News

Five years ago this week, the television industry rose to the challenge of keeping news, daytime and late-night talk shows and other topical series on the air during the harsh early months of the Covid pandemic.

We didn’t know it then, but March 2020 marked a huge inflection point for the television business. Stay-at-home orders, masks and antigen tests — it seems distant and not so distant all at once. The story of how Covid helped supercharge the streaming business — and the streaming wars — has been well documented in recent years.

But another big TV story unfolded during the early months of lockdown that hasn’t gotten as much attention. The first few weeks of the pandemic spurred more seat-of-the-pants innovation to broadcast operations and engineering than had been done since the days of Sid Caesar and Milton Berle in the early 1950s. In media and entertainment, the show-must-go-on ethos is real.

Scott Wilder has been promoted to executive vice president of productions and operations for Fox News Media.

Wilder oversees technical, field and production operations for special events and breaking news coverage, the network said. That includes this year’s presidential election.

Wilder joined the network in 1996, at its debut, and has worked in breaking news and events production since then. As senior vice president of field production and operations, he oversaw the first two Republican primary debates this cycle, as well as Sean Hannity’s The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate: Newsom vs. DeSantis in Alpharetta, Ga. He also oversaw several town halls and election night programming for the 2022 midterms.

Other productions include presidential oversees trips, Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and President Joe Biden’s inauguration. He also helped create the look of the Patriot Awards, the Fox Nation event. During the Covid pandemic, he helped engineer more than...

Hulu has released the trailer for the upcoming series “Death and Other Details,” which premieres on Jan. 16 with its first two episodes.

The ten-episode murder mystery stars Violett Beane, Mandy Patinkin, Lauren Patten, Rahul Kohli, Angela Zhou, Hugo Diego Garcia, Pardis Saremi and Linda Emond.

Per the series’ description: “Set amidst the glamor of the global elite, ‘Death and Other Details’ centers on the brilliant and restless Imogene Scott (Violett Beane), who finds herself in the wrong place/wrong time and becomes the prime suspect in a locked room murder mystery. The setting? A lavishly restored Mediterranean ocean liner. Suspects? Every pampered guest and every exhausted crew member. The problem? To prove her innocence, she must partner with a man she despises—Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkin), the world’s greatest detective.”

ABC Signature produces “Death and Other Details.” Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams wrote and executive produce the series,...

Adam Petlin, who joined Fox News weeks after its debut in 1996 and was longtime head of Chicago bureau operations, died on Dec. 23 after a long illness. He was 58.

Petlin was one of the first six field photographers hired for the then-fledging news operation in August 1996. He was quickly promoted to supervisory posts and became part of the core team that built the channel into a cable powerhouse.

Petlin led the first Fox News camera crew to reach the scene at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. His other career highlights included a trip to Antarctica and the South Pole with former Apollo program astronaut Jim Lovell.

“He was an integral part of the field and production team and a gifted still and television photographer,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott wrote in a memo to employees sent on Dec. 24. Scott called Petlin “a natural leader” and “a Fox News original.

Hey, "9-1-1" fans. We hope you guys totally enjoyed watching tonight's intense episode 3. Now that it has come and gone, it's time to see what the 118 crew will be up to in the next,new episode 4 when it arrives next week. Fox was quite generous with their official storyline teasers for episode 4. So, we will certainly be using those to reveal what's coming up. To get this spoiler party started, we do have the official title for episode 4. It is called, "Triggers." They kept the title nice and short for this one. Episode 4 sounds like it will feature some very intense, action-filled, super dramatic, emotional and interesting scenes as a bunch of high-rise workers are in major danger! An extreme car accident takes place. Fighting drama goes down between siblings! Bobby gets startling news! Eddie helps out Christopher. Karen and Hen have a big debate! Maddie decides to go...

Fox News has promoted company veteran John Finley to Evp Development and added oversight of Fox Nation to his duties. He will run its nascent streaming service as well as continuing to develop all new programs, series and documentaries for Fox News.

Finley has developed all of Fox Nation’s short- and longform programming and was instrumental in the 2018 launch of Fox Nation. The standalone direct-to-consumer platform now offers more than 600 hours of content ranging from historical documentaries to political and lifestyle series.

“John has played a fundamental part in the development of some of our most successful and signature programs,” said Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News and Fox Business Network, to whom Finley will report. “For nearly two decades, he has been an asset to the network and we are looking forward to him taking on this new key role in overseeing Fox Nation.”

Finley has spent the past 19 years at Fox News,...