Rick Cordella Takes Reins at NBC Sports

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 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.

Patrick Mahomes is the star quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, but it’s time to take a minute to get to know his longtime love Brittany Matthews!

Guy Lodge Film Critic It’s the quiet that strikes you in “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros,” a documentary rejoinder to every image of cacophonous haute cuisine environments — complete with clattering pans, hissing steam and chefs screaming invective — that has been fed to us by “Hell’s Kitchen”-style reality shows and the propulsive drama of “The Bear.” Serenity reigns in Frederick Wiseman’s languidly mesmerising 240-minute anatomy of one of the world’s greatest restaurants: The masters and staff of Le Bois Sans Feuilles, a three Michelin-star establishment in France’s Loire region, work with a hushed intensity of concentration that recalls a science lab, or a surgery table, more than any standard kitchen. That suits Wiseman, a patient, rigorous examiner of institutional structure and process, who observes this culinary cathedral as seriously and methodically as he has such comparatively vast cultural hives as London’s National Gallery or the New York Public Library.

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.

Taylor Swift made an appearance on Sunday Night Football to cheer on Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce in a game against the New York Jets.

Rick Astley’s lawsuit against Yung Gravy has been settled.

Patrick J. Adams posted some behind-the-scenes photos from the set of Suits this week, which included never-before-seen pictures of his co-star at the time, Meghan Markle.

Rick Astley has settled a months-long lawsuit with American rapper Yung Gravy over the use of his song ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ in Gravy’s 2022 single ‘Betty (Get Money)’.Deadline reports that an attorney for Yung Gravy had filed court papers with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elaine Mandel this past Tuesday (September 22), which stated the case was resolved on Friday September 22.No further details were divulged, however, and neither Gravy nor Astley – or representatives from their respective legal teams – have commented on the suit since the news of its settlement was made public.In January, Astley sued Yung Gravy – real name Matthew Hauri – on the grounds of his vocals being imitated on ‘Betty’ without authorisation.The suit alleged that in the terms of clearing the sample of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ for the song, Hauri and his co-producers were allowed to replicate the instrumental of the song and interpolate its chorus melody for its own hook. As such, the original songwriting team of Stock Aitken Waterman were given writers’ credits.

UPDATED, 11:25 AM: Rick Astley has settled his right-of-publicity suit against “Betty (Get Money)” rapper Yung Gravy over a song that the British singer claimed borrowed heavily from his signature 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Patrick J. Adams has been reminiscing about his “Suits” days.

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 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.

NBCUniversal has promoted veteran executive Rick Cordella to president of NBC Sports, reporting into Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group. 

Gordon Cox Theater Editor “Smash,” the TV series about the making of a fictional Broadway musical, takes an early step toward becoming a real-life Broadway musical on Sept. 22, with a pair of industry readings led by Tony nominees Robyn Hurder and Kerry Butler.

Rick Astley covered Foo Fighters‘ ‘Everlong’ at a gig in Leicester last weekend, describing the track as “one of the best songs ever”.The singer was performing at Radio 2 in the Park in Leicester on Saturday (September 17) when he joked that he likes “playing other people’s songs”, asking the crowd if they were “in the mood for us to murder one of the best songs ever?”.The ’80s pop icon and his band then launched in a rendition of the Foos’ classic 1997 song.

Rick And Morty have been released, hinting at a recasting of Justin Roiland.Adult Swim “ended its association” with Roiland – who voiced Rick And Morty’s two lead characters among others – in January 2023 after allegations of domestic violence came to light. In March, he was cleared of the charges.This month, it was then alleged that Roiland used his fame to pursue young fans, according to text messages shared with NBC News.

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.