Perhaps it was a message sent from some future TV-watching generation to Los Angeles: The city that still generates much of TV entertainment was shaken on Monday by an earthquake, possibly because executives need a good shake.» 0 Comments
uccess for an original scripted cable program has increasingly new perspectives. AMC's "Mad Men" posted a whopping two million viewers -- double what it had a year before. Is that a success -- for an advertising-supported cable network? Maybe just for AMC.» 0 Comments
The NFL has convinced its Sunday Night Football partner, NBC, to get involved in what it calls an "experiment." The NFL's experiment is that it wants to stream its ad-supported Sunday night football games free over the Internet at the same time it airs the games on NBC. It's an experiment because the league's chief worry is cannibalization: Will NBC lose viewers at the expense of new Internet platform?» 0 Comments
This is the week TV producers hope bloggers, whisperers, fanatics and other hangers-on at the just-finished Comic-Con convention in San Diego will be getting the right messages -- that the TV shows they've been introduced to are cool, have buzz, and, must be seen as soon as possible.» 0 Comments
With all the endorsements floating around, Democratic presidential candidate. Barack Obama has made one of his own -- network television. Obama will be spending $5 million on a network prime-time buy -- and not just any show. It's the Beijing Olympics, no less -- one of the most expensive buys any candidate or marketer can make, with an average $750,000 per 30-second commercial message.» 0 Comments
A recent episode of TNT's "Saving Grace" had a bunch of expletives--and got no notice. There's too much malaise in the world for people to notice--or, more accurately, the goalposts of social convention and language have moved. When it comes to broadcast television, the Federal Communication Commission also wants to keep those posts moving--backwards, it seems.» 0 Comments
For the CW, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Again. After pulling "Gossip Girl" off the Internet airwaves in the spring -- all with the hope of steering potential young viewers from their computer screens, and off illegal Web sites -- the CW has put the show back on cwtv.com and other affiliated sites, offering free streaming ad-supported episodes of the popular show.» 0 Comments
In the entertainment world, a handshake is the deal. But for the NBC-Weinstein "Project Runway" debacle, make sure you bring the Purell. Purell is that instant hand sanitizer to eliminate germs and the like -- possibly bad programming deals. That January 2007 handshake between Jeff Zucker, president/CEO of NBC Universal and Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Co., concerning the valuable Bravo show "Project Runway," has festered into a lawsuit.» 0 Comments
Little entertainment is big award news, and in that light, are the Emmys trying to become more like the Oscars? Small or independent style feature films have been the heroes of those Academy Award voters for nearly a decade now. And now apparently this equation works for the Emmys as well.» 0 Comments
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost.