[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
