Business

‘Fringe’ Using Web to Catch Viewers Up

The Fox paranormal drama “Fringe,” which has been off the air for two months, is using the Web to catch viewers up and remind them where the story stands, the New York Times reports. A Web site the network is…

Winfrey Settles Defamation Suit a Week Before Trial

Oprah Winfrey settled a defamation lawsuit that had been filed by a former headmistress at her school for girls in South Africa, the Associated Press reports. The trial was to start next week in Philadelphia. Winfrey had accused the former…

Download Your Favorite Celebrity Tweets From Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Demi Moore and Others, for Charity, at iTunes

Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher were among the 140 performers to fire off a single tweet on stage on March 12 in order to raise funds for the Artists for Peace and Justice’s initiative to build schools…

Craig Ferguson Tells What He Learned From Conan’s Ill-Fated ‘Tonight Show’ Experience

Craig Ferguson, 47, took a few minutes to tell Reuters what he learned from Conan O’Brien’s brief stint on ‘The Tonight Show" before being fired. "As I watched that, whatever that was, unfold, I realized that I am not part…

Rosie O’Donnell’s New Show Will Be Positioned as Oprah Replacement

The producers of Rosie O’Donnell’s new talk show, Dick Robertson and Scott Carlin, will pitch it as a replacement for “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” the New York Times reports. Robertson told The Times: “This is a once-in-25-years opportunity. There is…

Clues to OWN Programming Dribble Out

Casting calls posted on the OWN web site give a few clues to what Oprah Winfrey’s new network has planned, B&C reports. Casting is going on for a show featuring professional locator Pam Slaton, which seems to be in the genre of…

HGTV and Food Network Had Strong Year, But Top Execs Get Pay Cut Anyway–Here’s Why

HGTV and Food Network had a strong year, but at parent company Scripps Networks Interactive executives got a pay cut in 2009 anyway, Multichannel News reports. That’s because some of their pay is tied to the performance of their stock on the…

Attention Advertisers: ‘Fox News’ Says Forget CNN, Our Real Competition is USA and TNT

Believing that it has quashed the competition in the cable news game, Fox News is setting its sights on ad dollars that would otherwise go towards bigger cable networks, like USA or TNT, Advertising Age reports. Fox News said that…

Curmudgeon Alert: Report Says NBC Execs Won’t Allow Conan to Appear on ‘Idol Gives Back,’ Which Raises Money For Good Causes

As Conan O’Brien negotiates whether or not to go to Fox latenight in September, word is that separately he’s been invited to appear on ‘Idol Gives Back,’ the April 21 special charity episode of "American Idol" that raises money for…

Here’s What Jeff Sagansky, Former Chief of CBS Entertainment, Is Doing Now

Jeff Sagansky, who used to run CBS Entertainment, is back in the TV business, but in a different capacity. Three years ago he launched Winchester Capital Management with Jean-Luc De Fanti, and heretofore the company primarily financed movies. But now Winchester has…