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Forget Jay Leno in the cat food aisle. 
Now the CBS marketing team has found an even more unusual way to flog its new fall series The Good Wife: by offering to bribe journalists just to consider mentioning the show. This would be pathetic if it weren’t so hilarious. (Note to Les Moonves who’s at the Cronkite memorial at Lincoln Center this morning: a $20 Amazon gift certificate isn’t gonna cut it with me. A new Benz, maybe.) Amy Morales, a “Community Activator” for the YouCast Corporation working for CBS, emailed me overnight thusly, after I deleted all the promotional bullshit:
Dear Deadline Hollywood Daily Editorial Team,
I know I just emailed you recently about CBS’s Three Rivers - I don’t mean to stalk your inbox – but I didn’t want you to miss out on The Good Wife either! … My goal in writing to you today is to see if you’d be interested in sharing this information with your readers. As a thank you for considering the story I would love to send you a $20 Amazon Gift Certificate…
I look forward to hearing from you!
Best,
Amy
So I looked for her Three Rivers email but found no bribe offer in that message. Poor Amy had to up the ante to flack The Good Wife to me. That can’t bode well for the show, can it? So Amy, since I didn’t just consider a story, I actually wrote one because of you, here’s what to do with that $20 Amazon gift certificate — stick it where the sun don’t shine, you asswipe.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Which model Mercedes Benz did you get from Fox for the “glee” ad that’s posted just below this story – in your news section?
“glee” – TONIGHT at 9 PM on FOX!!
“The Good Wife” – Catch all the drama on the premiere Tuesday, September 22. Only on CBS!
Now… please forward me a Mercedes Benz & $20 Amazon gift card.
A bit rough on her I think. I hope you don’t start handing out goatses too.
I agree “asswipe” to that particular person seems a little tacky Nikki. You know I’m a huge supporter of yours but I read that and was like, that’s wrong. This woman is doing her job. Can I have the gift certificate? Hey $20 is $20. LOL.
I’ve seen both shows and am withholding comment.
Nikki I love your moxie!! Amy may have been doing her job but what she represents is sleazy if you ask me so the ‘asswipe’ title is deserved. This email pr they are doing is ridiculous….if the show was good it should have good buzz on it’s own not because the network has chosen to do things ‘grassroots’ style with a bribe and personal emails to journalists practically begging for coverage. We all know that Amy expected Nikki to ‘bend over’ and write a glowing piece on the two shows promoting them to the public as ’shows to watch’ for the fall. The audacity of people….
Yeah, I agree. She’s just a girl doing a job. “Outing” her by publishing her full name is just mean-spirited. She’s not a journalist or a CEO – or any type of public figure – so why publish her full name and call her “asswipe”?
Nikki, sometimes I worry about you.
“asswipe”
Give the girl a break – someone told her to do that. There’s no need to be cruel to someone.
Damn, you are so tough back there behind that computer!!
ginger is right, it’s just someone doing their job. It doesn’t sound like they were harassing you and went out of their way to be polite. Just another transparent attempt to prove you and your column aren’t for sale!!!(!(!…. but oh wait, you already did that.
Only you could make me feel sympathy for an advertiser essentially offering a kickback, great job.
I’ll give you $40 not to write about my show.
Is this the same CBS that claims that they don’t pay for interviews, the same CBS that will use its “news” programs to flog projects that other CBS entities are doing?
While you’re at it, ease up on The Good Wife. Making comments like “That can’t bode well for the show” is pretty gratuitous – from everything I’ve heard, 3 Rivers looks like the disaster while Good Wife is being picked across the board as one of the top new shows to watch. Of course that may all not be true but it’s still kind of harsh to pick on a show you know nothing about just because some marketing flak offended you with her offer of an Amazon gift certificate – after all, the show (and it’s hundreds of WGA, DGA, SAG/AFTRA and IATSE employees who all need their jobs) didn’t have anything to do with that and are all I’m sure working hard to make the show as good and successful as it can be.
Agreed! And outing Amy was unnecessary.
Wow, that’s your reasoning for calling someone an asswipe? I’m disgusted, and not by Amy. Judicious editing so you don’t look so much like what you just called her would probably be a good move on your part.
Nikki, you’re such a tool sometimes. Unless I’m missing something, seems like someone hustling and trying to establish contacts.
Being called an “asswipe” comes with the territory as a PR rep. And someone who is just “doing her job” as an asswipe is still an asswipe.
I agree with Gingersnap. Ease up on Amy. Reserve your vitriol for the bloggers and traditional journalists who took the bribe. After all, the ranks of ones WITHOUT integrity are quite plentiful these days.
God, just imagine what they’re gonna have to offer for people to watch the wretched Accidentally on Purpose.
Yeah, she doesn’t seem like an asswipe, but it seems like she doesn’t read DHD; if she did she wouldn’t email you at all!
Is she a CBS employee or an employee of a marketing firm contracted by CBS? There’s a huge difference. I’m pretty sure that if Leslie or any of the execs in the CBS marketing department knew about this beforehand, they’d be furious — not because it’s unethical, but because it’s just stupid and has the potential for backlash. I mean, the networks do have twice yearly Press Tours and they bombard the tv writers with swag and suites and star parties. But a gift certificate is just plain clumsy and stupid. At the very least, it should have been hidden inside an elaborate press kit along with a baseball cap and t-shirt and a Roots fleece vest with the show’s logo embroidered on it. I have a feeling that not only is someone losing their job, but YouCast is losing a lucrative contract.
WOW. “Asswipe”. Are you sure you didn’t mean WHORE or DOUCHEBAG? Did that make you feel better? Because reading it made me feel like shit and completely diminished your point.
Has Nikki ever really used the term ‘asswipe’ before? sounds weird coming from her.
I refuse to watch any AFTRA shows, such as “The Good Wife” on CBS.
All actors should be in one union, SAG. Just like writers and directors. AFTRA raided SAG jurisdiction with the help of the studios. Don’t watch any AFTRA shows. Pass it on.
@Joe Brown – So by refusing to watch the show, you’re punishing whom exactly? The companies? Their shows fail all the time – they just produce new ones. And they are sure as hell more and more likely to produce them AFTRA since SAG in its infinite stupidity has allowed AFTRA to come in and undercut it. I agree there should be one union, but there isn’t – and it’s up to SAG to fix that. No, instead, you’re punishing the innocent writers, directors, editors and other crew who work on that show and need it to succeed to pay their bills. Hmm… there’s an asswipe here alright. And it seems to be you.
Psst. Don’t watch AFTRA shows Pass it on…
Nikki is the bitter mean girl in class who thinks her bitter meanness makes her strong. Good catch, good point, bad delivery.
Amy, Amy, Amy.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Nikki, Nikki, Nikki.
Flack, flack, giant flack.
Those are some harsh words… Geez. So don’t take the gift certificate… What does that have to do with the show being good or not? I hope you don’t have a daughter.
The Good Wife had an awesome pilot. Well worth watching, just saying.
Ironic that you did mention the TV show