Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

Bravo takes a bite out of the Big Apple for the fifth season of Top Chef premiering November 12 at 10p. Seventeen new contestants will cut, chop and create culinary delights to impress the judges headed by Tom Colicchio, chef/owner of Craft Restaurants and Gail Simmons of Food & Wine Magazine, along with new judge Toby Young, food critic/author. Padma Lakshmi will once again host and throughout the season celebrities such as Martha Stewart, Foo Fighters, Jean-Georges, Eric Ripert, Rocco DiSpirito, Wylie Dufresne, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Natasha Richardson will make appearances. Magical Elves produces Top Chef: New York. (Cynopsis 10/2)

The network announced a Jan. 18 launch for “The United States of Tara,” a 30-minute series starring Toni Collette as a woman with multiple personalities. Diablo Cody, of “Juno” fame, wrote the pilot based on a Steven Spielberg concept. Variety (10/1)

Lifetime Television is going ahead with the launch of “Blush: The Search for the Next Great Make-Up Artist,” despite the holdup in getting “Project Runway” on its slate. Actress Vanessa Marcil will be the hostess of the new reality-competition series in which the winner gets $100,000, a contract with Max Factor and the opportunity to do the makeup for an In Style magazine spread. Broadcasting & Cable (10/1)

The CW gave a put pilot commitment for The Graysons, a one-hour series about the early days of Dick “DJ” Grayson before he becomes Batman’s sidekick Robin, reports Variety. This project is the next franchise from DC Comics produced for TV by Warner Bros. TV. (Cynopsis 10/2)

HBO is teaming with TV veteran Norman Lear on a drama series project tentatively titled Everybody Hurts set in the 1970s about a family running a pro wrestling company in New York, according to THR. (Cynopsis 10/2)

MTV and HBO are among the nominees for this year’s Public and Community Service Emmy, which will be awarded in November. The nominations are in recognition of the networks’ campaigns to promote awareness of the Holocaust and STD testing. Multichannel News (10/1)

General Electric plans to sell $3 billion of shares to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway and offer another $12 billion in shares to the public. The sales will improve GE’s liquidity and give it the option of more acquisitions at a time of market turmoil, says the parent of NBC Universal. (Iwantmedia 10/2, http://www.cnbc.com/id/26977845 10/1)

Warren Buffett

Dealmaking prospects for a media industry in transition are dwindling as the outlook darkens for the U.S. economy, analysts say. Among the deals possibly in limbo are those related to Time Warner’s AOL, CBS’s radio stations and Cablevision’s cable networks. AOL is “a toxic asset now.” (Iwantmedia 10/2, http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20081001-710631.html 10/1)

The cable company has teamed up with the Iowa Department of Education, community colleges and state TV for a test run of a service that allows subscribers to study remotely for the General Education Development certificate. Nearly 300,000 people in the state could benefit from the program that offers material equivalent to that taught in high schools. Multichannel News (10/1)