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.

News Corp. Abandons Bid for BSkyB

News Corp. has given in to public outrage and pressure from the British Parliament over the phone-hacking scandal centered on the company’s News of the World tabloid and has withdrawn its bid to take over the U.K. satellite TV company…

News Corp.’s U.S. Broadcast TV Licenses Considered Safe Despite U.K. Hacking Scandal, But Lawmakers Are ‘Keeping an Eye’ on the Company

The widening U.K. phone-hacking scandal involving News Corp.-owned tabloid News of the World — and possibly extending to other News Corp. publications — isn’t likely to result in a push by U.S. regulators to revoke any of the company’s 27…

Ad Forecast Scaled Back Amid Global Turmoil

A global advertising forecast from ZenithOptimedia was scaled back in the face of political turmoil in the Middle East and debt issues in Europe, reports Advertising Age. ZenithOptimedia now expects global ad spending to increase 4.1% to $471 billion this…

Viewers Return in Big Numbers to Vampire Series

A hit vampire series that saw its audience fall off for its second episode of the season enjoyed a resurgence in viewership for Episode 3, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s The Live Feed blog. The third episode of Season 4…

Soap Opera Stars Appear to Be in the Same Boat as Many U.S. Workers — Deciding Whether to Take Big Pay Cuts to Move Online

With "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" moving from television to online, the soap operas’ stars are deciding whether to continue appearing in the programs when they move to the Internet, reports FoxNews.com. Several current cast members have…

Syfy Has Its Most-Watched Series Debut in Two Years, as Three of the Network’s Shows Open Strong

Syfy had its most-watched series debut since 2009 for a drama it premiered Monday night, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s The Live Feed blog. The new drama "Alphas" debuted to 2.5 million viewers, the story says. It was the biggest…

Middle East, North Africa Turmoil Burdens Ad-Spending Forecast — ZenithOptimedia Outlook Keeps Overall Outlay on Par With April Estimate

By Alexandra BruellAdvertising Age Publicis Groupe’s ZenithOptimedia expects global ad expenditure to reach $471 billion in 2011, a 4.1% boost from 2010 that’s on par with a 4.2% increase it predicted in April, but still down from the 4.6% increase…

Numbers Are Down for Season Premieres of TNT Hits — But Still Not Bad

The seventh and final season of TNT’s "The Closer" debuted Monday night with 7.2 million viewers, down from the sixth-season premiere, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s The Live Feed blog. Still, the turnout represented cable’s biggest audience of the year…

Rupert Murdoch: Too Much Jack Bauer and Not Enough Betty Ford. At 80, Can He Find His Moral Compass? An Intervention Begins NOW

We all should be able to expect–at a minimum–when we read stories in our newspapers that no illegal means were used in the gathering of the news stories. That’s a key issue in the growing phone-hacking scandal involving The News of…

TV Pioneer Who Created ‘Gilligan’s Island’ and ‘Brady Bunch’ Dead at 94

A television pioneer who created two of the most enduring — and ridiculed — sitcoms of all time has died, The New York Times reports. The creator of “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch,” Sherwood Schwartz was 94. Schwartz died…