News

“Tell me everything,” Barbara Walters used to urge her TV guests. She believed she could coax the truth out of anyone, whether revered or disgraced, and so did her viewers.

Her confidence would be challenged today when every fragment of news, even neighborhood trivia, disappears in a blur of distrust. Since viewers no longer believe what they hear, she’d wonder, might her interviewees become too constrained about what they say?

President Trump distrusts the news media so intensely he limits his announcements to his website, even when they’re nakedly bogus (“lasting disarmament”?) .

If that revered truth-teller Walter Cronkite were alive today it’s doubtful whether even he could cast a clear focus on Gaza or Tehran, on Zelenskyy or Netanyahu. Frustrated, he might even unleash AI on Ice just to see what emerges.

Media reporting on immigration purges is so distrusted that entire new layers of fact-finders have...

The temptation to deliver scrubbed-clean hagiography with “Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything” had to have been there: The journalist, who died at 93 in 2022, was the very definition of trailblazer, a woman who worked harder than all the men around her in the extraordinarily testosterone-filled boys club that was midcentury broadcast news, and all but single-handedly paved the way for women to have prominent on-air roles ever since. And Walters achieved that, despite starting out having to do “Today” show segments in the early 1960s that saw her doing stunts like dressing up as a Playboy bunny.

But Jackie Jesko’s documentary goes beyond the obvious, just as Walters’ own interviews so often did. It’s clear-eyed about Walters’ transactional approach to arranging interviews, and about the discomforting allure “money, fame, and power,” in the words of her biographer Peter Gethers, held for her.

There’s even a clip of her...

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Terry Moran is out of a job.

A month after Moran sat down in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, ABC has ended its employment with the Senior White House Correspondent due to a controversial Tweet Moran shared on June 8

Terry Moran, ABC News’ Nightline, at “Rock Stars of Science” sponsored by Geoffrey Beene Foundation and ResearchAmerica to engage heath and medicine discussion at the Capitol Visitors Center Auditorium on September 24, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for ResearchAmerica)

“We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies, we have made the decision to not renew,” a spokesperson for the network said in a statement on June 10.

“At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness, and professionalism, and...

Margaret Atwood recalls MGM’s straight-to-series order in 2016 to adapt her dystopian classic novel The Handmaid’s Tale as a Hulu series as being a touch risky.

“It was a gamble. And the gamble paid off. Anybody approaching me earlier who said we wanted to make a film about The Handmaid’s Tale, I would have said, ‘Who’s going to watch that?’” she told the second annual Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment Canada gala at the Ritz Carlton in Toronto on Thursday.

“When it came out, a certain number of people felt it was illuminating because, surely, the United States would never, ever do such things,” the acerbic Canadian author, poet and activist said as she picked up the Icon Award at the Ritz Carlton. She talked about the success in adapting her 1985 dystopian novel just as Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale has reached the climax for its sixth and final season,...

Veteran broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer has penned a touching tribute to ABC News’ David Muir, who was named in the Time100 Most Influential People of the Year list. Muir was named an “Icon” for his reporting over the past year on the evening news program World News Tonight, the long-running show he took over from Sawyer in 2014. Over the years, the show has been anchored by the likes of Peter Jennings, Bob Woodruff, Elizabeth Vargas, and Charles Gibson. “Like Peter Jennings before him, David is authoritative and dynamic—the first out the door to the story,” Sawyer wrote. “Iraq’s hunt for Isis. Hurricanes, fires. He traveled days to hold the hands of starving children in Madagascar and South Sudan, leading to millions of dollars in donations to the World Food Programme.” “I think I know what destiny looks like because I’ve seen a photo of a serious 13-year-old boy,...

Robert Richter, an independent filmmaker and producer whose credits include nearly 90 documentaries on a wide range of subjects, died at his home in New York City on February 16 following complications associated with heart failure. He was 95.

A three-time Academy Award nominee for best documentary short, Richter’s expanse of accolades included a 2008 National Emmy for “exceptional merit in nonfiction filmmaking” as executive producer on the HBO version of his documentary feature “The Last Atomic Bomb,” and three duPont Columbia Broadcast Journalism awards (TV’s Pulitzer Prize). Richter was the only independent producer to receive the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global 500 Award.

Born and raised in New York City, Richter’s decades-long career in filmmaking began at Occidental College in California with an experimental Telluride Association program, followed by a B.A. from Reed College in Oregon and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.

While studying...

Good Morning America shared some aired and unaired footage featuring Robin Roberts and her co-stars in fun or awkward moments on the show.

Among them were Robin and Michael Strahan reuniting with Keke Palmer, George Stephanopoulos seeming ready to walk off-set, and Ginger Zee admiring her birthday cake.

The cameras also caught Robin experiencing some forgetfulness before she interviewed a guest.

That guest was also Robin’s longtime friend, Anne Marie Anderson, who the GMA star said had known her since her days at ESPN.

During the highlight reel of the GMA crew’s bloopers and hijinx, Robin looked around to figure out which camera she needed to look at.

“You think I’d know by now which camera,” Robin said, with her friend asking, “You want me to produce?”

She pointed her to the correct camera during the fun behind-the-scenes moment.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared...

Plot: While covering the 1972 Munich Olympics, the team at ABC Sports find themselves covering the horrifying Munich Massacre in real-time.

Review: September 5 isn’t the first movie about the Munich Massacre. Steven Spielberg brilliantly depicted the events and their aftermath in Munich (perhaps his last truly great film). However, this movie takes a different approach in how it covers the events unravelling in real time from the studios at ABC Sports in Germany. We follow a team of sleep-deprived journalists who are supposed to be there covering the Olympics and find themselves chronicling events that they know can only end in tragedy and will have global consequences, the repercussions of which are still felt today.

For me, the film had particular resonance. Before I started working for JoBlo, I worked in radio as an “op”, which basically meant I handled the audio boards, screened the calls, and ran the operations side of live radio broadcasts.

Tim Fehlbaum’s tense drama “September 5” is tightly focused on a group of real-life male American journalists responding to the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. But one of the most essential characters in the film is fictional. She’s a woman. She’s German. And she’s not a journalist.

Marianne Gebhardt, played by Leonie Benesch, is a translator in the ABC Sports office during the attack by the Palestinian militant organization Black September. Eleven members of the Israeli team were murdered by the terrorists or killed in a failed rescue attempt. As journalists Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker) and Jim McKay (in archival footage woven into the film) struggle to understand what is happening and to communicate it to the world, Gebhardt is an indispensable part of the team as the one person in the room who speaks German.

Aaron Brown, the former ABC News and CNN anchor, has died. He was 76.

CNN on Tuesday said Brown died on Sunday, citing a statement from his family. No cause of death was specified. Brown distinguished himself with his coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Brown’s wife, Charlotte Rayner, added a tribute via a statement: “Aaron got to do the work that he loved — and he felt lucky to do that work as part of a community of people who were dedicated to good journalism and who became good friends. Over the course of his career, Aaron worked morning shifts, night shifts, and of course the ‘Overnight’ (a program he absolutely loved working on), but he always found a way to make both ordinary and special times with our daughter Gabby and me. These last few years, when we have all been able to live in the same city, have been...

A scene from Paramount Pictures’ ‘September 5’ (Photo © 2024 Paramount Pictures)

Director and co-writer Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 examines the horrifying events of September 5, 1972, when terrorists took 11 Israeli athletes competing in the Munich Olympics hostage. Previous feature films and documentaries have covered the subject, but never from the perspective of the ABC Sports team assigned to cover the competition.

The ABC Sports team was not prepared for the near-instantaneous switchover from heralding athletic achievements in the ring, pool, and on the track to covering a terrorist attack live on air. And how could they have been? No network had ever been in their position before. The ’72 Olympics marked the first-ever live broadcast via satellite around the globe. The network stationed cameras throughout the Olympic venues, the Olympic Village, and atop the Olympic Tower to provide complete, round-the-clock coverage. Nothing would be missed.

Coordinating producer Geoff Mason (John Magaro) was preparing for his...

Editors Note: To commemorate Paramount’s slow awards-season rollout of September 5 — the harrowing drama about how ABC sports pivoted from gold medals to the ultimate test of journalistic mettle when terrorists took hostage the Israeli Olympic team at the Munich Olympics — Deadline turned to Sean McManus. While he would go on to become a storied sports executive who rose to president of CBS News and Sports and executive producer of the NFL on CBS, McManus in 1972 he was a high schooler who tagged along with his broadcaster dad Jim McKay to watch the events. He got a unique view of how his father and the sports team headed by Roone Arledge exhibited courage under the extreme pressure of covering live the terrifying events as they unfolded 100 yards away, with the whole world watching, along with members of the Black September terror group. September 5 was a sensation at Venice and Telluride,...

“September 5” is a dark horse contender in the Oscar race, after debuting in Venice, Telluride, and the market in Toronto, where it was a sales title financed by Republic, a division of Paramount, which was looking for a buyer. Only after strong reviews and awards chatter around this $8.2 million docudrama — set during the tragic events of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games — did Paramount agree to release the thriller in time for the Oscars.

Still, the studio pushed the release date back to December 13, which is often a sign of insecurity about box office prospects, so it was late out of the starting gate, and early awards groups didn’t go for it. That’s partly because it’s a riveting, no-frills, tautly edited piece of mise-en-scène with an ensemble cast that doesn’t call attention to itself. A studio exec might have called for a scene-grabbing moment for Peter Sarsgaard as ABC sports chief Roone Arledge,...

Like many first ideas, Tim Fehlbaum’s initial vision for “September 5” was wider in scope. Broadly speaking, the film is about the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Swiss director’s original script, which he co-wrote with Moritz Binder, told the story from the perspectives of reporters, politicians, and police.

But then he talked to Geoffrey Mason, one of the producers behind ABC Sports’ live 22-hour coverage of the ordeal.

“We started to learn more and more what an important role the media played on that day,” Fehlbaum tells Gold Derby. “And then listening to Geoffrey Mason and his stories of what they experienced as a crew, what challenges they faced … we said, ‘Maybe you can entirely tell it from that perspective.'”

Fehlbaum and Binder streamlined the script to focus solely on the ABC Sports team making on-the-fly decisions after Palestinian militant organization Black September killed two members...

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the scripts behind the year’s buzziest awards-season films continues with September 5, Paramount’s gripping period thriller directed by Tim Fehlbaum, and written by Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder and co-writer Alex David.

Set amid the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics, the film follows what happens when ABC, which was covering the games for U.S. audiences, was on air when news came down that members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group Black September. The script keeps the Pov of the ABC control room as events unfold, as producers and reporters and scramble to cover the fast-moving story with global implications — and sensitivities of the highest order — in real time, being the only TV network with live cameras filming the hostages’ location in the Olympic Village.

The writers used first-hand accounts including of Geoffrey Mason, the ABC Sports...

On the night of the 2000 presidential election, as the counting began in a tight race between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and incumbent Vice President Al Gore, it all came down to Florida. And then, all hell broke loose.

Director Jay Roach and writer Danny Strong captured the stakes and the personalities that drove that strange moment in “Recount,” the Emmy-winning 2008 HBO movie starring Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey, Bob Balaban and Laura Dern. Instead of “Stop the Steal,” the rally cry in 2000 for Bush supporters was “Stop the Recount.”

“The events in ‘Recount’ were in some way a rehearsal for January 6,” Roach says. “It proved that there was potential to physically disrupt an election.”

As the nation braces for what will surely be a long night of waiting for election returns, it’s eye-opening to revisit the chaos and political theater that ensued for five weeks while Bush and Gore...

Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 follows the ABC Sports team that covered the armed attack by the Palestinian militant group Black September during the Munich 1972 Summer Olympics that resulted in the deaths of 11 Israeli Olympians. It’s a crisis freighted with geopolitical significance, but Fehlbaum and co-writer Moritz Binder seem almost desperate to avoid engaging with it. Still, the sympathies of September 5 do seem readily apparent. This is a film about a story with clear victims and clear perpetrators, being sold to a global audience by a group of well-meaning American journalists who happened to be caught in the fray.

September 5 is a journalism procedural that’s only impressive for its taut, docu-realistic depiction of a 17-hour ordeal as it affected the members of the ABC Sports crew on the titular day. Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) is being relieved for the night by rookie TV producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) when...

The story of the horrifying crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where militant Palestinian terrorists known as Black September took the entire Israeli team hostage, killing all, has been told many times via TV movies, as well as a different perspective in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated Munich. That widely praised 2005 film followed the hunt for the terrorists. Now comes a completely different and absolutely riveting account in September 5, a docudrama set almost entirely in the ABC control booth where the network’s sports crew was headquartered to cover the games as a live TV event. No one could have foreseen the drama that would unfold over 22 tense hours as this group of television professionals, inexperienced in hard news, would have to switch gears and bring these tragic, unfolding events in real time to billions around the globe.

Swiss-born director Tim Fehlbaum, working from a screenplay he wrote with German writer Moritz Binder,...

At a time when world events are instantaneously reported on social media and news sites, it’s an enlightening, altogether gripping experience to watch a film like September 5, which depicts how a dedicated crew at ABC Sports managed to broadcast the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attacks live to an entire nation.

Not only does German director Tim Fehlbaum’s accomplished third feature detail all the logistical hurdles the team needed to scale so they could capture the crisis as it happened, relying on massive TV cameras, smuggled 16mm film stock, a slew of walkie talkies and plenty of ingenuity. Even more importantly, the movie tackles the tough questions faced by several hardworking newsmen — and one vital female translator — as they dealt with a situation in which many human lives hung in the balance.

Those enduring questions, as well as intense, lived-in performances from a terrific cast, help to make September 5 more...

Exclusive: “They’re all gone.” Those were the harrowing, unforgettable words, delivered by ABC TV’s Wide World of Sports host Jim McKay that 11 Israeli athletes had been slaughtered by Black September terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

McKay’s marathon 16-hour stint anchoring the shattering incident has long been held as a milestone in broadcast history. It was the first breaking news story to be beamed live globally in an unfettered way. Cameras had lenses trained on the balcony of the apartment where the Palestinian gunmen were holding the Israeli sportsmen hostage.

The cruel irony was that the Black September guerrillas were inside watching ABC’s coverage of their heinous act.

Also the families of the Israeli athletes and coaches and trainers being held at gunpoint were watching.

September 5, directed by Swiss filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum, opens the Venice Film Festival’s Horizon Extra sidebar on Thursday. It grippingly explores how ABC Sports,...

CBS wants to get back in the battle for evening-news viewers with a new take on the format that looks very little like the evening news viewers have come to know.

The network plans to rebuild its long-running “CBS Evening News,” retooling anchors, format and segments in a bid to make the half-hour once led by Walter Cronkite more valuable for modern news viewers who don’t recognize the show as the cultural touchstone it was in the 1960s and 70s.

After the 2024 election, with current anchor Norah O’Donnell stepping away for a new senior correspondent role at CBS News, executives at the Paramount Global news operation will put the show under the aegis of Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes.” Working with a new on-air team that includes co-anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, chief weathercaster Lonnie Quinn and Washington-based “Face The Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan,...

Who is the best male TV star of all time? Our photo gallery above takes on the tough task of ranking the 50 greatest actors and performers. Agree or disagree with our choices?

With over 70 years of television to consider, we had to provide ourselves with a few rules to help simplify things. One of those was that every man in our gallery must have been an ongoing leading star at some point, preferably more often than not. That’s why you will not see such classic supporting actors as Art Carney, Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Peter Dinklage and more. We also do not include any news/sports anchors or journalists such as Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Peter Jennings, Howard Cosell since they are not performers.

In order to place them in the rankings, we were looking at a combination of quality (top rated shows with the public or critics...

There’s no rule that says that when the son or daughter of a famous filmmaker becomes a director too, he or she has to follow in their parent’s artistic footsteps. But the children of director David Cronenberg have turned out to be chips off the old shock-theater block. In movies like “Possessor” and “Infinity Pool,” the 44-year-old Brandon Cronenberg has proved himself to be a skillful purveyor of body horror and I-dare-you-not-to-look-away extremity. And now, with “Humane,” the 39-year-old Caitlin Cronenberg has directed her own first feature, a dark-as-midnight domestic thriller about how climate change, totalitarianism, and euthanasia all go together. The movie, which takes the form of a dinner party from hell, is Caitlin Cronenberg’s own thing, but it’s all about crimes of the future.

Few real-world topics are more urgent than climate change, yet as dramatic feature-film material the meltdown of the planet has...

Updated: Networks scrambled to cover the rebellion in Russia by initially drawing heavily on social media images, foreign policy analysts and correspondents in other countries, while media presence in Moscow has been limited.

Russian President Vladimir Putin faced an uprising from mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin, with reports that he has taken control of the city of Rostov-on-Don and that the insurrection was on its way to Moscow. Hours later, Prigozhin said that his forces were stopping and turning back from the city and headed to field camps. Kremlin’s spokesman later told reporters that Prigozhin would go to Belarus and a criminal case against him would be dropped.

The apparent end of the revolt followed a tumultuous and often confusing 24 hours.

Viewers on Saturday woke up to images of Putin declaring that he would crush the rebellion and that Prigozhin was guilty of treason. He said that those who prepared...

Some people only get one chance to run CNN. Amy Entelis is about to embark on her second.

The veteran news executive was one of three who took the reins at the Warner Bros. Discovery news outlet when Jeff Zucker, the previous chief, was forced out in February of last year after acknowledging a romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, once CNN’s chief marketing officer. Now Entelis will be part of a new trio leading the news giant after the Wednesday departure of former CEO Chris Licht.

The challenges facing CNN have not diminished. Entelis will guide CNN’s news operations along with Virginia Moseley, recently named to oversee editorial operations, and Eric Sherling, recently appointed head of U.S. programming. David Leavy, a longtime Zaslav lieutenant who was named chief operating officer at CNN last week, will oversee business activities. The entire group must keep CNN moving forward as...

The new New York studio that Nexstar Media Group built for Elizabeth Vargas’ nascent NewsNation program is so big, the anchor believes she could do five cartwheels across if called upon to do so. Starting Monday night, the company begins the process of figuring out if such rigorous calisthenics will be necessary.

TV-news aficionados likely know Vargas from her 15-year stint as a co-anchor on ABC News’ “20/20,” but on Monday night, she will jump right into the fray in the information wars, with a program at 6 p.m. eastern – a time slot that has become more competitive in recent months. At MSNBC, for example, Ari Melber’s “The Beat” has become one of that network’s most-watched programs. Late-afternoon has become more of a cable-news battlefield as viewers who have learned to work from home after the coronavirus pandemic tune in earlier to get a recap of the day’s events.

Kiefer Sutherland returns to TV on Sunday with his new Paramount+ series Rabbit Hole — the actor’s latest thriller following Fox’s iconic 24 and his ABC/Netflix series Designated Survivor. The 56-year-old Sutherland delivers his trademark mix of charm, intensity and desert-dry humor as he plays John Weir, a morally shady corporate spy who finds himself framed for murder by conspiratorial forces. The show tackles the rather timely theme of misinformation and campaigns of organized public deception

Yet for all the intimidating hardness of his characters, Sutherland came across exceedingly pleasant in real life. When our original audio interview file for this story was lost in a recorder meltdown (every reporter’s nightmare), Sutherland gamely offered to chat for this story a second time, and couldn’t have been nicer about it (at the end of our do-over, the actor joked, “I hope to talk to you again, brother, but just about something else!

CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster and #1 Canadian podcaster, today shared details about the launch of its popular Q with Tom Power show in a podcast-first format. Starting on January 30th, the show - which releases new episodes five days a week– will feature acclaimed interviewer Tom Power sitting down to chat with the artists, writers, actors and musicians who define this cultural moment in time.

Whether he’s ribbing Adele, singing a boyband classic with Simu Liu, or dissecting faith with U2 frontman Bono – Tom brings the same curiosity, respect and meticulous preparation into every interview. Plus, Tom talks to artists on the precipice of stardom – both Lizzo and Billie Eilish were on Q well before becoming Grammy award-winning artists.

Now, the show, launching as a podcast-first incarnation every morning before airing each weekday on radio, will have upcoming guests that include:

Monday, January 30: Sam Smith and Shania Twain Tuesday,...

Click here to read the full article.

Barbara Walters, the glass-ceiling-shattering newswoman whose intimate television interviews with celebrities and world figures blended show business and journalism and induced many a tear, has died. She was 93.

Walters, the first female co-host of the Today show, the first evening news anchorwoman in broadcast history and a co-creator and co-host of The View, died Friday evening at her home in New York, ABC News announced.

Walters revealed in May 2013 that she would retire from journalism upon the conclusion of The View season in 2014. “I thought it was better to go when people are saying, ‘Why is she leaving?’ than, ‘Thank goodness she’s leaving!’” she said.

Yet Walters soldiered on with exclusive interviews, like one with Peter Rodger, the father of Elliot Rodger, the Uc Santa Barbara student who killed seven people in May 2014.

Walters also was known for co-hosting the ABC news...

Marvin Josephson, founder of ICM Partners, died Tuesday in New York. He was 95 years old.

A cause of death was not immediately available.

“We mourn the loss of Marvin Josephson, one of the founders of ICM, who was universally respected as an agent, a leader and a man,” ICM Partners said in a statement. “We send our heartfelt condolences to his family.”

Born on March 6, 1927 in Atlantic City, N.J., Josephson was raised by immigrant parents. After serving in the U.S. Navy during the twilight of World War II, Josephson returned to the United States to attend Cornell University and then night law school at New York University School of Law. Upon receiving his degree in 1962, Josephson started a job in the CBS legal department.

In 1955, Josephson began his own personal management company, drawing clients such as “Captain Kangaroo” producer and star Bob Keeshan. Josephson would convert his management company...

Marvin Josephson, who helped grow a small management company that could not afford a secretary into an international entertainment agency with multiple offices, died May 17 in New York. He was 95.

Josephson was born March 6, 1927 in Atlantic City, N.J. to immigrant parents. Upon graduation from Atlantic City High School, he entered the US Navy just before the end of World War II. After the Navy, he attended Cornell University, where he received a B.A. degree.

He went on to night law school at New York University School of Law and received his law degree in 1952. That same year, Josephson got a job in the CBS legal department. He left CBS to start his own company and was the only employee, since he could not afford a secretary.

The new company started April 1, 1955 as a personal management company. The first important client was Bob Keeshan, who produced and starred in “Captain Kangaroo,...

Who is the best male TV star of all time? Our photo gallery above takes on the tough task of ranking the 50 greatest actors and performers. Agree or disagree with our choices?

With over 70 years of television to consider, we had to provide ourselves with a few rules to help simplify things. One of those was that every man in our gallery must have been an ongoing leading star at some point, preferably more often than not. That’s why you will not see such classic supporting actors as Art Carney, Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Peter Dinklage and more. We also do not include any news/sports anchors or journalists such as Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Peter Jennings, Howard Cosell since they are not performers.

In order to place them in the rankings, we were looking at a combination of quality (top rated shows with the public or critics...

David Letterman celebrates his 40th anniversary as a late night talk show host today. His first episode of “Late Night with David Letterman” aired on February 1, 1982, following “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” for the next decade (plus an 11th year after Jay Leno‘s show). Letterman returns to his former NBC home tonight to visit “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

He departed NBC in 1993 for a 22-year run as host of “Late Show with David Letterman” on CBS. His combined 33+ years on both NBC and CBS make him the longest-running late night talk show host in American history.

That remarkable length of service and his influence on younger hosts like Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and others should make him a lock for induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. But they’ve never asked him to join. Several of his...

SAG-AFTRA’s unclaimed residuals fund has grown to roughly $76 million – up 60% from $48 million six years ago. According to the union, the fund now contains 124,000 separate accounts for members and others, living and dead, that it can’t locate. That’s up from 96,000 accounts in 2016.

“The funds may be unclaimed for a variety of reasons including a bad address or as a result of mail returned for other reasons; unresolved estate issues, or the funds may be in trust for an inactive or dissolved loan out corporation,” a spokesperson for the union said. “Most often, residuals may be waiting for a recipient or their agent to formalize a change of address or submit the appropriate paperwork to claim the funds. The union uses a number of tools to locate and get money to those individuals due unclaimed residuals including mail, email and telephone outreach to last known address and telephone number,...

CBS is combining its news division and CBS Television Stations into one division, with Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon named presidents and co-heads.

Khemlani has been a top executive at Hearst Newspapers, Cable Networks & Digital Media; McMahon is the former president of ABC Owned Television Stations Group. They will report to George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS Entertainment Group.

“This is an opportunity to create a news and information structure that positions CBS for the future,” Cheeks said in a statement. “It speaks to our ability to scale newsgathering, production, technical and operational resources to serve both national and local, linear and digital, with the agility to deliver trusted information to every platform.”

McMahon and Khemlani will take their new positions at the network early next month. Susan Zirinsky, the current president of CBS News, will stay in that post until then. She is in discussions for a role...

Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon have been named to lead a new unit that combines CBS News and CBS local stations, one of the first big recalibrations of company assets by George Cheeks, the executive charged with oversight of ViacomCBS’ CBS operations.

Khemlani, a senior executive at Hearst Newspapers, and McMahon, who had been overseeing ABC stations, will be charged with both raising the competitive level of a news organization that has faced challenges in the modern era when it comes to vying with rivals like ABC News and NBC New,s and pushing forward a station group that has often lagged its competitive set.

“The unified division will bring together the power of CBS News, our 28 owned stations in 17 major U.S. markets, Cbsn, our growing Cbsn Local platforms, local websites and cbsnews.com under one roof, opening new opportunities and valuable paths to growth in the future,” Cheeks...

20th Television’s SVP Current Programming Reena Singh is moving to sibling Disney Branded Television in the newly created role of SVP Development and Current Series. She reports to Ayo Davis, EVP, Creative Development and Strategy, Disney Branded Television. The appointment marks Singh’s return to the group after 11 years.

In her new role, Singh will lead the live-action Development and Current Series teams at Disney Branded Television to develop and deliver original scripted series for Disney+ and Disney linear platforms. Her direct reports are Jonas Agin, VP, Development; and Kory Lunsford, VP, Current Series.

Throughout her career, Singh has worked with some of television’s top writers, producers and directors on shows for broadcast and cable television and streaming media. She is well-known for championing creative talent from underrepresented communities.

Prior to her tenure as SVP, Current Programming, 20th Television (2015-January 2021), she was VP, Development and Current Programming for USA Network (2012-15); VP,...

Reena Singh has been named to the newly established role of senior vice president of development and current series at Disney Branded Television, marking the executive’s return to the group after 11 years.

Reporting to Disney Branded TV executive vice president of creative development and strategy Ayo Davis, Singh is slated to lead the live-action development and current series teams at the division to develop and deliver original scripted series for Disney Plus and Disney’s numerous linear platforms.

Vice president of development Jonas Agin and vice president of current series Kory Lunsford will report to Singh.

Singh was most recently senior vice president of current programming at 20th Television, a position she has held since 2015. Prior to that, she spent time working in development at USA Network, Universal Cable Productions and Disney Channels. During her time at Disney Channels from 2005 to 2010, Singh worked on “High School Musical 2,” “Jump In!” and Camp Rock,...

Tom Brokaw, the anchor who rose from an early stint at a station in Sioux City, Iowa to anchor three of the nation’s best-known TV-news programs – “Today,” “NBC Nightly News” and, for a short time, “Meet the Press,” is set to step down formally from NBC News, where he has worked since 1966.

Brokaw’s time on air has dwindled in recent years, while he has served as a special correspondent for the NBCUniversal-owned outlet, and also battled with cancer. He turned 80 in February.

“During one of the most complex and consequential eras in American history, a new generation of NBC News journalists, producers and technicians is providing America with timely, insightful and critically important information, 24/7. I could not be more proud of them,” said Brokaw, in a prepared statement. His longest tenure was at “NBC Nightly News,” which he led between 1982 and 2004.

He is attached to an era...

Tom Brokaw will retire from NBC News after 55 years with the network.

He made the announcement in a statement on Friday.

“During one of the most complex and consequential eras in American history, a new generation of NBC News journalists, producers and technicians is providing America with timely, insightful and critically important information, 24/7. I could not be more proud of them,” he said in a statement.

Brokaw, 80, was the anchor of NBC Nightly News from 1982-2004. Since then, he has been a part of NBC News’ special event coverage, serving a special correspondent and often providing commentary and analysis from an historic perspective. His 2001 book The Greatest Generation put the spotlight on the sacrifice of a generation of Americans through the Great Depression and World War II. The book’s title is now commonly used to refer to WWII veterans and their families.

Brokaw will continue to be active in print journalism and write books,...

Brit Hume, the senior political analyst for Fox News, has signed a new multi-year deal to remain in his current role, announced Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media.

Hume will continue serving as a regular commentator and panelist across Fox News Channel’s (Fnc) daytime and evening programming and Fox News Sunday, as well as contributing to election coverage and all major political events.

“Brit is an exceptional journalist who has played an integral role in our unrivaled political coverage — his extensive knowledge of the intricacies of Washington have made him a tremendous asset to our team and a popular favorite with our viewers,” Scott said. “We look forward to his continued expertise for many years ahead.”

“After decades of reporting and anchoring, I wanted to try it as an analyst,” said Hume. “Fox News allowed me to do that, for which I am most grateful. I love the...

When “Nightline” viewers tune in to the program later this evening, they are likely to see something they won’t expect: the show will have a new announcer, new topics, and even a new title.

Tonight’s broadcast will mark the start of a month-long “takeover” of the late-night news program by “Turning Point,” an ABC News project that will explore the reckoning America is currently facing on racial issues. The effort won’t be limited to “Nightline.” ABC News intends to feature “Turning Point” segments on “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight,” “The View,” “20/20” and “This Week,” as well as on its digital, streaming and audio outlets.

“It was important for us to seize this as an opportunity, to plant a flag and to lay down a marker that says this is one of the most important issues of our time and one of the most important issues confronting America today,...

“All right. I am told there is a tie.”

— Presenter N.J. Burkett, president of the New York chapter of NATAS, at the 2014 News & Documentary Emmy Awards

For decades, the biggest names in television news were honored at the annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards through a voting system that was designed to generate a bewildering number of ties.

Since the awards were launched in 1980, more than 280 categories ended in ties, including some crazy ones in the early years. At the inaugural awards in 1980, there were two nine-way ties and an eight-way tie. In 1981, a category ended in a 21-way tie. By 1985, a total of 24 awards – nearly half of all the those presented – ended in ties. During the 1990s, there were 124 ties, averaging more than 12 a year.

Records provided to Deadline by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences reveal that since 1980, only four of 39 shows didn’t include at least one...

Limited series “Chernobyl” and “When They See Us” tell stories of traumatic events that both occurred in the late 1980s but were worlds apart. For the former HBO project, Craig Mazin tapped into the human cost after the 1986 nuclear power plant explosion in the Soviet Union, while for the latter Netflix show, Ava DuVernay dug deeper to get to know the boys who were labeled the “Central Park Five” after being arrested for rape in a 1989 case that generated national coverage. Sitting down at Variety, DuVernay and Mazin discussed the responsibility they felt to portray the humanity behind the people involved in the true tales, as well as the challenges that arose from mixing the outsider perspective of politics and the media with intimate moments between characters.

How did the politics of your geographical settings and time periods, coupled with the politics of today’s audience experiences, inform the way...

Exclusive: Former Real Housewives of New York cast member Carole Radziwill has signed with Verve in all areas. Verve has also recruited veteran producer Bill Thompson to bolster the agency’s growing unscripted space.

Radziwill exited Housewives in July after six seasons and will appear on Part 3 of the reunion episode tonight on Bravo. She is an Emmy-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author and TV personality. She has several projects in development over multiple platforms including scripted, unscripted, digital and publishing.

Radziwill began her career at ABC News as a journalist working for Peter Jennings’ documentary unit, covering foreign policy stories in Haiti, Cambodia, Israel and Afghanistan. She produced stories for the magazine shows 20/20, Primetime Live and DayOne ranging from medical to murder stories, and celebrity profiles including the story of a Vietnam veteran’s anti-landmine campaign in Cambodia, which earned Radziwill the first of three Emmy Awards.

Her first book,...

ABC’s Lincoln Center Upfront presentation was, as its Television Group President Ben Sherwood promised, the perfect Roseanne Drinking Game. We lost track of how many times she was mentioned as the network celebrated the stunning ratings success of Roseanne redux. Sharing their Upfront presentation time with Freeform for the first time, ABC had to race through their new primetime schedule, to the detriment of new programs and returning – same as NBC has suffered for several springs now in its Upfront event shared with the various cable nets of NBCU.

ABC Entertainment chief Channing Dungey raced though plugs for Alec Baldwin’s new Sunday interview show – the first for broadcast primetime since Jay Leno’s short-lived stab at it on NBC. Slightly more time was spent on a new Juniors edition of Dancing with the Stars.

Even Jimmy Kimmel seemed a big undone by the rush as he made his...

You like David Muir! You really like him! Muir, the anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight,” is our nation’s most-liked TV media personality, according to TheWrap‘s latest study of Q Scores.

The anchor’s ratings reflect America’s ongoing love affair. “World News Tonight” is now the most-watched newscast in the country, having won last season in total viewers for the first time since Peter Jennings anchored the program 21 years ago.

Muir, who took the newscast over on September 1, 2014, has grown his overall audience by 448,000 viewers per night, on average.

Also Read: America's Least-Liked TV Media Personality Is ...

It’s worth noting here that although NBC’s Lester Holt still wins in the key news demographic, adults 25-54, Muir has closed that gap by a huge 46 percent compared with last season.

Muir’s strong Positive Q Score of 25 ranks him well ahead of Holt, who has a strong 18.

Q Scores, by the way, are an entertainment industry-used measurement of a celebrity or a brand’s likability. The higher the Positive Q Score, the more the 25- to 54-year-old survey respondents marked the individual or company as being among their favorites. The lower — well, you get it. Fortunately for Muir, he doesn’t have to worry about that possibility.

Also Read: ABC's David Muir Tops NBC's Lester Holt in Weekly Ratings for First Time in Nearly 2 Years

Muir’s 25 ranks him a full four Q Score points ahead of a mini logjam in second place.

Fox News host Chris Wallace, “Good Morning America” co-anchor Lara Spencer and “CBS Evening News” anchor Jeff Glor all have a 21 Positive Q Score, though only Wallace — with a 31 Familiarity score — is better-known to the general public than Muir (a 25 for Familiarity too).

CBS’ John Dickerson is the fifth most-liked TV media personality, with a 20. It’s worth noting that both Dickerson and Glor Q Scores are considered unstable because their Familiarity is under 20 (each is at 10 on that measure).

Also Read: 30 Most and Least-Liked TV Media Personalities: From David Muir to Megyn Kelly (Photos)

So those are all strong likability. If you want to see a bad Q Score, click here.

TheWrap researched the Q Scores of 30 well-known television media personalities and hosts and ranked them in the gallery below.

For the record, we technically looked into 57 total TV news personalities, but almost half of them — including CNN’s Don Lemon and Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham — did not yet have Q Scores.

Read original story America’s Most-Liked TV Media Personality Is … At TheWrap...

ABC’s World News Tonight With David Muir snapped NBC Nightly News‘ 20-year total viewer lock on the evening race, taking the win for the 2016-2017 season. Peter Jennings was ABC’s evening news anchor the last time the network pulled this off. World News Tonight is the only broadcast evening newscast that did not lose viewers year-to-year. ABC’s newscast is flat, flat being the new up, and World News Tonight‘s 2015-2016 season was its best tally in nine years. Muir’s…...

ABC News’ “World News Tonight With David Muir” won the July 2017 sweep in Total Viewers, averaging 7.53 million viewers. “World News Tonight” has won all four sweeps periods of the 2016-17 television season, marking the first time the network earned that honor in a season since Peter Jennings was anchor 21 years ago from 1995-96. It is also ABC’s first July sweep victory over “Nightly News” since 2007. “From day one, David Muir and this team have remained focused on the reporting and the viewers every night, their concerns, their hopes — and we are grateful they have noticed,” executive producer Almin Karamehmedovic.

Former New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez has “sealed a deal” to become a contributor with ABC News, according to the New York Post. The Post reported that the former baseball star would appear on a variety of ABC News platforms, including “Good Morning America” “Nightline” and “World News Tonight” to become a “contributor for sports, family and even financial segments.” ABC News did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. Reps for ABC and A-Rod declined to comment to the Post. Also Read: David Muir's ABC Newscast Wins 3 Straight Sweeps for First Time Since Peter Jennings 21 Years Ago The.