stephen.battaglio

The Biz: American Masters Rediscovers Bing Crosby

Whenever director Robert Trachtenberg tells people he's made a film about Bing Crosby, he says, "The overwhelming response is, 'He's the guy who hit his kids.'" The actor-crooner's Daddy Dearest image was shaped by the 1983 tell-all memoir from son Gary. But Trachtenberg believes Bing Crosby: Rediscovered, his latest project for American Masters (Tuesday at 8/7c on PBS), will remind viewers that despite his flaws, Crosby is one of the 20th century's most influential pop culture figures.

Mon, Dec 1, 2014

The Biz: American Masters Rediscovers Bing Crosby

The Biz: Celebrating the Life and Career of News Veteran John Palmer

If you were anywhere near a TV set on Jan. 28, 1986 when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, chances are you learned the news of the tragedy from NBC News correspondent John Palmer. With NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw temporarily unavailable that afternoon, it was Palmer, the newsreader for Today, who broke in with a special report and stayed with the story for hours as it unfolded.

Thu, Nov 20, 2014

The Biz: Celebrating the Life and Career of News Veteran John Palmer

The Biz: Revisiting The Merv Griffin Show

Merv Griffin died in 2007, but he lives on in TV history thanks to having created the remarkably durable game shows Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. He even composed the iconic Jeopardy theme song. But for baby boomers, Griffin will always be remembered for his talk show that ran in several incarnations from 1962 to 1986. Thanks to a hilarious impersonation by SCTV's Rick Moranis, Griffin developed a reputation for being an obsequious lightweight who ooh-ed and ahh-ed at every word his guests said.

Tue, Nov 11, 2014

The Biz: Revisiting The Merv Griffin Show

The Biz: Norman Lear Shares His Life Lessons

Every innovative producer benefiting from the creative surge in TV should offer a tip of the pork pie hat to Norman Lear. At 92, the trailblazing producer (All In the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude and many others), entrepreneur and activist looks back on his life and career in the new memoir Even This I Get to Experience (Penguin Press). We had the experience of recently chatting with the TV industry legend...

Tue, Oct 28, 2014

The Biz: Norman Lear Shares His Life Lessons

The Biz: Mike Rowe Leaves Dirty Jobs Behind for a New Reality at CNN

After an eight-season run on the Discovery Channel with Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe is cleaning up his act and heading to CNN with a new series, Somebody's Gotta Do It (premiering Wednesday at 9/8c). On each episode, Rowe seeks out regular folks to explore why they're passionately committed to unusual jobs, avocations or causes — dirty or otherwise. His first hour takes him to Las Vegas where he suits up for an aquatic show and then to Independence, Missouri, to meet the curator of a hair museum...

Tue, Oct 7, 2014

The Biz: Mike Rowe Leaves Dirty Jobs Behind for a New Reality at CNN

The Biz: Forecasting Fall's New Hits

Fox paid big money for its Batman-prequel series Gotham and touted its September 22 premiere all summer via billboards, transit posters, and on-air promotional spots. According to research that measures viewer interest in the new fall shows, the effort is going to pay off. Research firm Ipsos MediaCT surveys viewers each week throughout the summer and asks if they are familiar with the name of a new show and whether they plan to watch it. The results of the company's TV Dailies Study from the period of Sept. 1—7 were provided to TV Guide Magazine and show Gotham with the highest awareness score of any new show and the second highest score in the intent to view category.

Mon, Sep 15, 2014

The Biz: Chuck Todd is Ready to Make News on Meet the Press

On Sunday, NBC News political director Chuck Todd takes over as moderator of television's longest running franchise, Meet the Press. His arrival — which will feature an interview with President Obama — comes after a year of turmoil on Sunday roundtable program.

Fri, Sep 5, 2014

The Biz: Chuck Todd is Ready to Make News on Meet the Press

The Biz: Meredith Vieira Returns to Daytime

It's hard to say no to Meredith Vieira. While putting together her new daytime show, NBCUniversal executives let the host pick her executive producer, sidekick, band — even the furniture on her set (a tatty, pet-ravaged couch from her Westchester, New York, home). Perhaps the "suits" — as Vieira calls them — are aware that she is one of the rare TV talents who is not afraid to walk away from it all. After becoming, at age 35 in 1989, the youngest correspondent ever hired by 60 Minutes, she left the prestigious CBS newsmagazine two years later to have her second child when then-executive producer Don Hewitt refused her request to work part-time. Her very public decision sparked a national conversation on the challenges for women who balance motherhood and career. After an Emmy award-winning stint on the ABC newsmagazine Turning Point, she changed course, becoming a founding panelist on the daytime coffee klatch The View in 1997.

Wed, Sep 3, 2014

The Biz: Meredith Vieira Returns to Daytime

David Muir Is Ready to Take Over ABC World News

Five years ago, David Muir arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, where a crew from TMZ greeted him. "How does it feel to be the Brad Pitt of network news?" someone asked off camera. Muir wisely smiled, said, "Nice to see you," and moved on. "My apologies to Brad Pitt," the new anchor of ABC World News now says when asked about the encounter.

Wed, Aug 27, 2014

David Muir Is Ready to Take Over ABC World News

Who Earns What: TV Guide Magazine's Annual Salary Roundup of TV's Highest Paid Stars

The new deals for The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, and Kaley Cuoco, which pay each $1 million per episode, make them the top-earning actors in TV Guide Magazine's annual survey of stars' salaries. But will the trio be the last to...

Wed, Aug 20, 2014

Who Earns What: TV Guide Magazine's Annual Salary Roundup of TV's Highest Paid Stars

The Biz: The Research Memo That Almost Killed Seinfeld

Twenty-five years ago, two dozen NBC executives gathered in a screening room in Burbank to watch a new sitcom pilot starring Jerry Seinfeld. Then called The Seinfeld Chronicles, it was a 23-minute mix of the comic's stand-up routines and idiosyncratic, conversational scenes dealing with such mundane topics as doing laundry, securing the top button of one's shirt, and deciphering the intent of a woman who was spending the night in Jerry's apartment....

Fri, Jun 27, 2014

The Biz: The Research Memo That Almost Killed Seinfeld

The Biz: Inside the ABC News Shakeup

Transitions are always tricky in TV news. Executives want to find a way to reach younger audiences. But it's hard to replicate the audience loyalty built up by older, established anchors who became famous during an earlier era of television. So ABC News deserves credit for the crafty transition plan announced Wednesday for ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer. Here's what it means for...

Wed, Jun 25, 2014

The Biz: Inside the New Season of NY Med

If you're in an emergency room and think you're about to die, maybe your last wish should be that Dr. Mehmet Oz passes through. It happens to a young man — writhing in agony after his aorta tears — on Thursday's season premiere of NY Med (June 26, 10/9c, ABC). Oz is back in action in the eight-part summer series from ABC News that takes viewers on an emotionally intense journey through New York-Presbyterian and other Manhattan-based hospitals. The show will also cross the Hudson River for a look inside University Hospital, which serves the rough streets of Newark, N.J. NY Med executive producer Terence Wrong offers some insights on what's coming up.

Wed, Jun 25, 2014

The Biz: Inside the New Season of NY Med

The Biz: Analyzing Matt Lauer's Today Show Contract Renewal

NBC decided it's better for the Today show to be in second place with Matt Lauer than without him. After surviving an ugly media pile on over the messy departure of Ann Curry from Today and the program's fall from first place, he's signed on to remain co-anchor for a few more years. The extension, which comes months before...

Fri, Jun 13, 2014

The Biz: Analyzing Matt Lauer's Today Show Contract Renewal

The Biz: Bill and Willie Geist Talk Family and Parenting in New Book

A household that included CBS Sunday Morning humorist Bill Geist and his son Willie, whose dry wit livens up MSNBC's Morning Joe and NBC's Today, had to be entertaining, right? "It was fun," Willie says. "But we didn't...

Fri, Jun 13, 2014

The Biz: Bill and Willie Geist Talk Family and Parenting in New Book

The Biz: Inside the U.K. Crime Wave

The British are coming and they're bringing the cops along. The finale of the BBC's Happy Valley — a dark and at times brutally violent, six episode series that followed a single kidnapping case — scored 8 million viewers in the United Kingdom, a number U.S. network executives would envy. According to Soumya Sriraman, the BBC's executive vice president of home entertainment and licensing, talks are happening with several outlets about carrying the show in the U.S.

Thu, Jun 12, 2014

The Biz: Television Takes Center Stage on CNN's The Sixties

If you were to put 1960s television on a psychiatrist's couch, it would be diagnosed as schizophrenic. Primetime was loaded with frothy, high-concept sitcoms, such as Gilligan's Island and I Dream of Jeannie, that became baby boomer favorites, while network news delivered grim images of the Vietnam War, social unrest, and assassinations.

Wed, May 28, 2014

The Biz: Television Takes Center Stage on CNN's The Sixties

The Biz: American Masters Explores the Life of George Plimpton

Author George Plimpton was making reality television long before anyone used the term. Plimpton's exercises in participatory journalism led to the groundbreaking 1968 best seller Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last String Quarterback, which tells how he suited up with the Detroit Lions. It was a concept easily adapted to television. He did network TV specials in the late 1960s and 70s where he played triangle with the New York Philharmonic, performed as...

Fri, May 16, 2014

The Biz: American Masters Explores the Life of George Plimpton

The Biz: Why Ad Rates Are Up While Ratings Go Down

Every advertising selling season, broadcast-network executives must privately ask themselves the same question: "How much longer can we defy gravity?" Through the first quarter of 2004, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox combined had a 48 percent share of viewers ages 18 to 49, the sweet spot for advertisers. In 2013, their share was down to 34 percent. The networks reportedly took in $9 billion in revenue during the 2004 upfronts. Last year, that total was closer to $8 billion — down, but not nearly commensurate with the decline in ratings. With the exception of...

Tue, May 13, 2014

The Biz: Why Ad Rates Are Up While Ratings Go Down

The Biz: The True Story Behind Lifetime's Return to Zero

Television commercial director Sean Hanish had good reason to believe he was living the dream in July 2005. His career was on the rise as he had written, directed, and produced an ad campaign for supermodel Cindy Crawford's home furnishing line. At home, his wife was close to the due date for the birth of their first child. "The next time I see you you're going to be a daddy," Crawford told him after he presented the spots to her at her home. "I felt pretty on top of the world that day," Hanish recalls. "And as I'm coming out of Cindy Crawford's driveway, my wife calls me." She gave him the devastating news that ...

Tue, May 13, 2014

The Biz: The True Story Behind Lifetime's Return to Zero

The Biz: George Stephanopoulos Signs New Deal with Good Morning America

The churn at Good Morning America is over. ABC News confirmed April 24 that co-host George Stephanopoulos has a new long-term deal which will keep him in his role on the number-one rated morning show and as the moderator of the Sunday roundtable show, This Week.

Thu, Apr 24, 2014

The Biz: George Stephanopoulos Signs New Deal with Good Morning America

The Biz: PBS Celebrates Music's Hall of FAME With Muscle Shoals

The small Alabama town of Muscle Shoals and record producer Rick Hall don't have the same familiar cachet; as the renowned 1960s soul music labels Motown or Stax. But the hits Hall turned out at his legendary FAME Recording Studios are well into their fifth decade of being a beloved part of American pop culture. The familiar riffs heard...

Fri, Apr 18, 2014

The Biz: PBS Celebrates Music's Hall of FAME With Muscle Shoals