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Friday, September 26, 2008
9/26: Bravo parent stops “Project Runway” from moving to Lifetime
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was shocking news a few months when Lifetime announced it had poached “Project Runway” from under Bravo’s pockets. NBC Universal, which owns Bravo, instantly filed suit.
Well, we just got the following news from NBC.
“NBC Universal is pleased that the court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction against The Weinstein Company. The overwhelming evidence demonstrated that The Weinstein Company violated NBC Universal’s right of first refusal to future cycles of Project Runway. After hearing all of the evidence, the court issued an order prohibiting The Weinstein Company from taking the show or any spin-off to Lifetime.”
Sounds like we won’t be seeing “Project Runway” anytime soon unless this gets settled. Lifetime had been scheduled to air the next season of “Runway” in early 2009. It was supposed to be part of a way to give Lifetime more cache but now such plans have been placed on ice.
From Adweek:
The Weinstein Co. late Friday issued this statement: “We are glad that the court held that NBCU cannot exhibit the program on Bravo and that court required NBCU to post a minimum $20 million bond. Obviously we will be appealing and remain committed to our partners.”
Lifetime said it would continue to press its case: “We are disappointed with the court’s decision to grant the preliminary injunction against the Weinstein Co. It’s unfortunate that the people hurt most by this ongoing dispute are the loyal fans of Project Runway. In the meantime, Lifetime will pursue all measures to uphold its valid and binding agreement reached with the Weinstein Co. for season six of Project Runway.”
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9/26: Hot 107.9 confirms what we already knew: Rickey Smiley takes over mornings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At 8:30 a.m. this morning, Hot 107.9 finally confirmed a rumor that has been running rampant for weeks: comic Rickey Smiley from Birmingham is taking over the morning show in syndication. He starts October 6.
So wipe another locally produced show off the grid as the “A Team” disappears for good. In the past three years, we’ve had an influx of out-of-towners arrive in Atlanta: Steve Harvey has been the most successful at Grown Folks 102.5, Yolanda Adams out of Houston came on last year at Praise 97.5 and Don Imus joined True Oldies 106.7 earlier this year. Bill Bennett has helmed the 920/WGKA-AM morning show for years and Tom Joyner has been a staple at Kiss 104.1 over the past decade plus.
As noted last month, long-time morning host Rashan Ali starting Sept. 29 will be doing mid days (because it seems like radio stations need to have women in mid days, with only a few exceptions) and Emperor Searcy returns to afternoons.
Hot has begun running short clips of his phone pranks, like calling up a tattoo parlor, pretending to be an old woman and trying to get a tattoo of the “Last Supper” done on her back for $10.
Yes, phone pranks! Atlanta already has phone prank lovers over at Star 94’s Morning Mess.
Smiley and I talked about him coming to Atlanta radio in mid August and he said at the time he felt he was well known enough in Atlanta to take on Harvey and Joyner, as well as Frank & Wanda at V-103, the only local show left among the stations targeting the African-American community in Atlanta. We’ll see soon enough.
This move, as noted last month, is primarily financial. The “A Team” actually did well in the ratings but a syndicated show such as Smiley’s owned by Radio One, which also owns Hot, should be significantly cheaper. And the radio business is suffering significant dropoffs in revenues this year so budget cutting is rampant.
