Bell Blue to Leave 'Entertainment Tonight' by Next Season's Start

By Paige Albiniak
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Linda Bell Blue, who has executive produced Entertainment Tonight for 19 years, will depart both that show and spin-off omg! Insider prior to the start of next season when her contract expires, according to sources. D.J. Petroro, who became an executive producer of ET in 2012, will then take over the show.

CBS Television Distribution, which produces and distributes the show, declined to comment.

Bell Blue, 57, came to Entertainment Tonight from Hard Copy, where she was executive producer. Prior to that, she spent five years as executive producer of news at KCBS Los Angeles.

Petroro has been at ET since 2004, joining CBS to help launch Entertainment Tonight spin-off The Insider, which was rebranded omg! Insider last January. Petroro came to CBS from NBC's Access Hollywood, where he had worked since 1996. Prior to that, he was at Fox's WNYW New York City.

ET, which launched in 1981, has been the top entertainment magazine for more than 17 years. Early in this season, the show is averaging a 3.3 in national households. 

Bell Blue was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 2009.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.