Top Stories

NEW YORK: The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has named actor and producer David Michaels, who founded TV Cares, as the senior executive director of the Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards. At the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Michaels served as co-chairman of the Daytime Emmy Awards, serving …

NEW YORK: Aimee Viles has been elevated from VP of emerging media at Bravo Media to the senior VP post of the division, which covers mobile apps, interactive TV, gaming and other platforms. Viles reports to Lisa Hsia, the executive VP of digital for Bravo. Viles has been with the company …

LOS ANGELES: MarVista Entertainment has taken on three new telefilms geared toward teens and young adults. Pop Stars, featuring Christian Serratos (Twilight), Ross Thomas (Soul Surfer), Rachele Brooke Smith (Bring It On: Fight to the Finish), Robert Adamson (Princess Protection Program) and Eric Roberts (The Expendables), is about a singer who …

PREMIUM: Lisa Kudrow, who the world first fell in love with as Phoebe Buffay on Friends, talks to World Screen about playing Dr. Fiona Wallice, the self-absorbed psychiatrist on Showtime’s Web Therapy.   WS: What served as inspiration for the show? KUDROW: The fact that while people are at work on …

NEW YORK: News Corporation is losing its chief digital officer, Jonathan Miller, who is exiting the company at the end of September. Miller will serve as an outside advisor to the company for digital issues through fall 2013. Miller’s exit comes at a time when the company is moving towards …

MIAMI: Customers of Comcast’s Xfinity TV service in the U.S. have gained access to the beIN Sports channel, featuring coverage of all the top soccer leagues and tournaments from Europe and South America. beIN Sport will be available in Spanish through the Xfinity TV MultiLatino package and in English on the Xfinity TV Sports …

SEATTLE: Amazon.com has secured a new content licensing deal with NBCUniversal Cable & New Media Distribution, bringing episodes from hit shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Friday Night Lights and others to the Prime Instant Video service. Hundreds of TV episodes from the NBCU slate are joining Prime Instant Video. Among …

PREMIUM: Marc Cherry, the creator of Desperate Housewives, talks to World Screen about his upcoming show, Devious Maids, for Lifetime. WS: Devious Maids is based on a Mexican telenovela. What appealed to you about the world it depicts? CHERRY: Many years ago, before I became a professional writer, I was …

LOS ANGELES: MGM Television and Nigel Lythgoe are bringing back the classic 1980s film and series Fame as a brand-new scripted series. Lythgoe, executive producer of American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance and others, will serve as executive producer on the project, alongside Kary McHoul, the president of …

BURBANK: Andrew Kubitz has become ABC Entertainment Group’s new executive VP of programming, planning and scheduling, joining the network from a scheduling role at CBS Television. Kubitz will work under Paul Lee, the president of ABC Entertainment Group. He will be responsible for managing daytime, primetime and late-night programming and …