During competing interviews with presidential hopeful Barack Obama, Bill O’Reilly’s “The O’Reilly Factor” bested Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown” by more than double the amount of viewers, while MSNBC’s premiere of “The Rachel Maddow Show” beat CNN cornerstone “Larry King Live.” Both…
HBO is leaning on a time-honored traditional TV strategy for its new Web-only series “Hooking Up,” which debuts next month with a cast of YouTube stars. In a conversation with TelevisionWeek, Fran Shea, general manager of HBOLabs, said the premium…
ABC News President David Westin told TelevisionWeek the reasoning behind the choice of Charles Gibson to interview Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. He attributed the decision to “Rick Davis or Steve Schmidt,” both senior members of Sen. John McCain’s…
Republican presidential candidate John McCain discarded precedent from recent elections, buying political ads on network TV for the second time in as many months. Last month, both McCain and his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, purchased TV time during the Olympics….
A school superintendant from Georgia finally became the first million-dollar-winner of Fox’s “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” since the show’s debut in February 2007, the New York Times reports. Kathy Cox, the state’s school superintendent, correctly answered 10…
NBC Universal will conduct its third annual “Comedy Short Cuts” Diversity Film Festival on Sept. 15 as part of the New York Television Festival. Fifteen semifinalist filmmakers will be honored during the event, which will be sponsored by Showbiz Software,…
In the new NBC Universal-Apple deal announced today, NBC said, it obtained the pricing flexibility it has been demanding from iTunes for the last year. That’s what J.B. Perrette, president of digital distribution at NBC Universal, told TelevisionWeek during a…
National news organizations weren’t the only out-of-towners who descended on Wilmington, N.C., Monday when the town made the official switch from analog to digital broadcasting, the Wilmington Star-News reports. Four Japanese TV networks, including NHK, also made the trip to…
VH1 will be premiering two new hip-hop-themed shows to coincide with its fifth annual “VH1 Hip-Hop Honors,” Billboard reports. “100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs” and “VH1 Rock Doc: NWA: The World’s Most Dangerous Group” will premiere Sept. 29 and Oct. 3,…