World Wrestling Entertainment reported a third-quarter profit last week, lifted by an additional pay-per-view event, strong advertising sales and cost cutting. The Stamford, Conn.-based WWE posted a profit of $17.2 million, or 25 cents per share, vs. a year-earlier loss…
NBC, CBS Claim Sweeps Wins NBC and CBS declared sweeps victories Monday in separate end-of-sweeps conference calls with reporters. NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker said the network projects that it will win the November sweeps in adults 18 to 49…
Television broadcasters, who increasingly find themselves adrift in a multichannel media world, have only themselves to blame and may have only a few years to salvage or leverage their grass-roots franchises.That is the pragmatic warning from SG Cowen analyst James…
Monday, Nov. 10, 2003-Sunday, Nov. 16, 2003TV Season Week No. 8NBC won the week in adults 18 to 49 with a 4.3/12, while CBS scored a victory in total viewers with 14.2 million.Top Show of the WeekAdults 18 to 49:…
RebaProduced by: 20th Century Fox TelevisionDistributed by: Twentieth TelevisionRan first on: UPNExpected syndie debut: Possibly fall 2005; distributor hasn’t decidedYes, DearProduced by: 20th Century Fox TelevisionDistributed by: Twentieth TelevisionRan first on: CBSExpected debut: Possibly fall 2004; distributor hasn’t decidedGirlfriendsProduced by:…
The enduring image of sitcom writers sitting on lumpy couches, scribbling on dog-eared, ink-smeared scripts has been partly erased at one television show. The 13 writers on ABC’s “According to Jim” now use wireless tablet computers while sitting on those…
When some TV viewers in Lufkin, Texas, wanted a good laugh, they tuned to the news on ABC affiliate KTRE-TV to watch “Hilarious East Texas Videos.”Stacks of viewer home video footage piled up in the station, owned by Liberty Corp.-operator…
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…