Latest The CW Television Network Stories
By Rick Bentley Each year since 1998, I've compiled a "10 to Watch" list of actors on TV. These are actors on new network shows who have the potential to go on to bigger careers even if their new series fails. Past years have been easy. The first "10 to Watch" included Keri Russell, Kevin James and Sean Hayes. Even the cast of "That '70s Show" was singled out, and almost all of them have continued to work. This year was a nightmare. The lower number of new shows, 19, would have made the...
Executives at The CW say a spinoff of the U.S. TV network's hit series, "America's Next Top Model," will begin production soon. The Hollywood Reporter said Friday that network executives have ordered a pilot episode of "Operation Fabulous," which will feature "Top Model" mainstays Jay Manuel and J. Alexander. The new fashion-based reality series will follow its two stars as they attempt to transform five participants into high-fashion stars. "Model" host Tyra Banks will be the executive...
Steve Baker will be leaving Bonten Media Group as of October 19, 2008 to pursue other opportunities and to spend more time with his family. Mr. Baker joined Bonten Media Group shortly after its inception. "During his time at Bonten Steve has made many significant contributions in helping to launch our Company, and he has my deep appreciation for those contributions," said Randall Bongarten, Chairman and CEO of Bonten Media Group. "There is no one who has worked harder nor cared more about...
By Gary Levin *Debatable. Friday's Biden-Palin debate averaged 73.5 million viewers across 12 networks, a record for a vice presidential matchup that easily bested the previous high, 56.7 million, for Bush-Ferraro (the last to feature a woman) in 1984. Fox News was tops with 11.1 million, a record high for the network. *Ghostly Friday. The season premiere of CBS' Ghost Whisperer (9.4 million viewers) was up from last year's, but the night sagged elsewhere: CBS' The Ex List opened...
By Frazier Moore As you sample the new TV series arriving in the next week, you might find that no matter how widely they vary otherwise, they share a common link: All of them are playing with time. "Valentine," a romantic fantasy on CW, plucks Aphrodite, goddess of love, from ancient mythology and establishes her in the modern Hollywood Hills to help make love bloom between predestined partners. Assisting her (here known as Grace Valentine) are her son Danny (aka Eros), Leo (aka Hercules)...
By Gail Pennington Talk about culture shock. As of this week, "regular TV" is back, and TV hasn't really been regular since last winter, when the writers strike disrupted network schedules. Sooner or later, every series was forced into premature reruns, and some never returned. Unscripted shows, many of them missable, filled prime time. And then it was summer -- rerun time. So the arrival of the fall TV season has some TV fans hyperventilating, not so much from excitement as from anxiety....
The expectations game doesn't only involve tonight's vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. It also is being played when the CW (WNLO-TV here, one of the channels involved in the dispute between Time Warner Cable and LIN TV) debuts the new Sunday night lineup being programmed by Media Rights Capital, an independent film, television and digital studio. My low expectations were pleasantly exceeded with one series, "Easy Money," that has a local angle. One of the show's...
Still no deal in talks with Ch. 4, Time Warner Sit tight. As of late Tuesday night, there was no deal between Time Warner Cable and LIN TV, the owners of CBS affiliate Channel 4 and CW affiliate Channel 23, to keep the stations on Western New York's largest cable system as the Thursday deadline nears. Deals like this one, which would include LIN stations throughout the country, tend to be done at the last minute. And both sides stand to lose substantially if no deal is reached. Locally,...
Sit tight. As of late Tuesday afternoon, there was no deal between Time Warner Cable and LIN TV, the owners of CBS affiliate Channel 4 and CW affiliate Channel 23, to keep the stations on Western New York's largest cable system as the Thursday deadline nears. Of course, deals like this one, which would include LIN stations throughout the country, tend to be done at the last minute. And both sides stand to lose substantially if no deal is reached. Locally, Channel 4 could lose a substantial...
By Stark, Eric It's time. Finally. The new television season starts this week and, believe me, I'm ready. I've had enough of the reruns, summer replacements and reality shows. Both Fox and ABC networks are in good situations this fall. Neither has a lot of new shows, and that's not a bad thing. It means either last year's shows were successful, or the networks are giving programs time to build an audience. It's all too common for networks to give up on shows too fast. "The thing about ABC,...
