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During a TV interview focused on Wednesday’s news about new AI features being added to Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, CEO Andy Jassy was asked about the topic du jour in Hollywood: James Bond.

“We don’t have a plan yet on what the next theme is going to be,” he told CNBC, according to a transcript furnished by the network. “We haven’t – nobody’s written the story yet. But we will take great care. It’s an amazing franchise that we care a lot about and that we expect to develop over a long period of time.”

The exec’s comments follow last Friday’s stunning deal between Amazon and longtime Bond stewards Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The pact gives Amazon, which has already held distribution rights to the franchise after its 2022 acquisition of MGM, full creative control of the property. There have been lamentations...

The Television Academy named four new members to its board of directors on Monday.

The new members include “Access Hollywood” host Scott Evans, Village Roadshow Entertainment group executive vice president of television Alix Jaffe, Madison Media Management chariman and CEO Paula Williams Madison and Babette Perry, a partner at Innovative Artists’ Broadcast Division, to its board of directors.

Evans, Jaffe, Madison and Perry have been elected to serve three-year terms, effective immediately.

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Additionally, four officers have been re-elected to the board for two-year terms.

They include Foundation chair, Banijay chairman of the Americas and Endemol Shine Holdings president and CEO Cris Abrego; treasurer and A+E Networks executive vice president of global content sales Deborah Bradley; secretary and Billie Greer Consulting public policy advisor Billie Greer; and vice chair and Bunim/Murray co-founder and executive consultant Jonathan Murray.

CNBC is filling the 7 Pm Et hour with Last Call, a business show that will be anchored by Brian Sullivan and explore money, culture and policy.

The new show occupies the old time slot of The News with Shepard Smith, the newscast that was canceled in November.

CNBC President Kc Sullivan, who wants the network to focus on its core area of business and financial news, announced the new show in a memo to staff, along with a series of other changes to the CNBC lineup.

“Through panels, debates and newsmakers, Last Call will not only deliver fresh takes on the biggest business topics of the day, but also shine a light on the other important stories that our viewers may have missed, all with an eye on what’s going to matter to the markets the next day,” he wrote.

He also said that the network would produce more documentaries and specials in primetime,...

CNBC is making a new bid to stay open after the stock market is closed.

Brian Sullivan. anchor of the early-morning “Worldwide Exchange,” gets to trade in an early wake-up for a late-evening perch at “Last Call,” CNBC’s newest attempt to extend its business journalism into the early evening. Sullivan’s show will replace “The News,” a vehicle for former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith that was cancelled last year.

“‘Last Call’ is a fast-paced, entertaining business show that explores the intersection of money, culture and policy. Through panels, debates and newsmakers,” said CNBC President Kc Sullivan in a memo to staff. “‘Last Call’ will not only deliver fresh takes on the biggest business topics of the day, but also shine a light on the other important stories that our viewers may have missed, all with an eye on what’s going to matter to the markets the next day.

CNBC, the business-news cable outlet not known for making big changes to its daytime programing lineup, is doing just that.

The NBCUniversal-owned network intends to replace “Squawk Alley,” a technology-focused hour that has been slotted at 11 a.m. since May of 2014, with “TechCheck,” an hour with similar focus.

The hour will be CNBC’s first that is anchored from both the east and west coasts. Jon Fortt and Carl Quintanilla, who have been anchoring “Squawk Alley,” will continue to hold forth from CNBC’s New Jersey studios, while Deirdre Bosa will join from California. Julia Boorstin, CNBC’s senior media and entertainment reporter will also take part regularly from Los Angeles. CNBC reporters including Josh Lipton and Kate Rooney will be featured, along with staffers from CNBC.com. Todd Bonin will be the show’s senior executive producer.

“Investors now have embraced a broad universe of technology stocks and...

Political junkies aren’t the only ones who will have more TV programming than they can possibly watch on Election Night.

Two of the better-known business-news outlets, CNBC and Fox Business Network. plan to keep coverage going well after the market closes Tuesday, the better to explain to viewers the financial ramifications for the 2020 presidential election. CNBC intends to use its regularly-scheduled 7 p.m. program — an hour led by Shepard Smith — to push viewers to election programming that is expected to run through the wee hours of the morning. Fox Business will kick off its coverage at 7 p.m., led by anchor Neil Cavuto, after a two-hour broadcast from Lou Dobbs. Cavuto will be broadcasting from Fox News Media production studios for the first time in months.

Smith, whose new show, “The News With Shepard Smith” represents one of CNBC’s more aggressive programming initiatives in years, will participate in the coverage that follows,...

CNBC said it would move Morgan Brennan to its markets-focused “Squawk on the Street” after devoting one of that show’s co-anchors, Sara Eisen, exclusively to “Closing Bell” rather than have her work on two different programs across its schedule.

Eisen will work solely on “Closing Bell” alongside Wilfred Frost starting June 22, according to a memo from Dan Colarusso, senior vice president of CNBC Business News. “We want Sara to have the ability to focus on a part of the day that, while always crucial, has become even more critical to our audience in these volatile times,” he said. Eisen joined CNBC in 2013 after working at Bloomberg and has anchored such programs as “Power Lunch” and “Worldwide Exchange.”

Morgan Brennan, who has held forth on technology-heavy “Squawk Alley,” will move to the 10 a.m. hour of “Squawk on the Street,” Colarusso said. “She’ll have some time to get accustomed...

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge seemed a bit like Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel talking about his amp going to 11 when CNBC’s Jon Fortt asked exactly the right question in a panel today at the National Cable Show: What changed to make him support Comcast’s $45B acquisition of Time Warner Cable, which Charter opposed last month saying would leave Comcast controlling “nearly 40 percent of the broadband market, around 33 million TV subscribers and a major programmer in NBCUniversal”? The real answer is that Charter was bought off this week when Comcast agreed to sell it many of the subs it had already promised to divest, making Charter the industry’s No. 2. Rutledge couldn’t say that, of course. Instead he avoided the core issue and said that “It’s a smaller deal from Comcast’s perspective and from an organization of the industry perspective it’s a much better outcome.