Tom Llamas Joins NBC News as Primetime Anchor for Live-Streaming Service

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThe largest TV networks are getting ready to snare billions of dollars from Madison Avenue. And lose them, all at the same time.Expectations are high for the industry’s annual upfront, when TV networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for the upcoming season.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox News Channel has defied its many critics for a quarter century, surviving shocking internal scandals and weathering myriad controversies with its primetime hosts to become a profit-generating juggernaut for Rupert Murdoch. But there is no question that its traditional linear revenue base is shrinking, which is why Fox Corp.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorABC News will expand its recent “Soul of a Nation” series with two primetime specials designed to commemorate the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death and Juneteenth.“After Floyd: The Year that Shook the World – A Soul of a Nation Special,” will air Tuesday, May 25 from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., and will attempt to chronicle the events around Floyd’s death and consider how the nation moves forward from it.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJimmy Fallon, host of “The Tonight Show,” and NBCU are expanding their programming together under a new development deal.“The Kids Tonight Show,” a late-night program hosted by young people, is among the projects being developed under a new pact struck between NBCUniversal and Fallon’s production outlet, Electric Hot Dog.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox News Channel, which has been reworking large parts of its programming schedule in the aftermath of the 2020 election, said it would launch new weekend programs hosted by conservative firebrand Dan Bongino and former South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy.Gowdy will host a 7 p.m. program on Sundays while Bongino will lead a 10 p.m.

Tom Cruise has returned his three Golden Globe trophies, joining many of the A-list actors and executives that are currently boycotting the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.The HFPA controversy continues, now that the iconic actor is protesting against the lack of diversity among members of the organization, after it was revealed that none of the group’s 87 members are Black.And although they have promised to include a series of changes, adding 13 Black journalists as members, actors and

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAfter devoting constant chatter to the 2020 election and the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News wants to make sure to talk about other subjects, including sports and weather.During an upfront presentation to ad buyers and clients Tuesday, executives from Fox News Media told Madison Avenue they intended to expand programming beyond the news of the day.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC started broadcasting “Saturday Night Live” live across the U.S in 2017.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC and Lilly Singh will end her late-night program, “A Little Late With Lilly Singh,” after two years, the latest sign that TV networks are rethinking how to handle a widening array of wee-hours programs as viewing habits shift.Singh has signed a first-look deal with Universal Television Alternative Studio, a division of Universal Studio Group, to develop unscripted projects.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorViacomCBS said first-quarter profit surged as the company enjoyed the benefits of ad sales associated with Super Bowl LV and lured 6 million new subscribers to streaming outlets such as Paramount Plus.The New York owner of CBS, Showtime and Nickelodeon said revenue increased 14% to $7.41 billion, up from nearly $6.5 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWalter Cronkite held forth from New York and Washington for CBS News. His heirs at a new ViacomCBS unit will do the same, while also monitoring Sacramento, Minneapolis and Dallas.The two executives named to head a newly fashioned division that combines the CBS local stations with CBS News and the team that manages the CBSN live-streaming news service offered their early vision for how the operation will function.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorComcast said first-quarter profit rose due largely to increases in business at its cable and Sky operations, while its NBCUniversal business continued to recover from the results of the coronavirus pandemic.The Philadelphia media giant said first quarter profit rose 55% to $3.33 billion, or 71 cents a share, compared with$2.1 billion, or $4.6 billion in the year-earlier period.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDiscovery revealed the big challenge behind getting involved in the media industry’s streaming wars: A new broadband hub can bring in millions of new customers — but it also requires millions of dollars in investment.The New York owner of Food Network, HGTV, TLC and its flagship Discovery cable outlet said Wednesday that its first-quarter profit slumped after it ramped up spending for content and marketing related to Discovery Plus, the streaming-video outlet it

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorHockey is going somewhere it has never been before.WarnerMedia gained rights to show live NHL games on its two big cable networks, TBS and TNT, as well as its new streaming hub, HBO Max, in a seven-year pact valued at least at $200 million that expands the company’s sports-rights portfolio for the first time in years. Disney’s ESPN already secured rights to a larger NHL package.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJulie Townsend, longtime head of communications for ABC News, will leave the Disney unit as it prepares to welcome a new president.Townsend, a VP who has supervised outreach on behalf of flagship news programs ranging from “Good Morning America” to “World News Tonight,” will leave May 14 “to lead global consumer communications at an iconic American company” that she said in a memo to staffers would be revealed at a later date.“This was not an easy decision to

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBCUniversal has decided to cap a 16-year relationship with the National Hockey League, according to two people familiar with the matter, walking away from negotiations with the league, which is poised to triple the rights fees it collects from media companies with a new deal for a package it will launch with AT&T’s Turner Sports.Turner will share overall rights with Disney’s ESPN, which struck a seven-year deal with the NHL in March that will give it control

Tom Llamas has been named senior national correspondent for NBC News and will anchor a primetime newscast for NBC News Now, the network’s streaming service.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorABC News will offer a portrait of the life of George Floyd in a two-hour “20/20” slated to air April 23 at 9 p.m.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorABC is looking for a new producer to open the network for business each morning.The abrupt departure of Michael Corn, the seasoned news producer who has managed the network’s flagship A.M. franchise, “Good Morning America,” since 2014, means ABC News is suddenly working a little harder to keep the program on its current path.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNeeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon have been named to lead a new unit that combines CBS News and CBS local stations.Khemlani, a senior executive at Hearst Newspapers, will be the next president of CBS News, charged with raising the competitive level of a news organization that is associated with giants of the format such as Edward R.