The Morning Fix: Oprah’s decision: Winners and losers. Vivendi and NBC still far apart. ‘New Moon’ to be full moon! AOL slashes and burns!
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After the coffee. Before getting my audition tape to replace Oprah ready.
Oprah makes up her mind. Oprah Winfrey gave official notice that she is leaving her talk show when her deal is up in 2011 and will focus her efforts on the Oprah Winfrey Network, the cable channel she is launching in partnership with Discovery. The move, while not unexpected, is still a big blow to broadcast television. She has ruled daytime TV for almost a quarter of a century and reinvigorated the talk genre. She was able to both mingle with world leaders, authors and Hollywood talent and do tawdry shows that might seem better suited for Jerry Springer without soiling her own reputation. Analysis on the winners and losers and the big picture from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood, which first broke the news two weeks ago that Winfrey was making the leap.
Waiting for Vivendi. The big hurdle for a Comcast-NBC Universal deal remains Vivendi. The Financial Times reports that NBC U parent General Electric Co. and Vivendi are ‘at least’ $1 billion apart on what the French conglomerate’s 20% chunk of NBC U is worth. It now looks like there may not be a deal until after Thanksgiving, which is good news for the reporters covering it since we can enjoy our turkey in peace.
‘New Moon’ will be full. ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon,’ will have a big bite at the box office and could take in $90 million. That’s a lot of teenage girls. The Los Angeles Times looks at how much blood the vampire flick will sock away this weekend.
AOL 3.0. Or is it a 4.0? Whatever it is, it sure will be smaller. America Online, which is breaking away from its parent Time Warner in a few weeks, is looking to cut 2,500 jobs and about $300 million in costs. The cuts represent a third of the staff there. Details from the Wall Street Journal.
How’s that print thing working out for ya? Both Business Week, which is now owned by Bloomberg, and the Associated Press made drastic staff cuts yesterday. Reuters has the grim details.
Jonas Bros. going `Mad Men.’ Teenyboppers the Jonas Bros. are becoming pitchmen for Microsoft’s Xbox.360. New York Times reporter Stuart Elliott interviewed Nick and Kevin Jonas (bet that made your day, right Stuart?), who told him they take their Xbox on the road with them all the time.
Goodbye Jon & Kate. Monday marks the final episode of TLC’s ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8,’ which went from a modestly successful reality show to a huge juggernaut as the country and the tabloid industry became obsessed with the bickering couple and their collapsing marriage. The program was hit for TLC, but the dollars that came in were equaled by the headaches that came with the Gosselin family. We’re not free yet. Kate’s solo show will start in the spring. The Associated Press takes a look at the dynamic duo of reality TV.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: The winners and losers out of Oprah’s decision. Since ‘New Moon’ is probably review proof, here’s Betsy Sharkey on the Sandra Bullock tearjerker ‘The Blind Side.’
-- Joe Flint
