TO: KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FR: STEVE LEBLANG, MEDIA CONSULTANT RE: A CRISIS IN YOUR HOMETOWN Dear Madame Vice President: Forgive if you can my boldness and directness, but considering a day doesn’t go by when you or one of your colleagues sends me several e-mails asking for my money to … Read more
This has been a seminal summer for the world of streaming content. The platforms that have enabled the “peak TV” world have been under intense pressure, mostly by Wall Street, to do better, and the reality is that the best they have been able to do is to cut costs and bodies and, where possible, … Read more
It’s not been the best of summers for a lot of us, but far worse if you were a nonagenarian legend. Tony Bennett last month, and, yesterday, Bob Barker passed away in what could only be described as amidst a most ironic set of circumstances. 100 days short of his 100th birthday. “as close as … Read more
When FX was building its first batch of successful shows (and, in hindsight, the foundation of what eventually led to both the explosion of “peak TV” and the streaming business that has metaticized it), we were constantly looking for ways to articulate exactly how much of an impact they had made on viewers, who to … Read more
The last time I was actively involved in making decisions about which TV shows to buy was a brief period where I was advising a smaller, newer UPN affiliate in Orlando, Florida (for the younger among us, google UPN). At the NATPE convention wheee I shephered the station’s owners, one of the surprisingly popular shows … Read more
As the world’s worst repurposing for a failed game show set, aka the kickoff debate for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination, gets ready to take place on a basketball court in Milwaukee, I have mild but admittedly morbid curiosity. Most of the field that will show up to wage battle for the lion’s (well, relative … Read more
So as promised last week, the “day of reckoning” against the reality TV industry, or at least the significant sector carved out by the NBCUniversal family of networks, came on Sunday, and yesterday the WRAP’s Loree Weitz broke the details of it to the rest of us: Lawyers representing reality stars and crew of NBCUniversal … Read more
Not much went on in Los Angeles yesterday; heck, our mayor was all over Sunday morning national news programs yesterday comparing what we were about to experience with Tropical Storm Hillary to what those in Maui experienced with wildfires recently. Given her political leanings, I suppose she was a bit more afraid of a storm … Read more
No less than the ageless and indominatable Norman Lear, currently in the later stages of development for two new streaming services a few weeks past his 101st birthday, gives me the kind of confidence and resilience to continue to soldier on and push like mad for even a day of what used to be for … Read more
Creatives are, by necessity, driven by passion. When writers, producers, actors and directors are interviewed, invariably, the words “labor of love” consistently emerge. When you invest blood, sweat, tears and yes, money into something you believe in, you despertately want to at least be given a fair chance to pursue your dream as long as … Read more