WORLD SERIES LIGHTS UP FRIDAY NIGHT (Updated)

Who says people are abandoning their TV sets on Friday nights? Give them something worthwhile to watch, it would seem, and they’ll tune in. And tune in they did en masse Friday for the seventh and deciding game of the World Series on Fox. According to a network press release, an average of 25.4 million […]

TV ADS GO BUGS

Those transparent network-identifying “bugs” that have become ubiquitous over the years have now become the latest piece of TV-screen real estate to be sold to advertisers. According to Advertising Age magazine, both Fox and the CW are adding messages to the bugs, or in some case, converting them to ads (other networks are expected to […]

DISNEY/ABC IN STREAMING DEALS WITH NETFLIX, AMAZON

Not playing favorites, Disney/ABC Television Group, has renewed and expanded its streaming deals with Netflix and Amazon. They will allow the two online rivals to offer hundreds of Disney-produced TV shows from ABC-TV, ABC Family and the Disney Channel, raging from Desperate Housewives to Hannah Montana. “We are thrilled to broaden the scope and extend […]

CBS’S BOB SCHIEFFER LAYS INTO HERMAN CAIN

Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer departed from his usual neutral-interviewer role on Sunday to lecture Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain about a scene in his current campaign ad in which his chief of staff, Mark Block, is seen taking a drag on a cigarette and exhaling the smoke at the camera. Cain is then […]

FAMED BBC HOST JIMMY SAVILE DEAD AT 84

Veteran British TV host Jimmy Savile, who gained fame introducing the leading international singers on the BBC’s Top of the Pops, which launched in 1964, has died in Leeds, England two days before his 85th birthday. Saville was also famous for raising money for charities — more than $60 million — principally for children’s groups, […]

TINTIN DEBUTS WITH $55.8 MILLION OVERSEAS

Overseas, Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn had a solid debut in 19 countries, where it collected $55.8 million. Some 38 percent of that amount came from France, where the film opened with $21.5 million, the second biggest opening in that country this year after the final Harry Potter installment. […]

PUSS NICKED AS BOX OFFICE GOES TO THE DOGS (Updated)

Blame the unseasonably snowy weather in the East. Blame the World Series. Blame Halloween parties. Blame the economy. Box office analysts were doing a little of each to explain the lousy weekend that saw blah openings for three new movies and mostly insipid performances from everything else. The No. 1 film, as expected, turned out […]

PUSS IN BOOTS SET TO CLAW ITS WAY TO THE TOP

A swashbuckling cat is likely to lay waste to a host of rivals this weekend, and analysts are expecting it to be rewarded with $35-40 million. DreamWorks Animation’s Puss in Boots, with Antonio Banderas providing the cat’s meow, appears to have little competition for family audiences. (Paramount, which is distributing the film, moved it up […]

THE CW STRIKES ANOTHER BIG DEAL — THIS ONE WITH HULU

Two weeks after negotiating a deal with Netflix that was reportedly worth $1 billion, the struggling CW network has closed a five-year deal with Hulu that could be worth a similar amount — or more. While Netflix subscribers will have to wait an entire season before being able to stream CW programs, Hulu Plus subscribers […]

OUT-OF-THE-PARK RATINGS FOR SERIES’ 6TH GAME

A high-scoring, 11-inning sixth game of the World Series averaged 19.7 million viewers Thursday night, according to preliminary overnight ratings. (The number is expected to climb when final results are released.) The game lasted until 12:45 a.m. Eastern Time, but early results suggest that many, if not most, viewers hung on until the last out […]

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