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Paramount Global controlling shareholder Shari Redstone has increased the seriousness of sale talks in recent months. Sector-related reasons, as well as personal and financial motivations, have added complexity to the deal-making process. Paramount Global’s carriage deal with Charter, set to expire in April, looms over potential sale discussions.

The network’s morning show, where Burleson is a co-host, will originate from Las Vegas this week. Burleson will also be an analyst on the Super Bowl pregame show and a commentator on Nickelodeon’s game broadcast. Add in co-hosting Nickelodeon’s weekly NFL Slimetime show and the usual demands of Super Bowl week, and Burleson will not have much downtime.

His journalism career began at a New Mexico newspaper in 1947. In 1953 he joined Broadcasting magazine in Washington and began covering television and radio with a passion that, except for a detour to CBS, continued for the next 50-plus years in positions of increasing influence, culminating in the trade magazine’s editorship. After that, he led the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation, never losing sight of his goal of full First Amendment rights for the electronic media. He was 94.

Annika Pergament’s new weekday newscast on NY1, The Rush Hour, wants to offer an epilogue to newsworthy stories viewers have invested in “to see how they pan out.” A full transcript of the conversation is included.

She moves from KJRH Tulsa to oversee Sinclair’s Oklahoma City duopoly.

The man trying to derail a Fox Corp. TV station license renewal claims that alleged false reporting by corporate sibling Fox News Channel about the 2020 presidential election can be taken into account by federal regulators. Former Fox executive Preston Padden, in a filing Wednesday with the FCC, said the agency in considering the character of a TV station licensee seeking renewal is allowed to evaluate the licensee’s conduct elsewhere.

The station group moves her from Richmond, Va., to oversee WBMA-WABM and WTTO in Alabama.

In a heated question and answer session with Mark Zuckerberg, Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley asked the Meta CEO if he has personally compensated any of the victims and their families for what they have been through. “I don’t think so,” Zuckerberg replied. “There’s families of victims here,” Hawley said. “Would you like to apologize to them?” As parents rose and held up their children’s pictures, Zuckerberg turned to face them and apologized for what they have been through.

The programmer orders 278 new episodes of shows from Free Food Studios.

Netflix founder and executive chair Reed Hastings has gifted 2 million shares, worth over $1.1 billion at the stock’s current price, to the Mountain View, Calif.-based Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The move was noted in a recent SEC filing without the beneficiary named. The donation was a big chunk of Hastings’ Netflix stock — about 40%. He still owns 2,991,541 shares, the filing said. The stock closed Monday at $575.08.

Reba McEntire, fresh off her run as a coach on NBC’s The Voice, will star in an untitled comedy that has earned a pilot order at the network. The multi-camera vehicle will reunite McEntire with former Reba showrunner Kevin Abbott, who is set to write the script for the project.

In a memo to staff, Paramount Advertising President John Halley announced the company had hired two executives to head its small and midsized client business and launch the self-service platform. Emily Huo was named SVP of SMB advertising and will be responsible for the company’s go-to-market strategy. Huo had been global director of SMB advertising at Spotify and previously held posts at Reddit and Twitter. Luke Peng joins Paramount as VP of product, SMB Advertising, reporting to Huo. He will develop and optimize products for the SMB platform.