Archive for the ‘Television’ Category

Friday historical evening in TV

January 23rd, 2010 joel

In the middle of our wide-ranging conversation with A.J. Miceli on the P&T Podcast, he said something that was again revealed last night: the reason was programs like the evening newscasts still work is that the medium of television transcends media, but is a central facilitator of our popular culture.

That was so evident last night in a couple ways as no less than 22 broadcast and cable networks simultaneously aired the Hope for Haiti Now fund-raising telethon. The two-hour event was overwhelmed by stars of film, television and music, complete with some of the most tasteful and unique mashups of talent I’ve ever seen. One of my favorite moments was supplied by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris.

YouTube Preview Image

Later, the last Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien was a triumph (pun intended). He had some great moments, including his exit interview conducted by NBC employee Steven Carell.

The Huffington Post has the text and video of his final farewell to NBC, which was strikingly poignant.

Friday night showed that TV continues to be about shared experiences, which helps to bind us together as a nation. That’s a good thing, no matter what the circumstances that precipitated these events.

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , , No Comments »

Conan is gone from NBC

January 21st, 2010 joel

The Wall Street Journal is breaking this morning (Thursday) that it is confirmed that Conan O’Brien has signed a separation agreement with NBC, ending his long time connection with the network. According to WSJ.com:

While details on the final agreement were unclear, the deal was expected to include a payout of about $32 million for Mr. O’Brien and about $12 million for his staff. It is also believed to include a nondisparagement clause, both for the 46-year-old comedian and NBC. The deal has been said to include a provision that would bar or limit Mr. OBrien from appearing on other shows or hosting his own show for a period of time, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

“In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket,” said Gavin Polone, Mr. O’Brien’s manager. “Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.”

The Tonight Show - Jan. 20, 2010

Last night, Conan made more news with a bit that reportedly cost his soon to be former benefactor $1.5 million. He bought a Bugatti Veyron Mouse and gave it giant whiskers and ears, while playing the Rolling Stone’s “Satisfaction” with it’s accompanying high licensing fees as a soundtrack underneath.

No word yet on how long Conan will have to wait to get back to television comedy.

Posted in Television Tags: , , , 3 Comments »

WFXP begins prime-time hour newscast

January 18th, 2010 joel

24

With the new season of “24″ as a powerful lead-in, WFXP/Fox 66 begins Erie’s first hour-long prime-time newscast tonight at 10:00 PM.

Promos running Sunday night promised a greater and different approach to news, weather and sports for the 60-minute strip, which is slated to run 7 days a week. The prime-time news product should prove to be a powerful competitor to the current broadcast schedule. It also illuminates the reality of the cost of syndicated programming compared to repackaging local news.

What would make this move even more interesting is if WFXP put on a hip young anchor to match the prevailing network audience. I love Sean & Selina…but maybe a Jeremy Beecher-type would keep the high 18-35 year-old lead in.

Just my take.

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , 3 Comments »

NBC late night debacle all Zucker’s

January 15th, 2010 joel
Jay Leno

Jay Leno

In show-business, since when does going with the bean-counters ever work out?

If we listened to the bean-counters, there would have been no green-lights for Titanic, or Lord of the Rings, or Avitar. The bean-counters have given us 500 stations with Ryan Seacrest and only two television news teams in Erie.

Yet it was solely a bottom-line decision to take number-one rated Jay Leno off of The Tonight Show, and give him a prime-time strip, so that GE wouldn’t have to fork over $3M an episode for an hour long drama like ER.

Who was watching, and now squandering the “Bottom Line”? None other than NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker. The one-time wonder-kid of The Today Show proved that he was toxic to NBC’s once-revered prime time. I almost never agree with Maureen Dowd, but she got it right in her scathing NY Times editorial earlier in the week. It’s time for Zucker to go.

Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien

I doubt that its going to happen, as the network wagons circle around Jeff and Jay leaving Conan O’Brien as the odd man out, and it looks like to Fox.

It’s gotten so nasty at 30 Rock to the point that Dick Ebersol totally called out Conan in yesterday’s NY Times, saying that he was unwilling to change his shtick for 11:35, and skewed too young for the marquee placement of The Tonight Show. That O’Brien is consistently second to The Late Show with David Letterman is definitely a problem, and now it seems the network just wants to do a System Restore back to May 2009, except with Jimmy Fallon on Late Night.

All of this drama is fascinating to watch from the media observer perspective, but I gotta think that average Joe is plain disgusted and screaming at their HD sets “I told ya so!”

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments »

TWC: dumping Fuel?

December 30th, 2009 joel

UPDATED (Sat. January 2nd, 6:30 AM ET): TWC’s  & Fox joint news release issued Friday night, Jan. 1:

The Fox Networks Group and Time Warner Cable announced today that they have agreed in principle to a comprehensive distribution agreement to provide more than 13 million households with programming from Fox Television Stations, Fox Broadcasting (FOX), Fox Cable Networks and Fox’s regional sports networks. The deal also includes carriage agreements for Bright House Networks’ 2 million additional subscribers.

“We’re pleased that, after months of negotiations, we were able to reach a fair agreement with Time Warner Cable — one that recognizes the value of our programming,” said Chase Carey, Deputy Chairman, President and COO, News Corporation.

“We’re happy to have reached a reasonable deal with no disruption in programming for our customers,” said Glenn Britt, Chairman, President and CEO, Time Warner Cable.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

FOXApparently, Time Warner Cable has money to buy full-color full page newspaper ads, but doesn’t want to pay more for some cable channels owned by FOX/News Corp.

Much as in the continuing debacle with NFL Network, TWC is taking the position of consumer protector in objecting to increased carrying fees. This time it is the entertainment side of FOX, including, in the City of Erie:

  • Fuel
  • Fox Reality Channel
  • Speed Channel
  • Fox Soccer Channel
  • Fox Sports World Espanol
  • FX

Notice that the list does NOT include Fox News Channel or the regional Fox sports channels, which would most likely cause a major uprising. According to the ad on page 8D in Wednesday’s Erie Times-News, these “channels may no longer be available as of January 1, 2010.”

For me, there’s not a channel on that list that I’ll skip a beat about. But for my neighbor the NASCAR fan, or the guy next door who’s an amateur BMXer, this is gonna hurt.

What’s frustrating is these negotiations should be mutually beneficial, but there is a bit of an upper hand on part of FOX. If TWC continues to drop channels, they will eventually lose market share to Direct TV, DISH and in other markets, Verizon’s FIOS. But I won’t shed a tear for a cable company that thoroughly enjoys their exclusive monopoly in the municipalities in and around Erie, and issued a huge double digit rate increase just a couple months ago.

If you want to weigh in on the negotiations, go to TWC’s RollOverOrGetTough.com.

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments »

Three of Lilly’s ladies leave

December 29th, 2009 joel
Jacqueline Policastro

Jacqueline Policastro

It is contract time at the area’s two broadcast television companies. Not all of the talent you see is a-under contract, and b-up for renewal. However, this moment of decision-making has led to a significant change at one duopoly: Lilly Broadcasting.

The anchor of WSEE Newswatch at 6 & 11, Jacqueline Policastro has opted to leave Erie for a big-time market jump to anchor the morning news at WISH/Indianapolis. That’s a jump from DMA #146 to #25 for those keeping score at home. Although, she was offered a renewal and enjoyed her 18 months in Erie, Jacqueline says that she is excited at the new opportunities to help WISH continue their “multi-platform” initiatives.

“I will be working with the news director to help direct the newsroom switch to ‘multi-platform’”, Jacqueline said to P&T. “They have already done quite a good job, with Blackberry and iPhone apps, etc… but it will be exciting to help move that forward even more.”

Perhaps the biggest highlight of Jacqueline’s tenure here at WSEE was her regular “one-man-band” reporting from Washington, and the national political conventions for all of the Lilly stations, bringing the national stories home and relevant to Erie viewers.

(more…)

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , , , 6 Comments »

WICU wants your memories for anniversary show on Dec. 26th

December 16th, 2009 joel

The nostalgic among us media types are getting excited for the WICU 60th Anniversary show, which is scheduled for Saturday, December 26th at 7:00 PM.

Another pic from the WICU12 archives. Tune in to the WICU 60t... on Twitpic

WICU Weekends: 1983

There are lots of different reasons why a show like this might be highly anticipated, so I’ll share mine: the people…like this crew.

From left, Harry Hairston, Evan Lovett, Steve Bohen, and Paul Wagner. This was the exact weekend team when I was interning at Ch. 12 in the Fall  of 1983. Each Saturday and Sunday I wrote news copy, and checked the wire and went out on stories with the camera crews and fully caught the broadcasting bug.

WICU and NBC were unstoppable back then, with the network exchanging its former dismal ratings performance for nights full of Must-See TV, especially Thursdays with Cosby, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, and Hill Street Blues the year after graduation. Meanwhile, Ch. 12 being the only VHF as well as the oldest  television station in the market began the 1980’s with same strength and power as it did in the 1970’s, 60’s, and 50’s.

Things began to tighten up ratings wise as the 1980’s continued and personnel changes ensued with the eventual toppling of the 12 empire from its #1 perch by WJET.

No matter what, however, they’ve always had great people and the station will celebrate their contributions for the anniversary celebration. Get some previews of the show by clicking on my original 60th anniversary post. Great pictures like the one above are available on WICU’s TwitPic feed.

The station wants to hear from you, so they’ve  set up a new blog to take your “I Remember” comments. Go to: wicu12.wordpress.com where you will also see more nostalgia.

Posted in Television Tags: , , , , , , , 16 Comments »
« Older Entries

  • Recent Comments

    • Chris K: According to Wikipedia, Kristin Kane is at WSFL in Miami. And Topix is usually right about news p... »
    • Just In: Where is Kristin Kane? Is she still employed at WSEE/WICU?... »
    • PR: Surprisingly the info on 12/35 and 24 that gets posted on Topix usually is pretty close to what is h... »
    • Sylvester: Topix is nothing but a cesspool of rumor and gossip. I don't believe anything that comes from that a... »
    • jamison: If they get rid of Julie on the weekdays, I will forever stop watching 12 News This Morning. She is... »
    • Doug: Lisa Weismann still works for WSEE. She was filling in for Stephanie Schelkun on Mornings Live this ... »
    • Scott: Anyone having issues with Time Warner cable and channel 1309 during Cleveland Cavalier games? The H... »
    • Sylvester: When isn't there a shakeup at WSEE? The one thing that station could benefit the most from is the o... »
    • ric: Rachel is now on jet as a field reporter...but not sure how long that is going to last...she has onl... »
    • Just In: Totally agree with Tom Lavery, although I watch Erie, Ytown, and Cleveland news, Ytown looks very pr... »

    • Featured Video

    RSS FeedSubscribe to our RSS feed!
    Follow me on Twitter!Follow me on Twitter!

    • Sponsor

    • Twitter Updates

    • Share

      Add to Technorati Favorites

      News & Media Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory
      See blogs and businesses for USA

    • Polls

      On a scale of one to three, how much do you agree with John Dudley's criticism of Erie native and NFL star Bob Sanders?

      View Results

      Loading ... Loading ...

    • Traffic