My poor little surgically altered stomach can’t quite handle spicy foods, so I’m typically frustrated when I get a craving for a snack and see more different variations of flamin’ hot chips, popcorn, burgers and pizza at my local strip mall. I’m well aware that the likely reason these flavors dominate the shelves is because … Read more
The Super Bowl viewership figures came out yesterday, one of the few situations these days where research (excuse me: data science) executives crunching numbers are held in as high esteem as the executives and pundits who they typically slave away for anonymously. Later yesterday, ViacomCBS held its investor day, which by its end saw its … Read more
If you were looking for the Kitten Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday as I was, you may have been as distressed as I was to learn that the Hallmark Channel had discontinued it, choosing human love for its Valentine’s Day movie marathon over pet love. Yesterday’s news that its former CEO Bill Abbott, now heading … Read more
This week’s report that Byron Allen, one-time REAL PEOPLE co-star turned billionaire entertainment entrepreneur, was bidding to own the NFL’s Denver Broncos was seen in some circles as shocking. How could Allen, whose reported net worth is a fraction of those of the likes of other current NFL owners, and with no experience in running … Read more
It was a quick little breaking news story that came through yesterday amidst dozens of others focusing on reactions to Oscar nominations, Super Bowl preps and whatever new drivel trickled out from the daily January 6th investigation committee leak. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, along with five other legacy magazine titles under the purview of Dotdash Meredith since … Read more
For the second time in less than a year, and for the third time in four, NBC’s schedule is on hiatus due to Olympic coverage. For the third consecutive Olympiad, NBC’s ratings have declined precipitously. For the third consecutive Olympiad, media and financial pundits are eager to prey upon every shred of data that trickles … Read more
Yesterday this fledgling enterprise got a shout-out from a much more established resource for entertainment and media news and information. The Programming Insider’s Marc Berman was respectful enough to include my recent observations about celebrity reality bookings in his daily newsletter, with a link to this site. If you have discovered this effort from that, … Read more
The revelation this week that none other than America’s Mayor and your favorite insurrection supporter Rudy Giuliani was both booked and (thankfully) first out on this spring’s upcoming season of THE MASKED SINGER made headlines. Yesterday the Hollywood Reporter weighed in with a scathing opinion piece calling it “a new low for TV image laundering”. … Read more
Yesterday’s news that Jeff Zucker was abruptly leaving his job as head of CNN president sent shock waves through both the news and entertainment industries. Zucker sent a letter of resignation to his teams after he disclosed he failed to tell Warner Media management about a consensual relationship he had been having with his longtime … Read more
My esteemed fellow Oswego graduate Lou Borrelli, currently the CEO of the National Cable Television Cooperative, a consortium of thousands of smaller MSOs who are attempting to provide old-school TV and new-school bandwidth to dozens of hamlets, offered a wonderful take and sobering reminder of how little the media business has changed, only the majority … Read more