I first met Michael Levitt under what some might call shotgun wedding circumstances. My tenure at Game Show Network could best be described as nonstop confrontation. I was recruited by a especially outspoken and passionate HR consultant who personally convinced our mercurial president and CEO that I was far and away the best person available … Read more
We’re down to the proverbial short hairs when it comes to the broadcast network life of THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT. The show’s final week of existence began last night with a clip-laden “worst of” episode. By week’s end the valuable (and still most-viewed) real estate immediately following the most profitable daypart on local … Read more
If you happen to be employed by one of the solvent international airlines and their related business partners, you’re probably feeling a little busier and more bullish than usual these days. And if you happen to be one of movers and shakers in entertainment you’re likely directly the cause of said ebullience. We’re knee-deep into … Read more
It’s not easy to find positivity around the Paramount media universe these days. Sure, they appear to have won the battle for Warner Brothers, the half-assed efforts of Rob Bonda, Richard Rushfield and Elizabeth Warren notwithstanding. But at the same time they’ve been losing substantially more wars. CBS is no longer America’s Most Watched Network–when … Read more
NOTE: This musing also appears today on our sister site The Double Overtime. Please visit it regularly for coverage of sports of all sports plus occasional essays on business and technology. Well, NOW you can consider upfront week closed. No matter how much or little detail was offered by the various companies that trotted out … Read more
For as much as I’d like to think my musings are original and trail-blazing I’m perpetually reminded by my metrics that I’m clearly neither. Spend enough time around numbers as I have and you can’t help but take that sort of approach. So when I look at the numbers specific to ABC of late I’m … Read more
There was a time when upfront week was practically Christmas in May. I didn’t get to attend many of them, but considering how much work and overtime I put into even the ones I supported the week was a continuous array of catered meetings and persistent updates as networks announced their fall lineups and series … Read more
Another show bites the dust tonight, which I realize on the surface is as dog-bites-man a story as is capable of being produced nowadays. I wasn’t a regular viewer of THE NEIGHBORHOOD, which sunsets CBS tonight after an impressive eight seasons and 156 episodes. Those are the kind of numbers that old school situation comedies … Read more
Depending upon what generation you fall into your Pavolvian reaction to what kind of shows you’d associate with FOX is likely to vary. Certainly, if you’re a child of the 90s you’ll immediately pivot to one of the tentpoles of ANIMATION DOMINATION–THE SIMPSONS, FAMILY GUY, AMERICAN DAD et al if you’re male, and the Spelling … Read more
Whenever I see sobering statistics on how shows what were once seen as saviors turning quickly into afterthoughts and write-offs I pay attention; when you’ve been as empowered and as enriched as I have been to react to such stimuli for as long as I was old habits die hard. The latest example of that … Read more