Posted Feb 9th 2010 2:28PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Reality-Free
At one point in history, MTV was known for being on the cutting edge of young programming and was quick to pick up on change. However, the network seemed unusually reluctant to stray from its original Music Television name, despite the fact the rest of the world was well-aware that their "music" programming was virtually non-existent. This reluctance was even more weird when MTV's final bastion of music videos,
'Total Request Live,' had the afternoon spot wrenched from its weakened hands.
Well, MTV has finally caught up, making a visually minor but symbolically huge change to its logo: No more "music television."
Continue reading MTV Finally Drops 'Music Television' From Its Logo
Posted Feb 9th 2010 10:29AM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Programming, Reality-Free
Paul Reiser, one of the stars of NBC's "Must See TV" heyday of the 1990s, is reportedly
returning to the Peacock Network. Thankfully, he's not producing a hokey reality game show like his pal,
Jerry Seinfeld.
Reiser, co-creator and star of NBC's hit sitcom
'Mad About You', is executive producing and starring in a new single-camera pilot backed by Warner Bros. Word is that NBC has picked up the project, possibly to help fill the coming gaps in its schedule thanks to Leno's return to late night.
Continue reading Paul Reiser Is Thinking About a Return to NBC
Posted Feb 9th 2010 9:10AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, American Idol, Celebrities, Celebrity Commentary, Casting, Reality-Free
Love him or hate him, Howard Stern
has confirmed his interest in Simon Cowell's seat on
'American Idol'. This goes along with
the earlier announcement that 'Idol' producers are interested as having Stern as a judge.
This entire situation seems more sound and fury and it's unlikely that anything would come of it. All Stern has in common with Cowell is the ability to be obnoxious and denigrating of other people. Cowell at least had ties to the music industry before appearing as an 'Idol' judge. While Howard Stern does work in radio, he thankfully has not released a CD of himself singing the Beatles' greatest hits. If he has, I missed it.
Most likely this situation is being used by Stern as a bargaining chip for a renegotiation of his contract with Sirius. Stern would be too much of a turn-off for the majority of viewers for 'American Idol'. If he does end up replacing Cowell, then it could signal the beginning of the end of 'American Idol'.
Posted Feb 8th 2010 7:33PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Doctor Who, Celebrities, Reality-Free
As the title says, the Goth Geek God himself, Neil Gaiman,
has penned an episode of the British iconic program
'Doctor Who'. Gaiman has already written for television (including an episode of
'Babylon 5' and his British TV series
'Neverwhere') but this represents the first time he has written for a program that he actually watched as a child. If you listen carefully, you can hear all the nerd brains around the world exploding.
Gaiman himself announced this at a British sci-fi convention this past weekend and shocked everyone with this bombshell during an award acceptance speech. However, the folks behind our favorite Time Lord would not confirm Gaiman's statement. Hopefully he didn't jump the gun with this announcement. It would be a shame if he had to renege on it later.
The episode might be called 'The House of Nothing' (the announcement is nothing if not vague) and supposedly will air sometime in 2011, during the next season. Neil Gaiman, meet Matt Smith.
Posted Feb 8th 2010 7:00PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, Grey's Anatomy, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
If you're one of the fortunate few who make it big in the television biz, shouldn't you take the opportunity to use that cushy cushion you have built for yourself and take a big risk on something exciting and new? Not if you're one of these big television producers.
Big shots like Shawn Ryan, David E. Kelley, and Shonda Rhimes all have pilots in the can that don't seem to stray much farther from the shows that made them the big shots that they are today.
For instance, Ryan, creator of the groundbreaking FX cop drama
'The Shield,' has another cop drama premiering with Fox called 'Ridealong.' Kelley, the writer/producer behind
'The Practice' and
'Boston Legal,' has created a reality drama for NBC called 'Kindred.' Even Rhimes, the woman behind ABC's
'Grey's Anatomy,' has another medical drama show for ABC called 'Off the Map.' Is ABC looking to create an all-medical soap opera cable channel in the coming year?
Posted Feb 8th 2010 2:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Reality-Free
Last week, when Annie posted about the series
HBO is developing the comedy 'Tilda,' about the life of "a powerful female online showbiz journalist with a no-holds-barred style," the first person I thought of was Nikki Finke, who writes the blog
Deadline Hollywood.
In fact, pretty much everyone who works in entertainment journalism thought of Finke; she's reclusive, opinionated, confrontational, litigious, and likes to punctuate news that corroborates with her inside info with a big fat "TOLDJA!" in all caps. So it's not a surprise to think that more than one person had to wonder if Finke was involved in this show, and if she wasn't, would she sic her lawyers after HBO and anyone else within subpoena-shot.
Gawker called Finke, who, in between threats to sue the site's writer and corporate parent, said she'd talk about her involvement (or lack therof) with the project soon. But The Hollywood Reporter managed to find out that Finke wasn't involved, leading to their wondering if
Finke has the right to sue over this series.
Continue reading Could Nikki Finke Sue HBO?
Posted Feb 8th 2010 12:02PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Industry, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Reality-Free
If you've seen the by-now-infamous
David Letterman/Oprah Winfrey/Jay Leno Super Bowl promo, then you are probably left with a lot of unanswered questions. "Were they really in the same room together?" "Did this happen before the Second Late Night Wars started?" "What about Conan?"
Well, the answer to the first two questions can be found in this
New York Times article on the spot, which was shot last Tuesday. The short answer: Letterman just thought it would be funny. What would have been even funnier though, is if there had been four people on the couch. Because if there's anything more awkward than Leno and Letterman in a promo together, it would be throwing Conan into the mix. It turns out,
that was exactly Letterman's original plan.
Continue reading Letterman Wanted Conan for Super Bowl Promo
Posted Feb 7th 2010 8:15PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Industry, Video, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Reality-Free
The first big Super Bowl shocker came early tonight, in a CBS promo, no less. The Super Bowl is on CBS, so it's no surprise we get a shot of David Letterman on a couch in his Colts jersey, but here's where things get weird: he's at a Super Bowl party with Oprah, and he's complaining about how it's the worst Super Bowl party ever.
We then see Jay freakin' Leno, who says that Letterman is only saying that because he's there. Letterman then mocks Leno, and then we see that this whole thing is a promo for '
The Late Show with David Letterman.'
How in the hell did this happen?
Continue reading The most surreal ad I've ever seen: Letterman, Oprah, and ... Leno?
Posted Feb 6th 2010 5:04PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Industry, Reality-Free, FlashForward
Since this past fall, have we heard any good news about '
FlashForward?'
First, the show shut down production for a week to work out some creative issues (that's code for ABC execs not liking where the story was going). Then the drama's initial showrunner, Mark Guggenheim, got outta Dodge.
And then,
ABC announced an early DVD release for the first half of the season before it resumes its 23-episode freshman run in March. But wait -- there's more! Don't forget that
ABC cut the episode order too. The first season was supposed to be 25 installments long.
Well, the bad news keeps on coming as Variety is reporting that
Guggenheim's replacement, David Goyer, is also stepping aside.
Continue reading Showrunner David Goyer Leaves 'FlashForward'
Posted Feb 5th 2010 3:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Industry, OpEd
For years, Hollywood bloggers have been aggressively demonstrating that they are a force to be reckoned with in the industry, so it's really about time that some channel like HBO attempts to glamorize the whole situation with
'Tilda,' a half-hour comedy about the blogging scene.
The usual jabs about bloggers involve the mental image of a college student hunched over a laptop, wearing PJ bottoms and slow-nursing a Starbucks mocha. Well! First of all, joke's on them, because I can't afford Starbucks. Second of all, Hollywood-specific online journalism is a completely different area of the blogosphere, and there's plenty of material for HBO to dramatize. With Bill Condon and Cynthia Mort behind the wheel, it is going to be interesting to see if a pilot sticks.
Continue reading HBO Developing Comedy about Entertainment Blogger
Posted Feb 5th 2010 1:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, Emmys, Reality-Free
When I was working the
TCA beat on the west coast last month, I had a bit of cognitive dissonance when NBC aired the
Golden Globes live at 5 PM. I watched it with a bunch of critics in a conference room we reserved for the purpose, then watched the rest in my room. After Ricky Gervais bid everyone goodnight, I started stretching and thinking it was time for bed, like I do at the end of every grueling award-show watching experience I ever had.
Then I turned and saw the clock: It was 8 PM. I could have gone for dinner and come back and still had time to work before calling it a night. It was disconcerting and refreshing all at once.
NBC is hoping people have that same experience with the Emmys on August 29, as they're toying with the idea of dumping the west coast tape delay and
broadcasting the ceremony live across the country, according to Broadcasting & Cable.
Continue reading NBC Wants to Dump Emmy West Coast Tape Delay
Posted Feb 5th 2010 11:36AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Late Night, Industry, Talk Show, Reality-Free
The other day Questlove, drummer of The Roots, was taking a break from the grueling day of being the house band at
'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.' He goes to the commissary at NBC's 30 Rock headquarters and notices that they have a special menu that celebrates Black History Month.
Great, right? Well, judging by the menu above, it wasn't all that great. Questlove snapped that picture
and posted it to Twitter with the caption, "Hmm HR?"
What's funny is that how, in this ultra-connected society, this has become a real story, and not just a strange, not-meant-to-be-offensive-but-is-anyway occurrence. According to Mediaite, not only did the NBC corporate folks
respond with a tweet (under a little-used @NBCU account)
that the sign was taken down, but NBC's own African-American issues web site
The Grio interviewed the cook who made up the menu. That interview is after the jump.
Continue reading NBC Cafeteria Celebrates Black History Month in a Strange Way
Posted Feb 4th 2010 12:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
When it comes to television comedy, female writers are like diamonds. That is to say they are hard to find and tough enough to crack pavement when properly used. That being said, girl power has given late night television a kick in the crotch with the hiring of Jill Goodwin, who will
now be on the writing staff of the
'Late Show with David Letterman.'
Goodwin has been involved with the show since 2001. She got the job the old fashioned way, by rising through the ranks. More power to her. It makes a person wonder when one of the networks will take a chance a have a female-hosted late night talk show. Females seem to dominate the daytime shows (see Oprah), but not at night. The last that I can recall was Joan Rivers way back when.
Given the recent allegations against Dave with regards to his
recently admitted affair, it does raise eyebrows with regards to the timing. On the other hand, it's not like she was hired the next day and a lot has happened on late night television since then.
Posted Feb 4th 2010 9:02AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Reality-Free
There's a problem with having the most-watched sporting event of the year on your channel: not everybody watches sports. Usually the event can pull in non-sports fans (like myself) by having a myriad of clever commercials that one could not see at any other time of the year.
Spike.com thought of this and
is having the 'Commercial Bowl', which will show commercials from the just-broadcast Super Bowl as well as commercial highlights from the previous eight years worth of the "Big Game".
It's a clever idea and obviously successful if this is the ninth year. It's more tempting now to simply wait for the game to be over and click on over to Spike.com. This concept does lend itself to some questions, though. Will the videos for each commercial have commercial breaks in between? Are the people that made the commercials in question actually sponsoring the event or do the users have to put up with banner ads as well as commercials?
Posted Feb 3rd 2010 8:08PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Late Night, Industry, OpEd, Reality-Free
It's no secret that Jeff Zucker is the most hated man in broadcasting. That is, if you don't work for NBC or GE. While Zucker has spent his time overseeing NBC and NBC Universal tinkering and experimenting the broadcast network into a fourth-place laughingstock, there is a reason why he continues to remain at the company and get more and more responsibility: the man makes GE money.
While the NBC broadcast network hemorrhages cash, NBCU's cable consortium makes money in buckets. Even in the NBC microcosm, NBC News is making money with
'Today' and the
'NBC Nightly News' while the entertainment and sports divisions aren't doing well. Which is why it's not surprising that news president
Steve Capus defended his boss to Jon Friedman of Marketwatch.com.
Continue reading NBC News Chief Defends Jeff Zucker
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