NBC Calls New Plays at ‘Football Night in America’

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor AMC hopes that when viewers aren’t watching its new “Interview with The Vampire” series, they’ll be shopping it instead. The media company, which has made a significant investment in the “Vampire Chronicles” and “Lives of the Mayfair Witches” properties devised by author Anne Rice, is opening a virtual boutique with items all related to the first series in the new venture. “Interview With The Vampire” is slated to debut on Sunday, October 2, the same day the shopping outlet, known as “Night Market,” goes online. Bedding, sleep masks, “forever flowers,” and even a casket are available for purchase, notes Kim Granito, an executive vice president of integrated marketing for AMC Networks who is overseeing the project, devised by the company’s Content Room, a brand studio. “You don’t have to be dead to enjoy them,” she says of the vampire-related goods.

The thrilling new trailer for NBC’s La Brea is finally here!

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News Channel named veteran Trace Gallagher to anchor its “Fox News @ Night,” a late-night entry that aims to deliver end-of-the-day reports to the network’s West Coast audience. Gallagher will take over the nightly newscast on October 3, holding forth from Fox News’ Los Angeles bureau, and will continue to serve as the cable-news outlets chief correspondent for breaking news. He replaces Shannon Bream, who launched the wee-hours news entry in 2017, originally at 11 p.m. She has moved on to take the reins at the network’s “Fox News Sunday.” “When it comes to breaking news coverage, Trace Gallagher is one of the best in the business and having a seasoned journalist at the helm of this hour ensures our viewers unrivaled 24/7 news coverage,” said Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, in a prepared statement.

Perth Theatre and Pitlochry Festival Theatre are both celebrating their original content winning at the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS).

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Add Chris Redd to the list of veteran cast members walking away from “Saturday Night Live.” Redd has decided to exit NBC’s venerable late-night showcase after five seasons on the program, and is just the latest member of what has been one of the program’s largest casts in recent memory to leave ahead of its 48th season. Lorne Michaels, the show’s longtime executive producer, had anticipated a season of change earlier in the year, and recently suggested the current group of comics stayed together to help each other get through the pandemic. “Being a part of ‘SNL’ has been the experience of a lifetime. Five years ago, I walked into 30 Rock knowing that this was an amazing opportunity for growth,:” Redd said in a statement. “Now, with friends who have become family and memories I will cherish forever, I’m grateful to Lorne Michaels and to the entire ‘SNL’ organization. From the bottom of my heart, I can’t thank you all enough.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Jamie Yuccas’ new Los Angeles assignment at KCAL is likely to make waves among followers of local news. But it’s part of a big national effort by the station’s owner, Paramount Global. Yuccas, a veteran correspondent at CBS News, will be one of the anchors of a new seven-hour morning block of local newscasts on the CBS-owned station. Yuccas, who will continue to serve as a CBS News correspondent, will anchor from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on KCAL each morning, making her one of the faces viewers will likely see as they get ready for their day. KCAL intends to show news from 4 a.m. to 11 a.m. each day. The company is trying to offer more local news via 14 owned affiliates to both their linear and streaming audiences. Local news spurs deeper connections with viewers, says Wendy McMahon co president of CBS’ news and stations unit, in an interview. “The local news we produce drives impact, and that impact is service to our community, she says. “Ultimately, it has a positive impact on the business.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor “Saturday Night Live” is trying to replenish its ranks after many of its best-known cast members have signaled they intend to leave the show. The venerable NBC late-night program has enlisted four new featured players for its 48th season, a move that will lend some ballast to the cast after mainstays like Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant decided to leave. In many years, “”Saturday Night Live”” taps two or three new players per season, so four is more than the show typically brings on board. The four new featured players include Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker. Hernandez, who bills himself as a writer, comedian and producer, is a Cuban-Dominican stand-up who has opened for Tim Dillon, Jim Breuer, Mark Viera, Gilbert Gottfried and others. Kearney is a Chicago-based comic. Longfellow, who hails from Arizona, has done stand up in Los Angeles. And Walker, who has made a few lists of up-and-coming comedians recently, hails from New York City.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor There will be lots of teams worth following this NFL season, be they the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the returning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. Even so, many people in the media business have their eyes on a very distinctive player: Amazon Prime Video. The streamer, which once shared “Thursday Night Football” games with Fox, now has exclusive rights to that action and must convince some pigskin Luddites to plug into broadband. Streaming “Thursday Night Football,” after all, will require a different kind of remote — and familiarity with a home screen, not a cable box. “It is going to be a behavioral shift for people,” acknowledges Jay Marine, VP of Prime Video and its global head of sports. “Our job is to make sure they are able to find ‘Thursday Night Football’ at its new home and make it as easy as possible to get into the Prime Video app and start streaming.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Pooja Midha has been named executive vice president and general manager for Effectv, the ad-sales division of Comcast’s large cable operation, putting her in charge of a unit with broadening importance for the unit at a time when advertisers are seeking new technologies to aid in the placement of their pitches to consumers. Midha replaces James Rooke, who was recently named president of Comcast Advertising. Midha will oversee a national team that manages everything from sales to data innovation. She is expected to continue to burnish the company’s efforts to bring more widespread use of data to TV strategies, and to utilize addressable and programmatic ad technologies.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics remain many months away, but NBC Sports has an idea it hopes will get fans thinking about the athletic extravaganza right now. A new monthly series, “Chasing Gold: Paris 2024,” will debut this Sunday, September 18 on NBC at 2:30 p.m. eastern, and NBC Sports executives hope an early look at the athletes gearing up for the Games will build new storylines and anticipation. “We think we can help grow and cultivate interest in the Olympics year-round,” says Jack Felling, the series’ coordinating producer.

Online radio station Worldwide FM will stop broadcasting new shows with founder Gilles Peterson telling listeners to expect "a much more minimal service" from next month. The London-based station will keep its website and Mixcloud archive online with Peterson stating that he is working on a solution to the issues affecting the station.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Dan Abrams wants to expand the offerings at the bar. After launching Whiskey Raiders, a digital outlet devoted to the review and discussion of whiskey and bourbon, in late 2020, the entrepreneur’s Abrams Media wants to do the same for tequila, rum and gin. The company has launched Tequila Raiders, Rum Raiders and Gin Raiders, each devoted to offering online resources and content around each spirit — creating a large database of liquor reviews. Just as Whiskey Raiders does, the new sites will aggregate individual reviews from respected outlets across the internet and use a proprietary algorithm to assign one average score for each bottle. In addition to reviews, the sites will also provide news and lifestyle coverage on tequila, rum and gin.

Jake Gyllenhaal stepped out at D23 Expo this weekend to promote his new animated film Strange World!

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Shannon Bream first tried her hand at journalism at the age of 30 after having earned a law degree. Some of the people working with her called her “Grandma Intern.” They won’t be calling her that on Sunday. Bream will this weekend kick off a new era on “Fox News Sunday,” the jewel of the news side at Fox News Channel, which often gets more attention for its opinion programming. She will be the programs’ first permanent female host and will be the first permanent replacement for Chris Wallace, who burnished his reputation for prosecutorial questioning of newsmakers and politicians over a tenure that lasted just under two decades. Wallace raised eyebrows in late 2021, when he announced on air he was leaving the show. He later disclosed he had jumped to CNN, where he is slated to host a new program for both HBO Max and CNN’s Sunday schedule.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor NBC has new teams leading both “Sunday Night Football” and “Football Night in America.” And it will serve up new logos for both shows as well. For 16 years, viewers of both football broadcasts have seen their titles arranged in a “shield” design. This season, the programs are getting a new look, with title logos that can be displayed more readily no matter the venue on which each program is being watched. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all design direction. It’s far more nimble and less limiting than what a metallic shield was able to offer,” says Mark Levy, the NBC Sports senior vice president of original productions and creative who oversees the design of the division’s programming. “It just offers a flexibility that allos designers and animators a level of creativity” they didn’t have in the past.

NBC’s ‘New Amsterdam’ To Be Remade In Turkey

EJ Panaligan editor Jeremy Strong had thoughts to share about a late 2021 New Yorker profile that revealed insights into his method acting, telling Vanity Fair at the Telluride Film Festival on Friday that the story felt like a “pretty profound betrayal of trust.” “The noise and the fog after it: I think it’s something that, I guess, what I care about ultimately is trying to feel as free as possible as an actor. Part of that is trying to insulate yourself from all of that, and what people might say about you or think about you. You have to free yourself from that,” Strong said about the social media discourse that followed after the profile published in December 2021. “It was painful. I felt foolish. As an actor, one of the most vital secret weapons that you can have is the ability to tolerate feeling foolish.”

Sir Mo Farah, Sir Trevor MacDonald, and Jennifer Saunders will be among the celebrity guest managers in the new 'Fantasy Football League' series. The show is back from September 29th for a 16-episode series with new hosts, Matt Lucas and Elis James, on a new channel, Sky Max, and Sky have confirmed the likes of Succession’s Brian Cox and singer Tom Grennan will also feature in the new-look programme, which is returning after 18 years. Each week a pair of celebrity guest managers will join Matt and Elis to discuss the week in football and share their fantasy teams from the digital dugout.