Prime time-related stories
Posted Aug 30th 2009 12:08PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Reality-Free
You wouldn't know that
Fox football was ready for prime time based on the lame broadcast of the Tampa Bay Buccaneer-Miami Dolphin game the other night. The number one team in the booth --
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman -- seemed ill-prepared for the game. It was embarrassing to watch them call the game.
Listen, I know it's only pre-season and everyone -- including the networks -- are working out the kinks, but I expect Buck and Aikman to be on top of their game. They usually are, so I guess I was surprised by the sloppy effort.
Continue reading Fox preseason football flops big-time
Posted Mar 20th 2009 12:55PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Ratings, Reality-Free
Did you hear this one, folks? NBC is throwing in the towel. The boss of bosses, NBC Universal CEO, the head honcho himself,
Jeff Zucker, was at an industry event recently and declared, "I don't think we'll ever be able to say, 'NBC is number one in prime time.'"
Okay, there it is. The man has given up. He's basically admitting that his product is inferior and he doesn't think he'll ever catch up with his competitors. So, as a TV viewer, I have to wonder why I should invest in anything Zucker churns out at NBC if he doesn't believe that he's ever going to be number one again?
Continue reading NBC's Jeff Zucker has given up
Posted Jan 23rd 2009 3:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, Celebrities, Reality-Free
While NBC is committing all its ten o'clock hours next fall to Jay Leno,
MSNBC is looking for a ten o'clock star. They want a show to secure stronger foothold on prime time by filling that hour with a new show.
Right now, it presents a rerun of
Countdown with Keith Olbermann, but that's not how it's going to remain. Phil Griffin, MSNBC prez, would like to develop a new hour to go along with
Countdown and
The Rachel Maddow Show, and presumably build on the audience
Olbermann and Maddow are generating.
Continue reading MSNBC looking for a new star at 10 o'clock
Posted Dec 9th 2008 10:44AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
I read Brad's post about
NBC keeping Jay Leno in the fold and I think it's the latest move by NBC to ruin TV. Can Jeff Zucker be impeached? I'm so fed up with the way he's be running -- ruining -- the network that I'm ready to bust. Seriously, is there anybody over there that still has any connection to what viewers want to see?
Basically, NBC is ready to try something completely radical and -- in my estimation -- ridiculous, even though it would keep Leno from being lured to another network.
Continue reading Can Jeff Zucker be impeached over this Leno development?
Posted Aug 29th 2008 3:38PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, Programming, Ratings, Reality-Free
The reviews from the political talking heads -- right and left -- have been mostly positive. The visuals were spectacular and riveting. History was made at Mile High Stadium in Denver last night when Senator Barack Obama accepted the nomination of the Democratic party as the first African-American presidential candidate. There were 80,000 people packed in the stadium, and
now Nielsen has determined that 38 million people tuned in to watch on TV.
How impressive is that number? It's
more than the opening ceremonies from the Beijing Olympics. It's also more than the 2008 Oscars and the finale of Fox's
American Idol.The networks cleared just one hour of prime time -- from 10-11 ET -- and the Democratic organizers made sure to present Obama's speech right in that slot, not drifting into the local late news.
Continue reading Obama's speech shatters Nielsen ratings
Posted Oct 11th 2007 12:01PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Game Show, Pickups and Renewals
Ah, the world of TV, where everything old is new again.
Failed sitcoms become cartoons, Adam West gets reimagined
as a doddering cartoon mayor, and every old game show is remade into a new, more sparkly version.
Now the twirling-light, ominous music treatment has reached an old favorite:
Password.
According to Variety, CBS and Fremantle Media are teaming up to produce a new version of the word-association game show, redubbing it
Million Dollar Password. And, not only will the old show will be recycled, so will an old host: Regis Philbin has been tapped to host his first prime-time game show since the ABC version of
Who Wants to be a Millionaire breathed its last a few years ago.
Continue reading Regis Philbin to host new version of Password
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