Here's another of Diane Haithman's TV showrunner interviews:
MATT NIX is creator and showrunner for USA Network’s hit spy show Burn Notice, which just finished the second half of Season 3 this month. He's got a second action series The Good Guys set for FBS this summer. (It previews on May 19th and then resumes June 7th.) An action comedy set in Dallas about a resentful washed-up cop and an ambitious young detective, it stars Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks. Los Angeles-born and UCLA-educated Nix wrote and directed some forgettable showbiz stuff before he became the "poster boy" for the Writers Guild's Showrunner Training Program. By 2007, he was the quintessential cable guy, happily inhabiting those tighter budgets, narrower target audiences, and lower stakes. Or, to use his word, a more “niche-y” area. Nix's obsession with crime began when he discovered a family friend was a con artist wanted by the FBI ("To me that was awesome") and began reading up on all sorts of swindlers. He has a quirky sense of humor which infuses his work and his characters especially when they are in life-threatening situations. His shows are not so much dramedies as they are non-sequitors. Now, as he moves into network TV at age 38, Nix recommends that the Big Three networks take some tips from cable TV; expresses a surprising respect for the TV executive's role in an increasingly complicated production business; and details his battle with White Collar showrunner Jeff Eastin to attract the most Twitter followers:
DH: I have been charged with reporting to you that Nikki has not missed one of your Burn Notice episodes, ever. She is an obsessed fan, so you should know that.
MN: I love that . . . I would be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed that she has mentioned the show. Read More »
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Books, Cable | Thursday March 4, 2010 @ 7:03am PST
An HBO movie about the 2008 financial meltdown is finally moving. HBO has acquired rights to Too Big to Fail, the bestselling book by New York Times reporter Andrew Sorkin. Peter Gould has been hired to write the drama, and Spring Creek’s Paula Weinstein and Jeffrey Levine are executive producers.
The project has been slow going because it was first set up with a book co-written by Sorkin’s Times colleague Joe Nocera and Vanity Fair writer Bethany McLean, and they haven't turned in their manuscript. HBO execs say they will marry the source materials to chronicle the financial crisis the same way that Recount dissected the disputed Florida results in the 2000 presidential election.
For his part, Sorkin says his book lends itself well to that task. He focused specifically on players like Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and his successor Timothy Geitner, Lehman Bros CEO Richard Fuld, and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, in boardrooms, private planes and bedrooms as the financial system teetered on the brink of collapse. “You see their human sides, the hubris, the ego,” Sorkin said. “You see Hank Paulsen literally vomiting and Dick Fuld crying with his wife as their world fell apart."
By MIKE FLEMING | Category: Actors, Awards | Tuesday March 2, 2010 @ 10:29am PST
UPDATE: Neil Patrick Harris tweets, “I will not be performing a duet with Martin Short to open the Oscars. Misinformation, I’m afraid. Should I maybe pull a Kanye, mid-show?”
EXCLUSIVE: Stop reading if you want to be surprised, but I know how the Oscarcast will get underway Sunday night. (That is, if Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman don't change their minds because of this spoiler.) The first 2 men on stage won’t be hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Instead, the show will open with a silhouette of a pair of guys only … wait for it ... they're Neil Patrick Harris and Martin Short. Anything can change, but that unlikely duo has been rehearsing an original opening song and dance routine that is one of 2 big production numbers choreographed by executive producer Adam Shankman. (The other involves extreme street dancers who’ve performed on So You Think You Can Dance where Shankman is a judge and who’ll hoof to samplings from the Best Original Score nominees.) Though Harris is predominantly a TV star, he's an awards show regular. Short also is a TV regular these days, but he has a long relationship with the broadcast’s musical director Marc Shaiman, who put together the opening number. In fact, Shaiman/Short collaborations go back to Saturday Night Live, and include The Martin Short Show and the one-man stage show Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. I heard the producers had approached Robin Williams, but he declined.
11 AM UPDATE: In Late-Night Fast Nationals Monday Night...
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1.6 rating in adults 18-49) led the time period over CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" (1.1) and ABC's "Nightline (1.3) in fast national "live plus same day" ratings from Nielsen Media Research. The "Tonight" margin over "Late Show" in fast-national adult 18-49 rating is 45 percent.
In total viewers in the fast nationals, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (6.6 million) ranked #1 among the major networks in the time period over "Late Show" (3.8 million) and "Nightline" (4.1 million). The "Tonight" margin over "Late Show" in total viewers in these fast-national results is 73 percent.
At 12:35 a.m., "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (0.7 in adults 18-49) out-delivered CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (0.5) by a margin of 40 percent in these fast nationals. In total viewers, "Late Night" (2.1 million viewers overall) topped "Late Late Show" (1.8 million) by a margin of 16 percent.
That's not exactly unexpected news. Leno is expected to top Letterman all week, fueled by Olympic medal-winners and tonight's Sarah Palin vs Mitt Romney late night booking war. The real competition won't begin until next week.
For the first night of the "Jaysurrection", Leno's Tonight Show did a 5.4 rating/14 share in metered-market households versus CBS Late Showwith David Letterman's 3.0/8 and ABC Nightline's 3.4/8 and Jimmy Kimmel Live's 1.8/6 in Nielsen's 56 metered markets. The Tonight margin over Late Show in metered-market households was 80%.
On his first night back as host of The Tonight Show, Jay Leno said Sarah Palin "has never been on a late night show". Wrong! She was on Conan's Tonight Show on December 11, 2009. Palin will be a guest on Jay's show Tuesday up against Mitt Romney on David Letterman's Late Show. This b.s. folows NBC removing from Hulu and NBC websites every single Tonight Show that Conan hosted.
Here's a shameless plug for primetime TV fan traffic... He's delivering ABC its best Bachelor ratings in recent years. Tonight is the finale, and I've just learned that airline pilot Jake Pavelka is joining the next installment of Dancing Of The Stars later this month. Also joining from the reality world will be Kate Gosselin and, from the Olympics, gold medal winning figure skater Evan Lysacek. (No, he won't be partnered with sore loser Evgeni Plushenko...) Also Cincinnati Bengal Chad Ochocinco, Shannen Doherty, ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews, Pussycat Doll frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger, soap star Aiden Turner, comedian Niecy Nash, Pamela Anderson and Buzz Aldrin. If I wanted to lose brain cells and watch this show, it sounds like a better-than-average line-up.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Cable | Monday March 1, 2010 @ 5:40pm PST
BREAKING NEWS! First it was the Food Network/HGTV. Now WABC-TV, Channel 7 in New York, beginning today is running messaging on-air to alert local Cablevision subscribers in Long Island, Westchester, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and selected suburbs of Connecticut and New Jersey, that as of 12:01 a.m. ET on Sunday, March 7, 2010, they may no longer have access to the station due to another ridiculous impasse in retrans negotiations. WABC-TV will also be running ads in local print, radio and online media on the situation. This mess is going to piss off a lot of Cablevision viewers. And do I need to remind anyone that the Oscars will be broadcast live on Sunday night?
Here's the statement from Rebecca S. Campbell, President & General Manager, WABC-TV:
“With the help of our viewers, we’ve built ABC7 into the most watched station in the country, and have been trying for two years to get Cablevision to acknowledge the station’s value to their business. Despite our best efforts, it has now become clear that Cablevision has no intention of coming to a fair agreement. We can no longer sit back and allow Cablevision to use our shows for free while they continue to charge their customers for them. We’ve worked too hard
Anika Noni Rose and Hill Harper hosted the 41ST NAACP IMAGE AWARDS, which was broadcast live from Los Angeles’ historic Shrine Auditorium tonight on FOX. The star-studded event was executive-produced by Vicangelo Bulluck. Celebrated were the accomplishments of people of color working in the fields of literature, music, television and film. Special honors were presented to Tyler Perry who received the NAACP Chairman’s Award, Wyclef Jean who received the NAACP Vanguard Award, Clarence Avant who was inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame, and Van Jones who received the NAACP President’s Award.
The 41ST NAACP IMAGE AWARDS winners are:
Outstanding Comedy Series
§ “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
§ Daryl “Chill” Mitchell – “Brothers” (FOX)
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
§ Cassi Davis – “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
§ Lance Gross – “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
§ Keshia Knight Pulliam – “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Outstanding Drama Series
§ “Lincoln Heights” (ABC Family)
Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series
§ Hill Harper – “CSI: NY” (CBS)
Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series
§ Jada Pinkett Smith – “HawthoRNe” (TNT)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
§ Delroy Lindo – “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (NBC)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
§ S. Epatha Merkerson – “Law & Order” (NBC)
Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
§ “Gifted Hands” (TNT)
Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
§ Cuba Gooding Jr. – “Gifted Hands” (TNT)
By TIM ADLER | Category: Actors, Foreign | Friday February 26, 2010 @ 12:53pm PST
From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler: You wait ages for one cozy class-bound drama to come along again, and then two come along at the same time. Bit like London buses really. The BBC this week announced it has signed a deal with PBS to remake that classic ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs, which told the story of the aristocratic Bellamy family and their staff and stayed a huge Sunday night hit for ITV in the 1970s. PBS' Masterpiece Theater had a good run with it in the U.S., too. This new Upstairs, Downstairs for the Beeb will be a 3-part series set just before World War II in the same London house as the original. WGBH Boston and BBC Worldwide will co-produce the show to air next year.
However, next month ITV starts filming what seems like a remarkably similar series. Downton Abbey is for all intents and purposes a weekly TV version of Robert Altman's hit film Gosford Park. Carnival Films/NBCU has even hired Julian Fellowes, Gosford Park’s Oscar-winning screenwriter, to pen most of the 7 episodes. Downton Abbey will star Dame Maggie Smith as Violet, Dowager Duchess of Grantham, with Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern. There’s even a butler called Carson and a cook called Mrs Hughes similar to Upstairs, Downstairs' butler Hudson and cook Mrs Bridges.
By TIM ADLER | Category: Finance, Foreign | Friday February 26, 2010 @ 10:50am PST
From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler:There's a great scoop in this morning's Times of London but it's bad news for American television producers: the BBC could have 1/3 less to spend on importing Hollywood TV shows such as Mad Men and Heroes. That's because the BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body, is to try and push BBC boss Mark Thompson into slashing his £100 million U.S. acquisition budget by 33%. Current plans call for the state broadcaster to cut its foreign programme budget by 25%. The plans are detailed in a strategic review of the BBC, due to be published next month, a copy of which was leaked to the newspaper. The overhaul also includes closing two radio stations and shutting half of its website.
The review assumes that the annual £3.6 billion state grant will be frozen in 2013. The overhaul will be seen as an attempt to show the Tories that that the BBC doesn’t need government intervention to get its house in order. The Tories have been unhappy about how big the BBC has grown for some time. Mark Thompson, the head of the BBC, will admit that the state broadcaster has become too large, and must shrink to give the private sector a chance. The BBC is already the size of the British book publishing industry. Rivals have long complained that the BBC just maps everything they do commercially, putting them out of business.
Jay Leno made news when he announced that Sarah Palin will be among his high-profile guests when he returns to The Tonight Show next week (aka "The Jaysurrection"). Now David Letterman's lineup for next week pits Mitt Romney against Sarah Palin on Tuesday night -- and the ratings may well provide clues on which probable GOP presidential contender may be most popular. The week's lineup for Letterman's Late Show are: MONDAY, Bill Murray; TUESDAY, Mitt Romney; WEDNESDAY, Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Brokaw; THURSDAY, Tom Hanks; and FRIDAY, Matt Damon. Leno's first week of guests are: MONDAY, Jamie Foxx, Olympic Gold Medal Skier Lindsey Vonn; TUESDAY, Sarah Palin, Olympic Gold Medal Snowboarder Shaun White; WEDNESDAY, "Jaywalk All-Stars” with the Cast of MTV's Jersey Shore, Chelsea Handler, and the most decorated American Winter Olympian of all time Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno; THURSDAY, Matthew McConaughey and Jason Reitman; FRIDAY, Morgan Freeman and Meredith Vieira.
By TIM ADLER | Category: Celebrity, Foreign | Thursday February 25, 2010 @ 1:59pm PST
From Deadline|London editor Tim Adler:You may be upset or relieved to hear my news that Howard Stern definitely won’t be joining American Idol as the judge replacing Simon Cowell. According to my sources close to the show, the new judge will be announced at the end of the current run. Whoever gets the gig will have a sweet deal: 19 Entertainment, the London-based company which created American Idol, has a budget of $38 million to spend on Cowell’s replacement.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Finance | Wednesday February 24, 2010 @ 12:38pm PST
So The $32 Million Man has signed a new employment agreement that will keep him in place as president and CEO of CBS Corp through Feb. 22, 2015. His previous contract was set to expire in 2011. Under the terms of the agreement, Moonves' salary remains at its current level, and he will continue to be eligible for an annual performance-based bonus and get equity-based compensation that ties his payout to the company's stock performance. There hasn't been an SEC proxy report filed yet containing Moonves' 2009 compensation, but he was paid overall, including stock and option awards, about $32 million for 2008, down from $36.8 million in 2007. Moonves has indicated he would not take a pay raise in 2009, so we'll see. CBS in today's announcement also said the contract provides "incentives for Moonves to continue his relationship with the company at the end of the employment term" which sounds like a sweet deal.
"This is, above all, great news for every shareholder of CBS," said controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone. "Leslie is a superb executive who has led CBS to a position of unparalleled leadership in the industry." Moonves gushed, "I am very gratified that my relationship with the company will continue as we build on the strong foundation we have laid for ongoing growth and success."
By Nikki Finke | Category: Actors | Tuesday February 23, 2010 @ 3:30pm PST
2ND UPDATE 3:30 PM: Here is the CBS/Warner Bros/Chuck Lorre statement.
(February 23, 2010) -- Joint statement from Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment; Peter Roth, President, Warner Bros. Television; Chuck Lorre, Creator/Executive Producer of Two And A Half Men:
“CBS, Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre support Charlie Sheen in his decision today to begin voluntary in-patient care at a treatment center. We wish him nothing but the best as he deals with this personal matter. Production on ‘Two and a Half Men’ will be temporarily suspended.”
2:10 PM:I understand that CBS learned about Charlie Sheen's rehab break only about an hour ago. So everything's in flux. But I can confirm that Two And A Half Menhas already shot 18 episodes of its 24 order this season.
1:45 PM: Normally, Deadline Hollywood doesn't cover the personal lives of Hollywood unless it has a direct impact on business. But now Charlie Sheen's publicist has released a statement" "As a preventative measure, Charlie Sheen has entered a rehabilitation facility. He will take some time off his series Two And A Half Men. He has asked that his privacy be honored. No further statements are planned." All I can say is that it's been a miracle that Sheen and the CBS sitcom have lasted seven seasons considering what a train wreck he is.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Networks | Tuesday February 23, 2010 @ 1:18pm PST
From: Westin, David L.
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 3:40 PM
To: #ABCTV News ALL
Cc: Sweeney, Anne X.
Subject: ABC News Transformation
Over the past several years, we’ve seen a lot of changes -- changes at ABC News and in the news industry overall. I’m proud of the way we’ve responded both to unexpected transitions in our programs and to the economic realities of our business. We’ve adapted quickly and effectively and – above all – put our audiences first. Our programs are stronger today than they were ten years ago. This is a credit first and foremost to the men and women at ABC News.
But all of us are good reporters. We can see that our entire society is in the middle of a revolution -- a revolution in the ways that people get their news and information. The digital age makes our business more competitive than ever before. It also presents us with opportunities we couldn’t have imagined to gather, produce, and distribute the news. We can have great success in the new world – but only if we embrace what is new, rather than being overwhelmed by it.
The time has come to anticipate change, rather than respond to it. We have a rare opportunity to get in front of what’s coming, to ensure that ABC News has a sound journalistic and financial footing for many years to come, and to serve our audiences even better. But we must move boldly and promptly. In the past, we’ve sought out less expensive
By Nikki Finke | Category: Agents | Monday February 22, 2010 @ 10:24am PST
The spec script market continues to show green shoots in 2010. ICM just told me that writers Sonny Lee and Patrick Walsh, who left CAA for ICM last week, preemptively sold a spec script to Paramount with Montecito and Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg producing. Sonny and Pat have spent the last three years on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and have sold pilots to FBC and ABC. This is the duo’s first spec script. Based on an idea by Hurwitz and Schlossberg, 21 Shots centers around a guy who, on his 21st birthday, loses his I.D. and needs to track it down over over the course of one day. Montecito bought the spec preemptively through their Paramount discretionary fund. Hurwitz & Schlossberg are managed by Paul Young and repped by CAA.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Awards | Sunday February 21, 2010 @ 12:04pm PST
WGAW And WGAE 2010 Award Winners
-- WGA East opened their awards show pretending it was the "end" of last year's ceremony, focusing on two horn players from Conan O'Brien's band. The duo talked about moving to Los Angeles for The Tonight Show and how great NBC was treating them. Then they came out, heads hung in defeat, and took their place with the house band playing the WGAE gig.
-- Host Susie Essman asked the audience to come up with a name for the award. Someone in the audience called it "a flying vajajay," and she agreed that it indeed looks like a vagina. So "every winner goes home with some pussy," she joked.
-- Essman got off a zinger about James Cameron's Avatar "managing to be 3-dimensional and one-dimensional at the same time."
-- When The Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Writing went to Alan Zweibel, Seth Meyers said one of the two good things about the writers strike was having Zweibel tell stories from the early days of SNL. "The other being all that Internet money." Which got a big laugh.
-- Host Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane opened the WGAW awards show noting that "acceptance speeches won't be long since writers have only themselves to thank.
-- He sang a song with lyrics that included: "Without writers we got trouble, That starts with T, which rhymes with C, and that stands for crap!"
-- Because all 5 animation nominees were from The Simpsons this year, McFarlane said he told ... Read More »
Carl Icahn Now Wants ALL Of Lionsgate 
Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … 
MATT NIX is creator and showrunner for USA Network’s hit spy show Burn Notice, which just finished the second half of Season 3 this month. He's got a second action series The Good Guys set for FBS this summer. (It previews on May 19th and then resumes June 7th.) An action comedy set in Dallas about a resentful washed-up cop and an ambitious young detective, it stars Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks. Los Angeles-born and UCLA-educated Nix wrote and directed some forgettable showbiz stuff before he became the "poster boy" for the Writers Guild's Showrunner Training Program. By 2007, he was the quintessential cable guy, happily inhabiting those tighter budgets, narrower target audiences, and lower stakes. Or, to use his word, a more “niche-y” area. Nix's obsession with crime began when he discovered a family friend was a con artist wanted by the FBI ("To me that was awesome") and began reading up on all sorts of swindlers. He has a quirky sense of humor which infuses his work and his characters especially when they are in life-threatening situations. His shows are not so much dramedies as they are non-sequitors. Now, as he moves into network TV at age 38, Nix recommends that the Big Three networks take some tips from cable TV; expresses a surprising respect for the TV executive's role in an increasingly complicated production business; and details his battle with White Collar showrunner Jeff Eastin to attract the most Twitter followers:
An HBO movie about the 2008 financial meltdown is finally moving. HBO has acquired rights to Too Big to Fail, the bestselling book by New York Times reporter Andrew Sorkin. Peter Gould has been hired to write the drama, and Spring Creek’s Paula Weinstein and Jeffrey Levine are executive producers.
UPDATE: Neil Patrick Harris tweets, “I will not be performing a duet with Martin Short to open the Oscars. Misinformation, I’m afraid. Should I maybe pull a Kanye, mid-show?”
Here's a shameless plug for primetime TV fan traffic... He's delivering ABC its best Bachelor ratings in recent years. Tonight is the finale, and I've just learned that airline pilot Jake Pavelka is joining the next installment of Dancing Of The Stars later this month. Also joining from the reality world will be Kate Gosselin and, from the Olympics, gold medal winning figure skater Evan Lysacek. (No, he won't be partnered with sore loser Evgeni Plushenko...) Also Cincinnati Bengal Chad Ochocinco, Shannen Doherty, ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews, Pussycat Doll frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger, soap star Aiden Turner, comedian Niecy Nash, Pamela Anderson and Buzz Aldrin. If I wanted to lose brain cells and watch this show, it sounds like a better-than-average line-up. 
BREAKING NEWS!
So The $32 Million Man has signed a new employment agreement that will keep him in place as president and CEO of CBS Corp through Feb. 22, 2015. His previous contract was set to expire in 2011. Under the terms of the agreement, Moonves' salary remains at its current level, and he will continue to be eligible for an annual performance-based bonus and get equity-based compensation that ties his payout to the company's stock performance. There hasn't been an SEC proxy report filed yet containing Moonves' 2009 compensation, but he was paid overall, including stock and option awards, about $32 million for 2008, down from $36.8 million in 2007. Moonves has indicated he would not take a pay raise in 2009, so we'll see. CBS in today's announcement also said the contract provides "incentives for Moonves to continue his relationship with the company at the end of the employment term" which sounds like a sweet deal.
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