Chuck Ross

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Chuck Ross is the managing director of TVWeek.com. He's been involved in the TV business ever since he sold cable TV subscriptions in Santa Monica, Calif., door-to-door in the mid-to-late 1970s. He's had regular gigs reporting and/or editing about TV and advertising for Cablevision magazine,The Hollywood Reporter, the San Francisco Chronicle, Inside Media and Advertising Age. He first joined the predecessor to TVWeek, Electronic Media, in 2000.

HBO to Offer Two New Comedies for Free

In a move to grab viewers who aren’t subscribers, HBO plans to make two new comedies available online for free, reports Bill Carter in The New York Times’ Media Decoder. "The shows are the coming comedies ‘Girls’ and ‘Veep,’ both…

‘Californication’ Working on Spinoff Based on New Groupie Character

Showtime’s "Californication" is working on a spinoff based on a new character who will be introduced next season, reports EW.com’s Inside TV. The character, Faith, was an innocent Catholic schoolgirl who becomes a groupie after falling in love with rock…

Court Strikes Down FCC Ban on Political Ads on Public TV

In a move that could open up the public airwaves to a flood of campaign advertising, a federal appeals court has struck down the FCC’s ban on political ads on public TV and public radio, Reuters reports. The story reports:…

Up Against Dominant ‘Idol,’ a CBS Staple Falls to a Historic Low; So How Did NBC Do? Don’t Ask

Fox’s dominant “American Idol” claimed its share of casualties among the broadcast competition Wednesday night, as Fox soared to a big win for the night in the Nielsen overnights, TVbytheNumbers.com reports. Among the victims: CBS’s reality staple “Survivor,” which hit…

Soap Opera Introduces Lesbian Love Story

A long-running daytime soap opera will head in a new direction with its first-ever lesbian story line, EW.com reports. The soap is the CBS staple "The Bold and the Beautiful." The series will introduce veteran soap actress Crystal Chappell as…

Character Who Has Been on TV Off and On for More Than 40 Years — in Both Animation and Live Action — Will Be Reinvented as a Big-Screen Superhero

A character who is familar to generations of TV viewers — either as a live-action series star or in animated form — will now be reinvented again, as a live-action superhero on the big screen. The character is Sabrina the…

Scarlett Johansson Opens Up About Naked Pictures, Divorce

Screen siren Scarlett Johansson is still haunted by nude photographs of her that were splashed all over the Internet after an email hacking incident, CBS News reports, citing an interview in the May issue of Vogue. The story reports: “Johansson…

Fox Yanks Series Off Schedule, Plugs In Reruns of Sitcom

Fox has pulled a prime-time series off the schedule for the remainder of the season, replacing it with repeat broadcasts of a freshman comedy, Deadline.com reports. Christian Slater’s sophomore comedy "Breaking In" is off the schedule, with reruns of "New…

Code Blue at ABC Daytime: One Show Dies, but ‘General Hospital’ Survives! And ‘GMA’ to Expand With Afternoon Edition

ABC’s only remaining daytime soap, "General Hospital," has been renewed, Deadline.com reports. Furthermore, the show that was created as a replacement for one of the network’s canceled soaps has itself been canceled, the story notes. The canceled show is "The Revolution,"…

Theater, Cigarettes, Sex and Cinema. A Brilliant Movie Is Revived. The TCM Classic Movie Festival, Part 1

In the annals of film history, 1972 will forever be associated with “The Godfather,” Francis Ford Coppola’s huge popular and critical success. The movie won the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year, and rightfully so. And yet. For only…