Laughing all the way
On his hit TGIF comedy on ABC, “George Lopez,” comedian George Lopez plays an assembly line worker who has been promoted to manager of an airplane parts factory. In real life, Mr. Lopez is known for promoting a number of…
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Guest Commentary: Is the Upfront Broken and Can It Be Fixed?
The media buying and selling process is lodged in the past and constrained by an upfront market process that is outdated and one-sided. Developed more than 30 years ago when there were only three national television outlets, the upfront functions…
News Briefs
ABC is shaking up its Wednesday schedule. Freshman drama “Karen Sisco” is taking a breather, and “Celebrity Mole Yucatan” will take its time slot. “Mole” premieres Wednesday, Jan. 14, at 10 p.m. Also on Jan. 14, “The Bachelorette” will premiere…
Previews
In a sweeps redux on Wednesday evening, it’s the finale of “The Bachelor” on ABC vs. “The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” on CBS. This season’s bachelor, Bob Guiney, has promised to slip a ring on one lucky girl’s finger. Across…
TV’S TOP TECH TURKEYS
With Thanksgiving coming next week, I would like to honor the occasion by presenting the four biggest Turkeys of TV Technology. With most new TV technologies still struggling to find a mass audience, I could probably fill the entire publication…
Digital Must-Carry Issue Heating Up
A broadcast industry proposal to change the digital must-carry rule to require cable operators to carry all of the programming streams that broadcasters offer on their new DTV channels appeared to be picking up steam last week.A final vote at…
ABC’s Behavior Ratings Push
ABC, the network that pioneered the use of demographic ratings and transformed the way television is bought and sold, appears to be at it again. But instead of age-/sex-based demographics, the network is planning to leverage a new form of…
Biz Briefs
Cablevision Systems said Tuesday the accounting probe that began earlier this year and led to the dismissal of 14 Rainbow Media executives in June has been broadened to include other divisions of the cable company and will likely result in…
DAN RATHER HAS LEARNED TO RESIST
In the past 21/2 years my path has twice crossed that of Dan Rather, the CBS anchor who has long represented the best of professional journalism for me. Both times he was in Southern California to accept well-deserved awards. Both…
Nets Carefully Approach Product Placement Deals
If product placement is the wave of the future, where is the steady flow of Starbucks lattes on “Will & Grace,” or the bags of Lay’s Potato Chips on “King of Queens”?The answer is that apart from a few hit…