Brian Steinberg-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Like other streamers, Netflix seems eager to get into live sports. But it isn’t quite ready to start paying the massive rights fees that such activity usually requires. So, the streaming giant intends to launch a “Netflix Cup,” a golf tournament that will pit race-car drivers from its popular Formula 1 documentary series “Drive to Survive” against golfers from a similar effort called “Full Swing.” Both sides will tee up in a match play tournament at Wynn Golf Club on the Las Vegas Strip.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The NBA hopes to get fans to spend longer periods of time with their favorite sport by using its mobile app to fill in the gaps between game watching. Fans will have the ability to add multiple team and player tabs to their app main screen, giving them access to a greater array of breaking news, trending topics, vertical video highlights and updates related to their favorite teams and players.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Brian Doherty, a veteran of the CW‘s ad-sales department who was instrumental in developing ties between Madison Avenue and series such as “Arrow” and “Gossip Girl,” is leaving — the latest in a parade of TV sales veterans to exit as the industry consolidates and new owners take control of various properties. Doherty, who has been with the CW or its predecessor, the WB, since 1999, had been serving as executive vice president of multi-platform advertising sales, reporting to Todd Braverman, recently a senior executive at Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable networks, who is now head of national ad sales for CW.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Paula Reid, has been named CNN‘s chief legal affairs correspondent, a vote of confidence in the reporter who joined the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed outlet in 2021. Reid has been highly visible on CNN in recent months, covering federal and state investigations into former President Trump as well as a Special Counsel probe into President Biden’s handling of classified documents during his time as vice president.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Trey Yingst’s home has become his office. Yingst, a foreign correspondent who calls Israel his home when he isn’t traveling the globe for Fox News Channel, was in his apartment a little over a week ago when he got word of horrible things happening near the country’s border with Gaza. Many people would likely move away from that area but it’s Yingst’s job to move toward such hot spots.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Sarah Silverman and Leslie Jones will each get another crack at guest-hosting Comedy Central‘s “Daily Show” as the network continues a protracted search for a replacement for Trevor Noah behind the desk of the venerable late-night mainstay. Executives at the network intend to put the program back into production starting Monday, October 16, and will continue to rely on guests as they have since Noah departed late last year. Like other late-night shows, “Daily” has been dark for weeks, owing to the Hollywood writers’ strike.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Like many U.S. journalists trying to get to Israel to cover reaction to attacks in the country by terrorists, Chris Cuomo faced a difficult journey. But that’s his problem, he says, not one for his viewers.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Lester Holt joined NBC News’ efforts to cover terrorist attacks in Israel by flying first to London, then Amman. The journey took hours, and it’s unclear when it all will truly end. “I think this will be a long TV deployment,” says the “NBC Nightly News” anchor of coverage of terrorists’ moves against the country.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Advertisers considering new ways to measure video audiences may finally be getting a yardstick that can actually do the job. For years, individual TV companies have been testing a number of would-be competitors to Nielsen. each offering a bespoke brew of measurement technologies that marketers and media agencies can test as they see fit.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor News correspondents are trained to keep their emotions in check, but sometimes a story comes along that makes such a feat all but impossible. Anderson Cooper, Richard Engel, Holly Wiliams, Trey Yingst, Matt Gutman and Clarissa Ward have been seen on camera in recent days trying to report on a horrific event that is emotionally draining: the invasion of Israel by Hamas militants, replete with violence, hostage-taking and explosive force. “I’ve seen many challenging things so far,” says Yingst, the Fox News correspondent who has been in Israel since Oct.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Who’s doing it better — Kristen Welker or Jake Tapper? The two journalists, one the new moderator of NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” the other the anchor of the weekday “The Lead” and a co-anchor of “State of the Union” at CNN, aren’t typically pitted against one another. But there they were on a recent Thursday afternoon around 4:30 p.m., duking it out for the future of their medium. Welker was holding forth on “Meet the Press Now,” a show earmarked for streaming users on the broadband outlet NBC News Now.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Roy Wood Jr., a longtime contributor to Comedy Central‘s “Daily Show,” will not return to the late-night program when it returns to production, the latest wrinkle to develop at the long-running show as executives continue to hunt for a successor to Trevor Noah. “I can’t come up with Plan B is while still working with Plan A,” the comedian told NPR, noting he doesn’t want to continue as one of the show’s cadre of correspondents while someone else is being considered for the top role. “The job of correspondent…it’s not really one where you can juggle multiple things.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor NBC is ready to open the 49th season of “Saturday Night Live,” pushed back just a week or two from when the series might normally launch in the fall. After being shut down in May by the Hollywood writers strike, “SNL” will return on October 14, marking the first of three consecutive weeks of original broadcasts, NBC said in an announcement Wednesday. Ice Spice will serve as musical guest.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor At least one of the big companies that distribute CNN via cable or satellite is unnerved by how closely the company’s new live-streaming service looks like its TV network. Big satellite distributor DirecTV has let executives at Warner Bros. Discovery know via letter that its executives believe the similarities between the two products violate the carriage contract between the two companies, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor On Sunday, Allstate is trading in its famous Mayhem character for chaos of a different sort. The big insurance company is testing a sponsorship of a new kind of sporting event that will feature some of Pixar’s best-known animated characters tackling a real-life NFL game. When the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Atlanta Falcons at 9:30 a.m.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor AMC Networks has joined the ranks of ad-supported streaming. The company said Thursday that it has begun rolling out an ad-supported version of its AMC+ service for broadband users, and will charge $4.99 per month for it, as opposed to the $8.99 per month it seeks for an ad-free tier.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” will return to the air on October 16, the latest of TV’s late-night shows to chart a reboot following a shut-down due to the Hollywood writers strike. While wee-hours rivals like “Tonight:” and “Late Show” are coming back on October 2 with their regular hosts, “Daily” will continue to rely on guests, as it has since Trevor Noah left the program last year.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Comedy Central is going back to square one in its efforts to find a new host for “The Daily Show.” The Paramount Global cable network is considering a wider array of candidates to take the reins of the program from previous emcee Trevor Noah, according to people familiar with the matter, after having previously identified Hasan Minhaj as a leading possibility. The decision appears to come in the wake of a recent report in The New Yorker in which some of the supposedly autobiographical stories that Minhaj has used in his routines were found to be embellished. Comedy Central declined to comment, as did WME, the talent agency that represents Minhaj.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The Media Rating Council has granted accreditation to audience-measurement technology backed by iSpot, one of a handful of start-up companies that have been vying for months to compete more directly with Nielsen. The MRC, an independent industry organization that scrutinizes various measurement methodologies, has accredited iSpot technology that identifies, verifies and tracks national TV ad occurrences across 187 linear and broadcast networks. The system was first introduced in 2012.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus expects to step down from his post in April of 2024, and will be replaced by David Berson, the unit of the president. McManus will wind up a tenure that had him overseeing some of the most prized sports properties in TV, as well as CBS News for a brief period.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Kasie Hunt left a fast-track career at NBC News in 2021 to dip her toes into digital waters at CNN. Two years later, she’s just starting to find out whether she might sink or swim. On Wednesday, Hunt will launch “State of the Race,” a new hour-long weekday show for CNN’s international service focused on U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Deborah Roberts is taking up co-anchor duties at ABC News’ “20/20,” the latest in a line of distinguished anchors that includes Barbra Walters, Hugh Downs, Diane Sawyer, Connie Chung and Elizabeth Vargas who have led the long-running newsmagazine. Roberts is no stranger to the series’ rhythms. She has been contributing to it for 28 years, ever since she joined ABC News in 1995, recruited by Barbara Walters.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor At Fox Business Network — for one night, at least — it’s all a lot more than the economy. When the cable outlet televises a Republican primary debate on September 27, many of the strategies it used the last time it did so are going out the window. Gone are moderators Neil Cavuto and Maria Bartiromo, who have experience with such events.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Viewers who tuned in to watch repeats of “Yellowstone” on CBS Sunday night got something they might not have expected — two commercials telling them to watch the show somewhere else. CBS sold national ad time during the program to rival NBCUniversal, which ran a spot highlighting the availability of the Western-themed drama series on its Peacock streaming hub. “Peacock has all episodes of ‘Yellowstone,’” the commercial says via graphics that appear over scenes from the program.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Krishan Bhatia, a key architect of NBCUniversal’s recent forays into new kinds of advertising revenue, is leaving the company, and has informed his direct reports of his decision to exit at the end of 2023. Bhatia helped develop new revenue systems and infrastructure at NBCUniversal’s ad-sales unit, which for a time was very vocal about its efforts to strike e-commerce and data partnerships with advertisers.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Rick Cordella is taking the field for NBC Sports. The executive, who has been enmeshed in developing streaming products for NBCUniversal, has been named president of NBC Sports at a moment when many media companies are working on new models that will make big-ticket TV sports properties available to consumers who have fewer ties to traditional screens.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Viewers of landmark series on Amazon Prime Video like “The Boys” or “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” will soon be offered something never made available on the service before: TV commercials. Amazon Prime Video, one of the last mainstream streaming services to eschew the injection of regular commercial breaks into its movies and shows, plans to start letting them run early next year.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A major transition at the top of a big company typically spells significant change. Just ask anyone who has worked for CNN while parent company WarnerMedia passed along to AT&T and then the new Warner Bros. Discovery.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The nation’s TV networks are picking their own measurement team. The U.S. Joint Industry Committee, a group backed by Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Warner Bros. Discovery aims to make all of the sporting events it has developed over the years for cable crowds available to streamers at the same time — so long as they are willing to pay extra for the privilege. The media giant, which enjoys lucrative rights deals with the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL and the NCAA “March Madness” tournament, wants to use those properties to bring eyeballs to Max, its streaming service.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: A prominent TV reporter walks into a bar… A handful of the news anchors at MSNBC (yes, there are some left!) recently held a dinner to welcome Ana Cabrera, the former CNN journalist, to the network, where she has taken the reins of its 10 a.m. hour. Chris Jansing and Katy Tur, familiar faces to MSNBC viewers, were holding court, but Andrea Mitchell, a legendary Washington correspondent who has anchored an early afternoon show on MSNBC since 2008, was missing, due to making an appearance at Henry Kissinger’s 100th birthday.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Dan Abrams, one of the founding anchors in NewsNation’s primetime lineup, aims to continue his work at the Nexstar Media-backed outlet. Abrams and NewsNation reached a “multi-year” pact that will extend his work there, where he hosts “Dan Abrams Live” at 9 p.m.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor People have been able to hear Gia Peppers talk about big issues for years. Now they’ll be able to see her when she does. Peppers issues-focused podcast “More Than That with Gia Peppers” is expanding to video this year, with a four-episode limited run on the Revolt cable network that debuts Tuesday evening.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor It’s easy to envision Robin Roberts sitting down for an in-depth interview with a hard-to-nab celebrity or landing a “get” with an inspirational newsmaker. How about Robin Roberts helping to solve a mystery ripped from the headlines? Such a notion is a distinct possibility thanks to a new ABC News Studios production unit that Roberts will lead.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Bill Maher has decided to stop the clock on the return of “Real Time.” The comedian, who last week vowed to put his topical HBO program back into production, now says he will delay it for a while longer. “My decision to return to work was made when it seemed nothing was happening and there was no end in sight to this strike,” he said via social media.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor “Monday Night Football” was for many years a staple of ABC’s Monday-night line-up before it moved to ESPN in 2006. This fall, it will be so again. ABC will air ten more “MNF” games than previously expected this season, simulcasting then with Disney TV sibling ESPN in a move that will help the broadcast network as the industry grapples with ongoing strikes by WGA and SAG-AFTRA.