Warner Bros. is finalizing agreements with the cast of Friends for a reunion special that will likely be used to launch the HBO Max streaming service this spring, people familiar with the matter said. Under terms being discussed, each of the show’s six stars would receive between $2.25 million and $2.5 million.
Newly combined ViacomCBS is working on combining media assets for a new streaming service that will build on CBS All Access, according to people familiar with the matter. While ViacomCBS executives haven’t made any firm decisions, they are considering creating a service with advertisements that will combine CBS All Access with Viacom assets including Pluto TV, Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures.
Free streaming TV service Pluto TV, a ViacomCBS company, today with Vidaa International, a subsidiary of Hisense, the third-largest television manufacturer in the world, announced a multi-year global pact bringing […]
‘Lego Masters’ Premiere Scores For Fox
The premiere of Fox’s Lego Masters built up a solid audience on Wednesday. The competition series delivered the second best series-debut rating of the season in adults 18-49 — and the only one to beat it had an NFL lead-in.
Exclusives
A 2016 dispute that included a complaint about Judy Sheindlin’s $47 million salary has been resolved by a mediator.
Movie studio Warner Bros. and HBO Max are launching a new division that will specialize in making movies specifically for streaming, the companies said Wednesday. The unit is designed to produce films for HBO Max, the upcoming streaming service owned by the Burbank-based studio’s parent company, AT&T Inc. The new division is expected to make eight to 10 films a year for the direct-to-consumer platform, which launches in May.
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) today announced the election of its new board leaders and members. Molly Phillips, executive director and general manager of Iowa PBS, has been elected chair; […]
WWE stock has sunk sub-$40 per share in premarket trading Thursday, following the pro wrestling company’s release of 4Q and full-year 2019 financials. While WWE reported Thursday it beat fourth-quarter 2019 earnings estimates, the company missed on revenue expectations, despite reaching a record high thanks to its big SmackDown on Fox deal.
The freshman syndicated court show has been renewed in more than 95% of U.S. markets.
The State of the Union address drew a considerably smaller audience on the broadcast networks than it did a year ago, at least in the preliminary ratings from Tuesday. President Trump’s address and the Democratic response averaged 15.23 million viewers from 9-11 p.m. ET on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC in Nielsen’s fast national ratings. That’s down about 25% from the comparable figure last year.
The magazine won’t publish an online cover featuring Victoria Fuller after photos surfaced of her modeling “White Lives Matter” apparel.
Six-time Emmy winner Gene Reynolds, known for his writing, directing and producing for the lauded socially conscious 1970s TV shows M*A*S*H and Lou Grant, died Monday. He was 96.
‘Masked Singer’ Hopes For Big Bounce
A new episode of the game, usually Fox’s most popular primetime program or close to it, airs on Wednesday. A special edition of the show, with Lil’ Wayne as the mystery guest, had its biggest audience ever Sunday when 23.7 million people watched it following the Super Bowl, according to Nielsen.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shannen Doherty is battling a recurrence of breast cancer that has progressed to stage four, telling fans “it’s a bitter pill to swallow.” “I definitely have […]
Rookie ‘Kelly Clarkson’ Keeps Climbing
Despite the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 20, and tons of preemptions for President Trump’s impeachment hearings, which wiped out programming in many markets for the rest of the week, Clarkson climbed 8% from the prior frame to a first-place five-week high 1.4 live-plus-same-day national Nielsen rating, and surged 17% among women 25-54 to its highest demo score since the week of Sept. 30.
‘911: Lone Star’ Gets Post Super-Bowl Boost
Fox’s heavy promotion of 911: Lone Star during the Super Bowl paid off with improved ratings Monday. The Bachelor slipped a little with an extended episode on ABC, though it still led the adults 18-49 rankings in primetime.
Warner Bros. Television Group President-Chief Content Officer Peter Roth has signed a contract extension with the company that will make him chairman of the unit, a newly created position. In this role, Roth will continue to lead the group’s TV production, including U.S. production of scripted, unscripted and alternative series for broadcast, cable and streaming.
The Super Bowl scored its first ratings increase in five years, with just under 100 million viewers on average watching Fox’s broadcast Sunday. The game drew an average of 99.9 million viewers and a 41.7 household ratings, both slight upticks from CBS’s broadcast of Super Bowl LIII in 2019 (98.2 million, 41.1).
Further incorporating Hulu, the premium on-demand and live TV streaming service, into Walt Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer & International division has resulted in the departure of Randy Freer, Hulu’s CEO.
