The Morning Fix: Conan’s manifesto! Disney’s Aviv hits road. NFL antitrust may get replay. Silverman’s engaged!
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After the coffee. Before the [insert obligatory Conan O’Brien-NBC joke here].
Conan’s manifesto. Conan O’Brien released a lengthy statement Tuesday explaining why he didn’t want NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show’ to move from 11:35 to 12:05 p.m. to make room for Jay Leno to exit prime time for his old late-night time slot. Having said that, O’Brien didn’t quite say he was quitting, just that he doesn’t want the show to move. Business people read it as a ‘you’ll have to fire me’ (and pay me or battle me in court) move, but O’Brien’s camp said it was just the comedian expressing his heart. Not everyone is jumping on Team Conan’s bandwagon (read the Hollywood Reporter link). Coverage, analysis and oversaturation from the usual suspects including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Deadline Hollywood, Wrap, Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Daily Beast.
Talk about a reach. J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan says Leno’s exit from prime time is good news for Time Warner. Why? Because Warner Bros. produces lots of TV programming and NBC will have holes to fill. Hey Imran, lots of studios produce TV programming, including News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox Television and even NBC Universal! Why would just Time Warner benefit? Oh, and there are risks too, Imran, like spending on all those pilots that don’t get picked up. Whatever. This is why one shouldn’t assume your analyst knows more than you, but the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital thought the report was worth noting and I guess I think it’s worth punching huge holes in.
Another Rich Ross shake-up at Disney. Oren Aviv, the head of production for Walt Disney Studios, is out. He is the latest to be shown the exit in the wake of Rich Ross’s appointment late last year to studio boss. Ross has been busy putting his own team in place but apparently his first choice for the job, Summit Production chief Erik Feig, passed. More from the Los Angeles Times and Variety.
Time for a replay. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal’s editorial pages have weighed in on the National Football League’s antitrust exemption (we’ll let you figure out which side they each fall on). The NFL’s waiver is being challenged by a clothing manufacturer and the Supreme Court is set to rule on whether that challenge should be allowed (the NFL asked the high court to weigh in after it had won a lower court ruling, no doubt wanting to strengthen the status of its exemption). While this argument is about clothes, if the NFL lost its exemption, it would likely have a big impact on media as well.
Warner Bros. cozies up to Grover and Big Bird. Time Warner’s video game unit Warner Bros. Interactive has inked an agreement with Sesame Workshop to create and publish video games based on the iconic kids’ television show. More from the Associated Press.
Wonder where they’re registered. Former NBC programming chief Ben Silverman, who is now one of Barry Diller’s main men at IAC, is engaged to Jennifer Cuoco, a woman whom Silverman described as a ‘superstar’ to the New York Post. Well then why didn’t he put her on NBC when he was there?
Inside the Los Angeles Times: Google is considering pulling out of China. Hollywood vet Ted Harbert, who runs Comcast’s E!, got a six-year contract extension. Dan Rather’s latest defeat in battle against CBS.
-- Joe Flint
