Nexstar Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Earlier this month, The CW proudly trumpeted how the 2023 LIV Golf League season will air in 100% of markets across the U.S. The 14-event schedule kicks off Friday at the El Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Course in Mexico, with the CW app streaming coverage on Fridays and linear CW broadcast picking up on Saturdays and Sundays.

UPDATED: The CW announced Friday that 100 Days To Indy, its upcoming motorsports docuseries, will premiere on Thursday, April 27 at 9 PM on the network.

NewsNation reporter Evan Lambert, Attorney General Dave Yost said Wednesday. The charges stemmed from a Feb. 9 news conference about a train derailment and explosion in East Palestine, Ohio, where Lambert was doing a live report.

Well this is something: All of the CW affiliates have agreed to air the 2023 LIV Golf League season. The network made it official today by announcing the first official full season of the Saudi-backed golf will air on 100% of the CW affiliates, as well as Nexstar owned and operated stations in key markets including Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Tampa and Hartford.

The CW has a new business affairs boss.

In what appears to be a new wave of layoffs, several senior scripted executives have left the broadcast network, including Gaye Hirsch, EVP, Development, who is departing after more than 15 years, and fellow CW veteran and head of department, Michael Roberts, who had been at the network (and its predecessor the WB) for 21 years, sources tell deadline.

Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury has renewed hit game show Family Feud through the 2025-26 season, taking the Fremantle-produced show into its landmark 50th year on television. Leading station groups Fox, CBS, Nexstar, Scripps and Tegna have signed multi-year renewals for the nationally syndicated ratings juggernaut, hosted by Steve Harvey.

Nexstar Media Group, which last year acquired 75% of The CW, updated investors on the “offensive and defensive” rationale for the acquisition.

Dateline will be back for its seventh season in national broadcast syndication. NBCUniversal Syndication Studios announced Thursday that it has renewed the popular newsmagazine show with the NBC Owned Television Stations Group.

Fox’s new crime anthology drama Accused launched behind the Dallas Cowboys vs. San Francisco 49ers NFL game on Sunday. The twisty legal thriller from Howard Gordon kept some 8.4M viewers for the duration, setting a ratings record for Fox. But a number of them were left fuming after local Fox stations across the country accidentally cut away in the final minutes, denying them the resolution of the story starring Michael Chiklis.

LIV Golf, a professional tour that launched last year with backing from the government of Saudi Arabia, has finally landed a U.S. TV deal.

The CW may be scaling back its scripted ambitions but it’s keeping All American.

Nexstar Media Group has appointed former Turner ad sales exec Michael Strober to the newly created position of EVP and Chief Revenue Officer.

Nexstar Media Group, which has long been known for its enviable balance sheet and knack for finding ways to economize, plans to fund its investment in The CW with proceeds from its sale of a Chicago property to a casino developer.

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook and execs of the nation’s biggest broadcaster said its imprimatur will be evident on The CW schedule for the 2023-2024 season with lower cost, broader appeal, and more unscripted fare and minimal content from former co-owners Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount Global.

Nexstar grew revenue 9.7% for the September quarter to $1.29 billion for the three months ended in September, as the new CW owner cited growth in political advertising, distribution and digital revenue.

Not counting the series that are officially ending this season, the oldest scripted series on the air at the CW is flagship All American, currently in its fifth season. All other shows are three-years-old or younger. That is significant as series tend to get more expensive as they age.

Less than a month after Nexstar Media closed a deal to take 75% ownership of The CW, the broadcast network has been hit with dozens of layoffs.

EXCLUSIVE: The new iteration of The CW is starting to take shape.

EXCLUSIVE: Faced with their first decision on ordering more of the CW’s existing scripted series, the network’s new Nexstar owners opted against it. I hear there will be no back orders for the CW’s new fall series, Walker: Independence, from CBS Studios, and The Winchesters, from Warner Bros. Television, whose freshman seasons will remain at the original 13 episodes.

Paul Hewitt is the latest long-term exec leaving The CW.

DC’s Stargirl is coming to an end. The series will conclude with its third season, which is currently airing on The CW.

The end is in sight for the CW’s Nancy Drew. The network confirmed Wednesday that the fourth season, which is currently in production, will be the last for the series. Season 4 is slated to premiere midseason. A premiere date and time will be announced later.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer We’re almost a month into the broadcast TV fall 2022 season and we’ve already got a few winners and losers to discuss when it comes to new scripted series. There are multiple ways to categorize a victory in the this ever-evolving TV landscape, but for the purposes of this story looking at the debuts of NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and The CW’s new shows, Variety has ranked the programs by the total viewers that each series premiere racked up, according to Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data.

Less than a day after the announcement that Mark Pedowitz would leave the CW, the cast and creator of The Winchesters took time to honor the chairman and CEO who championed their Supernatural spinoff.

Two senior executives at the CW — Rick Haskins, president of streaming and chief branding officer, and finance chief Mitch Nedick — are departing the network as Nexstar assumes control.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor After spending several years setting the pace of “The Flash” and other hard-racing TV superheroes on the CW network, Mark Pedowitz has reached the end of his current adventure. The longtime TV executive, who has run the one-time joint venture between CBS and Time Warner since 2011, is leaving the network as Nexstar Media Group prepares to acquire the outlet, which has its roots in two antecedent networks, UPN and The WB, that both catered to younger viewers. Nexstar is expected to close the deal at some point in the third quarter of 2022, but has already begun to run the network’s operations. Dennis Miller, a longtime TV executive who eventually moved into the world of venture capital, will take the reins as president of CW. Miller has served on Nexstar’s board of directors for the past few years.

Mark Pedowitz, who has served as chairman and CEO of The CW for the past 11 years, will be exiting the network as Nexstar completes its acquisition of a 75% controlling stake, the company announced Monday. Dennis Miller, who has held senior executive positions at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate Television and Turner Network Television, will take over as The CW’s new president, effective immediately.

Mark Pedowitz is stepping down as Chairman and CEO of the CW after eleven and a half years at the helm of the broadcast network, one of the longest tenures in network television. The move comes as local TV giant Nexstar Media Group is taking over the CW, with its acquisition of 75% stake in the 16-year-old broadcast operation now completed. He will be replaced by Dennis Miller who was named President, confirming new owners’ intention to take the CW in a different direction. 

Nexstar Media Group has formally closed a deal to acquire 75% interest in the broadcast network. Mark Pedowitz, the longtime CEO of the network and its face to the industry for the past 11 years, is stepping down after a brief transition period.