Cable and satellite broadcaster UKTV has bagged the television rights to Spain… On the Road Again, a 13-part culinary road trip around Spain featuring Gwyneth Paltrow. The deal was brokered by Elisabeth Murdoch’s independent production and distribution company ShineReveille.
Produced by Frappe Productions for PBS, Spain… On the Road Again sees the Hollywood actress experience the culinary delights of Spain alongside three other “glamorous and passionate foodies” - the New York based chef Mario Batali, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols.
Each episode is 60 minutes’ long and, according to Frappe Productions, features “all the glamour of the Hollywood lifestyle with the strong traditions of Spanish cuisine. [It] is a must for any lover of fiery flavours and sun-kissed surroundings.” (more…)
Teenagers are being targeted with shock warnings about the dangers of cocaine through a £1million television and internet campaign launched by the government.
The adverts feature a fictional dog named Pablo, who is used by dealers as a ‘drug mule’ to carry cocaine into the country. In the surreal commercials Pablo, who is given the voice of Peep Show’s David Mitchell, appears in various scenes including one where partygoers prepare to take cocaine and another where a girl has a heart attack from using the drug. (more…)
The BBC may have to battle against pay TV channels to hold onto live coverage of the Winter Olympics in 2014 and beyond, as a collective bid from European public service broadcasters was turned down by the International Olympic committee.
Members of the European Broadcasting Union, which bids collectively and then sells the rights on to PSBs across the continent, have shown the games on free television for the last fifty years. But now that right has been taken away from them, as the IOC seeks to raise more money from separate deals in individual countries. So far pay-TV stations owned by Rupert Murdoch have won the rights to broadcast the games in Italy and Turkey.
The EBU has traditionally won the bidding because its 75 members broadcast to the largest television audience. It paid £298 million to show the Olympics in Beijing this year and £90 million for the 2006 games in Turin. The union successfully bid for broadcasting rights in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2012 London Games.
An EBU spokeswoman said its bid for the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Olympics, which as yet has no location, had been rejected by the IOC because the organisation had not offered enough money. (more…)
It has been announced that Georgina Baillie (right), grand-daughter of erstwhile Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs and erstwhile bedfellow of erstwhile Radio 2 DJ Russell Brand has been shortlisted to appear in the next edition of Celebrity Big Brother – a programme that’s no stranger to controversy itself.
Given that Brand, how currently on set in the States, filming a version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, used to present Big Brother’s Little Brother, “[they] couldn’t have timed it better if we tried,” an Big Brother insider said to the Daily Mail.
“It will guarantee Big Brother maximum publicity. An approach is being made to [Ms Baillie] and we are confident of landing her because we know she is keen for publicity to kickstart her own TV career.
She would be on primetime TV every night and the producers know that Georgie is not backward in coming forwards. Georgie knows they will want her to talk openly about the whole affair, but she doesn’t mind in the slightest – she will do anything for fame. She sees this as her revenge on Russell Brand.”
Britney Spears’ appearance on Saturday’s X Factor attracted record ratings, but it was the star herself and not the contestants who drew the most complaints from fans after miming her song.
An estimated 12.8 million viewers tuned into the X Factor on Saturday night to hear the troubled American pop star perform her latest single ‘Womanizer’ surrounded by a troupe of top-hatted dancers . But while the judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue gave Britney a standing ovation, viewers were fuming.
As Spanish-born contestant Ruth Lorenzo was voted out of the show, viewers flooded ITV message boards with complaints about Britney Spears.
One viewer wrote, “Britney’s performance was a disgrace. I don’t know how she had the nerve to stand on that stage and mime when ‘amateur’ singers gave such good performances. Simon Cowell should be ashamed to serve up such rubbish.”
Another said “It was terrible - all the contestants are better than her.”
Britney also appeared to know nothing about the contestant, frequently dodging questions posed by the show’s host Dermot O’Leary. When asked if she had any advice for competitors, she replied with a trite “Good luck and just keep doing it”.
Robert Kilroy-Silk has become the first contestant to be voted off I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
The controversial MEP for the East Midlands and former talk show host was ejected from the show after just 12 days in the jungle, following a public vote.
Kilroy-Silk was also unpopular with fellow celebrities. During his stay, former Star Trek actor George Takai described him as a “real villain”, whilst Timmy Mallet wound up his fellow contestants by ridiculing Kilroy-Silk on camera as he endured a Bushtucker Trial.
There will be mixed feelings amongst fellow MEPs regarding Kilroy-Silk’s return, many of whom were furious that he had taken part in the show in the first place, saying he should have spent his time more productively seeing to the needs of his constituents. At the time of his acceptance onto the show, MEPs had been planning discussions of issues such as the EU’s response to the G20 summit in Washington, reform of the CAP and the deteriorating situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The screen version of Charlie Brooker’s Guardian column (Screen Burn) is back on BBC4 now, and the last couple of episodes have been top notch stuff. What do you mean, you haven’t been watching? OK, so it’s on stupidly late (10:30pm) and is tucked away in the arse end of the BBC4 schedule and is only broadcast on Tuesdays, the worst day of the week.
Still, in this day and age of EPGs, iPlayers and recordable digiboxes, this sort of thing is less of a problem, right?
Especially when you’re going to miss the real-time broadcast anyway because you’re stuck at Basingstoke train station after having missed your connection due to your first train being late (thanks a million South West Trains).
Former Big Brother star Jade Goody is to be the focus of an eponymous documentary series for Living TV.
Jade follows a successful first documentary entitled Living with Jade Goody, which aired in September, showing Jade’s participation in a fitness boot-camp and her second perfume launch. The new series of 60 minute episodes will see the reality TV star undergoing treatment for cervical cancer at the Royal Marsden Hospital, at home with her two sons Bobby and Freddy, and in rehearsals for a new pantomime. The number of episodes broadcast will depend on the state of Goody’s health said a spokesperson for Living TV. The first episode will be broadcast on 11th December.
Talking of her battle with cancer, Goody said, “I’m absolutely determined to beat this disease. I have two gorgeous boys and I need to live for them. I don’t want to stop living my life, so in lots of ways viewers will see that its business as usual in the Goody household, and that usually means chaos.”
Claudia Rosencrantz, director of television at Virgin Media, which runs the channel, said, “Living and Jade have a long relationship of trust and our viewers care deeply about her. (more…)
Channel 5 has commissioned three fast-turnaround documentaries focusing on ITV reality and talent shows, in a bid to appeal to more tabloid readers.
The hour-long programmes will look at the reality show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, the programme’s presenters Ant and Dec, and The X Factor judge Cheryl Cole. They will be broadcast before Christmas in the 10 pm slot.
The new fast-turnaround documentaries follow a programme about Madonna’s divorce, as well as a documentary about the recent Ross and Brand ‘Manuelgate’ fiasco called Russell and Ross: What the F*** Was All That About? The hour-long broadcast pulled in a total of 1.1 million viewers and featured an interview with Georgina Baillie, the burlesque dancer at the centre of the media scandal.
It was a national talking-point, drawing comment from the highest ranks of government and the media, but John Sergeant’s early exit from Strictly Come Dancing failed to win the Saturday night ratings battle against ITV’s X-Factor, which peaked at 12.2 million viewers over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the former political correspondent’s final waltz on Saturday night attracted an average of 10.2 million viewers – the best viewing figures of the year for the celebrity talent contest, but still not enough to overcome ITV’s X-Factor dominance.
The 64-year-old’s weekly bumbling performances on Strictly drew ever harsher criticism from the show’s judges, earning him the title of the “dancing pig”, but delighted the viewing public, who consistently voted him back onto the show, despite finishing bottom of the judge’s leaderboard three weeks in a row. However, Sergeant announced his resignation from the show last week, saying there was a “real danger” he might actually win. (more…)
Cable and satellite broadcaster UKTV has bagged the television rights to Spain… On the Road Again, a 13-part culinary road trip around Spain featuring Gwyneth Paltrow. The deal was brokered by Elisabeth Murdoch’s independent production and distribution company ShineReveille.
The BBC may have to battle against pay TV channels to hold onto live coverage of the Winter Olympics in 2014 and beyond, as a collective bid from European public service broadcasters was turned down by the International Olympic committee.
It has been announced that Georgina Baillie (right), grand-daughter of erstwhile Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs and erstwhile bedfellow of erstwhile Radio 2 DJ Russell Brand has been shortlisted to appear in the next edition of Celebrity Big Brother – a programme that’s no stranger to controversy itself.
Britney Spears’ appearance on Saturday’s X Factor attracted record ratings, but it was the star herself and not the contestants who drew the most complaints from fans after miming her song.
Robert Kilroy-Silk has become the first contestant to be voted off I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
The screen version of Charlie Brooker’s Guardian column (Screen Burn) is back on BBC4 now, and the last couple of episodes have been top notch stuff. What do you mean, you haven’t been watching? OK, so it’s on stupidly late (10:30pm) and is tucked away in the arse end of the BBC4 schedule and is only broadcast on Tuesdays, the worst day of the week.
Former Big Brother star Jade Goody is to be the focus of an eponymous documentary series for Living TV.
Channel 5 has commissioned three fast-turnaround documentaries focusing on ITV reality and talent shows, in a bid to appeal to more tabloid readers.
It was a national talking-point, drawing comment from the highest ranks of government and the media, but John Sergeant’s early exit from Strictly Come Dancing failed to win the Saturday night ratings battle against ITV’s X-Factor, which peaked at 12.2 million viewers over the weekend.