Posted Thursday, Jan. 16.
NBA/WNBA make deal for reality series
The full-court press to develop the next hit reality series has led to a development deal with the National Basketball Association for “Who Wants to Be an NBA/WNBA Player?,” a prime-time series concept targeted for mid-2003 that will focus on a global search for the next pro basketball superstar.
The players in the proposed NBA reality series are NBA Entertainment; Reveille, a joint venture between former wunderkind agent Ben Silverman and Universal Television Group; and Original TV, a management and production partnership between former Endeavor founding partner Marty Adelstein and producer Neal Moritz (“XXX”). One male and one female winner in the proposed series competition will tryout with a respective NBA team or WNBA team. The deal between NBA Entertainment, Original TV and Reveille was brokered by William Morris Agency, Creative Artists Agency and Ken Ziffren.
Viacom appoints new GMs in Florida, Dallas: Viacom’s South Florida triopoly and Dallas duopoly have new chief executives. Michael Colleran, a veteran of ABC and CBS station operations who most recently was general sales manager for KABC-TV in Los Angeles, has been named VP and general manager of WFOR-TV and WBFS-TV, the CBS and UPN, respectively, stations in Miami, and WTVX-TV, the UPN station in West Palm Beach, Fla. Mr. Colleran succeeds Steve Mauldin, who was promoted to president and general manager of CBS station KTVT-TV and UPN station KTXA-TV in Dallas.
NBC Sports announces Arena game coverage teams: The lead announce team for NBC Sports’ Arena Football League coverage, which will debut 3 p.m. (ET) Sunday, Feb. 2, will reunite NBC’s Notre Dame football play-by-play announcer Tom Hammond, analyst Pat Haden and sidelines reporter Lewis Johnson with former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin as a studio analyst. The “AFL on NBC” studio show will be hosted by longtime sportscaster Al Trautwig, who will be joined by Mr. Irvin and former NFL star Glenn Parker, who’s making his broadcasting debut. NBC Sports will be televising as many as four regional games on any given Sunday afternoon during the regular season. The other broadcast teams will include Mike Breen (play-by-play) and Ray Bentley (analyst); Dan Hicks (play-by-play) and John Riggins (analyst); and Eli Gold (play-by-play) and Charles Davis (analyst). Dave Burns and Marty Snider will be sideline reporters.
NBA kids special set: An NBA All-Star weekend special aimed at kids will be simulcast on 12 platforms at noon ET on Saturday, Feb. 8. ABC, TNT, Nickelodeon, Nick GAS, BET, Disney Channel, Telemundo, NBA TV, AOL Broadband, RealOne SuperPass, NBA.com’s Inside Ticket and MuchMusic in Canada will carry “The NBA All-Star Read to Achieve Celebration,” which will be headlined by pop stars Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. Also in the lineup for the hour-long show: teen group B2K and veteran LL Cool J. “NBA Inside Stuff” co-hosts Ahmad Rashad and Summer Sanders will preside over the special, which will originate from Atlanta, site of the All-Star Game, which will be carried by TNT Feb. 9.