At a press gathering Tuesday evening in New York, showman Henry Schleiff, CEO of Crown Media, seemed to know the answer to the old showbiz question “Will it play in Peoria?” At least when it comes to Crown’s Hallmark Channel…
The Weather Channel has ordered 14 more episodes of Towers Productions’ original series “When the Weather Changed History.” The drama revisits catastrophic natural events of the past based on stock footage and first-hand accounts. The Jan. 6 premiere, a chronicle…
Burke Magnus has been promoted to senior VP of college sports programming at ESPN, following the retirement of the department’s executive VP, Chuck Gerber. Mr. Magnus, who was most recently vice president of ESPNU, joined ESPN as a programming associate…
Fox Sports Network plans to broadcast 1,024 Major League Baseball games this season in high definition, doubling the amount of HD coverage from last year. “Increasing our commitment to high-definition programming allows FSN to offer greater value to our viewers,…
NBC Universal promoted Bonnie Hammer to president of cable entertainment and cable studios as her contract as head of the network’s Sci Fi and USA channels was expiring, Television Week reports. Hammer will: Run Universal Media Studios’ cable-programming efforts; oversee…
The Hallmark Channel ordered a two-hour pilot featuring Jane Seymour as TV host moonlighting as a mystery solver, Daily Variety reports. “Dear Prudence” may be extended into another two-hour movie if the ratings justify it, the newspaper says, citing pilot…
Cablevision boosted its on-demand selection by adding Starz On Demand and Encore On Demand after reaching similar agreements with Scripps Networks and Discovery Communications, Multichannel News reports. Cablevision’s Starz and Encore subscribers will be charged another $4.95 a month for…
HBO tonight debuts “Autism: The Musical,” which features a Los Angeles musical theater program specializing in teaching autistic kids, the New York Times reports. The film focuses largely on the challenges parents of autistic children face and how they can…
The guessing game about Bonnie Hammer’s next job is over. With her contract as head of NBC Universal’s top two cable networks expiring, the company was looking for new titles and new responsibilities to give Ms. Hammer to keep her…
HBO spent more than $20 million producing six episodes of the Lily Tomlin-starring “12 Miles of Bad Road” before canceling it after deciding it wasn’t original enough for the Time Warner-owned cable network, the Wall Street Journal reports. HBO’s new…