Remembered: Jennifer Hudson To Perform Whitney Houston Tribute At The Grammys

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Saturday February 11, 2012 @ 8:59pm PSTTags: Grammys, Jennifer Hudson, Whitney Houston
Nellie Andreeva

R.I.P. Whitney Houston

UPDATED: Whitney Houston’s shocking death just 24 hours before the music industry’s biggest event, the annual Grammy Awards, sent CBS, the Recording Academy and the show’s  producers scrambling to put together a fitting tribute to one of the music industry’s biggest stars. Jennifer Hudson, who like Houston came from gospel roots to enjoy a flourishing career as both a singer and actress, will perform a Houston tribute at the Grammys tomorrow night, the show’s executive producer Ken Erlich just announced. It will no doubt be a memorable moment in Grammy Awards history, just like six-time Grammy winner Houston’s performance of One Moment In Time at the 1989 show. (Watch it below). And a very highly rated Grammy Awards for CBS. Erlich said that they were in the middle of rehearsal for tomorrow’s show when the news of Houston’s death broke. “As you know she was very closely associated with the Grammys both as a performer and as a Grammy winner, and a lot of us who worked on the show worked with her a number of times, so it’s a very sad day for us, and it’s going to be tough to recover from,” he said in an interview for the CBS affiliate stations. Shortly thereafter, Erlich called Hudson, who accepted his invitation to perform. “She’s a good friend of the Grammys,” Erlich said. “She’s had some very significant appearances on the show, it felt right to ask her to come and help us honor Whitney which she will do musically.”

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AP: Publicist Says Whitney Houston Dead

By NIKKI FINKE | Saturday February 11, 2012 @ 5:10pm PSTTags: Whitney Houston

UPDATE: Whitney Houston died at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, news reports now say. The AP is quoting the singer-actress’ publicist Kristen Foster as making the announcement today. Deadline is trying to confirm.

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RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Shark Tank’ Hits Friday High, ‘Grimm’ Bounces Back

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Saturday February 11, 2012 @ 10:00am PSTTags: Grimm, Shark Tank
Nellie Andreeva

ABC’s Shark Tank (1.8/6 among adults 18-49) jumped 20% from last week to post an all-time Friday high last night. It also tied CBS’ Blue Bloods as the top program of … Read More »

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Jimmy Wolk To Co-Star In Greg Berlanti’s USA Network Series ‘Political Animals’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 8:14pm PSTTags: Greg Berlanti, Jimmy Wolk, Political Animals
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Jimmy Wolk is the first actor cast in Political Animals, USA Network’s 6-episode drama series from Greg Berlanti and Laurence Mark, which premieres this summer. Written by Berlanti, his first solo spec script since Everwood, the Washington DC-based series … Read More »

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‘Friday Night Lights’ Reunion: Michael B. Jordan Cast In Jason Katims’ NBC Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 7:00pm PSTTags: County, Friday Night Lights, Jason Katims, Michael B. Jordan, NBC
Nellie Andreeva

Former Friday Night Lights star Michael B. Jordan is re-teaming with the series’ executive producer Jason Katims. Jordan has been cast opposite Jason Ritter in Katims’ NBC drama pilot County. The Universal TV-produced project chronicles the lives of young doctors, nurses, … Read More »

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Christine Woods To Star In NBC Pilot ‘Daddy’s Girls’, ‘Friday Night Dinner’ Adds 3

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 6:25pm PSTTags: Christine Woods, Daddy's Girls, NBC
Nellie Andreeva

Christine Woods (FlashForward) has landed the female lead in NBC’s multicamera comedy pilot Daddy’s Girls. The project, from writer Dana Klein, 20th Century Fox TV and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, centers on Pen (Woods), a responsible, guarded, brilliant but emotionally … Read More »

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Blythe Danner, Sarah Bolger & Madeline Zima Cast In ABC Pilot ‘Gilded Lilys’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 5:30pm PSTTags: ABC, Blythe Danner, Gilded Lilys, Madeline Zima, Sarah Bolger
Nellie Andreeva

Blythe Danner, Sarah Bolger (The Tudors) and Madeline Zima (Californication) are the first actors cast in Gilded Lillys, ABC’s period drama pilot written/executive produced by KJ Steinberg and executive produced by Shonda Rhimes. Set in 1895 New York City, Gilded Lilys is described as an epic love story that follows the opening … Read More »

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Mike Vogel Cast As Lead Of Fox’s Rob McElhenney/Rob Rosell Comedy Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 4:44pm PSTTags: Fox, Living Loaded, Mike Vogel
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Mike Vogel (Cloverfield, The Help) has been cast as the lead in Living Loaded, Fox’s single-camera comedy pilot from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia creator/star Rob McElhenney and the show’s executive producer Rob Rosell. Based on the book of … Read More »

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CW Adds ‘Bill Cunningham Show’ To Afternoon Lineup This Fall

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 3:38pm PSTTags: CW, The Bill Cunningham Show

February 10, 2012 (Burbank, CA & New York, NY) — The CW and Tribune Broadcasting today announced a distribution partnership for “The Bill Cunningham Show” which The CW Network will add to their weekday afternoon lineup beginning Fall 2012.

… Read More »

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Golden Globes Trial Summary: “Our Rights Are Being Held Hostage,” HFPA Lawyer Says

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 3:08pm PSTTags: Dick Clark Productions, Golden Globes, Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Golden Globes Closing Arguments: Lawyer Says Dick Clark “Enslaved” HFPA

Freelance journalist Dominic Patten is covering the trial for Deadline.

“They stole the rights!” declared Hollywood Foreign Press Association lawyer Daniel Petrocelli in summing up Dick Clark Productions in his closing argument today. “The servant has become the master.” His courtroom audience included a crowd of past, present and probably future HFPA Presidents, as well as executives from DCP and its owner Red Zone Capitol, “because of 12 words slipped into a contract that nobody read.” Petrocelli said “our rights are being held hostage” by the the 1993 perpetuity amendment that is the focus of the case. Petrocelli said the HFPA “has a right” to get out of its relationship with DCP, “a company they certainly don’t trust.”

Trust was also a topic raised by DCP lawyer Marty Katz early this afternon duringduring the early afternoon in his own closing remarks. Calling attention to in-fighting within the HFPA — which even Judge A. Howard Matz described as seemingly “always in turmoil” — Katz cited the distrust former HFPA President Phil Berk, who was in attendance, had for others in his organization and for DCP. Over the years Katz said Berk was constantly “looking for a way to unravel the agreement” the production company had to produce the Golden Globes telecast on NBC. Read More »

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Fox Gives Pilot Order To Carter Bays/Craig Thomas Comedy With Becki Newton Starring

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 2:58pm PSTTags: Becki Newton, Carter Bays, Craig Thomas, Fox, Goodwin Games
Nellie Andreeva

In what may be the last pilot order this season, Fox has given the green light to Goodwin Games, a single-camera comedy from How I Met Your Mother co-creators/executive producers Carter Bays & Craig Thomas and fellow HIMYM executive producer … Read More »

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Ryan Phillippe To Star In CBS’ Nick Wootton-Greg Berlanti Drama Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 2:15pm PSTTags: CBS, Greg Berlanti, Ryan Phillippe
Nellie Andreeva

In his first pilot gig, Ryan Phillippe is set for the lead in CBS’ untitled Nick Wootton-Greg Berlanti drama pilot (formerly Golden Boy). The project, from Warner Bros TV and Berlanti Prods centers on Clark (Phillippe), a cop, and chronicles … Read More »

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‘Roseanne’ Reunion: John Goodman To Co-Star In Roseanne Barr’s NBC Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 1:50pm PSTTags: Downwardly Mobile, John Goodman, Roseanne Barr
Nellie Andreeva

Roseanne co-stars Roseanne Barr and John Goodman together again. I’ve learned that, after lengthy negations, Goodman is in final negotiations to join Barr’s new sitcom, the NBC pilot Downwardly Mobile. Co-created by Barr, her boyfriend John Argent and Eric Gilliland, who … Read More »

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Fox Sets Dates For ‘Hotel Hell’ Debut, ‘Bob’s Burgers’ & ‘Bones’ Return, ‘House’ Finale

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 1:44pm PSTTags: Fox, Hotel Hell, House
Nellie Andreeva

Gordon Ramsey’s latest Fox reality series, Hotel Hell, will premiere on April 6, taking over slot of another Ramsey show, Kitchen Nightmares, Fridays at 8 PM. In Hotel Hell, the foul-mouthed chef will try to fix substandard hotels. Fox’s animated … Read More »

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Ving Rhames To Star In David E. Kelley’s TNT Medical Drama Pilot ‘Chelsea General’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 1:21pm PSTTags: Chelsea General, TNT, Ving Rhames
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Ving Rhames is set to star opposite Alfred Molina is David E. Kelley’s TNT medical drama pilot Chelsea General. Based on CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta’s upcoming novel Monday Mornings, the project follows the lives of five surgeons … Read More »

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UPDATE: Closing Arguments Conclude In Golden Globes Trial; Lawyer Says Dick Clark “Enslaved” HFPA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 1:05pm PSTTags: Dick Clark Productions, Golden Globes, Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Freelance journalist Dominic Patten is covering the trial for Deadline.

UPDATE, 1:05 PM: Closing arguments have concluded and now it’s up to the judge to decide who wins and loses. But don’t expect a decision anytime soon as Matz told the jam-packed courtroom at the end of session today that “it is going to be some time before I can turn back to this”.

PREVIOUS, 12 PM: Hollywood Foreign Press Association lawyer Dan Petrocelli said that Dick Clark Productions’ amendment to an agreement about TV rights to the Golden Globes “enslaved the HFPA”. The words came during closing arguments today in the trial between DCP and the HFPA over those TV rights. Citing a 1993 perpetuity amendment at the heart of the two-week trial, Petrocelli said that “12 words changed the entire course of history between the two parties.” DCP, said the lawyer, added the language in 1993 in a “sloppy” and “dirty way”. He dismissed “a lack of candor” in the testimony of former DCP president Fran La Maina and former HFPA president Mirjana Van Blaricom as “severing off” key evidence around the amendment. Read More »

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TBS Picks Up ‘Sullivan And Son’ To Series

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 12:43pm PSTTags: Steve Byrne, Sullivan and Son, TBS, Vince Vaughn
Nellie Andreeva

TBS has picked up a second new comedy series, Sullivan And Son, starring comedian Steve Byrne and executive produced by Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley. The show, which has received 10-episode order for a summer premiere, joins Men At Work, which received a series order last month. For the second series slot, TBS was to choose between two pilots – Sullivan And Son and the Conan O’Brien-produced BFF. The pilots were part of TBS’ return to original half-hour comedies after flirting with hourlong shows for about a year. Written by Byrne and Cheers veteran Rob Long, who serves as executive producer/showrunner, Sullivan And Son is in the vein of the classic NBC comedy and takes place in a legendary neighborhood bar in a working-class Pittsburgh neighborhood. It centers on Steve Sullivan (Byrne), the son of the bar’s current owner (Dan Lauria) and the grandson of its founder who surprises his Irish-American father and Korean-American mother (Jodi Long) when he decides to leave his job as a successful corporate attorney in New York and return to the neighborhood to take over the bar. Read More »

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EVP Jim Vescera Departs In NBC Marketing Department Downsizing

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 11:52am PSTTags: Jim Vescera, Marketing, NBC
Nellie Andreeva

NBC’s new marketing president Len Fogge, who joined the network from Showtime last summer, is reorganizing the network’s marketing department, with fewer than 10 of the department’s 150 employees getting laid off today. The highest ranking among them is … Read More »

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Series Adaptation Of ‘Legion’ With Feature’s Director Scott Stewart In The Works At Syfy

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 10, 2012 @ 10:27am PSTTags: Legion, Syfy
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Syfy is developing a series version of the 2010 supernatural thriller Legion, which starred Paul Bettany. The feature’s director/co-writer Scott Stewart is set to direct and executive produce the TV adaptation, which will be written by Vaun Wilmott (Sons … Read More »

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