Don Lemon Will Host Weekly Talk Show on CNN Plus

The first ever Sands: International Film Festival, set to be held in Scotland’s St Andrews, has revealed its line-up.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAfter Mike Golic Sr. was tweeting regularly about playing DraftKings with his pals, the sports-betting company reached out to the former ESPN host and commentator — and offered him a deal for his own podcast.Golic will host a one-hour weekly video podcast alongside Meadowlark Media personality Jessica Smetana for DraftKings. The show will cover the intersection of sports news and culture and is slated to feature interviews with special guests.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThe Murdochs, the media-mogul family that controls Fox News Channel, are about to be the subject of a new documentary series that will be distributed by one of their main rivals.CNN expects to launch a six-part documentary series, “The Murdochs: Empire of Influence,” on CNN Plus, the streaming video site slated to launch in weeks to come. The series is produced with The New York Times and Left/Right and is based on the New York Times Magazine article “How Rupert Murdoch’s Empire of Influence Remade the World,” by journalists Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg.

Wendy Williams looked nearly ready to get back to work on her show in a new video posted on Wednesday February 16. The 57-year-old talk show host swore to her fans that she was going to return to her show “stronger,” amid her extended hiatus from The Wendy Williams Show. Wendy walked along a Florida beach with her son Kevin Hunter, Jr. as she addressed her fans and followers.

Kelly Clarkson is going through the same issues as lots of parents these days! The 39-year-old talk show host virtually called into her self-titled show on Tuesday while quarantining with her two children, River, 7, and Remington, 5.

Marta Balaga Danish helmer Lone Scherfig is already developing the second season of “The Shift”, she revealed on Monday during an online Berlinale Series Market talk “From Film to Series.”Set in a maternity ward and starring Sofie Gråbøl and Pål Sverre Hagen, it’s the first series as a showrunner for Scherfig, who in 2019 opened Berlinale with “The Kindness of Strangers” and won a Silver Bear for “Italian for Beginners.”“It’s a tribute to the people who work in the healthcare system under extreme pressure, to the care and the love they show, even despite tough working conditions,” she said. “The Shift” is produced by Creative Alliance, with Beta Film handling the sales.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJamie-Lynn Sigler has been keeping a secret for weeks. On Sunday, it finally came out.Sigler, who played Meadow Soprano for more than eight years on the iconic HBO series “The Sopranos,” stepped into the role again Sunday for a Chevrolet commercial that aired during NBC’s telecast of Super Bowl LVI. The ad updated, shot for shot, the show’s opening montage, which used to feature James Gandolfini’s  Tony Soprano driving a Chevy truck.

William Earl Wendy Williams will not be returning to her daytime talk show this season, but the future of her show remains in flux, Variety has learned.Meanwhile, Sherri Shepherd is in advanced discussions with Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury for her own daytime talk show, which could potentially replace Williams’ series, sources say.Currently in its 13th season, “The Wendy Williams Show” is one of the biggest hits in daytime TV history. Launching in national syndication from Debmar-Mercury in 2008, the show was built around Williams, who, at the time the show premiered, was a popular radio host known for her no-holds-barred take on celebrity gossip.Williams has been absent from her show all this season, as she has been battling ongoing health issues.

A prolonged break. Wendy Williams will not return to host her talk show at all this season, Us Weekly can confirm.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorEver since Jeff Zucker seized the reins at CNN in early 2013, the cable-news network has been one of loudest voices in media circles. Now, even though Discovery didn’t push the executive out, there’s a sense the company will, after it buys CNN along with the rest of WarnerMedia, look to turn down the volume.In the Zucker era, CNN became more swashbuckling, more colorful, and indeed, more opinionated than it ever was under the aegis of its founder Ted Turner, or his successors at the former Time Warner. CNN went from delivering headlines to being in the headlines.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDisney is shaking up its traditional “upfront” process, planning to host multiple showcases for advertisers that highlight sports, technology and creativity, while moving its annual sales event to a new venue.“Everyone recognizes we understand storytelling, but we are also leading with innovations around data and targeting and really connecting brands with their consumers,” says Rita Ferro, president of Disney Advertising Sales, in an interview.Disney intends to hold its biggest upfront event on Tuesday, May 17, at New York’s Basketball City complex downtown. The venue, says Ferro, will allow the company to discuss its broad media portfolio in a more communal, interactive manner.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAs CNN’s many journalists tried to get past the ouster of Jeff Zucker, they ran up against one of their biggest professional hurdles: a source who refuses to talk.Some of WarnerMedia’s best-known on-air personalities pressed the company’s CEO Jason Kilar again and again on Monday, asking him to divulge more details around why Zucker resigned after acknowledging a personal relationship with Allison Gollust, CNN’s chief marketing officer. But Kilar would not.The WarnerMedia chief faced questions from Don Lemon, Alisyn Camerota, Brian Stelter, Jim Sciutto, Bill Weir, Richard Quest, John Avlon and Victor Blackwell, as well as longtime producer Jim Murphy, many of them pressing him for more information about whether the parent company felt Zucker was given a harsher punishment than was necessary; about whether WarnerMedia was negotiating with Chris Cuomo, fired by Zucker last year, over severance; and whether the looming merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery forced his hand when it came to deciding what to do about the now former CNN chief.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFollowers of Lindsay Lohan can go to the Super Bowl to get a new workout.Lohan is at the center of a new Super Bowl commercial from Planet Fitness, which is running an ad in the Big Game for the first time in its corporate history. The spot, crafted with Publicis Worldwide, is slated to air during the third quarter of NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVI.  The commercials also features William Shatner, Dennis Rodman, Buzzy Cohen and Danny Trejo in a short vignette that tells viewers how much better Lohan’s life is now that she works out regularly.“We really tried to have fun with it and find someone who could really own the stage at the Super Bowl for us,” says Jeremy Tucker, the company’s chief marketing officer.