Le Blog

It DOES Matter If You’re Black Or White
I was somewhat disturbed when I saw some social media reaction earlier this week to the announcement of a third new daytime talk show for a fall launch, NBCUniversal’s KARAMO. Featuring the openly gay co-star of Netflix’s reboot of the one-time breakthrough Bravo hit QUEER EYE Karamo Brown, it is a de facto replacement for

Time To Put Your Money Where Your Mouse Is
MEMO TO: BOB CHAPEK, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY FR: STEVE LEBLANG, MEDIA CONSULTANT SUBJECT: THAT FLORIDA THING Mr. Chapek, I want to preface these opinions by reinforcing they are my own exclusively, nor do I profess to know the inner workings of your company. I certainly don’t know the nuances of the

What’s In a Name Redux
A few months back, when Mark Zuckerberg woke up from a fever dream and renamed Facebook Meta, I was prompted to recall my own adventures in renaming and rebranding networks and services, and the astounding amount of time, effort and money involved in such an undertaking. This morning, Amazon gleefully announced their own contribution to

Reverence for Severance
I extol praise on quite a number of Apple TV+ projects, and I’ll admit I’m a little pre-disposed to wanting to. I’ve had the privilege of working directly with many of their key executives for many years, and I’ve seen first-hand their dedication to finding the right talent and the right tone for projects they

Cancel Just My Reservations
Sometimes the silliest questions provoke the most profound revelations, at least in my case. Someone asked about some obscure daytime TV scheduling moves from decades ago, and as I typed out my response (without looking it up, of course) I realized that the network made three different programming moves in one half-hour time period in

Agape–No Agate!
It’s the first Sunday of baseball season, and for decades that often meant I’d begin several months spent many relaxing hours of ensuing Sundays on a beach towel or sitting in a sun chair poring over standings, team statistics, expanded and exhaustive lists of players’ individual performances and box scores. My default paper then and

Dancing In The Right Direction
Every now and then a move is made by a major media company than even I can’t find any fault with. Yesterday’s announcement from the Disney corporate execs that 30-season reality stalwart DANCING WITH THE STARS will move to Disney Plus this fall and will indeed continue beyond that was one of them. DWTS, as

It’s You Into Me–Into Oblivion??
A generation ago, the battle for time slots on local television stations for first-run syndicated shows was fierce, passionate and strategic. As the “consigliere” to those on the front lines in the more expensive suits, I would frequently be brought into conversations and often business lunches with buyers and even competitors. While we were technically

$175. For Rice.
Any sign of normalcy in a world inexplicably resistant to return to normalcy is seen here as exceptionally positive. For me, nothing was more positive than the fact that MIP-TV was held IN PERSON this week in Cannes, France. The fact that this week large contingents of actual people finally got on planes, congregated in