Heather Riley Named to Develop Political Programming, Series at ABC News

The “National Treasure” Disney+ series will feature a familiar face. Disney announced on Monday that Justin Bartha will reprise his role as Riley Poole from the two “National Treasure” films in the TV series, albeit in a guest starring capacity.The upcoming live-action “National Treasure” TV series expands the franchise that was first introduced in the 2004 film starring Nicolas Cage as history buff and amateur adventurer Benjamin Gates.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorOne reward for a successful journalism career at The Washington Post might be a move into a different medium, like NBC News. Leigh Ann Caldwell is reversing the dynamic.Caldwell, who has been with NBC News since 2014, will join The Washington Post as one of the two writers on its morning newsletter, “The Early 202,” as well as an interviewer of newsmakers and Congressional leaders on Washington Post Live, the news outlet’s streaming-video forum.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNorah O’Donnell and CBS News have come to terms on a new deal that will keep the anchor at “CBS Evening News” beyond the 2024 election, according to three people familiar with the matter.A CBS News spokesperson declined to offer immediate comment, and a spokeswoman for O’Donnell declined to make the anchor available for comment. O’Donnell disclosed her new contract Friday evening while having a toast with her crew at CBS News’ Washington, D.C., facility, according to these people.The deal was cemented despite growing speculation that CBS News, under the direction of co-president Neeraj Khemlani, might seek to replace the anchor, who has seen her profile grow during a stint co-anchoring the formerly-titled “CBS This Morning” and a tenure at a “CBS Evening News” that has moved its main operation to the nation’s capital.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThere’s a new regular Joe calling baseball games on Fox.Joe Davis, a veteran sportscaster who has been known on the West Coast for calling Los Angeles Dodger games and as a Fox Sports regular, will take over as the lead play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports’ Major League Baseball coverage. He succeeds Joe Buck, the longtime Fox baseball and football announcer who has moved to ESPN to work on “Monday Night Football.” Davis will join John Smoltz in the network’s lead baseball booth.“If you had asked me when I was 10 what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would’ve told you ‘Call the World Series.’ So when I say this is a dream-come-true, I really mean it,” said Davis, in a statement.  Davis and Smoltz, along with reporters Tom Verducci and Ken Rosenthal, are expected to call Fox’s coverage of the 2022 MLB All-Star Game, MLB at Field of Dreams Game and the MLB post-season Postseason, including its 25th Fall Classic.

As the Kardashian-Jenner family prepares to debut their new Hulu show, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Khloé Kardashian are getting candid about their lives, telling all in a new special with Robin Roberts.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAMC Networks has some big TV events to sell in the months ahead, but the company realizes advertisers who might like to be associated with those programs will want new kinds of advertising around them.This next cycle of programming will bring with it TV events like the final episodes of “Better Call Saul’ and “The Walking Dead” that ought to command high prices in TV’s next “upfront” market, along with the debut of a show based on Anne Rice’s popular “Interview with the Vampire,” but without digital opportunities around them, marketers may not engage fully, suggests Kim Kelleher, AMC Networks’ president of commercial revenue and partnerships.“We are seeing an increased appetite for digital inventory, and we have spent a lot of time working to break down the walls between digital and linear,” she says in an interview. “Those are table stakes now.” While AMC is one of the sector’s smaller players, it has unveiled some eye-opening initiatives in recent months, including the launches of a handful of so-called FAST, or free, ad-supported streaming channels and a commitment to sell addressable ad inventory in each linear hour of original programs on its AMC and We TV cable networks.The company is poised to expand its efforts.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorOne of cable’s biggest news outlets has started to fill more of its schedule with something other than traditional news coverage.MSNBC has defined itself for the past few years by using the bulk of its daytime schedule to air breaking reports from NBC News personnel on the news of the moment, then amping up analysis and progressive opinion-making in the early afternoon and evening. Now, as media companies intensify their efforts to attract audiences via streaming video, the business behind the TV home of Joe Scarborough and Nicolle Wallace is in flux.Three different people familiar with the relationship between NBC News and MSNBC  — each outlet is supervised by a different top manager — say that some NBC News correspondents have been directed to bring breaking-news coverage first to NBC News Now, the company’s ad-supported streaming news service, or other digital NBC News properties before any appearance on MSNBC is considered.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThe nation’s biggest TV-news outlets have made it increasingly easy for top officials in the White House to have a presence in your house.If White House press secretary Jen Psaki joins MSNBC as expected, she will be the second Biden official to land at the NBCUniversal-owned network in the space of less than a year. She will join Symone Sanders, a former campaign adviser to President Biden and Sen.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran journalist and news executive James Goldston, former President of ABC News, has signed a producing deal with Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment to develop and produce companion scripted series and docuseries based on true events.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeSupermodel Bella Hadid has joined the cast of Hulu’s “Ramy” as a recurring guest star in Season 3. Details have not yet been revealed on Hadid’s character or her relationship to the show’s other characters just yet.“Ramy” reps the first credited scripted role for Hadid.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox News Channel named Caitlyn Jenner, a reality star, former Olympian and one time California gubernatorial candidate as a contributor.“Caitlyn’s story is an inspiration to us all.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAfter more than eight years, the weekday and weekend editions of PBS’ signature evening newscast are finally getting together.Washington’s WETA has long produced the venerable “PBS NewsHour,” the show once known as the “McNeil-Lehrer Report” and now anchored by Judy Woodruff, while New York’s WNET has since 2013 produced the Saturday and Sunday editions of the program. Starting April 2, all seven days will be under the auspices of WETA, with Geoff Bennett, a former NBC News and MSNBC correspondent and anchor who was named the program’s chief Washington correspondent in November, taking the reins of a re-titled half-hour “PBS News Weekend.”“I think we are going to build on ‘NewsHour’s’ traditional mix of news and interviews and in-depth features,” says Bennett, in an interview.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTony Dokoupil has recently traveled to Medyka in Poland, Miami and Minneapolis, too. Over the course of a career in journalism, he has visited all 50 states in the U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWhy go to the mall when you can shop via NBC’s “Today” program?NBCUniveral News Group, the parent of NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC,  has for several years worked to weave e-commerce into the digital counterpart to its venerable “Today” show as well as other areas, and now it hopes to facilitate more purchases by providing users with product reviews from Consumer Reports.The venerable consumer advocacy organization will contribute product reviews that are normally placed behind a paywall to a new digital destination on two NBCU e-commerce sites, Shop Today and Select. The “Best Product Reviews” area will provide Consumer Reports findings around different product categories, including cooking, bed and bath, and tools and appliances.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorEveryone’s talking about this week’s furor at the Oscars — even the hosts at Fox News Channel’s “The Five.”On Monday afternoon, regulars Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro held forth with guest Piers Morgan — the British journalist and TV host who has demonstrated a proclivity for getting into celebrity feuds — sitting in a chair typically reserved for someone with more liberal political views. In the show’s opening segment, however, politics went out the window.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCBS News hasn’t put the same kind of spotlight on weather as many of its rivals, but that may all be about to change as quickly as a shift in the wind.The Paramount Global news unit is teaming with The Weather Channel to bring more reporting on weather and climate to CBS News programs including “CBS Mornings” and “The CBS Evening News,” as well as the division’s streaming efforts. Some of the most popular Weather Channel personalities — including Stephanie Abrams, Jim Cantore and Mike Bettes — are likely to turn up on CBS News programs in reports that originate from Weather Channel’s Atlanta headquarters.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJon Adler, a veteran behind the production of many of CNN’s original series, has been named a senior vice president overseeing that programming at CNN as the WarnerMedia unit is creating more documentary content for its soon-to-launch streaming outlet, CNN Plus.“With the expansion of our mandate to create premium long-form programming for CNN Plus, Jon’s experience developing distinctive content for CNN linear will now benefit our newest platform,” said Amy Entelis, CNN’s executive vice president for talent and content development, in a memo to staffers. “Jon is one of the most passionate advocates for all things CNN and we are excited to see him embark on this new chapter.” Adler reports to Entelis.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSatellite-distributor DirecTV, which weeks ago unveiled plans to drop conservative outlet OAN, still wants to offer viewers right-leaning content.The company said it had already begun to offer Fox Nation, the subscription-video service that acts as a companion service to Fox News Channel. Fox Nation is being made available as a “premium add-on” for DirecTV subscribers, the company said.