'Central Ave' Debuts on Fox Stations in Eight Markets

Entertainment magazine Central Ave premieres Monday for five-week run on Fox-owned stations in eight markets, with BET’s Julissa Bermudez and Olympic track star and five-time gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross co-hosting.

Bermudez and Richard-Ross are joined by several Los Angeles- and New York-based correspondents, including sex educator and dating coach Shannon Boodram; celebrity crime and justice specialist Melissa McCarty; QVC social correspondent Slaone Glass; international music host Dylan Landon; and Sequoia Blodgett, who founded virtual entrepreneurship resource center Commas.

“These people are among the most knowledgeable and experienced experts working in entertainment,” Central Ave showrunner Monique Chenault said in a statement. “They fit perfectly with Will’s vision of looking beyond the headlines and peeling back the layers of the day’s most compelling stories.”

Central Ave intends to deliver entertainment and pop-culture news through a provocative and diverse lens, taking a new approach to the entertainment magazine genre by lending an authentic voice to the pop-culture, hip-hop and urban worlds.

Fox will air the daily, 30-minute show for a five-week preview in daytime, early fringe, access, primetime and late night slots on eight of its top stations: WNYW New York at 7:30 p.m.; KTTV Los Angeles at 6:30 p.m.; WTTG Washington at midnight; KRIV Houston at 12:30 p.m.; WAGA Atlanta at 7 p.m.; KSAZ Phoenix at 12:30 p.m.; WJBK Detroit at midnight; and WFTC Minneapolis at 8 p.m.

Central Ave marks the second collaboration between Will Packer Media and Debmar-Mercury, which together with Lionsgate Television produce OWN’s upcoming multigenerational family saga, Ambitions. Packer, Kelly Smith and Chenault are executive producers.

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.