Walt Disney Co. President Robert Iger called the public criticism by Cox Communications of ESPN’s programming fee increases “a negotiating ploy on their part” that could be damaging to the negotiations the programmer has with other large programmers. Speaking last…
On the Raleigh Studios sound stage in Hollywood, about 80 employees bustle about preparing “Channel One News,” a daily 12-minute newscast that is beamed via satellite to students in about 12,000 schools. A group of youthful anchors sets up the…
Ask what Cathy Renna, news media director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (whom The Insider came to know during the dust-up and flameout that defined the short run of shock talker Michael Savage on MSNBC), and her…
The distribution logo for King World, now part of Viacom, regularly flashes by on some of TV’s top game shows, including “Jeopardy!” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Hollywood Squares.” Now fans can get a rare look at the King himself-Roger King,…
* In “Nielsen: Finding Lost Boys” (TelevisionWeek, Nov. 17), the suggestion that analysis “supports Nielsen’s contention that the disappearing act pulled by 18 to 34 male viewers during the past three months is correcting itself” should not have been attributed…
Only a week after Arnold Schwarzenegger took the oath of office as governor of California, it is already clear that he is not following the usual party line. His initial appointments have included Democrats and independents as well as his…
Ask and ye shall receive … and then be punished by Nielsen Media Research. That is what happened in Corpus Christi, Texas, where CBS affiliate KZTV is to be excluded from all November sweeps reports because it violated Nielsen rules…
The fact that sitcom buyers’ attention at the upcoming National Association of Television Program Executives conference in Las Vegas is focused on the second and third syndication cycles of two established megahit shows illustrates the dearth of standout first-run comedies…
Michael Douglas, whose career has included work in both television and movies as an actor and a producer, has been selected to receive the 2004 Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his “outstanding contribution to…
AliasProduced by: TouchstoneDistributed by: Buena Vista TelevisionRan first on: ABCExpected syndie debut: Fall 2005EverwoodProduced by: Warner Bros. TelevisionDistributed by: Warner Bros. Domestic TV DistributionRan first on: The WBExpected syndie debut: Fall 2006SmallvilleProduced by: Warner Bros. TelevisionDistributed by: Warner Bros. Domestic…