News Round-up: Lisa Brown, Claywell, Leno, McClain

INTERVIEW: GL's Lisa Brown (Nola)
"That great actress Kathleen Widdoes [ATWT’s Emma] always used to say to me: 'You want to act good, Lisa, but you always want to look pretty, too.' It’s all about escape. When the actors escape, so does the audience. Our attitude, our passion, our love for what we did—it’s all gone. I want to kick somebody I get so mad thinking about it. I was not sad when I came back to shoot my scenes for the final week of GL. I was angry. I don’t want these shows to go away."

Hoping to Reverse the Online Video (Cash) Flow
While the NBC Universal, News Corp. and now Disney-ABC joint venture Hulu has drawn praise from users, the company is expected to generate only about $120 million in revenue in 2009, according to Screen Digest. Likewise, Google-owned YouTube, which dominates the online video space, is expected to bring in a similar amount (not including potential revenue from a discussed movie-rental initiative), thanks largely to the site's efforts to strike deals with professional content providers such as Discovery Communications, CBS and Disney-ABC.

Those numbers pale in comparison to what the traditional television networks bring in. CBS alone generated slightly more than $14 billion in revenue in 2008.

Meanwhile, users are tuning in more and more to video on the Web. A survey conducted in July by the Pew Research Center says that 62% of Americans have watched video this year on a major video site like YouTube or Hulu. And while online CPMs are comparable to TV CPMs, online outlets struggle to bring in what traditional outlets can, with the number of viewers for any particular episode being more often counted in the thousands than millions.

INTERVIEW: OLTL's Bretty Claywell (Kyle)
I would like to swap lives with: "Any international soccer player — maybe Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, or even Beckham. Besides acting, being on a soccer field is my therapy. It's a beautiful game when played at the highest level, and I feel all my worries in life fade away when that ball is at my feet."

Leno experiment has roots in FNL switch
In case you haven’t heard, Jay Leno is moving to prime time. THE JAY LENO SHOW launches Monday at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

The writing found its way to the wall more than a year ago, via a show that has nothing to do with the big-chinned comedian. The LENO change, oddly enough, is related to NBC's decision to split football drama FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS between DirecTV and NBC. The decision to move FNL wasn’t as much ratings-based as it was aimed at keeping the show, which has a small but very loyal following, as profitable as possible.

Defraying the $2 million or so it costs to make each FNL episode by partnering with DirecTV meant less pressure on the bottom line. And it worked: FNL was renewed (its new season premieres on DirecTV on Oct. 28) and now we’ve got Leno firmly planted in prime time, under basically the same premise.

60 MINUTES had nearly 10 million viewers last night
The program interviewed President Barack Obama, explored the late Ted Kennedy's memoir and celebrated GUIDING LIGHT, which ends its 72-year run Friday.

ATWT's Cady McClain on the Daytime Emmys
"The Emmys were probably better in person than I heard they were on TV, simply because if you are into art deco architecture, it was a real treat to be there. The old Orpheum Theater was a vaudeville house from the turn of the last century and it still retains a lot of it’s glamour and magic, I think."