Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE
Barry Diller acknowledges that at this time next week, he may have lost control of InterActive Corp., the company he has been building for more than a decade. He calls the pending lawsuits over his proposed breakup of IAC “unfortunate” and concedes he has a lot riding on Monday’s court hearing. (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117981866.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1 3/5)
ABC’s special two-hour broadcast of 20/20: The Royal Family, which aired Monday night (8-10p) attracted an average 14.1 million total viewers and posted an average rating of 3.7/9 among A18-49 and a 4.6/11 with A25-54. The special was actually produced by RDF Media and originally aired as a miniseries in the U.K. ABC bought the footage and edited it down to two hours.
With a potent cocktail of WWE wrestling and the newly acquired “NCIS,” USA posted its ninth consecutive weekly prime-time ratings win of the year. According to Nielsen, USA delivered an average 2.78 million total viewers during the week that ended March 2, 1.19 million of which were in the 25-to-54 demo. (Mediaweek 3/5)
E! will introduce a new nonscripted series this summer, Living Lohan (wt) featuring Dina Lohan, mom to rising teen star Ali age 14 and her big sister Lindsay. Viewers will follow Dina from her Long Island home base as she works as mom and manager to Ali. The series is co-produced by Bunim-Murray Productions and Maloof Television.
The CW has ordered one of its pilot project to series for this fall – How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls from Warner Bros. TV and Alloy Entertainment, and based on the book by Zoey Dean. The story follows a young smart woman who is fired from her job at a tabloid newspaper, only to be hired by a very wealthy man to be the live-in tutor and life coach for his teenage granddaughters.
NBC’s upcoming miniseries The Last Templar, based on the novel by Raymond Khoury, will begin production next month on location in Montreal and Morocco. Produced by Muse Entertainment Enterprises, The Last Templar stars Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino as a Manhattan archaeologist who is swept up in a romantic adventure involving lost secrets of the medieval Knights Templar. Victor Garber (Alias) will also star as Monsignor De Angelis.
ABC Family’s America’s Prom Queen competition series welcomes hip hop artist Sean Kingston as a guest judge on the Prom Committee for the March 24 episode that airs at 9p.
Alexander Skarsgard has joined the cast of HBO‘s True Blood, the newest drama series from Alan Ball and based on the novel Southern Vampire by Charlaine Harris. The story is about a vampire, played by Stephen Moyer, who falls for a mind-reading waitress, played by Anna Paquin, reports THR. Skarsgard will play another vampire who is also a centuries old Viking.
TV One picked up the action thriller series Day Break starring Taye Diggs which originally aired on ABC during the fall of 2006. TV One will air all 13 episodes, including seven that were never seen on television starting March 16 at 10p.
Landmark Communications is seeking up to $5 billion for the Weather Channel cable television network, with preliminary bids due next week. Landmark announced in January that it was exploring options. Interested parties include NBC Universal, Time Warner, CBS and Comcast. (http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSWEN431420080304 3/4)
A “strong personal connection” between Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes and Cablevision director Frank Biondi could help pave the way for a deal between the two cable giants. Buying Cablevision would be “a tempting way” for Time Warner Cable to grow, observers say. (http://www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2008/03/timing_is_everything_time_warn.php 3/4)
Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, will tell lawmakers on Capitol Hill today that cable companies have discriminated against the nascent NFL Network when it comes to carriage placement, according to this report. But Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, who will also testify today, called Goodell’s claims disingenuous. “The NFL in particular is being especially disingenuous in appealing to the government to compel distributors to carry one of [its] services — the NFL Network — on broadly distributed tiers while simultaneously defending its right to limit distribution of its more appealing service — the NFL Sunday Ticket Package — to a single distributor, DirecTV,” Britt said. (Multichannel News 3/4)
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