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Ratings: “The Idol” Stalls at 133,000 Viewers in Surprise Penultimate Episode: The Weeknd Is Almost Over

Roger Friedman
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Ratings: “The Idol” Stalls at 133,000 Viewers in Surprise Penultimate Episode: The Weeknd Is Almost Over

Our long national suffering almost over.

This Sunday, The Weeknd will end as “The Idol” wraps its “season” with its fifth episode.

There were supposed to be six episodes all told but someone realized there’s no plot anyway, nothing has happened, and why continue?

Last Sunday’s episode was the third in a row with basically the same ratings. Just 133,000 people watched on the HBO linear channel. That was the same as last week and 2,000 fewer than the previous week.

“The Idol” will not be returning, and if HBO is smart they’ll wipe it from Max and streaming. Let it sink like the lost city of Atlantis and never be found again. All they need to do is study social media reactions, and the plug will be pulled forever.

TV Industry Shock: Main Publisher of Daily Ratings Shutting Down as Networks Refuse to Share Numbers or Give Transparency

Roger Friedman
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TV Industry Shock: Main Publisher of Daily Ratings Shutting Down as Networks Refuse to Share Numbers or Give Transparency

For the last few years, two guy snamed Mitch — Salem and Metcalfe — have been republishing the TV ratings for broadcast and cable on a daily basis. His work has been invaluable to journalists. His site is called Showbuzzdaily.com

But more and more the networks don’t want these numbers known. Ratings for regular TV and even cable have shrunk tremendously. The networks are depending on streaming, and give no numbers.

Two months ago, TV syndicators stopped publishing their numbers for shows like “Dr, Phil” and “Live with Kelly and whoever” as well as “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune.” With the writers strike, and shows in rerun, the syndicators didn’t want their numbers made public because they are terrible.

Now the Mitch’s have announced his site is closing. The networks won’t give him data. He had this problem a couple of years but negotiated a way out of it. This time, it’s over. Their statement is below.

I have to thank the Mitch’s, who I’ve never met, for the yeoman service. Their work gave a transparency to the business. Without it, journalism will be harder. But we will manage to go on.

Thanks, Mitch’s.

Statement:

Sadly, we have to announce that after this week, we will no longer be able to provide TV ratings to readers, and thus that ShowbuzzDaily will be effectively be ending its operations.  To be clear, unlike other interruptions that we’ve had, this isn’t due to a technical issue that can be fixed.  It’s also not related to revenue (or lack thereof).  Without going into details, we’re simply not going to be in a position to continue providing data.

Although we didn’t plan this, there’s a sense in which our departure coincides with an inflection point in the entire TV industry.  As everyone is aware, the bottom has dropped out of linear viewership, and the ratings have had increasingly less utility.  (Last Thursday’s cable ratings in the 18-49 demo included 25 shows clustered between 0.09-0.12, basically molecules of difference.)  The balance of home viewing, for better or worse, has swung toward streaming, and the proprietors of those companies have chosen to be opaque with their information, providing data that’s incomplete and unverified when it’s available at all.  That very lack of transparency is one of the key issues in the ongoing Writers Guild strike.  Meanwhile, scrutiny of linear numbers is becoming a preoccupation akin to documenting angels on the head of a pin.

Nevertheless, we’ll miss that analysis, and we’ll miss you.  (Well, maybe not the wrestling trolls, but everyone else.)  Your goodwill, enthusiasm and interest have kept this site going, and we hope you maintain your passion for television as an art and a business.

A few final housekeeping points.  The site may stay up for a bit following our official close (we might even post some box office pieces), but eventually it will vanish.  We know that some of you may want to inquire whether we can provide you with copies of data from the site in Excel or other formats, and we’re afraid that isn’t going to be possible.

We’ll still be around for the next few days, and we hope you’ll be too.  It’s been fun, but as all TV fans know, even the best series (with the possible exception of SNL, which appears to be immortal) must eventually come to an end.

Nicolas Coster, Soap Star for Decades and “Actor’s Actor,” Hollywood Mainstay, Dies at Age 89

Roger Friedman
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Nicolas Coster, Soap Star for Decades and “Actor’s Actor,” Hollywood Mainstay, Dies at Age 89

Nicolas Coster has died at age 89. His daughter called him “an actor’s actor” in her announcement, and she is right.

Coster came from a time when New York actors worked all the soap operas, went back and forth from them and made not only a good living, but a deep impression on the viewers. He was so popular that twice he played the same character on two different soaps. On “Another World” and its spin off “Somerset” he played Robert Delaney through most of the 70s. ON “As the World Turns” and its spin off he appeared as two different characters, one in the 1960s and one in the 1990s.

Coster was even better known for appearing on the LA based NBC soap, “Santa Barbara,” for a decade as Lionel Lockridge.

He had movie and TV credits as well. Those included “All the President’s Men” and “Slow Dancing in the Big City.”

A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Coster at a Hollywood TV event. He was incredibly gracious, and talked about his incredible career, and his long run on soaps when I was in high school. He was an institution. More recently he won a Daytime Emmy in 2017 for a streaming soap.

Coster published a memoir in 2021 you can find here.

Condolences to his family, friends, and fans.

Roseanne Barr Antisemitic Rant: “Nobody died in the Holocaust, that’s the truth. Six million Jews should die right now ’cause they cause all the problems in the world…it never happened”

Roger Friedman
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Roseanne Barr Antisemitic Rant: “Nobody died in the Holocaust, that’s the truth. Six million Jews should die right now ’cause they cause all the problems in the world…it never happened”

Roseanne Barr is a sick woman, a known racist who lost her TV show for that reason.

Now in a podcast she goes on antisemitic rant: “Nobody died in the Holocaust, that’s the truth. Six million Jews should die right now ’cause they cause all the problems in the world.” She adds, twice, “It never happened.”

The entire interview is antisemitic. The interviewer points out that Barr is fully Jewish, but it doesn’t matter. She’s one of the sickest people out there.

So that’s it, she was already out of show business. But now she must be ostracized from civilization. There’s no apology, no excuse. She’s deeply demented and deserves to be a social leper.

These comments begin at 2:00 but the whole interview is grotesque. People will says “off her meds” or something, but there is no excuse for these statements.

PS In another video she called Donald Trump “the first woman president of the United States.”

The Amazing Legacy of Late Record Producer Phil Ramone (Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Tony Bennett, Rod Stewart) Continues with Growing Orchestra for Children

Roger Friedman
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The Amazing Legacy of Late Record Producer Phil Ramone (Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Tony Bennett, Rod Stewart) Continues with Growing Orchestra for Children

Phil Ramone has been gone ten years, which is a shock to his friends and family. But he lives on with the Phil Ramone’s Orchestra for Children, a project he started in 2011.

Phil, who died in 2013 at age 79, already left an enormous legacy. Besides being of the great guys of the record biz, look at his stats: he won an impressive 14 Grammy Awards from 32 career nominations. He was the producer of three albums that won Album Of The Year: Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years (1975), Billy Joel’s 52nd Street (1978) and Ray Charles’ Genius Loves Company (2004). Phil also won for Record Of The Year for Joel’s “Just The Way You Are” in 1978 and earned Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical) honors in 1980. He received a Recording Academy Trustees Award in 2001.

OK? His list of credits with superstars just goes on and on. I was lucky to be present when he recorded Aretha Franklin for Tony Bennett’s second Duets album.

On Sunday, a group of Phil’s friends gathered at the Norwalk, Connecticut waterside home of Allison Stockel (former longtime head of the famed Ridgefield, Connecticut Playhouse), who hosted some of the latest kids being trained in the orchestra. Ken Burton is running the group with help from Phil’s brother-in-law, Doug Ichiuji, and Gigi Kulick, who helped organize the afternoon get together.

We got to hear a couple of young people — a 10 year old boy and a 12 year old girl — play respectively the guitar and violin. They were just great.

We got to hear a couple of young people — a 10 year old boy and a 12 year old girl — play respectively the guitar and violin. (The young man pictured played a professional acoustic version of Metallica’s “Enter the Sandman.”) They were just great. The kids range in age from 2nd grade to 12th in high school. A lot of them come from a Harlem school that has helped saved the kids’ lives. We heard from one parent who sent her 10 year old son, who’s on the spectrum, (NOT the boy pictured above) into music lessons. He’s completely taken to the program.

Among the pals who turned up were record producer Rob Fraboni, former Columbia Records A&R guru Dick Wingate (he signed Elvis Costello), plus Kulick who was Phil’s assistant years ago. Also, Jill Brooke of flowerpowerdaily,com and her husband, Gary Goldstein, chairman and CEO of Whitney Partners, were on hand.

Burton is a charismatic leader for the Orchestra, and he spoke eloquently about the last decade of giving kids culture and opportunities. One graduate, an 18 year old young lady now in college, spoke tearfully about how much the orchestra meant to her.

Two more gatherings like this one will be held soon. One in New York, the other in Southampton. Burton and Ichiugi are hoping Phil’s artists will get involved now that they’ve achieved 501c3 status. That would include not Billy Joel and Paul Simon, but Rod Stewart, Julian Lennon, Kenny Loggins, Melissa Errico, Art Garfunkel, Rufus Wainwright, and so on.

You can check out the orchestra on the website. And by all means, donate, donate, donate. There is no better cause, and it’s great way to show our appreciation to Phil Ramone for all the music he gave us.

photos courtesy of Don Kaplan

Broadway: John Legend, Lynn Nottage Team Up for Musical Adaptation of Douglas Sirk 50s Movie with Racial Twist, “Imitation of Life”

Roger Friedman
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Broadway: John Legend, Lynn Nottage Team Up for Musical Adaptation of Douglas Sirk 50s Movie with Racial Twist, “Imitation of Life”

John Legend is coming to Broadway.

He’s written the songs for a musical adaptation of Douglas Sirk’s 50s soap opera, “Imitation of Life.”

The great Lynn Nottage is writing the script from the original book and movie. Liesl Tommy, who directed the not great Aretha Franklin movie, “Respect,” is directing it.

“Imitation of Life” starred Lana Turner, John Gavin, and Sandra Dee. It’s a melodrama about race, among other things. The imdb summary reads: “Aspiring actress Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson, a homeless Black woman at Coney Island, and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter. However, Annie’s little girl Sarah Jane is by far the worst. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn’t like being Black; since she’s light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film trying to pass as white, much to her mother’s heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter in a single-minded quest for stardom.”

This should be interesting. “Imitation of Life” is in development, so we won’t see it before 2026.

HBO Cutting Its Losses on The Idol? Series Ends This Sunday One Episode Short of Original Order

Roger Friedman
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HBO Cutting Its Losses on The Idol? Series Ends This Sunday One Episode Short of Original Order

UPDATE: HBO says when Levinson took over the show, they changed the order from six to five episodes. He was able to tell the story in a more economic way. It’s the first case I’ve ever heard of a showrunner asking for fewer episodes. They always want one more. Regardless, “The Idol” is so unwelcome, let’s hope this is it. Levinson has to get back to “Euphoria,” a great show.

Earlier: HBO is putting “The Idol” out of its misery a week early.

The Sam Levinson-The Weeknd series was announced as six episodes when the deal was signed. But viewers heard right last night when it was announced that this Sunday would be the end. That’s just five episodes.

Last week’s installment got only 133K viewers on the HBO main channel. We’ll know tomorrow what happened this past Sunday.

“The Idol” was the subject of a lot of infighting during production.  here was a major creative dispute when the show was being filmed. Director Amy Seimetz left after three episodes, probably because she saw the disgusting direction of this barely watchable porn fest. Also, she probably clashed with The Weeknd, who cannot act.

Last night’s episode was again one notch lower than the previous one as far as taste, focusing on sexual torture. Troy Sivan’s character, Xander, was placed in a remote control shock collar by The Weeknd’s maniacal Tedros. He was tied up, then treated to a lascivious sponge bath by Tedros’s assistant, then flipped over on his stomach.

Viewers expressed their dismay on Twitter.

So the end is near. And hopefully that’s it. No more “Idol.” Never to be discussed again.

Mel Brooks, Angela Bassett, “ET” Editor, Sundance Chief to Receive Lifetime Achievement Oscars from the Motion Picture Academy

Roger Friedman
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Mel Brooks, Angela Bassett, “ET” Editor, Sundance Chief to Receive Lifetime Achievement Oscars from the Motion Picture Academy

Mel Brooks and Angela Bassett will receive lifetime achievement Oscars– aka Governor’s Awards — from the Motion Picture Academy.

Film editor Carol Littleton will be honored as well. And Michelle Satter of the Sundance Film Institute, will get the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

These are all great choices. Brooks, who is 96, is a legend who deserves all the accolades in the world. From “The Producers” to “Blazing Saddles” and his dozens of other films, Mel has been a huge influence on everyone. Viva Mel!

Angela Bassett was nominated this year but didn’t win, unaccountably, for “Black Panther.” A star for 30 years, she is also beloved by the fans and industry, has a huge list of top credits, and also appears on TV’s “Rescue 911.”

Littleton’s amazing list of credits includes “ET,” “The Big Chill,” “Places in the Heart,” “Silverado,” “Grand Canyon,” and many more. She made those kids on their bikes fly!

Satter is the founding senior director of the Sundance Institute’s Artist Programs, focused on the cultural impact of supporting independent storytellers. In her more than 40 years in this role at the nonprofit, she has discovered and fostered the careers of hundreds of notable and award-winning filmmakers, many from underrepresented communities. She has also led the Sundance Institute’s international initiatives in Asia, Europe, India, Latin America and the Middle East. She founded and oversees the vision and content of Sundance Collab, a global digital storytelling community and learning platform.

“The Academy’s Board of Governors is thrilled to honor four trailblazers who have transformed the film industry and inspired generations of filmmakers and movie fans,” said Academy President Janet Yang. “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting. Mel Brooks lights up our hearts with his humor, and his legacy has made a lasting impact on every facet of entertainment. Carol Littleton’s career in film editing serves as a model for those who come after her. A pillar of the independent film community, Michelle Satter has played a vital role in the careers of countless filmmakers around the world.”

Fox News Shuffles Deck Chairs on the Titanic, Moves Laura Ingraham to 7PM, Promotes Jesse Watters to 8PM, Gutfeld Comedy at 10PM

Roger Friedman
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Fox News Shuffles Deck Chairs on the Titanic, Moves Laura Ingraham to 7PM, Promotes Jesse Watters to 8PM, Gutfeld Comedy at 10PM

At Fox News, a new schedule keeps only Sean Hannity in his place at 9pm.

The revised line up demotes Laura Ingraham to 7pm, moving her up by three hours. She’s been losing viewers to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.

Jesse Watters, a jackal, leaves 7pm for Tucker Carlson’s 8pm, the previous home of $32 million sex miscreant Bill O’Reilly.

Greg Gutfeld, who just got Geraldo Rivera dumped from “The Five,” moves his comedy show up from 11pm to 10pm. The 11pm show was pulling good numbers but enough to supplant local news and then the late night talk shows on real networks.

Fox is being trounced these days by MSNBC in prime time. They’re also under the gun after causing Rupert Murdoch to loses $787 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems.

Tucker Carlson, meantime, is at home, learning to tie a Windsor knot.

FTX Sues Hollywood “Connector” Michael Kives for $700 Mil, Hangs with Geffen and Diller, Comes from K-Tel Records Family in Canada

Roger Friedman
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FTX Sues Hollywood “Connector” Michael Kives for $700 Mil, Hangs with Geffen and Diller, Comes from K-Tel Records Family in Canada

EXCLUSIVE A few weeks ago, I wrote a story with a picture from entertainment mogul David Geffen‘s Instagram page. It was Geffen, his new husband, and friends including Barry Diller and Kris Kardashian celebrating the marriage at a restaurant.

Two of the men in the picture were not known to me, but quickly eagle eyed spies phoned in their names. One was former Bill Clinton associate Doug Band. In the foreground of the picture Michael Kives is beaming in the presence of so many power players. (pronounced Keev-us). I’d heard never heard of Kives, but people in LA knew his name. And they were not praising him.

Now the bankruptcy lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried‘s scandalous financial failure, FTX, are suing Kives and his partner, Bryan Baum, for $700 million. They say Bankman-Fried invested the money with Kives, a former agent at Creative Artists Agency and one time Clinton intern, and they want it back.

Today the New York Times profiles Kives, but fails to give his background. He’s from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and he comes from a famous family up there. His late uncle, Philip Kives, was the founder of K-Tel Records and other businesses. Philip got his start promoting the wacky inventions from the Popeil family — like the Veg-O-Matic and the Pocket Fisherman. Then he went into the record business, and became legendary for his compilations of hits sold on TV ans in discount stores like Korvette’s during the 80s. (The company filed for bankruptcy in 1984 and re-emerged as a new entity. These days it’s all streaming, according to their website.)

Philip Kives was also known as a huge horse breeder in Canada. His stable was called K5 Stables. Michael Kives’ company, with partner Bryan Baum, is now being sued by FTX, is called K-5 Global.

L.A. insiders who spoke to me in late April called Kives “a creep.” He’s mostly known for rubbing shoulders with celebrities. Hence, his visage, smiling widely in the foreground of a photo with Geffen and friends. He’s known Band (not pictured) since he worked for the Clinton Global Initiative. Band, by the way, was identified in The New Yorker as ex-communicated by the Clintons. Chelsea Clinton apparently hates him.

Among the celebrities Michael Kives counts as a close friend is Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo is a great actor but a poor judge of character. More than 20 years ago his best friend was Dana Giacchetto, a self described money manager who eventually went to jail for a Ponzi scheme. (He also completely invented his background including claiming he went to Harvard.) Giacchetto bilked Leo, the group Phish, super CAA agent Michael Ovitz, and others out of $14 million in 2000 ($24 million in current terms). Ovitz called him his “spiritual adviser.” Giachetto portrayed himself as bffs with John Kennedy, Jr. and artist George Condo. Years after he was released from prison, Giacchetto committed suicide in 2016.

Over the years, Leo has also been involved with the Malaysian public funds scandal (more than $4 billion was stolen from the 1MDB fund and spent by perpetrators on art, diamonds and property) put together by Leo’s pal, Jho Low. He is still also close to Helly Namad, the art dealer who served five months of a year long sentence for running a gambling operation out of his apartment in Trump Tower. (He was pardoned by Donald Trump just before he left office in 2020.)

Everything about Kives screams “Giacchetto,” only more complex and deeply embedded in Hollywood. The Geffen picture should raise a lot of red flags, especially for the people at that table. Geffen would be wise to say now that he never met Kives before, that he was Band’s guest. That Band and Kives are besties comes as no surprise. Band’s name came up on the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs a lot. Band has famously thrown Bill Clinton under the bus in interviews about Epstein.

The Times report says that Bankman-Fried “agreed to invest as much as $3 billion over three years in K5, according to the lawsuit and a version of the crypto mogul’s contract with Mr. Kives and Mr. Baum that was reviewed by The New York Times. The complaint argued that Mr. Bankman-Fried had done no meaningful due diligence and “excessively” overpaid Mr. Baum and Mr. Kives, describing the transactions as a fraudulent scheme to enrich executives.”

Kives’ second generation K5 company — far removed from the days of K-Tel — boasts an investment portfolio of 148 companies including Elon Musk‘s SpaceX and Boring Company. Kives has gotten this far by being a shrewd “connector” of celebrities like DiCaprio, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, and others. Perry sang at Kives’s star studded over the top Beverly Hills wedding.

Now, as they might say at K-Tel, the hits just keep on coming. As the FTX lawyers unravel all these business connections in their pursuit of the $700 million, we may learn a lot more about Michael Kives.

Please email me at showbiz411@gmail if you know more about Kives or Baum.

Fox News Shuffles Deck Chairs on the Titanic, Moves Laura Ingraham to 7PM, Promotes Jesse Watters to 8PM, Gutfeld Comedy at 10PM

https://www.showbiz411.com/2023/06/26/fox-news-shuffles-deck-chairs-on-the-titanic-moves-laura-ingraham-to-7pm-promotes-jesse-watters-to-8pm-gutfeld-comedy-at-10pm

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