CNN Aims to Find New Roosts for Some CNN+ Anchors

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSurvive, from New York: “Saturday Night Live” will continue on without four prominent departing cast members, but most of them got a chance to offer up a few final laughs before the show completed its 47th season.Word that Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney and Pete Davidson planned to leave the venerable late-night series after Saturday’s broadcast leaked out late in the week. That made appearances by the actors all the more emotional during NBC’s broadcast of SNL’s season finale. McKinnon made one more run as Ms.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWhen CNN presents an exclusive interview Sunday evening between Jake Tapper and Trevor Reed, recently released from Russia after nearly three years of imprisonment, the network has the potential to spur a new strain of activism around U.S. citizens incarcerated abroad.Reed, who spoke with Tapper for several hours Thursday in Florida, was released “because the Biden administration engaged in a prison swap with Russia, and in the past, that has been seen as controversial,” says Tapper during a recent interview. “The family wants those days to disappear.”During the hour-long special, Reed talks about his experiences overseas, some of which, Tapper says sound like something out of a “horror movie franchise.” He also speaks about his interest in helping other American families who have relatives detained unlawfully overseas.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThis wasn’t supposed to be Joe Buck’s first assignment for ESPN.The veteran sports announcer raised eyebrows earlier this year by jumping from his longtime roost at Fox Sports to the Disney sports giant, where he and colleague Troy Aikman are set to host “Monday Night Football.” On Thursday afternoon, however, Buck was doing something completely different. Here he was, sitting alongside golf analyst Michael Collins on ESPN2, watching Tiger Woods on the green at the 2022 PGA Championship and talking to baseball great Ken Griffey Jr.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTV used to be about shows. Now, based on many of the industry’s glitzy upfront presentations that took place this week, it’s all about algorithms.At show after show, NBCUniversal, Disney, Fox, Paramount, Univision and The CW spent time hawking new scripted comedies and dramas; unscripted series; lots of sports; and even movies. But in many cases, the availability of the categories seemed more important than the programing that filled them.

Welcome to New York (University). Taylor Swift’s NYU Commencement speech for the graduating class of 2022 is finally here. The evermore singer received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from New York University on May 18, 2022, and shared a passionate message with the graduating class.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorChris Wallace left a Sunday show on Fox News Channel to jump into the world of streaming at CNN. But now he’s going back to a weekend format for which he is best known:Wallace will take the reins of a new Sunday program on CNN, the network announced Wednesday during an upfront presentation for its parent company, Warner Bros.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJo Ann Ross has long recognized when to go for the hard- sell and when to soften things up.The Paramount Global U.S. ad sales chief is, like other executives in her position, is seizing this week to pitch big advertisers as part of the media industry’s annual “upfront,” when U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWhere do you take advertisers if you want them to make a big purchase? To a department store, of course.Paramount Global will take clients who attend its upfront Wednesday afternoon to an after-party in the structure on New York’s Madison Avenue that once housed the big Barney’s department store, one way to emphasize the shopping aspect of the event, in which big U.S. TV companies hope to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for their next programming cycle.As part of the affair, Paramount has dressed up four windows of the former shopping plaza.

Andrew Barker Senior Features WriterIconoclastic auteur Peter Greenaway’s first film since 2015 is scheduled to be unveiled later this year, and when it hits screens, the opening credits will feature a company that may not yet be familiar to festival-goers. But if all goes according to their plan, it will be very soon.APX Capital Group’s film fund was launched in October of 2021, with headquarters in New York.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor“PBS NewsHour” typically dissects the news with a depth its counterparts at ABC, NBC and CBS do not. For tonight, at least, the venerable show is generating headlines of its own.Judy Woodruff, the veteran news anchor who logged time at NBC News and CNN before taking up anchor duties at PBS’ venerable “NewsHour,” is expected to leave the desk in early 2023, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Zac Efron really understood the impact of High School Musical‘s mass appeal when he was camping in Papua New Guinea.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAll it took for Lydia Murphy-Stephans to start trying to solve one of the greatest problems confronting the sports industry was a plate of hot wings.While watching an NBA Finals game in 2018, she left her living room to get the snacks ready in the kitchen – and set about a task that she felt should have been a lot simpler: trying to stream the match on her iPad.“The game was on ABC, so I clicked on the ABC app and it was black. So I went to Google to the search for ‘Watch NBA Finals.’ My iPad had 200 million hits.

Ciara and Russell Wilson welcomed a new member of their family this Mother's Day! No, the 36-year-old superstar isn't expecting again, but she did reveal that her NFL husband bought her an adorable puppy for the holiday. Appropriately, the couple gave the puppy a name most fitting for the quarterback's new team -- Bronco.Ciara posted a video of the adorable new dog, calling it «the sweetest surprise.»«The kids call her Bronco Love Brownie :),» the singer wrote in her caption. «The sweetest surprise.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS:  Since the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020, The Actors Fund, the 140-year-old organization that offers emergency financial assistance and other support service to workers in the the performing arts industries, has distributed more than $26.8 million in emergency financial assistance – rent, groceries, medicine, health insurance premiums -.to about 17,900 individuals. The pandemic-era distribution represents more than 13 times the amount of assistance typically provided by the Fund in an average year.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAfter buying WarnerMedia from AT&T, the company now known as Warner Bros. Discovery has a new acquisition target: primetime ad dollars that have been going to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.The new entertainment giant has been talking to big media-buying agencies about an enhanced package of commercial inventory in top programs that encompass not only lifestyle shows from Discovery outlets like Food Network and TLC, but also sports properties from Turner Sports; movies that might turn up on TNT and TBS; and tentpole events at CNN.Traditional hits in broadcast primetime “are hard to find” in the streaming era, says Jon Steinlauf, chief U.S. advertising officer for Warner Bros.

Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster are stepping out for a good cause!

It looks like Katie Holmes has a new man in her life!

Calum Scott has a lot of big news to share!