nbc universal
Big Screen
The Peter Chernin-Comcast Conspiracy Is Revealed
5:33AM Richard Rushfield | For the past few months Hollywood’s favourite two guessing games have been: Who’s going to take over NBC/Universal and what’s going to happen to ex-Fox chief Peter Chernin? Well, yesterday the two games collided in a paradigm-exploding pile-up. More »
Big Screen
As Vivendi Fiddles, Hollywood Awaits Big Shake-Up (Or Shake-Down)
1:03AM Richard Rushfield | Nothing that excites Hollywood more than the thought of a studio changing hands; the implications spilling down over a generation of executives and deals might be completely incomprehensible from this distance, but they are darn exciting. More »
Small Screen
NBC’s Embarrassing Gold Mine
12:35PM Ryan Tate | For all the talk about NBC Universal’s flagship network or about its urbane Bravo cable network, it turns out the entertainment company makes its real money on the channel with professional wrestling and re-runs. More »
Which NBC Universal VP May Have Pulled A Spitzer With His Corporate Card?
8:20AM Kyle Buchanan | Lord knows that NBC head Ben Silverman hardly needs another reason to fire another VP, but at least this one’s creative: someone’s hiring hookers on the corporate card! More »
Weinsteins and Bravo Plot Second Season of ‘Project Runway: The Lawsuit’
4:26AM STV | The Weinsteins are continuing their world-record pace for industry alienation this week, now leveling a lawsuit against Bravo alleging the network deliberately sabotaged season five of Project Runway. It’s roughly the 22nd chapter in this year’s tortured history between the brothers and Bravo’s parent company at NBC Universal since the pair attempted to sneak PR off to Lifetime (a judge issued an injunction against the move last month following Bravo’s own suit), yet wielding all the climactic juice that last week’s season finale seemed to lack. Which is exactly the problem, according to Harvey and Bob. More »
Forward-Thinker Ben Silverman Safeguards NBC From Inevitable 0/0 Audience Share
3:55AM Seth | Ben Silverman—dubbed by some “the Russell Brand of TV execs” as much for his ids-gone-wild approach to the job as for his untamed nest of rock-star hair and penchant for ultra-skinny jeans—has found himself in recent months the source of much industry deathwatch chatter. By now we’re well aware of the criticisms—long absences from the development fold, turning a blind eye to VP-on-showrunner affairs, signing his name and likeness over to a line of Graffix bongs, etc. None of this, however, seems to be of much concern to Ben, who has devised an ingenious way to profit off the one thing NBC has over the other guys: a lack of viewers. He explained the concept to Variety: More »
Ben Affleck Totally Typecast As Harried Perfumier
5:50AM Seth | · Ben Affleck will star in Mike Judge’s Extract, about the trials and tribulations of “a flower extract factory owner.” We know the punchline is “Ow My Essence of Citrus Blossom!” We’re just not sure how the rest goes. [Variety] · The Zurich Film Festival will bestow their highest honour, The Golden Herring, upon the franchise-defibrillating achievements of aging action mercenary, Sylvester Stallone. [Variety] · NBC Universal has acquired U.K.’s Carnival Film & Television, the first step in their ruddily cherubic child-king’s seven-year plan towards world domination. [THR] · The House Bunny and Legally Blonde writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith have sold ABC Studios a script for a potential series based on their “champagne-and-therapy-fueled” creative process. Working title: Set-Ups and the City. (Now who wants a show about our malt-beverage-and-hackery-fuelled creative process?) [THR] · Lifetime ordered six episodes of Blonde Charity Mafia, a documentary series about young fundraising socialites in D.C. Couldn’t they have squeezed the word “Sluts” in the title somewhere? That would have really sold it. [Variety] More »
Jeff Zucker: Portrait Of An Upwards-Failing Champion
3:20AM Seth | What better après-puff-piece aperitif to follow the NY Times’s profile of a content-hungry Time Warner than Portfolio’s equally attentive servicing of NBC Universal oligarch, Jeff Zucker? Interviewed at his ballroom-sized corner office at 30 Rock, the reporter at first can’t resist infantilizing his subject: “Zucker has an appealing, ruddy tint that lends him a cherubic appearance,” reads one willies-inducing passage. “When he sits back, his feet actually lift off from the floor a bit, like a boy taking a turn on someone else’s throne.” (We’ll assume the part that read, “He then soils his diaper, a mess quickly attended to by the youngest and prettiest of his three assistants…” was edited for space.)
