The Battle of the Late Night Hosts
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Comedy, Late Night, Talk Shows, Cable, NBC, Daily Show, The, Gossip
In an epic late night match-up, post-prime time hosts are facing off in a battle for the ages. It’s a contest of wills that dares a meeting of cable and network TV that could rock more than one snarky show.
Well, perhaps it isn’t as big as all that - but it is mildly entertaining and it’s giving Comedy Central a little much-needed fodder in this strange world without TV writers. Like as not, even the best late night programs have been faltering. Jon Stewart is opening every episode by flicking paper footballs randomly toward his audience, and on Tuesday’s episode Stephen Colbert played with clam shells instead of monologuing. Thankfully, Colbert recently picked a fight with fellow host Conan O’Brien to keep us all amused.
Here’s the breakdown: Colbert invited Presidential contender Mike Huckabee onto The Colbert Report, thus granting him the highly coveted “Colbert bump.” Naturally, Huckabee’s popularity increased - and even he attributed this climb to Colbert. So, when Conan O’Brien claimed to be the real puppet master behind Huckabee’s success, Colbert was affronted.
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| Huffington Post
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Oprah: A Network of Her OWN?
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Talk Shows, Cable, Syndication, Oprah Winfrey Show, News
Big news today. You can hardly get on a Web site without seeing the banner headlines - Oprah Winfrey, megastar and money-maker galore, is getting a TV network. And yet, the WE network is already hers, no? And isn’t she somehow involved with the Oxygen network, too?
At any rate, the Discovery Health channel will be taken over by the talk show star and become OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. (Naturally, because the woman is well on her way to OWNing the world.) As it is, Winfrey didn’t even pay for the Discovery channel network. She instead turned over her Web site to the Discovery family and became chairman of the network. Not a bad deal.
Re-runs of her talk show will definitely be on the network, which will be all about Oprah all the time. Can’t wait.
Read More | Hollywood Reporter
Surprises in Store for Late Night TV
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Late Night, Cable, NBC, Daily Show, The, Gossip
If you’ve attempted to watch TV at all in the last two months, you know there’s an active writers’ strike in the works. Despite the picket lines, lots of studios are “encouraging” their late night hosts to get back in the studio and back behind the desk.
Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien (among others) all intend to bring their shows back to the air beginning in January - but this time, they’re doing it without their writers. When it comes to television, this action is very much like walking a tightrope in the circus…with no safety net.
The hosts are members of the Writers Guild themselves, meaning they’ll have to pass by their union brothers and sisters on their way to work every morning (or afternoon, as the case may be). This membership also means the hosts themselves must continue to follow union rules, and will be subject to the terms and conditions therein. For instance, monologues and talk segments (like Colbert’s The Word) may no longer be part of the program. So…what, then, will viewers see on late night in January? For one, you won’t be getting scripted segments.
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Read More | Yahoo! News
Christmas Day TV
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Animation, Comedy, Daytime, Kids, Prime Time, Reality, Specials, ABC, Cable, CBS, MTV, NBC, TNT-HD, Family Guy, The Hills
Looking for a distraction from the holiday season? Want to check out that new HD TV Santa left under the tree? Or, do you just want to put something on the tube to undercut happy holiday melodrama? Use Christmas Day TV to give you an escape when holiday pressure has you looking for the nearest exit.
ABC will offer fanciful diversion for the kids with the Walt Disney World parade starting at 10 am. Later in the afternoon, the network will offer NBA action while CBS gets sporty with golf. NBC will show the Holiday Celebration on Ice in the afternoon. On cable, ABC Family will showcase holiday movies including A Very Brady Christmas and Santa Baby. At 6 in the evening, Disney’s The Incredibles will offer CGI delight.
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Read More | TV Guide
FOX Suffering Symptoms of Strike
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Comedy, Drama, Prime Time, Reality, FOX, 24, American Idol, House, News
FOX is already making changes to their schedule, and we’re only three days into the writers strike. The intense drama 24 has been pulled from the schedule, as fewer than half the season’s 24 scripts have been written. But that’s not the only problem FOX is about to have with their programming. Big ratings-grabber House is about to run out of scripts, pushing the reality show Hell’s Kitchen into the cushy post-American Idol time slot in April. Two other FOX shows, the new Back to You and ‘Til Death, have also shut down for the season.
Read More | Yahoo! News
Writers Strike Begins
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Daytime, Late Night, News
It’s official – the Writers Guild has gone on strike after negotiations with the Alliance of Producers failed. Picketers will make their stance in New York City and Los Angeles until a deal can be reached. Writers are demanding more revenue from DVD sales, but the producers refuse to give in. Late night talk shows will be the first to stop airing new episodes, as these programs remain very current in news and events. Daytime TV, which tapes about a week’s worth of shows in advance, will be the next casualty of the strike. Most studios have dozens of scripts stockpiled for favorite TV series and new movies, enough to last until early next year. The strike may set a precedent for the Screen Actors Guild, as contracts are scheduled to run out next June.
Read More | Yahoo News
No Agreement Yet Between Writers and Producers
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Reality, Syndication, News
Despite a federal mediator and plenty of bargaining sessions, the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed to come to terms on a new three-year contract. Talks ended after several not-so-fruitful hours, three hundred and sixty minutes before the current contract expired. The writers and producers are stymied over one central issue: the pay writers receive when work is released on DVD. DVD sales are huge, and have been since the discovery that people will actually pay to own episodes of television shows they watched the first time they aired. Even syndication hasn’t hurt the DVD sales of old TV episodes, and the writers want their cut. Well, the producers don’t want to give it to them. That, in a nutshell, is what all this strike talk is about.
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Read More | LA Times (Registration Required)
Late Night Mix-Up
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Late Night, Reality, Talk Shows, NBC, Rumors
It all started when long-running NBC darling Jay Leno said he was going to retire. The Tonight Show, currently enjoying its fifty-second season on the network, is a show that’s obviously bigger than any one man. So NBC execs immediately started casting about for Leno’s replacement. Early rumors linked Conan O’Brien’s name to the late night variety/talk show, leaving a hosting hole wide open on O’Brien’s gig. Jimmy Fallon became the heir apparent, and Leno’s retirement (not scheduled, by the way, until 2009) seemed a done deal. But now, Jay just might be changing his mind. Sources purporting to be close to the situation say Leno doesn’t want to go, and NBC has answered the rumor. The network says it wants to stick with Leno, and has no intention of giving the show to O’Brien (and collectively, we can all say “whew”). The network is anxious to keep Conan on his regular late gig, which doesn’t bode too well for Fallon’s career.
Read More | Yahoo News
Is a Writer’s Strike Imminent?
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Reality, American Idol, Gossip, News
It’s been making headlines for months as negotiations continue to drag, but that doesn’t mean the bomb has been completely defused. In fact, it’s ticking louder than ever before. The union representing TV and film writers (the Writers Guild of America) is currently trying to work a deal with the networks and studios (the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers)—unfortunately, things aren’t going well.
Back in 1988 during the famous writers’ walkout, the entertainment industry lost an estimated $500 million when writers refused to produce scripts. Today? A strike would be even more damaging. The current issues up for debate include splitting revenues for new media, and whether reality shows should be unionized. The guild could call for a strike as early as November 1, which would really put a damper on the fall season…and even the mid-season, if things aren’t worked out. As a result, studios have moved up production schedules to shoot as many new episodes as possible, before any work has to stop. Extra script orders are coming in…which isn’t making it any easier for the possibly-striking writers. The good news is that reality shows don’t use writers (at least, that’s the official story), so fan favorites like American Idol should be safe from the threat…but that also means the mid-season could be crammed with reality and re-runs…and not a whole lot more.
Read More | LA Times
The Ratings Race Is On
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Drama, Prime Time, Reality, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, American Idol, Desperate Housewives, Heroes, House, Ratings
Ratings rivals CBS and ABC have been slugging it out this fall, each trying to jockey for the top slot in the ratings race. CSI dominance usually secures CBS at least one top ten ratings win, but this year ABC’s reality smash hit Dancing with the Stars may boogie right on up to the top. Or…will it? Last week the show scored more than twenty million viewers, but fewer tuned in to watch the results. This week, only fifteen million tuned in to the celebrity two-step. Between the two broadcast networks, eight of the top ten ratings list was dominated. Shows like Desperate Housewives, CSI: Miami, and Without a Trace secured the viewers – more than fifteen million each. NBC, the network that struggled in last place a year ago, almost managed to get 17 million viewers for Heroes. But at least one more network will attempt to bring in viewers, perhaps topping them all in the end.
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Read More | TV Squad
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