Nearly half a century ago, the first concert I was ever allowed to attend was Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour at the then spanking new Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. One of the few friends I had at the time (male, of course) took two buses, transferring and waiting in a drug den … Read more
In a week that was filled yet again with a lot of bad news in media and tech, one particularly positive story was the renewal of HBO’s smart comedy WHITE LOTUS for a third season. The fact that it was even renewed for a second season was a surprise given its initial premise and raison … Read more
Of all the examples of recent hits that my expertise played a role in establishing, there are few I’m prouder to have been associated with than THE GOOD DOCTOR. In its sixth season, a milestone which most streaming dramas never achieve, the show continues to win a highly competitive time slot with seven-day extended viewing … Read more
Whenever I’d see Kelly Kahl at an industry event or a focus group I’d immediately go for the low-hanging fruit of connecting with what I knew what one of his greatest passions beyond his family and his career–his deep love for his native Wisconsin’s college football team, known as the Badgers. Immediately, I’d somehow try … Read more
In media research, a common advanced study to identify audience segments is called an “only-only-both”, essentially a Venn diagram mapping of how two particular programs’ viewerships compare and contrast. Depending upon the business objective, there is potential upside from either conclusion. If you’re a marketer, you would hope the two shows have a large common … Read more
CBS quietly announced yesterday their mid-season schedule, with the even more muted announcement that LINGO, the latest incarnation of a game show with a modest history in the US but a strong international acceptance spanning several decades, will round out a short-term Wednesday night schedule sandwiched between nighttime episodes of THE PRICE IS RIGHT and … Read more
Taylor Sheridan has arguably become to Paramount what Ryan Murphy is to Netflix, what Greg Berlanti has been to Warner Brothers and what Seth Macfarlane once was to FOX. Defy the odds, make a breakthrough hit, use a similar marketing and casting recipe for any idea that comes to mind on a Pelaton and be … Read more
The much-anticipated and emotional sequel to the breakout MCU hit BLACK PANTHER, WAKANDA FOREVER, finally hit theatres this weekend four years after the first premiered, having survived pandemic-related delays and the death of its lead, Chadwick Boseman. First, the good news. Perhaps buoyed by Friday being Veterans’ Day, it opened to a blistering $84M opening … Read more
It’s been another rough week for those desiring to work in media and tech. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s impassioned determination to have us live as avatars in an alternative universe, 11,000 Meta employees joined their brethren at Twitter, Stripe, Chime and some of my former colleagues at Sony as people in my LinkedIn category–“open to … Read more
When I first moved to LA I was still close to some childhood friends who chose to go down a path toward Orthodox Judiasm and were therefore strictly kosher. At the time, I had both the largesse of a generous expense account and a far lovelier winter climate than New York City, plus a spare … Read more