SUMMER IS GREAT FOR CABLE, BAD FOR BROADCAST

Cable TV networks are ending the summer with a number of big successes — surprisingly with scripted TV shows, while no broadcast show introduced during the summer months has made it, USA Today indicated today (Thursday). (On Wednesday, Fox’s newest entrant, Buried Treasure, became the latest broadcast reality show to be buried in the ratings.) [...]

THE KENNEDYS: ASK NOT

The so-called Kennedy Curse may have hit ReelzChannel, the company that picked up The Kennedys miniseries after the History Channel dropped it and after it was rejected by other cable channels as well. On Tuesday it said that the show’s two-hour premiere (the first two episodes), which aired on Sunday night, attracted 1.9 million — [...]

THE KENNEDYS IS A HIT

Reaffirming the argument that there is no more effective publicity than controversy, the debut of The Kennedys miniseries on ReelzChannel on Sunday produced the biggest audience in the channel’s existence. The miniseries, which was reportedly rejected by the History Channel after it received complaints from members of the Kennedy family and close associates and found [...]

TV REVIEWS: THE KENNEDYS

So what was all the fuss over The Kennedys all about? That’s what the critics of the eight-part miniseries debuting Sunday on ReelzChannel appear to be asking. Certainly, they say, the series has its faults — many of them, according to most — but nothing really to get all that riled up about. Why the [...]

REELZCHANNEL REFUSES TO RUN ONLINE DATING AD DURING THE KENNEDYS

An online dating service whose slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair” attempted to purchase ads on the premiere episode of The Kennedys next week but was turned away by the channel carrying it, the New York Post reported today (Thursday). In an interview with the newspaper’s “Page Six” column, ReelzChannel CEO Stan Hubbard [...]

BBC TO AIR THE KENNEDYS MINISERIES

While it was dropped by the History Channel and found no takers on any other major U.S. cable outlet until it was rescued last month by the relatively little-known ReelzChannel, the controversial miniseries The Kennedys has been picked up by the BBC. The London Independent reported today (Thursday) that the eight-part series will air in [...]

AD BUYERS “ASK NOT” TO BE INCLUDED IN THE KENNEDYS

ReelzChannel has acknowledged that advertisers are keeping their distance from The Kennedys, the miniseries it acquired from the History Channel after that channel said in January that it was not “fit for the History brand.” Mediaweek (which accounted for the reluctance in its lede by remarking that “advertisers are notorious wusses”) reported that, just three [...]

IS THE DVR REALLY TO BLAME FOR FALLING RATINGS AT 10:00 P.M.?

While network executives have been blaming the DVR for the low ratings of 10:00 p.m. shows in recent years, today’s (Monday) New York Times points out that many cable shows during that hour are thriving. For example, it noted, MTV’s Jersey Shore, which airs at 10:00 p.m. on Thursdays, averages about six million viewers in [...]

THE KENNEDYS CREW MEMBERS SCORE CANCELLATION

Three persons who worked on The Kennedys miniseries have expressed indignation over its cancellation by the History Channel. (It has been picked up by ReelzChannel channel, which plans to broadcast it beginning April 3.) In interviews with Daily Variety, the three said that the channel had been aware of the miniseries’ content from the beginning. [...]

NO BUYERS FOR THE KENNEDYS

DirecTV has become the latest TV outlet to reject the four-hour miniseries The Kennedys that was originally set to air on the History Channel. That channel reportedly turned it down because of charges that it presented baseless speculation about the personal lives of President John F. Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy family. It [...]

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