Archive for April 15th, 2008

While Project Runway wasn’t exactly the elephant in the room, cable’s top-rated unscripted series was conspicuous by its relative absence during Bravo’s New York press breakfast.

Bravo Media/Oxygen Media president Lauren Zalaznick kicked off the network’s Tuesday morning upfront presentation with a resigned “no comment,” telling her audience that NBC Universal’s lawsuit to prevent The Weinstein Co. from taking Runway to Lifetime left her with “not much to say.”

Before launching into the formal pitch, Zalaznick noted that Bravo’s success “is not just about one show,” adding that the power of the brand and the environment is what keeps viewers coming back to the network. “We deliver the most affluent and engaged audience in cable,” Zalaznick said, adding that the overarching strategy is to “put the consumer at the center of the swirling Bravo bubble, not the shows.”

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LONDON — Gambling thriller “21” cashed in its chips at the European box office this weekend, taking top spot in the U.K., Germany and Spain.The force of nature that is Dany Boon’s Gallic megahit “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” (‘Welcome to the Sticks’) is showing little signs of letting up its assault on the French box office – laffer regained top spot in its seventh frame and has now pocketed $173 million on home turf.

In the U.K., Las Vegas set blackjack thriller “21” hit the jackpot. The Kevin Spacey gambling pic opened top with $3 million at 358 locations per Rentrak. Result was comfortably ahead of the competish and north of most pre-release expectations.

George Clooney starrer “Leatherheads” did not break the goal line. The gridiron comedy netted $938,118 at 335, only good enough for sixth spot in a fairly open frame. The bow was roughly half industry expectations. Poor perf is attributed to the subject matter’s lack of appeal to Brit auds. Even so, result is a disappointment for Universal given that Clooney and co-star Renee Zellweger are popular in Blighty and both touched down in the U.K. to tub thump at the April 8 premiere.

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Cameras caught the NFL legend after dinner at the Ivy last night, sounding more like a Hall of Fame car salesman than a Hall of Fame quarterback.

The Bronco legend also announced that he and Brett Favre are coming out of retirement next season. He was probably joking … Raider fans aren’t laughing.

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By iTVX Staff

Well, it looks like Donald Trump is about to executive produce and narrate a scripted series about - what else- himself. Lifetime, who recently picked up Project Runway to solidify its rebranding as a “women’s network,” has enlisted the Apprentice mogul to help create Trump Tower- a night time soap opera set in Trump Towers in NYC. This all sounds so very Dynasty to me, which is a good thing.

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Apple and Starbucks on Tuesday announced the Pick of the Week. It’s a new program that offers Starbucks customers free music and music videos each week, downloadable through the iTunes Store.

The music will be available through Pick of the Week download cards provided at more than 7,000 company-owned Starbucks locations in the United States. The card will enable customers to get a complimentary song or music video picked by Starbucks Entertainment and iTunes. Customers have u to 60 days from the date the Pick of the Week is available to redeem the free song.

The promotion is kicking off with “Washington Square” from Counting Crows. Starbucks says that artists lined up for future Picks of the Week include Carly Simon, Duffy, Adele, Sia, Hilary McRae and more.

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Considering its long-standing status as television’s 900-pound gorilla, you’d think that “American Idol” would have no problems just sitting on its laurels and cursing the need to purchase yet another bill counter to handle all the money pouring in. Add a well-timed writers strike putting the kibosh on its scripted competition and it seems like the show would be content to simply do what it’s always done just the way it’s always done it.

But the current season features the most substantial restructuring since “Idol” began. Despite the show’s longtime attitude of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it (and if it is broke, people will still watch, so don’t fix it then, either),” there have been countless changes to both the presentation and the competition itself.

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The first official poster for this summer’s The Incredible Hulk has just arrived over at IGN (head over there for a larger version). As you can see from the image above, the Hulk is trying to capture Edward Norton using the muscles in his back. Personally, this is exactly what I imagined the poster to look like — some sort of combo between the green monster and Bruce Banner, with a bunch of helicopters and tanks shooting in the background. I expect a few character posters (one with the Hulk, one with Abomination, etc) to follow in the coming weeks.

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Andrea Wong made her bones as ABC’s doyenne of unscripted programming, and the Lifetime chief is looking to get back into the reality TV business in a big way in 2008-09.

Days after Lifetime announced it had secured the rights to Project Runway from NBC Universal, Wong took the wraps off a slate of scripted dramas, comedies and reality series, in what is arguably the first move toward redefining the network as a general-entertainment destination.

In a press luncheon in midtown Manhattan Monday afternoon, the president and CEO of Lifetime acknowledged that the Project Runway pickup was “the biggest highlight of the year” for both herself and the network, adding that she expected that the show would continue to grow in its new home.
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LOS ANGELES - The Screen Actors Guild will go it alone in contract negotiations with studios after the other major actors union rejected an invitation for joint talks.

In a letter Monday to SAG, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said it would not revisit its decision to sever the guilds’ longtime unified negotiations.

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