turner-related stories
Posted Jul 28th 2009 9:42PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, News, Music and Variety, Celebrities, Talk Show, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
The daytime segment of cable's first day concluded with four Turner-related panels: Joy Behar on her new HLN talk show; a CNN panel with John King, Christiance Amanpour, and Soledad O'Brien; a panel with Jerry Bruckheimer and the cast and producers of TNT's
Dark Blue; and George Lopez, who is starting a new late night talk show on TBS.
Behar and Lopez bookended the session, and they were an interesting contrast. Two comedians, both opinionated, both with things to say about current events. But while Behar's gentle jabs played to mostly silence among the cranky writers in attendance, Lopez got more than a few of us to laugh. I've never been the biggest Lopez fan, but I have to admit, he was ready for us: he made most of us stand up to talk to him, he jostled us on our reluctance to be enthusiastic, and he was able to make pretty quick comebacks with ease. Must be the years of dealing with hecklers.
Anyway, after the jump, some details of Turner's day in Pasadena, including audio of an interview with O'Brien that I started with the word "cankles."
Continue reading Turner panels: Dark Blue, George Lopez, Joy Behar, and cankles - TCA Report
Posted Jun 21st 2007 7:08PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Programming, The Office
TBS
is adding The Office into its repertoire of nightly comedy reruns starting this fall. There aren't a whole lot of details yet, like whether the net is going to be running all three seasons, and how many episodes will air each week.
TBS prides itself on its evening comedy line-ups and I have to admit that I often get sucked in to watching some of my favorite episodes of
Family Guy,
Seinfeld and
Friends. I can definitely see myself doing that with reruns of
The Office, too. The net also plays reruns of
Everybody Loves Raymond,
King of Queens, and
Sex and the City. Even though I don't particularly like those last three shows, it's nice to see
The Office joining their ranks as classic comedies.
Fox-owned stations will also get to start playing
The Office reruns during local access starting fall of 2009.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant must be thrilled. Syndication can make some big money for them.
**UPDATE: TBS
also bought My Name is Earl. Reruns start in fall 2009.
Posted May 29th 2007 7:09PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Industry, The Closer
TNT and TBS will offer all seven of their original summer series for free online. New episodes will appear on Turner websites about about 3 am the morning following their debut, and the episodes will be available for viewing for about a month each.
Believe it or not, Turner is one of the first cable networks to do the streaming episodes thing, following in the footsteps of the big four networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. Last summer, only ABC Family offered its original programming for free online. Other networks, such as FX, Sci Fi, USA, and E! have streamed occasional episodes (mostly premieres and finales) but not entire seasons. As
Broadcasting and Cable points out, it's probably because the cable networks can't demand a ton of money from carriers if their content is also available for free online.
Beginning next month,
The Closer,
Heartland,
Saving Grace, and
The Company will be on
TNT.tv, while
House of Payne,
The Bill Engvall Show,
My Boys, and
The Frank Show will be on
TBS.com. Episodes of
The Closer,
Bill Engvall,
My Boys and
The Frank Show will also be available on iTunes.
Posted Mar 5th 2007 12:01PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Animation, Adult Swim, Aqua Teen Hunger Force
So you're a fan of anthropomorphic food, disdainful aliens and civil disobedience? And you wish you had something to do with all that wood and LED lights just sitting around your home taking up space? Don't worry, I found a site that should be right up your alley. Now you too can create an awesome flashing Mooninite sign that's suitable for display and possible legal action.
Continue reading Make your own Mooninite sign
Posted Feb 5th 2007 7:13PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Late Night, Industry, OpEd, Video, Animation, Adult Swim, Aqua Teen Hunger Force
They say there's no such thing as bad publicity. Turner Broadcasting got way more attention for
Aqua Teen Hunger Force by causing a bomb scare in Boston than they would have received if their Mooninites had only been seen and recognized by regular viewers of the program who already knew what they were.
But now it looks like Turner and marketing firm Interence Inc.
will pay Massachusetts and federal agencies $2 million in compensation for the resources spent during last week's scare. That's about a million dollars to cover costs, and another million that will go to fund other homeland security functions.
While Mooninites signs were put up in 10 cities, only Boston took extreme actions to deal with them, resulting in the rather large bill for law enforcement activities.
In other Mooninite news, G4's
Attack of the Show weighed in on the controversy last week. We have video of host Kevin Pereira's analysis of the incident after the jump.
Continue reading Turner will pay $2 million for Aqua Teen fiasco - VIDEO
Posted Jan 30th 2007 8:58AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Industry, Family Guy, Veronica Mars, Ugly Betty, Ratings
Nielsen Media Research is making a change to their television ratings. In the past, children of a Nielsen family that were away at college were not factored into the numbers. After doing some research, sponsored by Turner, WB, CBS, MTV, Fox, and ESPN, those college kids will now count in the regular Nielsen ratings.
The
NY Times article (possible login) points to
America's Next Top Model, Family Guy, Ugly Betty, and [adult swim] as programming that should see a boost in their ratings. Disturbingly, it also mentions that in a test done last November the most popular show among college men was
Drawn Together. The audience for the Comedy Central cartoon jumped from 272,000 to 435,000. What are they teaching our youth on these campuses?
This certainly isn't the final answer in the ratings question. There are still plenty of problems and issues with the system, but it is a positive change. Especially so if it gives a much needed boost to the struggling
Veronica Mars numbers.
Posted Dec 5th 2006 1:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Cable, News, Web, Celebrities
TV Newser (or maybe a reader of the site) found this promotional site for CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. It has all the usual stuff you'd find on such a site: a bio of the host, video, behind the scenes info, etc. But this one is hosted by a talking, mini Anderson Cooper himself!
Cooper walks into the right side of the screen and tells you about the show, and when you click the various categories he gives you a little introduction to what your'e about to see. If you click on "About Anderson" he explains how he's bored of talking about himself. If you click on "Behind AC360," he says they've edited out all the yelling and screaming that goes on behind the scenes of the show. You can even buy Anderson Cooper shirts and hats and pens! Unfortunately, he doesn't have anything funny to say about this, the link just goes to the Turner Networks store.
You can even find out what Cooper has on his iPod. He seems to like Elvis Costello, Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Johnny Cash, Sugar, and The Hives.
[via TV Newser]
Posted Oct 17th 2006 6:20PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Sports, Cable, TV Sports
When Major League Baseball singed a
new TV deal in July, the only piece of the package that wasn't picked up was one of the League Championship Series; Turner had picked up the Division Series and a Sunday night game of the week, and FOX retained the World Series, All-Star Game, a Saturday game package, and one of the LCS's. It was unusual to see a playoff package still up for grabs for this long, but now MLB has finally found that series a home.
Turner Broadcasting
announced today that they have picked up that remaining package for an undiclosed sum. This will mark the first time that an LCS will be shown exclusively on cable, although it's likely that the local markets involved will get to see the cable feed on a broadcast station. So, both first- and second-round games will be shown on TBS. Now they just need to hire some announcers.
Steve Lyons is available, but let's hope they, uh, go in another direction, if you get my drift.
Posted Jun 6th 2006 11:04AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Cable, Programming
One of these things is not like the other. I read
this story and that's the song that got stuck in my head. The Hallmark Channel just bought the rights to air 29 feature films on its network. Soon, films like
Miss Congeniality,
Troy,
The In-Laws, and
New York Minute will pick up where
Little House on the Prairie and
Moment of Truth movies left off. The one movie that really stands out from the others is
March of the Penguins. It actually makes a little bit of sense that it's on the Hallmark Channel, because the movie ends up being very emotional and about life's struggles and the saving grace of family. I just expected it to be on Discovery.
Posted Feb 15th 2006 10:48AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: NBC, Cable, Programming
Turner Broadcasting just inked a deal with NBC
Universal that puts a bunch of movies, including this winter's
King Kong, on its networks in 2008. Not sure if
the NBC network had the first right of refusal on that movie, but you would think so.
Along with
King
Kong, Turner also bought the rights to air these movies in 2008:
- The Ice
Harvest, starring Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack;
- Doom, starring The Rock;
- Two for the Money, starring Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey;
- Prime, starring Meryl
Streep and Uma Thurman.
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