Programming

New Roles for Lillah McCarthy, Brett Weitz, Kathy Busby

TNT and TBS Unveil Development Slates

Billed by ESPN upfront co-host Mike
Greenberg as vivacious and luminescent, and the man
who makes the company’s executives very nervous,
funny guy Kenny Mayne
assumed, quite briefly, a
larger role at the sports
programmer during its upfront
presentation in New
York last Tuesday (May 15).

Mayne thanked media
buyers for attending the
annual pledge drive. “It’s
viewers like you who allow
us to stay on the air.
Never mind the $7 a head
for cable viewers.” Pause
for deadpan eff ect. “$6.50,
I’m sorry.”

Fox News in Front With Cable’s State of the Union Ratings

NEW YORK — Roughly 9.3 million viewers watched President Obama’s State of
the Union address on the cable-news networks last Tuesday (Jan. 24), with
Fox News Channel setting the pace with the largest audience and the most
watchers in the target demo.

Fox News averaged 3.81 million viewers on Jan. 24 with the 2012 SOTU from
9:11 p.m. through 10:16 p.m. (ET), according to Nielsen data, a total that included
1.14 million adults 25 to 54.

TBS: We’re With CoCo Through 2014

LOS ANGELES — TBS has extended its late-night
talker Conan through April 2014.

The deal extends Conan O’Brien’s run on the
basic-cable channel for two more years, even as
his talk show has been somewhat of a disappointment
in the ratings. Thus far in 2012, Conan has
averaged 1.1 million total viewers and 702,000
persons 18-49.