Le Blog
I Need A Hero
I’ve already said on social media that my dad was my first hero. I’ve been blessed with being able to learn professionally from several prominent mentors who were my subsequent heroes–Barry Diller, Ted Turner, Haim Saban, Rupert Murdoch, Peter Liguori, Steve Mosko. You may have heard of a few of them. My current hero is
I Stream, You Stream?
This week the 2021 Emmy Award nominations were announced, and if anybody had any questions that broadcast television–indeed, linear television, had crossed the threshold into irrelevance one only look at the breakdown of which networks–er, platforms–led the way. Of the 530 major nominations announced the other morning, more than 80% of them were from series running on services uniquely
Lies, Damn Lies and Rebounds
The NBA Finals are here, traditionally a signpost of where TV sports popularity stands. Depending upon where the spin is coming from, this year’s numbers so far are either encouraging, devastating or inconclusive. From the positive side, viewership through the first two games was up approximately +18% vs. last year’s finals. From the negative side,
My Second Mother
My mother died again. Let me explain. I lost my own mother far too prematurely, 30 years ago this June. Look no further than her psyche for the cause of death. My mother was well-intentioned but self-loathing, addicted to food, high-tar cigarettes and a codependent relationship with my equally well-intentioned but otherwise flawed father. She
HULU: Who Knew?
HULU: WHO KNEW? As the streaming service war of attrition begins to ramp up with the recent moves surrounding the now-Warner Discovery brands (HBO Max and Discovery Plus) and Amazon (MGM)’s arms race for content, there is increasing ambiguity and uncertainty among one of the more mature players in the space, Hulu. At first blush
Tales of Nielsen and Blutarsky
One of the most laugh-out loud scenes of Animal House is when Dean Wormer hands out grades to students and Bluto Blutarsky proudly revels in his “zero point zero” GPA. On more than a few occasions last year many shows on the CW and on dozens of cable networks got the exact same overnight rating
Leblang Across America: The Recap – Leg One
Those of you who follow my social media know I’ve recently started to “break out of my COVID isolation” by getting out and about and having new experiences, which are all the more special to me given what I’ve survived in the past 18 months. The necessity of condensing everything to cute photos, ambiguous captions
The Instant Gratification Network
This week’s media bombshell was clearly Amazon swallowing MGM—for perspective, the price was roughly two-thirds of what they paid for Whole Foods, meaning an iconic Hollywood brand is inferior to organic cranberry tuna salad. There’s a lot already written about how once again an arrogant tech company wants to impose its size and will on
100,000 Reasons To Have Faith
Tonight marks the delayed fifth season premiere of the current iteration of THE $100,000 PYRAMID, my all-time favorite game show and one I had the pleasure of working on three different versions of, (I should have been involved with a fourth, but as a teenaged game show geek I was deemed “too good for TV”