Nexstar Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor A federal judge has dismissed the antitrust lawsuit that DirecTV filed against Nexstar last year accusing the TV station giant of price-fixing in connection with its retransmission consent negotiations with the satellite TV platform. DirecTV’s suit, filed in New York’s Southern District in March 2023, accused Nexstar of engaging in price-fixing activity around the retransmission consent fees from MVPDs that have become a key source of revenue for local station owners.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Sherri Shepherd is staying put. Her first-run syndicated talker strip “Sherri” has been officially renewed for a third season via Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The Federal Communications Commission has hit Nexstar Media Group and its business partner Mission Broadcasting with a $1.2 million fine and an order to sell WPIX-TV New York or other stations to come into compliance with longstanding station ownership limits. The commission on Thursday issued a 42-page decision in its probe of Nexstar’s ties to Mission Broadcasting and whether their business agreement violated the FCC‘s reach limit on TV station ownership. The commission’s concluded that Nexstar’s near-total oversight of WPIX’s operations gave the station giant effective control of precious TV industry real estate — a full-power broadcast TV station in the nation’s largest market.

The Federal Communications Commission has determined that local TV giant Nexstar Media Group‘s takeover of WPIX-TV in New York in 2020 violated federal limits on station ownership.

A federal court on Wednesday granted Nexstar’s motion to dismiss DirecTV’s antitrust claims.

As a sports fan, “you want to pull your hair out” when trying to toggle between streaming and linear TV, in the view of Nexstar President and COO Mike Biard.

Nexstar President and COO Mike Biard says there has been “significant misinterpretation and market overreaction” to the sports streaming bundle announced by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nexstar reported its fourth-quarter 2023 earnings Wednesday, revealing its TV ad sales were down 36% from Oct. 1- Dec. 31.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Geraldo Rivera, a longtime news correspondent and talk-show host with a knack for the theatrical, is taking up roots at a new outlet. The one-time Fox News Channel personality, also known for his time as a syndicated daytime presence, has joined Nexstar Media’s NewsNation as a correspondent at large, effective immediately. He is expected to appear across daytime and primetime programming and will make his first appearance Wednesday evening on “Cuomo,” which airs at 8 p.m.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor NewsNation wants to make a land grab on Sundays. The Nexstar Media-backed cable outlet will launch its own Sunday public affairs program on March 3, when Chris Stirewalt anchors “The Hill Sunday” at 10 a.m. eastern.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The audience for NewsNation‘s Wednesday-night Republican primary debate was one of the smallest and the biggest. Nearly 1.6 million tuned in to the Nexstar-backed upstart cable-news outlet to watch two former Republican governors, one current one and one outlier tangle for attention and donors in a debate moderated by Elizabeth Vargas, Megyn Kelly and Eliana Johnson, with more than 2.5 million choosing to watch a simulcast on the CW broadcast network, a corporate sibling.

Fans were shocked recently when it was revealed that the average age of The CW‘s viewers is 58 and now data for all five broadcast networks has been revealed.

Dozens of local TV stations owned by Tegna, most of them NBC and CBS affiliates, have gone dark on DirecTV in a carriage dispute.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Before CNN, CBS News or ABC News can snare one of the series of Republican primary debates taking place in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, another news outlet will have its turn. NewsNation, the upstart cable-news property launched by Nexstar Media in March of 2021, will team up with SiriusXM Radio and the conservative political outlet Washington Free Beacon on December 6 to broadcast the event, the fourth backed by the Republican National Committee following debates telecast by Fox News Media networks and NBC News.

NewsNation will host the next Republican primary debate, a big get for the fledgling news network.

Nexstar posted third-quarter results marred by a carriage dispute with DirecTV as well as a cyclical lack of political advertising.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nexstar reported its third-quarter 2023 earnings Wednesday, revealing TV ad revenue was down overall 23% for the July-September quarter. Meanwhile, the CW network made quarter-over-quarter progress on its path to profitability by narrowing its losses to $60 million. For the CW, which was formally acquired by Nexstar in October 2022 from Paramount Global and Warner Bros.

Emily Longeretta It turns out, you don’t have to wait — or pay. All 128 episodes of “Dawson’s Creek” are now available to stream on The CW app, Variety can exclusively announce. The fully ad-supported app, which has more than 96 million downloads, is available for free on all major platforms.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Brian Doherty, a veteran of the CW‘s ad-sales department who was instrumental in developing ties between Madison Avenue and series such as “Arrow” and “Gossip Girl,” is leaving — the latest in a parade of TV sales veterans to exit as the industry consolidates and new owners take control of various properties. Doherty, who has been with the CW or its predecessor, the WB, since 1999, had been serving as executive vice president of multi-platform advertising sales, reporting to Todd Braverman, recently a senior executive at Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable networks, who is now head of national ad sales for CW.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Like many U.S. journalists trying to get to Israel to cover reaction to attacks in the country by terrorists, Chris Cuomo faced a difficult journey. But that’s his problem, he says, not one for his viewers.

In a boosterish, 12-page slide deck issued this morning, top station group owner and CW parent Nexstar Media Group made the case for broadcast television and saluted last month’s Disney–Charter carriage deal.

Andrew Wallenstein President and Chief Media Analyst Allen Media Group CEO/founder/chairman Byron Allen reaffirmed his interest Wednesday in bidding $10 billion for TV brands from Disney, citing his experience with similar assets in his own portfolio. “I think broadcast television and linear channels, I think is a great business,” he said in a Q&A at the Code conference in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Media entrepreneur Byron Allen, one of many parties interested in acquiring ABC and other linear TV assets from Disney, said he has “access to plenty of capital,” and Disney’s internal deliberations are the next hurdle to be cleared.

The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute has brought in veteran TV casting executive as Head of Talent, a newly created position focused on transitioning the Institute’s students to becoming professional actors in film and TV.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Dan Abrams, one of the founding anchors in NewsNation’s primetime lineup, aims to continue his work at the Nexstar Media-backed outlet. Abrams and NewsNation reached a “multi-year” pact that will extend his work there, where he hosts “Dan Abrams Live” at 9 p.m.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor After an 11-week blackout, Nexstar and DirecTV agreed to restore more than 150 Nexstar-owned local TV stations to the satcaster’s lineup amid progress in contract negotiations. Nexstar and DirecTV released a joint statement early Sunday to disclose that the stations would begin returning to DirecTV’s channel menu, with a focus on NFL-heavy markets where Nexstar has CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates.

Ending a two-and-a-half month impasse, DirecTV and leading station owner Nexstar Media Group have agreed to restore the signals of dozens of stations as the companies work to finalize a carriage renewal.

BreAnna Bell Disney has responded to reports claiming the company is in early talks to sell its ABC network and TV stations, saying the company “has made no decision” on it yet. “While we are open to considering a variety of strategic options for our linear businesses, at this time The Walt Disney Company has made no decision with respect to the divestiture of ABC or any other property and any report to that effect is unfounded,” the statement reads.

Disney is pushing back on reports that the company is talking with Nexstar Media Group about a potential sale of ABC and its eight local ABC stations.

The CW systematically stripped away its superhero dramas and teen-centric soaps during the 2022-23 television season, taking the foundation of its primetime programming slate down to the studs. Now comes the reveal of a renovation that leans heavily on niche sports, noisy unscripted series, procedural dramas and broad-skewing comedies. The change comes a year after Texas-based Nexstar Media Group acquired a majority stake in The CW from its founders, CBS and Warner Bros.