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NBC, ABC Kill Plans for Paris Hilton Interview

NBC has killed its plans for a Paris Hilton interview and Barbara Walters, ABC’s queen of the big celebrity sitdown, has told representatives of the so-called celebutante’s family that she has no interest in doing the interview, according to sources…

YouTube Pulls More Viewers from Google

YouTube continued to siphon video viewers away from parent company Google in the month of May, according to Web rankings from Nielsen//NetRatings. But that’s the plan. YouTube has made small gains in the last three months at Google Video’s expense…

ABC Family Tries to Keep Viewers Hooked

ABC Family said it is taking steps to improve audience retention through commercial breaks. The network said it will increase the number of commercials that air in the first position in commercial pods in the 2007-08 season, reducing the number…

ABC News Plans to Cut 35 Jobs Over 2 Years

ABC News President David Westin, who for several years has been making aggressive cost-cutting moves such as renegotiating salaries downward, announced to his staff Friday that he and his management team have begun a two-year process that will result in…

Markey Threatens Limit on Kids Food Ads

The chairman of a House telecom panel is unleashing a big new stick in the children’s obesity wars. If food marketers don’t quickly restrict ads targeting kids to healthier products, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said he will ask the FCC…

NBC News Preparing for Paris Hilton Interview, Sources Say

Update: NBC, ABC Kill Plans for Paris Hilton Interview NBC News is scrambling to put in place players and pieces to air a Paris Hilton edition of “Dateline NBC” on Wednesday night, people familiar with the situation said. A spokesperson…

CW Upbeat on Upfront Sales

The CW has completed its upfront sales and said it did better than expected. “In just our second upfront we exceeded our revenue goals, adding over a dozen new advertisers with great strength in categories like wireless, retail and theatrical,…

Fox’s Lows High Enough to Win Thursday

Despite hitting summer-season lows, Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” dominated Thursday night. “Smarter” earned a 2.9 rating among viewers 18 to 49, according to preliminary Nielsen data, while “Dance” pulled…

E! Airs Seacrest’s Hilton Chat

E!’s Ryan Seacrest scored a telephone interview with the incarcerated Paris Hilton that will be broadcast in two parts on E! News beginning tonight. E! airs Ms. Hilton’s show “The Simple Life.” Ms. Hilton, sentenced to 45 days for driving…

NBCU’s Ireland Returns to GE

Jay Ireland, president of NBC Universal Television Stations and network operations, is returning to parent company General Electric for a great job, but with mixed emotions. During his eight years in the post, Mr. Ireland grew the network’s stations group…