Giving Jay Leno a primetime show enabled NBC to upset long-gestating plans by ABC and Fox to challenge its stronghold in late night, the Wall Street Journal reports. “I’m glad it didn’t get split up three ways,” said CEO Les…
Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Richard Masur and Mike Farrell are among the higher-profile actors who say they’ll vote against authorizing a Screen Actors Guild strike, the New York Times reports. The union needs a 75% vote to authorize a strike….
Marc Cherry, creator of “Desperate Housewives,” says he’s agreed to do nine seasons of the show, USA Today reports. Previously, he’d planned to do only seven seasons of the high-rated series, now in its fifth year. A formal deal with…
Advertising spending dropped 2% in the third quarter from the previous year despite the Olympics and presidential election, TelevisionWeek reports, citing TNS Media Intelligence data released Thursday. For the first nine months of 2008, total spending was down 1.7%, but…
Audi of America on Wednesday announced it bought a 60-second spot during the Super Bowl, the New York Times reports. While domestic automakers are struggling, several import models are buying spots from NBC which will carry the big game. —Jon…
Chris Carlisle has been named president of Fox 21, which produces lower-cost series including “Sons of Anarchy” and “Beauty and the Geek,” TelevisionWeek reports. Carlisle had previously been with FX and New Line, and will report to 20ht Century Fox…
HBO is planning a live telecast of Will Ferrell’s Broadway show “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night With George W. Bush” in the spring, Daily Variety reports. The show begins previews at the Cort Theater on Jan. 20 – Inauguration…
Showtime has ordered a pilot for a series about gay people coming out to their friends and family, the Hollywood Reporter says. Titled “Way Out,” the project is part of the network’s efforts to increase its unscripted offerings. Former journalist…
Former “Pushing Daisies” executive producer Bryan Fuller, who returns to NBC as a consultant, talks to Entertainment Weekly about fixing the faltering NBC hit. “People will die. And some will return,” he tells the magazine. “We’re also going to tell…
“Scrubs” co-star Sarah Chalke has been tapped to star in Lifetime’s miniseries “Maneater,” based on the book by Gigi Levangie Grazer, the Hollywood Reporter says. Timothy Busfield has signed on to direct the Sony Pictures Television-produced four-hour miniseries, about a…