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Daily Archives : Dec 23, 2009

‘Balloon Boy’ Parents Get Jail Time; Also Can’t Exploit Event For Any TV Show for Four Years

Richard and Mayumi Heene, the reality-TV-obsessed parents of six-year-old Falcon ‘Balloon Boy’ Heene have been sentenced to jail for the stunt, the Associated Press reports. Richard Heene was sentenced to 90 days in jail, Mayumi 20 days. Furthermore, according to the…

Bah, Humbug! Twas the Night Before Christmas and Santa’s Unhappy About TV (and Other Transgressions)

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the House, Not a doctor was stirring, not even Hugh Laurie, that louse.The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. But Santa wasn’t…

Paley Awards a Good Idea as Emmy Competition

Still pondering the surprising news that the Emmys could be in for some competition—and after the initial knee-jerk reaction of “Oh, great, another awards show,” coming around to the notion that it’s probably a good idea. The Academy of Television…

Sen. Kerry Doesn’t Want the Time Warner/News Corp. Spat Disrupting Football

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is trying to play mediator in the retransmission consent dispute between Time Warner Cable and News Corp., worried that the fight will disrupt New Year’s Day football games, the Los Angeles Times reports. In a letter…

Comcast Extends Contract of Key Management Executive in Deal Worth Up to $20 Million

Comcast has extended the contract of one of its top executives an additional four years in a deal that could be worth up to $20 million, according to an 8-K filing the company made with the SEC. Comcast COO Steve…

Small Bump for Sawyer’s ‘World News’ Debut

ABC’s “World News” got a slight Nielsen bump for Diane Sawyer’s Monday debut as anchor, B&C reports. Preliminary data put the audience at an average 8.9 million viewers, up from the show’s usual Monday average of 8.4 million viewers. For…

TMZ Planning a Sports Spin-Off

TMZ is expected to spin off an all-sports site next year, The New York Times reports, citing the blog SportsByBrooks, which noted that the celebrity site has registered the TMZSports.com domain name. The expected spinoff comes after several weeks of…

The Situation at CNN: Blitzer’s Show Trimmed by an Hour to Make Room for New Program

Wolf Blitzer’s “Situation Room” will contract by an hour to make room for a new show,  TVNewser reports. Early next year Rick Sanchez, who currently hosts the 3 p.m." CNN Newsroom,"  will add the new “Rick’s List" at 4 p.m., taking…

Another Advertiser Exits MTV’s ‘Jersey Shore’

Another sponsor pulled out of MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” citing the program’s “ethnic bashing, TMZ reports. Dell Computers told TMZ that its ads will be blocked from future shows because the company doesn’t "condone or support ethnic bashing in any form."…

Vatican Gives Seal of Approval to ‘The Simpsons’

The Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano congratulated “The Simpsons” on its 20th anniversary, the Associated Press reports. Without Homer Simpson and his gang, "many today wouldn’t know how to laugh," the paper said in article titled "Aristotle’s Virtues and Homer’s Doughnut."…