Ellen DeGeneres Signs to Host Daily Talk Show
04-12-02, 07:34 PM
#1
My Generosity Is Legendary
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Home of the Golden Snowball
Posts: 1,271
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ellen DeGeneres Signs to Host Daily Talk Show
http://www.reuters.com/news_article....StoryID=808735
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rosie is bowing out of the daytime talk circuit, but Ellen is poised to step into it.
Actress-comedian Ellen DeGeneres has signed a deal to host a daily talk/variety show starting next year, unless CBS brings her struggling sitcom back to prime time in the fall, it was announced on Friday.
The new DeGeneres show, the 44-year-old entertainer's third outing as the star of her own TV series, would be launched in weekday syndication in the autumn of 2003, provided her CBS comedy, "The Ellen Show," remains off the air as expected.
The talk show is to be produced by Telepictures Productions and distributed via Warner Bros. Domestic Television, the same entities behind the "Rosie "O'Donnell Show," which ends its run in May after six years on the air.
The two units of AOL Time Warner Inc. also produce and distribute the upcoming "Caroline Rhea Show," which debuts this fall billed as a continuation of the "Rosie" format.
The DeGeneres show would highlight her "stand-up comedy background and her 'everywoman' approach to life's everyday situations," Warner Bros. said in a statement.
"Ellen has the intelligence, comedic skills and mainstream sensibilities to create a unique daytime television franchise," said Telepictures president Jim Paratore.
He told Daily Variety the idea for a DeGeneres-hosted talk show grew out of some guest work she did on O'Donnell's program. "She was natural and funny," Paratore said. "It was something we were thinking about, and something she was thinking about independently."
He also insisted there was room in the syndication market for both New York-based "Caroline" and the DeGeneres project from Los Angeles, just as there is an audience for bi-coastal late-night rivals David Letterman and Jay Leno.
The deal with Warner Bros. is contingent on the future of DeGeneres' latest prime-time gig, CBS comedy "The Ellen Show," which got off to a slow start in the ratings and was pulled off the air in January.
A spokeswoman for CBS, a unit of Viacom Inc., said "The Ellen Show" "remains in contention" for a return to the network schedule this fall, with the show's fate to be decided in mid-May. The series starred DeGeneres as a former dot-com executive who returns to her small-town home.
DeGeneres made broadcast history on her first show, the popular ABC sitcom "Ellen," when her TV alter ego came out of the closet in 1997, becoming the first openly gay lead character on prime-time network television.
A short time later, DeGeneres and actress Anne Heche went public with their real-life love affair, instantly becoming America's most prominent lesbian couple. The two broke up three years later.
DeGeneres' first series, which she also created and produced, earned her an Emmy Award for writing, and she received several Emmy nominations as best actress in a comedy series during the show's run.
More recently, DeGeneres received rave reviews as host of the much-delayed Primetime Emmy Awards. Her feature film credits include "EDtv," "Goodbye, Lover" and "Mr. Wrong."
O'Donnell, who publicly discussed her homosexuality for the first time in a recent national TV interview, said she was leaving TV to spend more time with her adopted children.
I have 2 thoughts:
1-Why would you give someone whose other shows tanked a shot at a show in a dying format?
2- I'd really like to see her go back to her stand-up roots where I thought she was quite funny at times.
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rosie is bowing out of the daytime talk circuit, but Ellen is poised to step into it.
Actress-comedian Ellen DeGeneres has signed a deal to host a daily talk/variety show starting next year, unless CBS brings her struggling sitcom back to prime time in the fall, it was announced on Friday.
The new DeGeneres show, the 44-year-old entertainer's third outing as the star of her own TV series, would be launched in weekday syndication in the autumn of 2003, provided her CBS comedy, "The Ellen Show," remains off the air as expected.
The talk show is to be produced by Telepictures Productions and distributed via Warner Bros. Domestic Television, the same entities behind the "Rosie "O'Donnell Show," which ends its run in May after six years on the air.
The two units of AOL Time Warner Inc. also produce and distribute the upcoming "Caroline Rhea Show," which debuts this fall billed as a continuation of the "Rosie" format.
The DeGeneres show would highlight her "stand-up comedy background and her 'everywoman' approach to life's everyday situations," Warner Bros. said in a statement.
"Ellen has the intelligence, comedic skills and mainstream sensibilities to create a unique daytime television franchise," said Telepictures president Jim Paratore.
He told Daily Variety the idea for a DeGeneres-hosted talk show grew out of some guest work she did on O'Donnell's program. "She was natural and funny," Paratore said. "It was something we were thinking about, and something she was thinking about independently."
He also insisted there was room in the syndication market for both New York-based "Caroline" and the DeGeneres project from Los Angeles, just as there is an audience for bi-coastal late-night rivals David Letterman and Jay Leno.
The deal with Warner Bros. is contingent on the future of DeGeneres' latest prime-time gig, CBS comedy "The Ellen Show," which got off to a slow start in the ratings and was pulled off the air in January.
A spokeswoman for CBS, a unit of Viacom Inc., said "The Ellen Show" "remains in contention" for a return to the network schedule this fall, with the show's fate to be decided in mid-May. The series starred DeGeneres as a former dot-com executive who returns to her small-town home.
DeGeneres made broadcast history on her first show, the popular ABC sitcom "Ellen," when her TV alter ego came out of the closet in 1997, becoming the first openly gay lead character on prime-time network television.
A short time later, DeGeneres and actress Anne Heche went public with their real-life love affair, instantly becoming America's most prominent lesbian couple. The two broke up three years later.
DeGeneres' first series, which she also created and produced, earned her an Emmy Award for writing, and she received several Emmy nominations as best actress in a comedy series during the show's run.
More recently, DeGeneres received rave reviews as host of the much-delayed Primetime Emmy Awards. Her feature film credits include "EDtv," "Goodbye, Lover" and "Mr. Wrong."
O'Donnell, who publicly discussed her homosexuality for the first time in a recent national TV interview, said she was leaving TV to spend more time with her adopted children.
I have 2 thoughts:
1-Why would you give someone whose other shows tanked a shot at a show in a dying format?
2- I'd really like to see her go back to her stand-up roots where I thought she was quite funny at times.
04-14-02, 06:25 PM
#3
My Generosity Is Legendary
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Home of the Golden Snowball
Posts: 1,271
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally posted by tygloalex
I thought that said Daily Show instead of Daily Talk Show and I almost spit my milk out. Please don't take away my Jon Stewart.
I thought that said Daily Show instead of Daily Talk Show and I almost spit my milk out. Please don't take away my Jon Stewart.
