Author: Kim Masters

“Parenthood”

Having already announced a batch of new hour-long shows for the fall, NBC remains silent on the fate of the long-running but low-rated Parenthood. Scuttlebutt at the network is that executives are in a tough negotiation, trying to get the actors and producers to take a pay cut. Even in victory, insiders say, the network would order at most 13 more episodes for a final season.

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The show, which just wrapped its fifth season, has always been expensive due to a cast of regulars that includes Peter Krause, Lauren Graham, Dax Shepard, Monica Potter, Erika Christensen, Craig T. Nelson, Bonnie Bedelia, Mae Whitman and several more. A source says NBC wrestled the cost to around $3.5 million a few years ago and has since refused any pay raises. For the past few seasons, the series, which doesn’t generate strong revenues from overseas, was saved by a deal with Netflix. A source with knowledge of the situation says NBC wants to make Parenthood “more economically feasible.”

The series has been the 10 p.m. Thursday slot’s first consistent performer on NBC in years, averaging a 1.3 in the key demo. Its night-of showing is modest, but it typically outperforms everything else the network airs that night and it jumps 77 percent with seven days of DVR viewing. Still, an informed source says the costs are “crazy for a show that does that rating.”

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Parenthood‘s following is small but passionate. It is the network’s only family soap and it’s perceived as NBC’s biggest quality play though it is consistently snubbed for major awards. (The show’s only Emmy nomination went to Jason Ritter in 2012. Potter was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as her character battled cancer in the show’s fourth season but didn’t win.)

One talent rep holds out hope, saying, “This is a beloved show at the network.” Also beloved is the show’s creator, Jason Katims, whose new series, About a Boy, has already been renewed. That show averages a 2.4 rating in adults 18-49 in a slot behind The Voice.
 

Associated Press

Chelsea Handler

Chelsea Handler plans to leave the E! channel when her contract expires at the end of the year, bringing a close to her Chelsea Lately talk show after eight years, according to her manager, Irving Azoff.

Handler has long been vocal about her dissatisfaction with the network though such complaints could be perceived as part of a negotiation. In this case, Azoff tells The Hollywood Reporter, “Chelsea intends to leave when her contract expires. She hired me to figure out her life after E! We have at least seven suitors and many ideas.” He adds that plans for Handler could include a radio presence and a possible nightly or weekly late-night show on another network or digital service.

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An E! spokesperson stated to THR: “Chelsea has nine months left on her contract and E! will not comment on the future of Chelsea Lately at this time.”

Handler is said to feel that she is at the top of her game with a new book, Uganda be Kidding Me — her first to sit at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list for more than a week. She is in the midst of a tour of more than 30 markets, “a massive piece of business” that also will include dates overseas, according to Geof Wills, president of Live Nation Comedy. She will shoot her first stand-up special at the Harris Theatre in Chicago in June to air on cable in October.

Handler’s reps at CAA have been setting meetings with companies including Sony Television and Lionsgate as well as FX to discuss her future. The extent of interest in her in those quarters is not clear. “I don’t know if anybody’s going to pay her as much as E!,” says a source at one company that has been contacted.

Handler is said to be making about $9 million a year while delivering average viewership of 572,000 a night — a decline from 839,000 in 2010. Ad revenue also has dipped more than 15 percent in recent years to $134.5 million, according to Kantar Media. But Handler is the lone female late-night host with a proven track record amid a sea of male hosts across broadcast and cable. And Azoff says his research shows Handler’s performance is stronger than those figures suggest. Despite shrinking overall viewership at E!, his numbers show that Chelsea Lately consistently has built on its lead-in and that this year, her show is averaging a 67 percent increase in viewers over that lead-in, the largest build in the show’s eight-year run. His data also shows her audience is more female than the competitors on any network and younger, with the exception of Conan O’Brien on TBS (though the data for NBC’s Tonight Show predates Jimmy Fallon‘s stint as host).

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Handler has been open about her frustration with programming at E! In a March 5 appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show, she described E! as “a sad, sad place to live,” adding, “They don’t know what they’re doing. They have no ideas. It’s a failure.”

While comics such as Jay Leno long have slung mud at their television homes, it’s hard to imagine that NBCUniversal cable entertainment chairman Bonnie Hammer was amused by Handler’s appraisal of her strategy to rebrand E! over the past few years as a more “aspirational” network.

A source at one company on the list to meet with Handler says those public remarks might make potential suitors think twice. “When you see talent go after a network like that, you think one day it could be me,” this person says.

Handler said on Stern’s show that she’d like a forum like Netflix. Broadcast networks probably are out, given Handler’s raunchy brand of humor.

Getty Images

From left: Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban

The collapse of songwriter and producer Dr. Luke’s deal to judge American Idol was a tough setback for Fox, Fremantle and the show’s producers that has left little time to fill a judge’s slot before the show begins taping, which was originally was set for next Tuesday but could be delayed.

At this point, it appears that Harry Connick Jr. is likely to join the panel, though sources say Fox had hoped to add an industry professional to the mix rather than another celebrity. While Fox was said to be somewhat cool to the Connick idea, sources say there is reluctance to add another woman to the mix given friction last season between Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj, which didn’t play well with the show’s key older female demographic. Fox declined to comment on any aspect of Idol business.

Keith Urban and Jennifer Lopez reportedly have committed to judging this Idol season.

Luke’s deal unraveled Friday, August 23rd. Initially, Luke’s camp said he had come to a realization that Idol would demand too much of his time given his commitment to his label at Sony Music. (Luke’s Kemosabe imprint is home to songwriter-turned-solo artist Bonnie Mckee, rapper Juicy J and pop-urban act Becky G.)

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But sources say Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald, remained so interested in becoming an Idol judge that he continued to plead this week with Sony Music CEO Doug Morris to allow him to appear on the show. An insider says Luke offered Sony Music half his Idol fee, said to be about $12 million — close to the $15 million Lopez is set to receive (and more than Urban earns).  For Luke, the sacrifice would not be great as he is said to earn more than $30 million a year from his music business.

But Morris did not relent because Sony’s competitor, Universal Music Group, holds the exclusive rights to American Idol recordings and he did not want Luke, in effect, to help his bitter rival. A source says Morris, having allowed Luke to produce Katy Perry’s latest album for Universal, was unwilling to yield on this.

Meanwhile, sources say Fox and Idol producers are upset with CAA — which collects millions in packaging fees on Idol — for assuring them that Luke’s contract would allow him to take the job. When Fox attorneys examined the deal with Sony Music, they found that Luke was not free after all. CAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.