Daily Marauder

With the star power of Ellen DeGeneres, Kobe Bryant and Carlos Santana, George Lopez pulled in 3.2 million viewers with the premiere of his talk show. The debut of “Lopez Tonight” was presented across Turner nets TBS, TNT and truTV, with TBS accounting for 1.7 million viewers. The Hollywood Reporter(11/10)

NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Zucker will lead the joint venture currently being negotiated that would control the media conglomerate, according to unnamed sources cited in this report. Comcast is in talks with current NBCU owner General Electric about taking a majority stake in the company. Reuters (11/10

It may not be long before the troubled MGM studio is forced by its creditors to seek a buyer. That’s the word coming out of a Nov. 4 meeting between MGM CEO Stephen Cooper and the debt-hobbled film company’s 140-member creditor committee. According to one source with knowledge of the meeting, the creditor group turned thumbs down on a proposal by Cooper to convert the studio’s $3.7 billion debt into equity as part of a restructuring plan to keep the studio out of bankruptcy. (BusinessWeek11/11)

November 10, 2009, 3:48 PM
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: NBC, CBS, American Broadcasting Company, Television program, AMC, Drama, MadMen, Jay Leno Show

The Season 3 finale of AMC‘s “Mad Men” attracted 2.3 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen data, the show’s second-highest viewership mark of the season. The drama about the advertising business in the 1960s averaged 1.8 million viewers per episode during its third season, a 20% improvement over last season. Variety (11/9

NBC’s exit from scripted series to air “The Jay Leno Show” weeknights at 10 p.m. has left 1.82 million young viewers up for grabs, and CBS and ABC have let most of them slip away six weeks into the television season. (Bloomberg11/9)

November 9, 2009, 11:40 AM
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: HBO, United States, Bravo, Real Housewives of Orange County, Anya Epstein, Dan Futterman, Ira Glass, Orange

Thursday’s fifth season opener of The Real Housewives of Orange County on Bravo attracted 1.98 million A18-49 as well as 2.58 million total viewers, an increase of 44% and 38% respectively compared to the show’s season four premiere on November 25, 2008. (Cynopsis 11/9)

Seriously, why do y’all watch this show?

HBO has a 30m drama series, simply titled T in development involving the gender transition of a woman into a man. The project is from married team Anya Epstein and Dan Futterman who also recently agreed to a third season as showrunners on HBO’s In Treatment. For T, Epstein and Futterman will write the pilot and executive produce along with Ira Glass and Alissa Shipp. (Cynopsis 11/9)

General Electric Co. and Comcast Corp. have settled on how to value NBC Universal now and in the future, clearing a key obstacle to giving Comcast control of GE’s television and movie company, according to people familiar with the matter. (WSJ11/8)

November 6, 2009, 11:34 AM
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Television, Arts, Nielsen Ratings, Oprah Winfrey, Comedy Central, Major League Baseball, World Series, Terrestrial television

Comedy Central is developing a weekly series with satiric newspaper The Onion that will poke fun at the sports world. The as-yet-untitled series will play off the Onion Sports Network online video series, which is, according to Lauren Corrao, Comedy Central’s president of original programming development, “outstanding, hilarious and exactly what you’d expect from the gang.” Broadcasting & Cable (11/5)

With an average delivery of 19.4 million viewers, this year’s six-game World Series outdrew last year’s set by 38%, per Nielsen ratings data. The 2009 World Series ranks as the sixth most-watched of the 12 Major League Baseball championships covered by Fox. (Iwantmedia 11/6, Mediaweek11/5)

Oprah Winfrey has yet to decide whether she’ll extend the life of her syndicated daytime talk show on broadcast television, a spokesman for her production company said Thursday, in response to an Internet report saying her show would move to her new cable network in less than two years. (Dow Jones 11/5)

November 4, 2009, 8:08 PM
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Cable television, Cox Communications, ESPN, FoodNetwork, Home & Garden Television, Scripps Networks Interactive, Television, Travel Channel

Scripps Networks Interactive , owner and operator of the Food Network and HGTV lifestyle television networks, is to acquire a controlling interest of 65% in the Travel Channelat a $975 million valuation and enter into a joint venture with current owner Cox Communications (Techcrunch11/5)

U.S. regulators said they’re actively working on a request from Hollywood to use anti-piracy technology so studios can offer first-run movies over cable and satellite services. (Bloomberg11/5)

USA averaged 3.47 million prime-time viewers during the week that ended Nov. 1, making it the most-watched, ad-supported cable network during that period. While USA won the overall viewership crown, ESPN‘s lineup of professional and college football won the day in the 25-to-54, 18-to-49 and 18-to-34 demographic groups. Mediaweek (11/3

November 4, 2009, 1:07 PM
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Time Warner, Academy Award, World Series, Alec Baldwin, New York Yankees, PhiladelphiaPhillies, Steve Martin, Kodak Theatre

The World Series gave the Fox network world-class ratings last week as the New York Yankeessquared off against the Philadelphia Phillies in four much-watched games. Fox can thank baseball for a huge average audience of 14.69 million viewers (8.8 rating, 14 share). (AP 11/3)

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin have been named the dual hosts of the 82nd Academy Awards. You’ll remember Martin hosted twice before – for the 73rd and the 75th annual awardsfest. The Academy Awards will air on Sunday, March 7, 2010 on ABC and be presented at the Kodak Theatre. (Cynopsis11/4)

Time Warner is reporting third-quarter earnings fell 38% on particular weakness in publishing. Still, the media giant topped analysts’ expectations. The publishing group saw a 40% decline in earnings. The segment has long been the topic of rumors about its future. (Iwantmedia11/4, Smartmoney11/4)

November 3, 2009, 11:34 PM
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Box Office, Colleges, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports, Tickets, Viacom, Video game

Viacom’s quarterly profit breezed past expectations as consumers set aside money worries to scoop up the new Beatles video game and buy tickets for box-office hits like “Transformers” and “G.I. Joe.” (Reuters 11/3)