NEWS CORP SETS ASIDE $155 MILLION FOR HACKING SETTLEMENTS

News International, the unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp that oversees his British news operations, has reportedly added £80 million ($124 million) to the kitty it had set up to settle invasion-of-privacy lawsuits arising from telephone hacking conducted by reporters and private investigators working for the now-defunct tabloid News of the World. The legal fund […]

SO WHAT’S OLBERMANN’S CURRENT STATUS?

Speculation has arisen that Keith Olbermann is once again battling his bosses, in this case, the ownership and management of his current cable outlet Current TV. The New York Times is reporting that Olbermann will not be anchoring the channel’s coverage of the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary in January but will be […]

CBS A HIT ON THURSDAY EVEN WITH RERUNS; NBC COLLAPSES

All of the broadcast networks aired reruns Thursday night, with CBS far in the lead in every half hour of primetime among both total adults and 18-49 year-olds, according to Nielsen Media Research. Its 8:00 p.m. comedy The Big Bang Theory actually drew 10.2 million viewers, nearly as many as those watching all of the […]

M:I EXPECTED TO CRUISE TO ANOTHER BOX OFFICE WIN

With no new films opening wide this weekend, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol should have no difficulty climbing to the top of the box office again over the New Year’s weekend, according to box office pundits. They’re predicting that it will earn about what it did over the Christmas holiday — $44.1 million — it […]

SHARES OF THEATER CHAINS NOSEDIVE

Shares of the nation’s largest theater chains have plunged along with ticket sales in the fourth quarter as analysts revised their earnings estimates for the chains after the chains themselves reported revenue declines for the first three quarters — that is, even before the dreadful holiday season. The Hollywood Reporter observed today (Friday) that attendance […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE IRON LADY

Meryl Streep is receiving high praise for her performance as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady; the movie itself, not so much. Consider the closing paragraph of Betsy Sharkey’s review in the Los Angeles Times: “What helps elevate the film is the searing insight Streep brings to Thatcher’s aging; she catches […]

SO WHAT DID XMAS SHOPPERS WATCH ON THEIR NEW TV’S?

The week before Christmas featured nearly as many reruns on primetime TV as a typical week in midsummer — with commensurate low ratings. There were a few exceptions. A repeat of CBS’s NCIS drew 12.4 million viewers to finish in third place behind NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast (Chicago vs. Green Bay) with 24 million […]

RATINGS FOR MNF DROP

ESPN’s Monday Night Football may have continued to rank as the No. 1 series on cable television in 2011, but ratings were down significantly from last year, particularly when the final games of the season were compared, according to Nielsen data compiled by Multichannel News. In its sixth season on ESPN, the 17 NFL games […]

ALL-AMERICAN MUSLIM TO DEAL WITH 9/11

In what is being billed as “the most nuanced and complex view about the [9/11] terror attacks from the American Muslim perspective ever seen on television,” TLC’s All-American Muslim series — targeted by some far-right and fundamentalist groups — on Sunday will explore the direct impact on the lives of Muslim families in Dearborn, MI […]

OPRAH PROMISES TO OVERHAUL HER CABLE CHANNEL

Days before launching Oprah’s Next Chapter, her new Sunday-night series on her OWN cable channel, Oprah Winfrey has vowed to reinvigorate the channel, which has proved to be a disappointment to all concerned — Winfrey included — during its first year. In an interview with the Associated Press, Winfrey remarked, “I don’t worry about failure. […]

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