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Mark Burnett’s ‘Bible’ Sequel Set at NBC
49 minutes ago
NBC will be diving into religious fare, as the Peacock partners with Mark Burnett for “Bible” follow-up project “A.D.: Beyond the Bible.”
Burnett and wife Roma Downey had been teasing a follow-up to the 10-part History mini while on the press circuit recently. “Beyond the Bible” will begin in the days after Jesus’ betrayal and death, and, according to Downey and Burnett, “is another massive project and major commitment, but it’s a story that has to be told.”
“The Bible” accrued strong ratings for History in March, at times pulling almost 12 million viewers, even when facing the stiff competition of AMC’s “Walking Dead” and HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Miniseries, which Burnett and Downey marketed at mega-churches across the country, also drew controversy on social media in addition to its consistently high viewership.
“I followed the development process of ‘The Bible’ closely with Mark and knew »
- AJ Marechal
Canal Plus on the Laugh Track With Hit Comedy ‘Platane’
56 minutes ago
Paris– After delving into a wide variety of genre, from cop dramas (“Braquo”) to costumers (“Borgia”) and most recently fantasy skeins (“Rebound”), French paybox Canal Plus is also exploring comedy with “Platane,” a half-hour laffer series co-helmed by popular stand-up comic Eric Judor and Denis Imbert.
Canal Plus kicked off the promotion of the second season of “Platane,” holding a press screening of the first three episodes with the key cast and production team in attendance.
“Platane,” which is losely inspired by such U.S. shows as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Entourage,” follows Judor – supposedly playing himself –, a self-centered, socially-clumsy yet charming comedian trying hard reinvent his career as a auteur-filmmaker in season 1, and struggling to build a family while rekindling with his ex-girlfriend in season 2.
Ramzy Bedia (Judor’s real life stand-up teammate) also plays his own role, opposite Annelise Hesme, Toinette Laquiere and Nathan Kassabi.
The first of »
- Elsa Keslassy
Low ‘Big Brother’ Tops Anemic Sunday for the Broadcasters
1 hour ago
Audiences seem to be tuning out the broadcast networks on Sunday this summer, with ABC’s unscripted newcomers and NBC’s new drama struggling while even “Big Brother” looking sluggish at it aired on the night for the first time.
The Eye’s veteran reality series was the only broadcast program to draw as much as 5% of the available young-adult audience in its time period Sunday. Bet’s annual “Bet Awards” and other cable programs like HBO’s “True Blood” and Showtime’s returning “Dexter” figured to top the program rankings, though their ratings weren’t available early Monday.
At the Big Four, “Big Brother” was the top draw in adults 18-49 (1.7 rating/6 share, with 5.8 million viewers overall), but it was down 23% from its season premiere on Wednesday (2.2) and off 26% (0.6) from its Sunday debut last summer (2.3 when the show debuted in July).
Also for the Eye, “60 Minutes” started off the »
- Rick Kissell
Soledad O’Brien Joins Al Jazeera America
1 hour ago
Al Jazeera America has signed veteran journo Soledad O'Brien as a special correspondent, and has pacted with Soledad’s production company, Starfish Media Group, to produce hourlong docu specials for the cable news net.
O’Brien will offer short-form segs as special correspondent to the Al Jazeera America’s primetime current affairs program “America Tonight,” where she will reunite with fellow CNN alum Kim Bondy, who serves as the show’s senior exec producer.
Al Jazeera America is slated to launch in August.
“O’Brien’s career producing and reporting on the human side of many of the most important stories of the past decade will fit in perfectly with what Al Jazeera America will be covering every day,” said Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of Al Jazeera’s international operations and the senior executive developing the new channel. “Her dedication to that type of journalism is what makes »
- AJ Marechal
ABC Moves Live TV App Behind Pay-tv Wall
1 hour ago
ABC’s rolling experiment with TV Everywhere for live local broadcast feeds entered its next phase, as the Alphabet net expanded access to the Watch ABC service to four more markets — but is now restricting access to only subscribers of a handful of pay TV partners.
At this point, the biggest question marks are how many viewers ABC can actually get to tune in to local TV especially given the authentication requirement, and how effectively the broadcaster will be able to sell and measure ads through Watch ABC.
In May, Disney/ABC Television Group launched beta version of the app for Apple’s iPad and iPhone and Amazon Kindle tablets for its owned-and-operated stations in New York City (Wabc-tv) and Philadelphia (Wpvi-tv). Initially that was available for free to any users located in those markets.
But now the paywall has gone up, even as ABC has expanded to four more »
- Todd Spangler
Tribune to Buy Local TV Group for $2.7 Billion
5 hours ago
Tribune Co., doubling down on the broadcast television biz, announced an agreement to acquire Local TV Holdings’s 19 TV stations in 16 key markets for $2.725 billion in cash — a deal that would make Tribune one of the biggest TV station owners in the U.S.
With the deal, Tribune’s local TV footprint will increase from 23 to 42 stations across the U.S., in markets including New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Seattle. Chicago-based Tribune emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year.
Deal comes less than three weeks after Gannett Co. announced $2.2 billion acquisition of Belo Corp., similarly expanding Gannett’s station count from 23 to 43.
Tribune said the bigger scale will give it new opportunities for national and local advertising, and also lead to “more meaningful conversations” with cable, satellite and telco TV providers about distribution. Company said it hopes to expand reach of Wgn America and the announcement also signals that Tribune »
- Todd Spangler
Netflix Nabs ‘New Girl’ Reruns
12 hours ago
Netflix inked a multiyear deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television giving the Internet video service exclusive U.S. streaming rights to past seasons of “New Girl,” comedy toplined by Zooey Deschanel.
Season 1 episodes of the Fox laffer will become available Monday to Netflix’s U.S. streaming subscribers, with subsequent seasons coming to the season following their broadcast run.
“We know our members love comedies and that they’ll enjoy watching all the current and future episodes of ‘New Girl,’” Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos said in a statement.
Fox this spring renewed “New Girl” — the top-ranked comedy among women 18-34 during the 2012-13 season — for a third run. Season 3 premiere is skedded to air on Fox Sept. 17.
“New Girl” is produced by Chernin Entertainment, run by former News Corp. COO Peter Chernin, in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television. Series was created by Elizabeth Meriwether, and is exec produced by Meriwether, »
- Todd Spangler
CBS, Time Warner Cable Pact Expires as Talks Continue
12 hours ago
The distribution deal between CBS and Time Warner Cable expired at midnight Eastern on Sunday, and reps for the two sides said negotiations covering the Eye’s owned-and-operated broadcast stations and cable networks continued past the deadline.
No blackouts of CBS-owned networks have been reported on Time Warner Cable systems. During distribution standoffs, media companies sometimes have demanded that pay TV operators cease carriage of their networks in an attempt to gain leverage.
The companies temporarily extended the contract for a short period while they hash out new terms, but they didn’t disclose the length of the extension.
The current pact, which dates to 2009, covers CBS owned-and-operated stations in TWC markets, including Wcbs-tv New York, Kcbs-tv Los Angeles and Ktvt-tv in Dallas-Ft. Worth. Also on the table are carriage terms for cablers Showtime Networks, CBS Sports Network and Smithsonian Channel. Tvgn, the former TV Guide Network, is believed to »
- Todd Spangler
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