[One Super Bowl] So, there was this thing on TV last night… football… you may have heard of it. Yes, the Super Bowl was last night, and what a game it was. But what does it mean for TV? Well, while the ratings are still preliminary, it appears as though it was the second biggest Super Bowl ever in terms of audience. Holy cow. Fox is surely very happy, because not only did they get lots of free promotion for their shows, but House, which aired after the game, drew an unfathomable 68.3 million viewers. Yikes.
[NATPE Day 1:] Day 1 of NATPE was Monday, and the stories keep on flowing.
Reveille, the production outfit formerly fronted by NBC entertainment honcho Ben Silverman, signed a deal with Colombia’s largest broadcaster, giving them the right to look at all scripted and non-scripted series. The broadcaster, Caracol, produces lots of telenovelas, which have hit it big here in the states, particularly with the success of Ugly Betty.
[Truth Be Told, I’m Shocked]The Moment of Truth, the not-so-well received reality show that the network programmed after American Idol, brought in monster ratings. The show retained more viewers than any other Idol lead-in to date, and even gained more younger viewers than Idol. Mike Darnell, Fox’s reality chief and the genius behind When Animals Attack, Joe Millionaire and the one hour moon hoax special, was ecstatic.
"If you want to win the money, you've got to tell the truth," Darnell told Variety. "That leads to great dr...Read More
[Pilots B Gone] Following up on his statements to the Financial Times yesterday, Jeff Zucker told the NY Times that NBC was ending its practice of producing expensive pilots for new shows. Zucker pointed out that networks spend millions on these pilots, only to see most of them fail spectacularly. It is hard to argue, after all, if you are dumping the upfront’s and than traditional pilot season already, dumping most of the pilots themselves seems like a logical next step. Zucker and NBC aren’t the only ones contemplating the demise of the pilot, according to the Times, at least one other network is prepare...Read More
[Time for Change] NBC-Universal chief Jeff Zucker told the Finanical Times that NBC was going to use the writers strike as a means of changing the way the company conducts its business. Including greatly scaling down the upfronts and moving away from the traditional pilot season, and more towards year round development. While this may not be news to those in the industry, this is the first time that a network chief has opened up about the possibility. Zucker told the Times: “I think there were a tremendous number of inefficiencies in Hollywood and it often takes a seismic event to change them, and I think that’s what’s happened here,” he said of the strike, predicting that &ldqu...Read More
[DGA Deal Gets Done] The Directors Guildof America and the Association of MotionPicture and Television Producers struck a deal, thus avoiding a potential strike by the directors. The deal was struck after only six days of negotiations. In response, the WGA will examine the deal made by the DGA, and see if it is close to what they were looking for, at the very least the deal could bring the two sides back to the bargaining table. The sticking point for the WGA has always been new med...Read More
[Nothing Says America like Football and Voting, Right?] Fox has an unusual programming slate scheduled for February 3. That’s Super Bowl Sunday for those not in the know. The network will lead in to their football coverage with political coverage, courtesy of anchor Shepard Smith and reporters Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly. The team will also talk to reporters from across the country covering the various campaigns. The move is an interesting one. The Super Bowl comes in the middle of a heavy political season, with primaries scheduled throughout the country that week. As B&C noted in our editorial this week, most of th...Read More
[10 Months to go, But Who’s Counting?] CNN, proving that political coverage apparently brings in the viewers, is launching a primetime daily politics show that will cover the race to the White House. The show, CNN Election Center, will be hosted by John Roberts, and will air at 8 p.m., against the opinionated duo of Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly. CNN had been airing “ballot bowl” coverage of the candidates on weekends, looking more like C-Span than CNN.
[The Man Has Heart, Gotta Give Him That] Dennis Kucinich was kicked out of the MSNBC debate in Nevada, as reported here yesterday...Read More
[Golden Globes Wrapup] In case you missed it (and there is a very good chance you did), the Golden Globes were held last night, in one of the most embarrassing evenings of award giving I have ever seen. However, if you watched NBC, you got a special treat in the form of a two hour pre-show hosted by Matt Lauer, and a super-speical awards ceremony, shown only on NBC, where they announced the winners long after the actual press conference aired. It was all a bizarre night, caused by the WGA threat to picket, and a fight between NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
To see the winners at this year’s Golden Globes, check out the HFPA&rs...Read More
[CES 2008: The Absolute Chaos] Gadget blog Gizmodo did something evil at this year’s CES. They took a remote that shuts down nearly any television you can point it at, and used it on shiny new TV screens throughout the show, sometimes interrupting presentations. Oh yeah, they recorded it. You simply MUST watch the video here, and judge for yourself. It came off as juvenile to me, and it will probably result in them not getting invited back next year. Of course that post also has more than a quarter million page views, so Nick Denton can’t be that mad. Most people like pranks, and while this was kind of funny in a gonzo sort of way, it was probably better left undone.
[NBC’s News Knows] NBC News was a major presence at CES, with Brian Williams anchoring the network’s flagship news program from the show floor. They also officially unveiled the new Web site, featured here yesterday.
Rachel Sklar over at HuffPo had an interview with BriWi, as she affectionately calls him, asking about the New Hampshire primary.
Speaking of New Hampshire news, Tom Brokaw, in ...Read More
