Heitshusen had been at Des Moines, Iowa, NBC affiliate WHO for 17 years when she said she was denied an on-air contract in 2020. She filed an age and gender discrimination lawsuit against the station and parent company, Nexstar, alleging a widespread practice of removing older, female staffers from the air because of their looks. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants on Wednesday afternoon.
Blackbird plc, the developer and seller of cloud video platform, Blackbird, has added Anne de Kerckhove to its board as the senior independent non-executive director and audit committee chair. Additionally, John Honeycutt, […]
NBC is developing Something Wicked, a multi-camera comedy starring June Diane Raphael and written and executive produced by Raphael and Dickinson creator Alena Smith. Something Wicked is described as a comedy with a Bewitched-type premise and an homage to TV sitcom classics. It examines the condition of modern adult womanhood and how even with witchcraft, balancing everything is impossible.
Chris Harrison is getting back into the TV dating game. The former Bachelor host will co-create and host a new dating show for Merit Street Media, the new cable and streaming network led by Dr. Phil McGraw. The network is set to launch on April 2, with Harrison also making regular contributions to the nightly talk show Dr. Phil Primetime.
Exclusives
The exec, who will continue to oversee Sony’s global TV business, will work with SPE CEO Tony Vinciquerra “as we chart our path forward through a rapidly changing and increasingly complex entertainment industry.”
Both will reprise their roles from Big Bang Theory after last appearing together in the show’s final episode.
C-SPAN has started searching for a new CEO with longtime co-CEOs Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain stepping down this year. It’s a rare changing of the guard for the nonprofit public affairs network, which turns 45 on March 19. C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb served as CEO since the company’s founding in 1978, with Kennedy and Swain (then co-presidents) stepping into the co-CEO roles in 2012.
So You Think You Can Dance co-creator and former judge Nigel Lythgoe has been accused of sexual assault for the fourth time in less than three months. “Lythgoe’s sexual assault and battery were so traumatizing that Plaintiff no longer feels like the confident, capable, and independent woman that she was before the incident,” says Jane Doe of the alleged 2018 incident in a filing Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The sale comes after McMahon stepped down from his posts at TKO Group due to a lawsuit accusing him of sex trafficking and battery by a former WWE employee.
The event and publishing executive says she’s next looking for “a new opportunity with a global scope.”
She oversaw the production of Blue’s Clues and drew on her own childhood for The Backyardigans, in which five cartoon animals imagine their yard as a place of otherworldly adventure.
Hudock will supervise the communications strategy and media outreach for the entire MSNBC portfolio, including Morning Joe, the network’s daytime MSNBC Reports programs, primetime shows and talent, weekend coverage and longform productions, as well as non-linear content and live events. He will also serve as the principal communications lead for MSNBC President Rashida Jones. Hudock will continue to report to Stephen Labaton, EVP of communications for NBCUniversal News Group.
Trade association IABM has appointed Darren Whitehead to director of sales and marketing. In his new, expanded role, Whitehead will be responsible for the strategies, activities and performance of all […]
After anchoring with Gray Television’s Northern News Now (the Duluth, Minn., region’s NBC, CBS, CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates) for nearly two years, veteran journalist Paul Brown has been promoted to […]
The Broadcasters Foundation of America bestowed its Golden Mike Award to Hearst Corp. EVP and COO Jordan Wertlieb and its Lifetime Achievement Award to journalist and Inside Edition Anchor Deborah Norville. A packed grand ballroom at New York’s Plaza hotel resonated with the memory of longtime BFOA Chair Phil Lombardo, who died early this year. Pictured (l-r): Scott Herman, BFOA chairman; Jordan Wertlieb; and Tim McCarthy, BFOA president (Renee Cassis photo).
Austin Stowell (Catch-22 TV series) is taking on Mark Harmon’s signature NCIS character Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Stowell has been cast as young Gibbs in CBS’s new drama NCIS: Origins, a prequel to the venerable procedural, which has a straight-to-series order for the 2024-25 broadcast season. CBS Studios is producing.
Both men — bounced from running NBCUniversal and CNN, respectively, over sex scandals — now find themselves at private equity firm RedBird Capital, which is behind Skydance Media’s ongoing machinations to take over Shari Redstone’s struggling Paramount entertainment empire.
