Tuesday, August 7, 2012

NEWS ROUNDUP: Dilshad Vadsaria Joins REVENGE; Networks Struggle to Appeal to Hispanics; Plus, Kevin McHale, Peter Reckell, Joss Whedon

GREEK's Dilshad Vadsaria joins REVENGE
The actress is joining ABC’s addictive Hamptons-based soap in a recurring role playing Padma, a gorgeous, fiercely intelligent, pop culture savvy financial whiz who brings her own spin to her job at Nolan’s (Gabriel Mann) company. Rumor has it this is the new love interest for Mann’s bisexual billionaire character that exec producer Mike Kelley hinted at last month. Vadsaria played Rebecca Logan in GREEK.

Henry Czerny teases Season 2 of REVENGE: It's a soap opera
"It's a soap opera. Guaranteed someone will be in a hospital. Guaranteed someone will be marrying somebody. Guaranteed someone will be hating somebody. Somebody will be getting divorced. Someone will be going to bed with the wrong person," Czerny (Conrad Grayson) teases.

GLEE's Kevin McHale in consideration to co-host THE X FACTOR
The 24-year-old actor has a history with the Fox reality competition, having hosted a Pepsi-sponsored, behind-the-scenes featurette during last year's premiere. In what could also be viewed as a trial run, he co-hosted this year's Teen Choice Awards on July 22 alongside new X FACTOR judge Demi Lovato.

Joss Whedon on board for 'Avengers' sequel, working on Marvel-based TV show
During a conference call about Disney’s quarterly earnings, Disney chairman Bob Iger revealed that Whedon would return for the second installment of the film that has grossed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide since opening just over three months ago. Iger also said Whedon is working on a live-action TV series based in the Marvel universe for ABC, but had no further details.

Networks Struggle to Appeal to Hispanics
English-language television executives and advertisers desperately want to appeal to the more than 50 million Latinos in the United States (about three-quarters speak Spanish), especially those who are young, bilingual and bicultural, but those viewers seem to want very little to do with American English-language television.

They do, however, continue to watch Spanish-language networks in huge numbers. In May, on the final night of the most recent season of MODERN FAMILY, far more Hispanic viewers were watching the top Spanish language show that week, the telenovela LA QUE NO PODIA AMAR, on Univision, which attracted 5.2 million viewers.

“We’re part of the fastest-growing demographic in the country,” said Randy Falco, the president and chief of Univision. The company recently entered into a partnership with ABC News, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, to create a 24-hour news channel to serve Hispanic viewers.

DAWSON'S CREEK reunion on APARTMENT 23! Busy Philipps to guest-star
Philipps will play herself on the season premiere of ABC's comedy where she will reunite with James Van Der Beek.

Forbes on the Michael Park movie, Supercapitalist: Believe It Or Not, In This Movie The Hedge Fund Manager Is The Hero
"The challenges did not end even after [actor and filmmaker Derek Ting] obtained financing from business executives and family offices, partly on the strength of signing name actors such as Linus Roach and Emmy-winner Michael Park (AS THE WORLD TURNS). He had to rewrite the script repeatedly to ensure that its depiction of the financial markets was authentic. The Hong Kong shooting kicked off at a poker parlor that got raided by the police the next night, landing part of his cast in jail."

What Soaps Can Learn From DALLAS Reboot
It has everything: romance, drama, suspense, a little bit of comedy, but most of all, at its core, it's all about family. That's what soap fans want and crave, but a lot of the time, the romantic and familial stuff gets tossed aside for bigger things, things writers and execs incorrectly believe viewers want.

Judith Light and Jessica Hecht will star in the world premiere of Richard Greenberg's "The Assembled Parties" on Broadway
The tale of an Upper West Side Jewish family's history from 1980 to 2000 will begin previews March 19, 2013, and open April 17 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on West 47th Street.

Peter Reckell: "Nobody’s Going to Miss Bo More Than Me"
As for Reckell’s immediate plans after exiting DAYS, he’s embarking on a few trips with his wife Kelly and their daughter, Loden. “I’m going to go spend a couple of weeks with my folks in Michigan,” he shares. “Then, we’ll spend a couple of weeks with Kelly’s parents in Alaska. Then, we’re going to go down to Costa Rica for some time. We’re just trying to figure out what we’re going to do with the rest of our lives... what’s next for us.”

PRETTY LITTLE LIARS star Lucy Hale opens up about her eating disorder
"I've never really talked about this, but I would go days without eating," she reveals in the September issue of Cosmopolitan. "Or maybe I'd have some fruit and then go to the gym for three hours. I knew I had a problem. It was a gradual process but I changed myself."

Q2 figures don't support cord-cutting fears
At first blush, the numbers can seem bleak. The 198,000 net loss among subscribers for cable, satellite and telco video distribution is the worst aggregate number they've posted in at least the last 10 quarters. The loss snaps a three-quarter streak of net adds that ticked up to 471,000 in the first quarter of the year. DirecTV experienced its first quarterly loss ever. AT&T and Verizon, which typically muster enough sub additions to offset the losses of cable and satellite, saw their smallest increases in nine quarters.

But the second quarter was always expected to be downbeat: The April-June timeframe is historically a time when moving households and college students disconnect more than at any other period in the year. The numbers are only slightly worse than a year ago, when sub losses of 165,000 hit in the second quarter of 2011. Cable and satellite actually lost fewer subs this quarter, 473,000, than at this time last year, 555,000.

President Obama praises Syracuse University alumnus Aaron Sorkin at fundraiser
"Aaron Sorkin... writes the way every Democrat in Washington wished they spoke," Obama said, according to the White House pool report. "Aaron, thank you."

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES Cast Honors U.S. Olympic Gymnast Gabby Douglas
Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev & the rest of the show’s stars congratulate the gold medalist on a job well done. (Wait, make that two jobs!)

2 comments:

  1. I read that NYT article a few days ago regarding the networks attempting to court Latino viewers and their struggles in their attempts. I feel as if these efforts are somewhat anemic since it appears that these recent group of shows use the same format and the seemingly the same network of writers and producers hitting the same creative beats in these shows (presenting Latinos in a stereotypical manner).

    The exceptions-- Ugly Betty and The George Lopez Show, were unceremoniously cancelled despite still being popular

    If these networks are truly interested in appealing to Latinos, why not seek out and find some Latino creative talent to submit spec scripts for TV shows in the English language? Why not solicit the Graduate writing programs (and their Alumni networks) at Tisch, USC and Iowa, the way recruiters from Tech schools and business schools recruit at Harvard and Stanford and UPenn?

    As I read the news about the remaining soaps on broadcast networks, I also often wonder why the production companies and networks producing the soaps didn't try something similar decades ago when it was clear that many of the old masters were retiring or dying and their might be a vacuum of well trained knowledgeable talented writers to fill the void as well as refresh the daytime dramatic genre.

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  2. Please excuse my typos. I hate when I writer 'their' instead of 'there'. Ugh!

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