WNBA Gets Friday-Night Showcase on ION in New Pact With Scripps

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Mick Mulvaney, the former Director of the Office of Management and Budget acting White House Chief of Staff during the Trump administration, has been named a contributor to NewsNation, the upstart cable-news service operated by Nexstar Media. Mulvaney, who has left a contributor role at CBS News, is expected to take up his new duties immediately, appearing on the new politics-roundtable program “The Hill” at 5 p.m. Tuesday. “Mick’s enormous experience in the political sector will make him an incredible resource to viewers,” said Michael Corn, president of news at NewsNation, in a statement. “We are excited to welcome him to our growing powerhouse team of political analysts, especially as we enter another important election season.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Hadley Gamble, a CNBC reporter who ended up as part of the headlines involving the business-news outlet’s corporate parent and the ouster of its most recent CEO, is departing the company herself. “CNBC today announced that Hadley Gamble, Anchor and Senior International Correspondent, is leaving the company,” the network said in a statement. “Gamble has been a distinguished journalist for more than a decade for CNBC, undertaking highly visible and challenging assignments, and developing deep expertise in the Middle East and beyond. Her initiative and drive have secured valuable interviews with several world political leaders. We wish her every success in her future endeavors.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The costs of settling a closely scrutinized defamation lawsuit levied by Dominion Voting Systems wiped out profit at Fox Corp., spurring a loss of more than $50 million in its third fiscal quarter despite seeing increases in revenue from advertising and distribution. The costs of setting the suit — Fox agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle claims that Fox News personalities had deliberately passed along erroneous information about Dominion’s role in the 2020 presidential election — that it offset a 43% gain in advertising during the quarter due to Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVII, typically an event that boosts corporate performance year in and year out. Fox posted a loss of $54 billion, compared to profit of $283 billion in the year-earlier period. It attributed the loss to “charges associated with legal settlement costs at Fox News Media.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Tucker Carlson is out at 8 p.m. on Fox News Channel, and the network hopes that a host of blue-chip advertisers that for years avoided his controversial hour will soon come back in. Since Carlson’s stunning exit last month, a timeslot that has been shunned by many Madison Avenue stalwarts seems as if it is being embraced. Procter & Gamble, one of the nation’s largest and most influential advertisers, has been running ads in “Fox News Tonight,” the network’s new 8 p.m. program, for female-skewing products like Venus razor blades by Gillette and Secret underarm deodorant. Also showing up in commercial breaks: Novo Nordisk’s trendy medication Ozempic, and Scotts Miracle-Gro.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Getting to Carnegie Hall requires, as the old joke goes, practice, practice practice. Walking away, it would seem, is significantly easier. Paramount Global, a media company that has over the past decades come to emblematize the entertainment industry’s annual “upfront” sales session in no small part because of its presentations at the New York landmark, this year surprised many by walking away from holding one. Chances are the company won’t be returning in the near future. “We are not going to go back to the old way of doing things,” says John Halley, Paramount’s president of advertising, in an interview.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor How much should it cost to end media scrutiny on the internal workings of a news organization? Fox Corp. thinks an outlay of $787.5 million ought to be sufficient. In a letter filed Wednesday with the Superior Court of the State of Delaware, an attorney for Fox Corp. sought to keep redactions intact in documents supporting the case, and pressed a judge to keep media organizations from being able to examine the evidence further. “Fox agreed to settle this case to buy peace and bring an end to the media spectacle that the case had become,” says Katherine L. Mowery, an attorney representing Fox Corp. in its bid to quell further releases pertaining to its recent defamation settlement agreement with ballot-technology firm Dominion Voting Corp.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor NBC, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers intend to pay staffers of the network’s “Tonight” and “Late Night” shows three weeks’ of wages while the programs are sidelined due to the writers strike, according to two people familiar with the matter. NBC plans to pay two weeks of salary to staffers while each late-night host will pay a third week out of their own pockets, according to these people. Healthcare for the shows’ employees will be paid through September. Staffers were informed Wednesday morning during production calls, these people say, with Fallon and Meyers taking part personally to discuss the matter with his staff. The hosts typically do not participate in those early-day meetings.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor You’ll have to wait a while for the next original “Live, from New York!” “Saturday Night Live” will not produce any new episodes for the next while, owing to the writers’ strike called for by the WGA. The show’s next scheduled episode, slated for Saturday night and hosted by former cast member Pete Davidson with musical guest Lil Uzi Vert, will not take place, according to NBC. With a work stoppage in place, it’s quite possible that fans will not have any more new episodes of “SNL” in its 48th season. The show usually goes on its summer hiatus after May. “‘SNL’ will air repeats until further notice starting Saturday, May 6,” NBC said.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor TV’s late-night shows are going to bed early for the foreseeable future. ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” CBS’ “The Late Show,” and NBC’s “Tonight” and “Late Night” are all going on’ hiatus as a result of the start of the Hollywood writers’ strike — and the shows could be off the air for at least a few weeks. In place of new programs, NBC, CBS and ABC will air repeats of those shows. HBO will also cease live production of “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “This Week Tonight” with John Oliver. Immediate word on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” was not available. Writers play an integral role in TV’s late-night schedule, bashing out multiple jokes, one-liners and sketches each day that play off current events and trending popular culture. The contract between the Writers’ Guild of American an the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents about 350 TV and film production companies, ended on May 1.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox’s 2022 broadcast of Super Bowl LVII has a new score. Nielsen has added audience to the overall total of the February 13, 2022 broadcast, and the new viewership makes the game the industry’s most-watched TV event. According to a revamped Nielsen report, 115.1 million viewers tuned in to watch the Big Game across Fox, Fox Deportes, and various streaming services. Nielsen had previously reported that the broadcast was seen by an estimated 113.06 million viewers. “There were two separate issues, each of them accounting for an additional 1 million viewers,” explains Mike Mulvihill, executive vice p and head of strategy and analytics for Fox Sports.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Tucker Carlson hasn’t left Fox Corporation quite yet. The company’s Fox News Media unit has hours and hours of various specials and original programming the controversial anchor developed for the subscription-based streaming service Fox Nation, and doesn’t appear poised to take any of that content down. The Carlson-created options currently available on the service are manifold. There is a program called “Let Them Eat Bugs!” that examines how “global leaders, movie stars and social media influencers are making a concerted push to force bugs into your diet, whether you like it or not.” A “Tucker Carlson Originals Christmas Special” is available for those interested. And Carlson’s last broadcast on Fox News Channel — from Friday, April 21 — is ready to for binge-viewing. There are also classic Carlson interviews to be found in “Tucker Carlson Tonight: The Vault.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Comcast said it managed to boost profit during its fiscal first quarter even as it navigated a dip in media advertising and slowing growth among broadband subscribers, yet boosted U.S. subscribers to its Peacock streaming hub to 22 million. The Philadelphia owner of NBCUniversal, Sky and its large broadband and cable business said profit came to $3.83 billion, or 91 cents per share, compared with $3.55 billion, or 78 cents per share in the year-earlier period. Comcast reported earnings per share of 92 cents after adjusting for one-time items Revenue fell 4% to $29.69 billion, compared with $31.01 billion in the year-earlier period, thanks to comparisons with a quarter in 2022 that contained both the broadcast of the Super Bowl and the Beijing Olympics.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor It’s an idea that would make any news executive salivate. What if MSNBC revived CNN’s old “Crossfire” show, enlisting Tucker Carlson from the right and Don Lemon from the left? Such a concept would normally be unthinkable. Tucker Carlson is known for his work on Fox News. Don Lemon has long held forth for CNN. It has been that way for years. Until, as of earlier this week, it wasn’t. Within the space of 90 minutes on April 24, Carlson was ousted from Fox News Channel and Lemon was pushed from CNN. Both were stalwart personalities for their networks. Both were valued for their ability to spark conversation, debate, pushback and even furor. For years, that has been the cable-news coin of the realm. As the economics of TV shift, however, it is becoming clearer that media executives may have less patience for TV-news pot-stirrers.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor When it comes to getting audiences to sample revivals of shows “Night Court” and “Quantum Leap,” NBCUniversal is leaving less of the task to chance. In a different era, a network like NBC would run promos on its own air and be satisfied that those short vignettes urging viewers to try something new were reaching millions of people each day. In the streaming era, TV companies have to work harder. NBC has teamed up with the measurement-technology firm VideoAmp to help it examine the effectiveness of its marketing for the shows it launches. Rather than relying primarily on linear promos, networks have moved more of their outreach to digital and social media, realizing they can leave no media type unexplored in their quest to find viewers.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CNBC has lost some of its avarice for the long-running primetime series “American Greed.” The documentary program, which examines white-collar crime, scams and embezzlement, among other business-focused wrongdoing, has been running on the NBCUniversal business-news channel since 2007, completing 15 seasons and 222 episodes, along with three spin-offs. In 2023, however, the series order was significantly smaller than those in the past, according to two people familiar with the matter, and production of original episodes has ceased for the moment. “CNBC has not canceled ‘American Greed,'” the network said in a statement. Six new episodes ran between January 24 and March 7 of this year. Past seasons have included 12 episodes or more, according to one of the people familiar with the program

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Tucker Carlson will no longer be able to carry on his self-generated battle against lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink at Fox News Channel. Carlson, Fox News Channel’s most-watched primetime host, will leave the network in an abrupt and surprise exit, leaving the network without a fill-in for one of its most popular hours and with dozens of questions hanging over it as it grapples with pressures resulting from a $787 million settlement it will have to pay to Dominion Voting Systems “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the company said in a statement Monday. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.” A spokeswoman for Fox News declined to elaborate.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor TV news can help a dozen soundbites from politicians go viral on any day. One recent social-media uproar stirred by CBS News came not from flagship programs like “CBS Mornings” or “CBS Evening News,” but from “Red & Blue,” a program available only through streaming. On a recent Wednesday, CBS News political correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns nabbed an interview with Senator Tim Scott, the Republican presidential hopeful, and made sure to ask him his stance on federal limits on when women might be able to terminate a pregnancy. Scott gave all kinds of answers, but none of them directly answered her questions. The exchange made news — even though it debuted first in a place where, in another era, it might have gotten lost.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Chris Wallace’s interview program, “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” will move to Friday nights from Sundays while continuing to stream on HBO Max, a change as the series prepares for its third cycle of conversations between the news veteran and people of note “Our viewers have come to expect real, authentic conversations with a rich variety of guests,” said Wallace, in a statement. “We’ve really hit our stride this season and I’m excited to continue to bring these timely conversations to both HBO Max and CNN.” Guests scheduled for the third season include Carol Burnett, Bill Hader, Jay Leno, Andy Garcia, Miranda Lambert, with more to be announced in the weeks ahead. Wallace expects to book interviews with politicians and presidential hopefuls as the nation moves full-bore into the 2024 election cycle. The series will be available on the new enhanced streaming service, Max, when it launches in the U.S. on Tuesday, May 23. 

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Dan Bongino, one of the most right-leaning hosts in the Fox News stable, is leaving the network after the Fox Corp.-backed outlet and he could not come to terms on a new contract. “Folks, regretfully, last week was my last show on Fox News on the Fox News Channel,” Bongino said on his podcast Thursday. “It’s tough. It’s tough to say that. You know, I’ve been there doing hits and working there for ten years…so the show ending was tough. And I want you to know it’s not some big conspiracy. I promise you. There’s no acrimony. This wasn’t some WWE brawl that happened. We just couldn’t come to terms on an extension. Bongino, who joined Fox News as a contributor in 2019, began hosting the Saturday-night program “Unfiltered With Dan Bongino” on Fox News in 2021.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corp. has put increasing amounts of money behind news and sports in recent years. But that doesn’t mean the company is completely free of drama. A landmark $787.5 million settlement made Tuesday between Fox and the voting-technology company Dominion Voting Systems does not end what is likely to be a period of tumult for the owner of Fox News Channel and the Fox broadcasting network. The payment to Dominion to keep an explosive investigation into how Fox News disseminated conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election out of the public sphere does nothing to alleviate another wave of scrutiny likely to come from another, similar lawsuit.