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In Depth

‘Rescue Me’ Draws 4.1 Million Viewers

FX’s “Rescue Me” premiered Wednesday night as cable’s top-ranked show with 4.1 million total viewers and 2.5 million adults 18 to 49. The channel said the Denis Leary project earned the highest household rating of any original drama to debut…

Spike TV Announces Biz-Themed Reality Series

Spike TV announced an “Apprentice”-style reality series from LivePlanet, the production company founded by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, at the cable portion of the semiannual Television Critics Association press tour Friday. “American Start-Up” is a 10-episode series in which…

Viacom Discloses Pay, Succession Plans for Redstone

Viacom has all but assured Tom Freston and Leslie Moonves that either or both executives will replace Sumner Redstone as CEO of Viacom by 2007, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows.According to the document, which details the executives’ employment…

Belo Closes Two News Channels, Reports 16 Percent Surge in Q2 Earnings

Newspaper and station group owner Belo Corp. on Friday said it shuttered two 24-hour cable news channels in Texas that it had operated in a joint venture with Time Warner Cable, even as the company reported higher second-quarter earnings.The channels,…

Broker’s Assistant in Stewart Trial Gets Fine

The former broker’s assistant whose testimony helped sentence lifestyle guru Martha Stewart to five months in prison was himself spared jail time and instead was fined $2,000 for his role in Ms. Stewart’s illegal stock sale.Douglas Faneuil, 28, faced up…

Bravo Announces New Reality Series

Bravo announced a new reality series called “Situation Comedy” at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour in Los Angeles Thursday. Produced by “Will & Grace” star Sean Hayes, the production is current accepting unproduced original sit-com scripts from amateur…

Sci Fi Head Apologizes for Hoax

Bonnie Hammer, president of Sci Fi Channel and USA Networks, apologized to reporters for creating an elaborate hoax designed to deceive the press and public into believing there was a fight between the network and “Sixth Sense” director M. Night…

Scripps, Alliance Team for New Net

Networks and Canadian television production company Alliance Atlantis Communications on Friday said they were teaming up to launch a Canadian version of Scripps’ digital cable network Fine Living, extending a relationship that has already brought the Food Network and Home…

MTV Offers Hints About LOGO Programming

MTV Networks on Friday gave a first peek, albeit vague, at the programming strategy for its planned gay and lesbian channel, LOGO, on Friday. The network has acquired a library of 150 movie and documentary features and has 20 projects…

Sen. Clinton Intros Baby Brokering Legislation

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that she is introducing legislation to make baby brokering a federal crime. Baby selling was the subject of the Lifetime film “Baby for Sale” earlier this month. In the movie, a New York couple…