While the broadcast networks are gearing up to launch the majority of their fall schedules during premiere week, Fox has been quietly plotting a counterattack.Hampered by Major League Baseball, which will push the start of its fall season to late…
This overheated globe we populate became a little cooler when Bob Hope’s fire went out.In his prime, the young comic walked onto a stage with the confidence of a man who owned it, and by the time he walked off,…
There will never be another Bob Hope.That is obviously true in a literal sense, but it is also a reality in a more symbolic sense. It’s the end of an era. Mr. Hope’s passing really represents closure for the first…
Fox Broadcasting, which after months of discussions has been unable to reach agreement with the Fox affiliates board of governors on three issues, has begun negotiating new National Football League game cost-sharing agreements directly with stations.“We have had extraordinarily positive…
Aegis Group, one of the holding company giants of the consolidating world of advertising, is restructuring its worldwide operations and forming a new global buying and planning network to be called Vizeum.In North America, Europe and elsewhere, that new network…
In the rebounding world of mergers and acquisitions, the sale of Vivendi Universal Entertainment is an auction run amok and a classic example of how not to do a deal. Thank goodness it is not the only game in town.While…
Major marketers are ogling placement deals on the breakout hit “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” even as NBC plots an Aug. 14 special, followed by an appearance by the show’s Fab Five team on “The Tonight Show” to make…
NBC closed the recent Television Critics Association summer tour with a casino-inspired party at which a good time seems to have been had by all from start to finish. Indeed, departing partygoers were given decks of playing cards picturing a…
For years, Bob Hope’s specials on NBC drew huge ratings. His recent death got some NBC veterans talking about an anecdote from 1978, recounted in the late Brandon Tartikoff’s 1992 book, “The Last Great Ride.” It was a Sunday afternoon…
From a quick look at Brandon Burgess’ stats, it might be tough to believe that much of what he has accomplished professionally took place by the time he was 35. Indeed, the list is impressive: He has orchestrated more than…