TV on the Spot: Networks Claim Victory in Upfront, but Tough Economy Could Loom

Changing course. Lynn Smith opened up about the factors that led her to leave her career as a news anchor behind — and why she’s more fulfilled than ever.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorChristina Spade, a veteran media executive who was previously chief financial officer of the former ViacomCBS, has been named the new chief executive of AMC Networks, tasked with leading the small but influential media company through a tricky time in the media business.She replaces Matt Blank, a Showtime veteran who had been serving as the company’s interim CEO, and will assumer her new responsibilities on Sept. 9.“I’m delighted that Chris is taking over as our new CEO,” said James Dolan, AMC Networks’ chairman, in a statement.

Rolling Stone. “To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”The “Celebs with the Worst Private Jet Co2 Emissions” list was put together by British marketing agency Yard, based on data from the CelebrityJets Twitter account.

A championship-winning women's football team has vowed to fight moves by a rival to kick it out of its home stadium. Bury FC Foundation Women clinched the Lancashire County Championship on the final day of the season in May playing at Gigg Lane three years after the men's senior team dropped out of the Football League.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCommunications giant Comcast said demand for two of its most important services — broadband and the NBCU streaming-video site Peacock — slowed in the second quarter, as the prospect of a deteriorating economy ate into consumers’ ability to purchase goods and services that may not be core to their daily lives and after the streaming hub offered a more robust slate of content, including the Super Bowl and the Olympics, in the first quarter.The Philadelphia owner of NBCUniversal and the giant Comcast cable business said its high-speed internet customers in the quarter  — a key metric –was basically the same as in the previous period., 32.1 million compared with 31.3 million. Subscriptions to Peacock, meanwhile, were “flat” at 13 million for the period, the company said.

Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal are reteaming to star in and produce the upcoming Spanish-language Hulu limited series “La Máquina,” from Searchlight Television. “La Máquina,” which got a straight-to-series order, follows an aging boxer (Bernal) whose crafty manager (Luna) secures him one last shot at a title.

Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna are two of the biggest Mexican actors working today. Now, they’ll team up again for a new Spanish-language limited series for Hulu: “La Maquina,” a tale of boxing and the criminal underworld.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterDiego Luna and Gael García Bernal are teaming to star in a Spanish-language limited series at Hulu produced by Searchlight Television.The pair will star in the drama series “La Maquina,” which hails from writer Marco Ramirez. It follows an aging boxer (García Bernal), whose crafty manager (Luna) secures him one last shot at a title. But to make it to fight night, they must navigate a mysterious underworld force.Both Luna and García Bernal will produce under their La Corriente del Golfo banner.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaDolly de Leon, who recently earned rave reviews for her work in Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness,” has signed with Jennifer Beaton at Gersh. The signing comes after de Leon scored some serious Oscar buzz after “Triangle of Sadness,” a darkly comic exploration of class and inequality, which debuted at Cannes, where it won the Palme d’Or.

Taylor Swift stunned an audience in London on Thursday when she made a surprise appearance during HAIM's concert at the O2 Arena.The 32-year-old pop icon took the stage with a mic in hand as the audience went wild, and Swift introduced a «mash-up» performance that she sang with the trio of singing sisters.“I haven’t been on stage in a very long time. It’s nice [to be back]," Swift declared.«When I heard my girls were playing in London at the O2, I thought, 'I'm gonna have to see that,'» she continued.

The History Channel/A+E Networks has announced a multi-year partnership with the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet Fund – a fund created by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and CAA’s Bryan Lourd – to support the Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet school in Los Angeles.

George Clooney, Gladys Knight, U2, Amy Grant and Tania León will receive Kennedy Center Honors at the next ceremony, typically held the first weekend of December.

Three dangerous rural roads in West Lothian are set to get new speed limits and traffic calming measures by the start of winter- two years after residents started a petition calling for safer roads.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentTim Burton is set to receive the 14th Lumiere Award at the Lumiere Festival, a week-long celebration of heritage movies and film masters held in Lyon, France, in October. Headed by Cannes Film Festival’s chief Thierry Fremaux, the Lumiere Festival previously honored Jane Campion, the Dardenne Brothers, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Jane Fonda, Wong Kar-wai, Catherine Deneuve, Pedro Almodóvar, Ken Loach, Gérard Depardieu and Milos Forman“From his first movies and early successes, Burton establishes his universe, skilfully blending his intensely personal expressivity with novelistic lyricism and pictorial references, traversing the entire history of art,” said the Lumière Festival in a statement.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentMatt Hearn, producer of “Wolf Creek,” one of Australia’s biggest genre exports, is backing “Penny Lane is Dead,” the feature debut of Australian writer-director and makeup artist Mia’kate Russell.Set up at Melbourne’s Buffalo Media, headed by André Lima, who will produce “Penny Lane is Dead” with Hearn, “Penny Lane” looks like one of the strongest projects being brought onto the market this week at Frontières, in terms of its behind the camera talent package and financing.“Penny Lane” features among Frontières’ six Forum projects, a program reserved for films in advanced stages of financing.The film has drawn down “significant funding” from Screen Australia’s Producer Offset program, which means 40% of the film finance is secured, Lima told Variety. “With the right market partners in place, we estimate that [a further] 20%-30% of the production budget can be raised from our federal and state film agencies through their production investment funding programs,” Lima added.Prosthetics designer Larry Van Duynhoven (“Furiosa”) and costume designer Nicola Dunn (“Very Important Person”) are attached, among key craft collaborators.“Penny Lane” is set on a warm night as 17-year-old Penny Lane is celebrating getting into college with her longtime girlfriends Toni and Amy.

Taylor Swift’s ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ will be eligible for Grammy nomination after being considered a “new recording”.The second album in Swift’s high-profile re-recording series, where she is sharing new versions of her catalogue albums in order to regain copyright, came out last November.Though it is a re-recorded version of an existing album (‘Red’ came out in 2012), the Recording Academy has considered it a “new recording,” Billboard confirm.This is despite the Grammy rules stating that “updated, revised or expanded versions of previously submitted albums will not be eligible”.The same decision did not have to be made for her first re-recorded album – ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ – because ‘Fearless’ was not submitted for Grammy nominations upon its original release in 2008.Upon its release late last year, ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ scored Swift her eighth consecutive UK Number One album.It debuted on top of the UK album chart yesterday (November 19) shifting 72,000 chart sales. With 57,000 physical and digital sales, this made it is the fastest-selling (physical and downloads) female solo artist album of 2021, overtaking Lana Del Rey’s ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’.In a four-star review of ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, NME‘s Hannah Mylrea said: “Like on the re-recorded ‘Fearless’, Swift has delved into her vault of unreleased songs by pulling out 10 new tunes and Swiftie deep cuts written during the ‘Red’ era for the expanded new version.“For fans, it’s a treasure trove; a chance to appreciate a further insight into Swift’s musical world in the early 2010s.”Swift last won Album Of The Year in 2021 for her first lockdown album ‘folklore’.