Nickelodeon delivered a one-two rating punch over the weekend, as its telecast of the 2009 Kids’ Choice Awards drew the show’s biggest audience ever and “The Penguins of Madagascar” ranked as the most-watched series premiere for the network. Saturday’s telecast…
The Panthers live. Universal Media Studios, Imagine Television and DirecTV have closed a deal to produce 26 more episodes of “Friday Night Lights,” the critically hailed drama about a small-town football team. The newly ordered episodes will almost certainly be…
Comcast International Media Group has licensed more than 450 hours of programming from E! since the Mipcom TV sales venue in October, Daily Variety reports. The U.K.’s Living Channel bought “Girls of the Playboy Mansion,” for example, while Sweden’s TV400…
Elrick Williams, a member of the board of directors of the Africa Channel, has been named president and CEO of the network. Mr. Williams will retain his seat on the board, as will former CEO James Makawa and former President…
Starz has cast U.K.-born Andy Whitfield as the title character of its new action series “Spartacus: Blood and Sand.” Lucy Lawless also has joined the cast as Lucretia. Filling out the cast are relative newcomers Erin Cummings, Peter Mensah, Manu…
Starz Media is creating an animated feature with video-game company Electronic Arts and is shopping the feature at MIP TV in Cannes this week, Daily Variety says. The feature, called “Dante’s Inferno,” is based on EA’s videogame, which in part…
Kathleen Turner is joining Showtime’s “Californication,” playing Evan Handler’s outrageous boss, Entertainment Weekly reports. Her character will debut on the third season of the show next fall, the publication says. —Aimee Picchi
Shalom TV, an on-demand Jewish cable network, now reaches more than 30 million households, Multichannel News reports. The network reached the mark after rolling out on cable-operators such as Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications, the trade paper says. —Aimee…
Rick Boucher, D-Va., tells Broadcasting & Cable his top legislative priorities as the chairman of the House Communications, Technology & Internet Subcommittee include reauthorizing the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act and coming up with a new law to…
CNN is about to drop to third place in the primetime cable news race, the first time that’s ever happened since the network was launched almost 30 years ago, the Associated Press reports. In March, first place Fox News Channel…