Lets Talk Television

January 25, 2012

2:16pm
Mediaweek - National Broadcast

FX Rushes Sheen Sitcom to Market

The network president hasn’t seen so much as a script outline, and the star spent most of last year careening through a very public self-immolation. Yet for all the uncertainty hanging over the forthcoming Charlie Sheen comedy Anger Management, the cable network FX is already taking the show to market. As part of a play FX is calling “Anger Monday,” the network on Jan. 23 will send Anger Management pre-sale packages to 1,700 marketers and media buyers. The culmination of a four-week direct marketing push, Anger Monday will serve as a jump ball of sorts, a first-come, first-serve overture that puts prospective clients on an equal footing. Selling time in a scripted series that is still very much in the embryonic stage of development—a dozen story lines have been mapped out, but FX Networks president and general manager John Landgraf told Adweek he hasn’t even been presented with a first draft, let alone a pilot—is hardly standard operating procedure. But early demand for the project prompted the unconventional auction. “We’ve never done anything like this before because, frankly, we haven’t had anything of this magnitude in our lineup,” said Bruce Lefkowitz, evp, ad sales for Fox Cable Entertainment. “There’s been more pre-sale interest for Anger Management than any other show we’ve ever had.” The deal structure could make Anger a particularly attractive buy. When Landgraf made the bid for the project in October, he agreed to order 10 episodes, with the provision to buy 90 more should the show hit its ratings guarantees. (Distributor Debmar-Mercury has hashed out similar deals with TBS for Tyler Perry’s comedies Why Did I Get Married? and Meet the Browns.) “As we’ve seen with Turner, there’s a lot of upside to these kind of syndication packages,” said one TV buyer. “There are obvious pricing advantages if you get in on the ground floor and the show’s a hit.” Surprisingly, Sheen’s show will not be rated TV-MA, which makes it the only FX comedy that doesn’t bear the tag. That’s a key distinction, as it should help FX draw clients that may not be a good fit for bleeding-edge comedies like Louie and Archer. Sheen said he hoped Anger Management would overwrite last year’s insanity. “I didn’t want [Two and a Half Men] to be my television legacy. I just want to do a show that deals...
2:16pm
Mediaweek - National Broadcast

Beavis and Butt-head Even More Degenerate in Real Life

There's something creepy about cartoon characters come to life as prosthetic models—it's like a detour to a special part of the Uncanny Valley. The latest example are these crazy-looking Beavis and Butt-head models, expertly crafted by makeup artist Kevin Kirkpatrick. Butt-head could almost be a real kid, although Beavis just looks like a deranged lunatic. (This mirrors the show, though.) These models are certainly more human-looking than the other famous prosthetic we saw a few years back—the real-life Homer Simpson. More images after the jump. Via BuzzFeed.
5:16am
Mediaweek - National Broadcast

The Weather Channel Names New Chairman, CEO

The Weather Channel announced today that it is replacing its current CEO with an executive from the digital and advertising worlds. Mike Kelly, who had been president and CEO of The Weather Channel since 2009, will be stepping down. In his place, The Weather Channel is installing David Kenny, who had previously served as head of a developer of cloud computing platforms called Akamai. Before that, he was co-founder and managing partner of VivaKi—the digital arm of Publicis Groupe (Kenny also serves on the board of Yahoo). Kelly will stay on in a diminished role, acting as a special advisor to the CEO and The Weather Channel's board of directors. “[Kenny's] experience gives him a deep understanding of the TV and digital business, and he has the leadership experience and vision to drive global initiatives across all platforms,” the consortium that owns The Weather Channel—private equity firms Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group and NBCUniversal—said in a joint statement. The Weather Channel has a history of selecting chief executives from outside the traditional television ranks. Prior to joining the network in 2009, Kelly had served as president of AOL Media Networks from 2004 to 2007 and was an advisor to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media investment firm. Kenny's appointment comes as the network has been placing a newfound emphasis on its digital properties and embarks on an aggressive expansion into the world of business-to-business marketing. Last August, The Weather Channel hired meteorology guru Paul Walsh, in part to advise businesses on ways to use weather predictions in their advertising strategies on the network.
5:16am
Mediaweek - National Broadcast

As Hispanic TV Market Grows, Univision Reshuffles Execs

Univision is revamping its smaller Spanish-language broadcast network TeleFutura with a format and executive-team reshuffling. Luis Fernández-Rocha has taken over as TeleFutura’s svp, overseeing its programming and day-to-day operations. Fernández-Rocha, most recently svp and regional director of Univision Television Group in the Southeast, replaces Germán Pérez-Nahim, who stepped down after only a little over 10 months on the job. TeleFutura also announced that Carlos Bardasano will become vp of programming and original production. Fernández-Rocha said that part of his job will be refocusing TeleFutura’s programming, with a newfound emphasis on feature films. As part of that revamp, TeleFutura will also begin airing the Fox cartoon Family Guy, though sources at the network say a premiere date has not been set. The goal, Fernández-Rocha told Adweek, is not necessarily to try to compete with TeleFutura’s larger sibling Univision, but to provide a programming counterpoint to it. “We’re looking to be the number two language network in the country. We want to work with Univision. We want to be the alternative, the counterprogramming,” Fernández-Rocha said. “So when Univision is running soap operas, we may be running movies. We want to give the Hipsanic market a very good alternative.” TeleFutura’s audience pales in comparison to Univision. Last week, for example, TeleFutura averaged 620,000 total viewers (380,000 in the target 18-49 demographic) while Univision had around 3.4 million total average viewers in primetime (and around 1.75 million in the target demo). Even so, in prime time TeleFutura looks to compete with NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo, the second-largest Spanish-language broadcast network in the country. And with the Hispanic TV market growing rapidly, Univision executives are betting that there’s more than enough demand to sustain the two. “I’ve witnessed firsthand the growth of the Hispanic market and the power of the market. We expect Spanish dominance to continue,” Fernández-Rocha said. In addition to the Hollywood movies, which began airing last week, TeleFutura said it is also developing a new talk show set to premiere this spring, starring Spanish-language television personality Charytín. As to why the network chose Family Guy as the only animation in the entire TeleFutura lineup...
12:01am
Mediaweek - National Broadcast

Joan Rivers Can Talk

Joan Rivers is a reality star now. The unscripted WEtv series featuring her and her daughter, Melissa, enters its second season this week, and Rivers has been tirelessly making the rounds to promote the show—and in classic Rivers fashion, talk about anything else that might be of interest. As she prepped back stage for a TV interview with Rachael Ray, Rivers chatted with Adweek about her show, the Oscars, comediennes and her life “in the trenches.” Adweek: The reality show you star in with your daughter—Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best?—entered its second season yesterday. How will it be different from the first season? Rivers: This season is great because we know our medium better. A lot more happened. It flowed. We also got lucky. Melissa broke up with her boyfriend, and the cameras were there. We were on a camping trip and [Melissa's 11-year-old son] Cooper got lost and the cameras were there. You understand? I did a face-lift and the doctor was kind enough to let the cameras in. What do you like about reality TV? I think when it’s good, nothing can beat it, because nothing’s as good as real life. It’s an interesting time for comedy on television. You made a cameo on the Louis CK’s FX series Louie. I had a great time doing that. What do you think about the modern era of television comedy? As the country gets more and more desperate, as life gets crueler and darker, you need comedy to brighten everything up. What do you think of the pool of younger comediennes? I try not to see them, because we’re all in the trenches. I’m still in the trenches. I’m on the road all the time. We’d all be talking about the same thing. I don’t want them to think I came and took an idea from them when I did it five years ago. But I think Whitney Cummings is brilliant. Sarah Silverman is amazing. Lynn Koplitz is in our show and I think the next to break through. David Letterman’s booker, Eddie Brill, sparked controversy last week when he remarked, in a New York Times profile, that he thinks a lot of female comics are inauthentic and that many “will act like men” to please an audience. It reportedly helped get Brill fired. What do you think about that? It’s ridiculous. We have to be … [pulls phone away from ear] Hello, hello, hello. You look great on camera. Rachael [Ray] just walked in. You look amazing. I love...

January 24, 2012

5:46pm
Mediaweek - National Broadcast

Lawmakers Fret Over Potential Super Bowl Blackout in Boston

The potential blackout of the Super Bowl on DirecTV in Boston has got lawmakers fretting and dashing off letters. Both U.S. senators from Massachusetts, Scott Brown (R) and John Kerry (D), concerned that their constituents have become collateral damage in a business negotiation, sent letters to DirecTV and Sunbeam Television. The state's 10 congressmen also sent a letter. In the letters, lawmakers urge the two companies to put aside their differences and clear the Super Bowl broadcast on Feb. 5 between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, which airs on Sunbeam's NBC affiliate in Boston, WHDH. Since Jan. 14, DirecTV and Sunbeam have been unable to come to a carriage agreement, forcing DirecTV to black out WHDH as well as WLVI, the CW affliate in Boston, and WSVN, the Fox affiliate in Miami. If the two remain at loggerheads, about 200,000 DirecTV subscribers in Boston will be unable to watch the biggest sporting event of the year. Kerry, who has sent letters to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to intervene in other disputes, called the possibility of a Super Bowl blackout "unthinkable." "If people in Boston miss the Super Bowl this year because of this dispute, I can assure you that it will lead more and more people to throw up their hands and say, 'A pox upon both of their houses,'" Kerry wrote to Ed Ansin, president of Sunbeam, and Michael White, chairman, president and CEO of DirecTV. The two companies showed some willingness to work together when WSVN allowed DirecTV to carry the NFC championship game between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers last weekend as a service to 270,000 DirecTV subscribers. But despite that reprieve, there was no indication from either company that a deal was imminent. If past retransmission standoffs are any indication, chances are this negotiation will go down to the wire. Pressured by Kerry and others, the FCC opened rulemaking on retransmission negotiations last fall. But because of the FCC's limited authority to directly prevent blackouts, the process avoided proposing drastic measures such as compelling stations to allow carriage of signals when paties cannot agree on a deal or compelling binding arbitration. "This is not the first retransmission consent dispute we have witnessed over the last few years, and without fixes to the process, I expect it will not be the last," wrote Kerry.
10:43am
Mediaweek - National Broadcast

Rachel Bilson Raps, but Will It Help Her Show?

Come on, nobody believes Rachel Bilson is a doctor, even in TV dramedy land. That may be why the CW's Hart of Dixie, starring Bilson as a big city professional turned country doc, has struggled all season long in the ratings. Sure, she's adorable in this fish-out-of-water series. But wait, she's a medical doctor? Who treats patients and stuff? Co-star Wilson Bethel decided to tackle the criticism head-on by writing and producing this foul-mouthed little video, first released on Funny Or Die, that has the pint-sized brunette rapping gangsta style. Look, she's got a grill! And you will call her doctor, bitch, because the actress trots out enough self-deprecation in this clip to deserve some respect. Well, at least she warrants more of a look than anyone's given her since The OC, which by the way gets a verse all its own with a wicked Mischa Barton reference. If you're in the camp that thinks white girls busting rhymes are hilarious, you're in luck here. If not, there's still plenty to like. Not sure I can say the same for the show, which could really use the buzz generated from a video like this but can't live up to its edge.
2:38am
Reality Check

A special American Idol viewing

For those of you who didn't bother staying up until 11 on Sunday night to catch the San Diego American Idol auditions (damn football overtime), Fox is rerunning the show on Tuesday at 8 p.m. CTV Two is following suit, also re-airing the show at 8. I won't be watching it over again, but you can find my original recap here.
2:31am
Reality Check

The Bachelor: Too many fish in the sea (spoiler alert)

(Ben Flajnik and the ladies ponder how many people can eat one measly fish on The Bachelor in an ABC photo by Natalie Cass.) Gather around everyone for tonight's episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Tonight, our quarry is the Courtney. It's a clever creature, one you'd best not cross in enclosed spaces. It becomes agitated in the presence of other mammals of its own gender and may strike out with its sharp tongue. But let it roam around outside in the presence of the male of the species and it camouflages itself in baby voices and ingratiating laughter. It is highly adaptable and can learn seemingly difficult skills, such as fly-fishing. It will then use its cunning to pursue and trap even bigger game, such as the elusive group date rose. Yes, this was the episode of The Bachelor where Courtney haters might have figured the model would get her comeuppance. Her enemies in the house, such as Monica and Emily, assumed that Ben would see the Mean Girl in Courtney when she was forced to hang with seven other ladies on a group date. But Courtney hung back on the fly-fishing excursion - in the breathtaking wilderness near Park City, Utah, where Ben and the harem had decamped to - and waited for her chance to lure Ben upstream away from the other women. Lindzi tried to horn in but ended up awkwardly lurking as Courtney caught a fish. And then she had to watch Ben and Courtney play an adorable game of kiss the fish. "Oh Ben, he's so cute," simpered Courtney. Alter-ego Courtney said of Lindzi, "She was so jealous, she probably would have caught that fish with her bare teeth if she could have," and that's probably about right. But Courtney wasn't going to stop at just a fish. I would have bet dollars to doughnuts that Kacie B. was getting the group date rose later that night at the Canyons Resort, especially after Ben brought Kacie to his room for some alone time and reassurance (mainly in the form of kissing) that he still had feelings for her. Ben confessed he'd wanted to kiss Kacie in the creek earlier as he helped her fish, "but it's hard for me because there are all these other women just glaring. I want you girls to get along. I'm sorry." Things were looking good for Kacie, especially after Ben confessed in a voiceover that he was "in trouble with Kacie B. ... I don't know, man, I might end up with her. She's wonderful." But Courtney saw Kacie's neediness and raised her a threat of indifference. She was having a rough time, Courtney told Ben when he...

January 23, 2012

2:49am
Reality Check

American Idol: Flying down to San Diego

Welcome to American Idol, the Top Gun edition. Perhaps somebody on the production team figured the best way to strike fear into the hearts of The Voice crew was to hold auditions surrounded by the militaristic might of an aircraft carrier. Hopefuls paraded in front of Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson on the deck of the USS Midway. It's docked in downtown San Diego as a floating museum, but Ryan Seacrest reminded us that it's "74,000 tons of American steel and the pride of the U.S. navy for 47 years. "We're putting her back in commission as central command for the American Idol auditions." The setting was pleasant enough, with the judges' backs to the open deck and sunshine pouring into the space, but noise from passing jets and cruise ships made it an inefficient one. Plus, we saw the fewest number of auditions so far, just nine, despite the highest number of people from a single city getting put through to Hollywood: 53. And the first of those was a throwaway: a sushi waitress from Columbus, Ohio, named Jennifer Diley tackled Jessica Simpson, then Mariah Carey. The singing was awful, but she was there to show off in her red, white and blue bikini. Producers even gave us two looks at her butt cheeks disappearing up the stairs to the audition deck, pretending that the first take hadn't worked. It wasn't the most auspicious way to start off two days of auditions that the judges said produced many great singers. Apparently the kinder, gentler Idol still has room for sexism. Luckily, Ashley Robles made up for Ms. Diley's shortcomings. Not that Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" is normally a sound choice for an audition song, but Ashley, a 26-year-old single mom, insurance account manager and DJ from San Diego, had the pipes to pull it off. She even hit the monster high note in the chorus but dialled it back at the end and finished soft. "Ashley Robles, you're gonna be big," Steven declared before the judges all shouted yes at the count of 3 to send her to Hollywood. Next up was Jayrah Gibson, 26, described as an artist from Long Beach, Calif. He had all the earmarks of a delusional auditioner, what with his earnest talk about his "life goal" of being the next American Idol, the way he bounded into the audition enclosure like an overexcited puppy and the lightweight ditty he had written for JLo called "Shake Your Money Maker." It turns out whoever told Jayrah that he couldn't write, but he could sing, was onto something. He displayed...

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