Brian Steinberg-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor On Sunday night, Mike Benson gets a little over seven minutes to cap off weeks of work. The CBS marketing chief will use promo time allotted to Paramount Global during the Super Bowl to turbocharge a broad array of campaigns he has set in motion in the past few months aimed at getting viewers excited about one of the most unorthodox TV seasons in history.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Depending on whom you ask, Don Lemon is planting his feet firmly in media’s next frontier. Or its last one. The former CNN star anchor is the latest in a parade of onetime TV-news personnel to dip their toes into the entrepreneurial waters of digital and social media.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Paramount Global set a new senior vice president over its efforts to win small-and-medium-sized advertisers, another nod of the growing importance of non-traditional market segments to the business of TV, which has long relied on just Madison Avenue’s biggest residents. Paramount named Emily Huo as its senior vice president of “SMB Advertising.” The category often includes entrepreneurial digital advertisers and regional and local marketers who in the past found national TV too broad or, more likely than not, too expensive. In the streaming era, however, smaller advertisers can run pitches aimed at narrower slices of geography or specific consumer niches.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Hyundai hasn’t put a commercial in the Super Bowl since 2020. On Sunday, it hopes its newest auto ad makes people think of the stuff they might see in the Big Game. The automaker will take to the NFL‘s AFC and NFC Championship Games on Sunday to launch the 2024 Santa Fe — a familiar model that has been redesigned for families that needs lots of room as well as rugged features to help them enjoy the outdoors.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor PBS and ABC News were among the top winners at the duPont-Columbia Awards, some of the top honors accorded each year to audio and video reporting done in the public interest. The 15 award winners of 2024 were announced Thursday during a special ceremony. The awards have been administered since 1968 by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The CEO of Paramount Global urged staffers at the entertainment conglomerate to focus on their 2024 business goals, even as a handful of industry heavy hitters and investment firms explore a potential acquisition of the company and speculation about looming layoffs intensifies. In a memo issued to employees Thursday and reviewed by Variety, Bob Bakish acknowledged that Paramount’s future “remains a topic of speculation,” a nod to the fact that a group of investors led by Skydance founder David Ellison have engaged in talks with Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Comcast saw fourth-quarter profit surge by 7.8% as the cable giant increased the number of businesses using its communications services, its Peacock streaming hub added 3 million subscribers and its theme parks saw robust activity. “Our unique and complementary capabilities will enable us to capitalize on the many opportunities ahead,” said Brian Roberts, the company’s chairman. Comcast is, like its rivals, navigating in a difficult period for media companies as one-time TV viewers migrate to streaming video, reducing interest in traditional linear entertainment services and traditional cable.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The Super Bowl ad roster is usually filled with commercials for beer, candy and snacks. There will also be at least one focused on something more serious. The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, an advocacy group backed by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, will run a 30-second spot during CBS’ February 11 broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII, ensuring that a serious note will sound amid many silly ones.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Charles Osgood, the witty CBS News journalist who shepherded “CBS Sunday Morning” for more than two decades — a longer tenure than the show’s original host, Charles Kuralt — died Tuesday at 91 years of age after living for a period of time with dementia, according to CBS News. He also hosted a durable radio-news segment, “The Osgood File,” between 1971 and 2017.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Sharb Farjami will take the reins of the North American operations of GroupM, the media-investment giant that is part of WPP. Farjami had been CEO of North American for Wavemaker, one of the big media-buying units of GroupM..

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Paramount Global doesn’t feel it needs Carnegie Hall to make its point to Madison Avenue. The New York owner of CBS, the Paramount movie studio and the Nickelodeon kids-cable outlet plans a second year of individual meetings with media buyers and advertisers for its outreach during the industry’s “upfront” sales market, and will not return to the more formal, glitzy presentation that has long been a staple of the period.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor After holding a year-long bake-off among various celebrities to find the next host of its signature “The Daily Show,” Comedy Central is going to try a new recipe. When the program returns from a hiatus, it is expected to rely heavily on a team of correspondents to lead each night, according to three people familiar with the matter, though it is not clear if the network has struck upon its final assemblage of talent. “Daily Show” could also rely on guest appearances by some of the celebrities who have hosted the program since Trevor Noah, the last permanent presence behind the desk, quit abruptly in late 2022.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Christa Robinson and Lance Frank will take on expanded roles for CBS‘ division built around CBS News, local stations and syndicated programming, all put under the aegis of executive Wendy McMahon in August of last year. Frank, who has been with CBS News since 2011, has been elevated to executive vice president, communications for CBS News & Stations and CBS Media Ventures, a new position. Frank will oversee projects tied to McMahon’s central team, including talent relations and events across the division.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor In an era when advertisers can buy digital inventory at any time they wish, does the media industry still need an “upfront” sales session? Warner Bros. Discovery believes it does. The media conglomerate said Thursday that it plans to hold a presentation for advertisers at 10 a.m.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor NewsNation wants to make a land grab on Sundays. The Nexstar Media-backed cable outlet will launch its own Sunday public affairs program on March 3, when Chris Stirewalt anchors “The Hill Sunday” at 10 a.m. eastern.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Rachel Maddow‘s next project will take her to Russia — in a sense. The journalist’s Surprise Inside production company will team up with Adam McKay‘s Hyperobject Industries to work on the Rakontur documentary project “From Russia With Lev.” All three production entities are clients of WME.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A celebration of “The Daily Show” took place earlier this week — but not on the network that airs it. The program won an Emmy award for “Outstanding Variety Series” and its former host, Trevor Noah, and one of its former top contributors, Roy Wood, Jr., were on hand to take part. Veteran behind-the-scenes executives like Jen Flanz, who runs the program, and Daniel Radosh, a writer who has been with the series since the days of Jon Stewart, were easily viewed.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Digital media executive Alex MacCallum, who left CNN after a major streaming product she helped build was scuttled, has returned to the news outlet to help build some more. McCallum, who exited CNN in June of 2022 when she was interim chief digital officer, has been named executive vice president of digital products and services, and will be charged with developing new concepts to attract digital audiences — a key business objective as more of CNN’s cable subscribers find new broadband, social and mobile platforms where they can gain information and knowledge.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Toby Byrne, who rose over two-decades to run advertising sales for Fox Broadcasting and Fox Sports, is getting back into the TV-ad game. Byrne has been named executive vice president of national ad sales at A+E Networks, reporting to Peter Olsen, president of ad sales at the company, which is a joint venture of Hearst and Walt Disney Co.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor TelevisaUnivision plans to launch an ad-supported version of its Spanish-language streamer, ViX, later in 2024, following a general trend by entertainment conglomerates hoping to capture new subscribers to broadband entertainment hubs across the industry. The company, which also operates the Univision TV network said a new “ViX Premium with Ads” tier will provide U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor One of the greatest plays in sports isn’t taking place on any athletic field. Walt Disney Co.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor And now the baton passes to Lily Collins. The actor will reprise her character Emily Cooper from the Netflix series “Emily in Paris” when she appears in the latest promo from NBC Sports for the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the spot.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor ESPN has disciplined members of its staff who worked for years to secure Emmys for on-air personnel who were not normally eligible for the awards by using fake names and entering them in various categories, according to an investigation by The Athletic. The probe found that ESPN has for more than a decade inserted fake personnel names in entries to win more than 30 Emmys, then took the awards, removed the fraudulent nameplates and had the statues engraved anew so they could be given to on-air staff.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor ESPN has been giving one of its newest show hosts a lot of rope despite a years-long policy of keeping talent on a very short leash. Pat McAfee has generated reams of unwanted publicity for the Disney-backed sports-media giant in recent days, allowing frequent guest Aaron Rodgers to spread misinformation about vaccinations; insulting Norby Williamson, an influential ESPN executive who manages many studio shows and tries to keep a tight rein on them, and accusing him of working to sabotage his show in talks to media outlets; and giving Rodgers room to call out Jimmy Kimmel, the ABC late-night host who is one of the most high-profile employees in the Disney empire.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Skydance Media and Paramount Global‘s controlling shareholder are engaged in talks that could fold the home of CBS, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central into a new entity controlled by the people who produce starry Hollywood franchises such as “Mission Impossible” and “Tranformers.” Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount’s corporate parent, National Amusements Inc., is in early discussions with a consortium of investors led by Skydance founder David Ellison,. (above, pictured), according to a person familiar with the matter.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor If anyone should be able to engineer a reunion of “Saturday Night Live” alumni, it should be Dan Aykroyd. A member of the show’s first cast of “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players,” Aykroyd was also among the first to jump from “SNL” to Hollywood and continues to tour with a band based on The Blues Brothers group he and John Belushi originated on the NBC mainstay.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Popeyes wants to wing it in a TV venue typically reserved for selling pizza and beer. Viewers of CBS’ February 11 broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII will in the first quarter see the first Big Game commercial in the restaurant chain’s history – all aimed at getting the crowd to have a hankering for chicken wings rather than something else. Popeye’s will announce that five different flavors of wings will become permanent items on the menu and make an intriguing proposition: patrons can get a free order of 6-piece wings at participating restaurants in the USA and Canada if a football team that has wings in its name, logo, or on its mascot wins the Super Bowl “If you’re going to do something to be part of the Super Bowl, you want to have something relevant to say,” notes Sami Siddiqui, president of Popeye’s U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Don Lemon appears to have a sweet new deal with social-media giant X. The former CNN anchor, who parted ways with the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet last year after he was moved to duties on its morning program, said Tuesday that he had launched a new media company and would be debuting a new program via X.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Julian Jacobs, a longtime UTA executive who has helped the firm expand into entertainment marketing, has been named to lead the agency’s New York office, effective in March. Jacobs expects to build on momentum fostered under Allan Haldeman, a partner and co-head of TV Lit, who has led New York operations since September of 2022.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Curt Menefee is dipping into Fox Sports colleague Michael Strahan’s playbook. Fox’s lead NFL host will expand his role with the company, and will hold down a co-anchor slot with Rosanna Scotto on “Good Day New York” at Fox’s WNYW in New York. Menefee will keep his Sunday football role, and during the NFL season, will co-anchor at WNYW Tuesday through Friday.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Marie Donoghue, who parlayed a stint at ESPN into a job helping Amazon break into the U.S. sports-media business, is leaving the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. Amazon declined to comment.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor There’s a new senior player in TV’s true-crime industry. Paul Ryan has been named executive producer of NBC News‘ “Dateline,’ reporting to Liz Cole, who became the long-running newsmagazine’s senior executive producer last year. Both elevations come after David Corvo, the NBC News executive who had long overseen the series, moved to tackle consulting duties.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Amazon has tapped a Disney veteran to lead its new push into the streaming ad wars. Jeremy Helfand, who rose from a position at Hulu to supervise all advertising sales across Disney’s interactive businesses will take the reins as a vice president and head of sales efforts for Amazon’s Prime Video, the executive disclosed in a post on Linkedin on Thursday.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The founder of VideoAmp, a measurement-technology start-up that has been vying with Nielsen and others to create a new means of tabulating video audiences, is stepping down from his CEO role just as the company plans to lay off nearly a fifth of its staff, Ross McCray, who led VideoAmp as it struck deals with titans such as Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, will remain as a shareholder and board member at VideoAmp, but will be replaced by Peter Liguori, an industry veteran who has led Fox Entertainment, FX and Tribune Media, among other companies. Peter Bradbury,, a former Nielsen executive, was named VideoAmp’s chief commercial and growth officer.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CBS kicks off a new era in late-night on Tuesday, January 16, when it launches “After Midnight” at 12:37 a.m. hosted by comic Taylor Tomlinson. The series, which will rely on a rotating series of panelists to discuss the latest trends and memes in the digi-sphere, will follow an original hour of CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” “After Midnight,” based on the premise of “@midnight,” a program that ran on Comedy Central between 2013 and 2017,” breaks late-night tradition at CBS, which has long depended on a more typical program after 12:30 a.m.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Athan Stephanopoulos will leave his role as chief digital officer of CNN as the news outlet’s new chief starts to implement his strategic vision for the Warner Bros. Discovery property. In a memo issued Wednesday, Stephanopoulos said that Mark Thompson, CNN”s new chief, “had his own vision of how he wanted digital operations to be organized.