programming chief Michael Lombardo said at the Television Critics Association summer meeting yesterday  that the drama series’ producers are leaning toward three more seasons after the just-concluded season five.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Here’s the latest from the Television Critics Association summer meeting in Beverly Hills, California, at which TV networks and streaming services are presenting details on […]

Researchers say that TV is alive and well, but folks aren’t necessarily watching it over the air. They report that the number of people who watch live television has dropped over the last three years but consumers are still accessing programming by other means.

The Fifth Network, long operating in the shadows of its larger broadcast rivals, is in the midst of a renaissance.

CBS entertainment chief Nina Tassler says the series that will follow Stephen Colbert in late night may not be a talk show. In her executive session at the Television Critics Association, Tassler said the show may not have a host with a comedy background and could, for example, draw on the political world. She also defended CBS’ diversity in primetime this fall, and said she was “pissed” about an Emmy snub for “The Good Wife.”

Curation, curation, curation. That was the message coming out of the major networks last week as they pitched their wares to journos at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. Networks are responding to the sea changes in viewing habits and the ever-increasing volume of original programming offered across the dial by focusing on bulletproof branding. In a crowded landscape where on-demand viewing is growing, networks are scrambling harder than ever to find new shows with built-in audience awareness.

“It is a mission statement to reflect America,” Paul Lee, ABC Entertainment Group president, told the summer meeting of the Television Critics Association on Tuesday. “That’s not so much diversity as authenticity when you reflect America.” The network has the advantage of strong storytellers including Shonda Rhimes, the force behind ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. She’s going for a Thursday-night trifecta with How to Get Away with Murder.

Speaking to reporters on Monday at the summer TV critics’ gathering, Meredith Vieira said she hopes to bring “authenticity” to her new syndicated talk show that premieres Sept. 8.

As the top-rated network in the 18-49 demographic for the first time in a decade, an Olympics-buoyed NBC had plenty to brag about Sunday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. But even with its considerable successes, the network’s top executives — NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt, President Jennifer Salke and president of alternative and latenight programming Paul Telegdy — still spent plenty of time contending with specter of cable television and other emerging outlets.