The week that was
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/17/2002 7:00:00 PM
THE MORE YOU KNOW
NBC will quadruple its license payment to co-owned NBC Enterprises for Will & Grace and has renewed the hit comedy for three more seasons. Although the increase looks like out of one pocket into the other, much of it goes to the stars. NBC will pay $4 million per episode through the 2004-05 season, about four times what it pays now. ...
Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly gets his own radio show on Westwood One May 8. The Radio Factor With BillO'Reilly will air weekdays noon to 2 p.m. ET. ...
The critics sure didn't like it, but Fox's Celebrity Boxing special Wednesday night connected with viewers. The hour show featuring Tonya Harding vs. Paula Jones attracted 15.5 million viewers and a 7.1 rating/17 share in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen Media Research. It was Fox's best showing for Wednesday 9 p.m. ET/PT in over a year. ...
Cable signed up 15.2 million digital subscribers, 7.2 million broadband subscribers and 1.5 million telephone customers in 2001, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. Cable operators now offer broadband service to 70 million households; about 10% subscribe. Digital video cable services grew most, adding 1.5 million customers in the fourth quarter. ...
Web site The Smoking Gun.com points out that, when ABC aired the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever on March 2, the television version hung digitally added black bra straps on the previously bare-backed Bond girl, Plenty O'Toole. MGM, the film producer, also colorized her light-colored panties to match the bra straps.
THE NAME GAME
Richard E. Wiley, the former FCC chairman and champion of high-definition television, will get the National Association of Broadcasters' Distinguished Service Award at this year's NAB convention opener on April 8. …
Forty-year ad-agency veteran Mike Drexler will replace Gene DeWitt as president and CEO of Optimedia. DeWitt, as previously reported, is leaving to head the Syndicated Network Television Association. Drexler is currently executive vice president of Mediasmith New York and was formerly executive vice president and media director for FCB Worldwide. …
Former Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert became the new president of the Screen Actors Guild, again. It took two elections, but she beat former prime time star Valerie Harper for the second time in less than three months. Gilbert received 57% of the vote, Harper 34%. Actor Elliott Gould was elected recording secretary; Kent McCord was voted SAG treasurer.
CORRECTIONS
Tribune Co. President and Chief Operating Officer Dennis FitzSimons was mis-identified and his name spelled incorrectly in the March 11 issue, page 30. ...
On page A26 in the March 11 issue, the Web site devoted to radio history should have been Radioremembered.org.
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