News Round-up: Budig, FNL, Britton, MAD MEN

INTERVIEW: AMC's Rebecca Budig (Greenlee)
"I leave. I come back. [Laughs] I’m the Brett Favre of soaps. I think Greenlee went into a river. Or maybe a lake. I don’t know. Pine Valley is ridiculous. They even have a freakin’ ocean in that town. It’s a contract deal. [Executive producer] Julie Carruthers and I had a really nice conversation where she was feeling me out about coming back. I said, 'I’m open to returning, but I just want to make sure there will be a great story because it’s going to be right at the start of pilot season. I don’t want to commit to something that’s not worthwhile and fun.'"

Top NBC Series Talent to Direct One-Minute Film Shorts on Personal Responsibility
NBC and Liberty Mutual, the fifth largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S., recently asked several of the network's stars to answer the question - "What does personal responsibility mean to you?" Their answers will be shared via a series of one-minute film shorts and vignettes that will air during NBC's primetime programming from Monday, October 12 through Friday, October 16. Participating actors from the popular NBC primetime lineup include Connie Britton (Tami, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS), Zachary Levi and Milo Ventimiglia.

Austin City Hall may change FNL incentives
The city council will meet this week here in council chambers at 10 a.m. Thursday. Council will discuss changing the incentive agreement between the city and FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. The city wants to lower the number of episodes that need to be filmed in order for the show to get $40,000 per season from the City of Austin.

CW Taps Beer For 1st Time
While many of the network’s premieres this fall have already come and gone, there was something never before seen on The CW last week: a beer commercial. The network, which says it targets females 18-34 as its main demographic, debuted its first-ever beer spot, a 30-second commercial for Bud Light that the brand purchased in the scatter market. The commercial first ran on MELROSE PLACE and AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL.

MAD MEN writer axed
MAD MEN scribe Kater Gordon, who won a writing Emmy for the show on Sept. 20, was fired from the AMC series, according to Deadline Hollywood’s Nikki Finke. According to an insider, Gordon started as a personal assistant to MAD MEN creator Matthew Weiner before being promoted to a writer’s assistant and then full-time writer, even helping to pen the season finale with Weiner.

Late News Ends Early: Stations offer mini-newscasts to grab attention-deficient viewers
While some might wonder just how much punch a newscast the size of a commercial pod might pack, programs running from 2½ to 12 minutes are finding viewers from Detroit to Knoxville to San Diego. The “snackable” programs hit home at a time when consuming short clips on YouTube and station sites is part of life for many, and may be just the right size for those intent on getting the next day’s weather before turning in for the night.

New crisis at ITV as Bishop turns down the top job
ITV was thrown into turmoil once again as Sir Michael Bishop became the second candidate to rule himself out as its new chairman, and chief operating officer John Cresswell said he will quit in the near future.

Why Email No Longer Rules… And what that means for the way we communicate
Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over. In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold—services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate—in ways we can only begin to imagine.