Steve Harvey’s Miss Universe gaffe might have embarrassed him in the eyes of the world, but it hasn’t hurt the ratings for his TV game show.
Syndicated series “Family Feud,” produced by Burbank’s FremantleMedia North America, just scored its highest viewing figures since he became host in 2010 – and some of the biggest numbers in the show’s 40-year history.
“We couldn’t be happier,” said Fremantle’s co-chief executive, Jennifer Mullin, who praised Harvey’s great talent as an entertainer and host.
The show averaged 8.7 million viewers a week last month, according to Nielsen, and became the most-watched syndicated show in the advertiser-prized demographic of women 25 to 54.
While Harvey made an epic fail when he announced the wrong winner of the Miss Universe contest in December, “Feud’s” record-breaking ratings since then suggest the incident, which went viral across social media, drove more viewers than ever before to watch Harvey on the game show.
Playboy Stripped
When Playboy launched its first-ever issue without fully nude layouts last week, founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner was more concerned about something else that was missing from the overhauled magazine.
The decision to ditch the full-page cartoon, as well as its facing jokes page, proved to be a much harder choice for him to authorize than the headline-hitting one to lose the nudes.
Hefner, a former cartoonist himself, ultimately gave his go ahead to that and all the other changes as publisher Playboy Enterprises Inc. of Beverly Hills pivots the publication to position it against different competition in a bid to attract new advertisers and distribution channels.
The Business Journal reported last year that the magazine was losing $2 million a year as circulation and advertising numbers dropped.
Explaining why the magazine was going non-nude, Playboy said in a statement, “Times change. Yes, we’re taking a risk but this is a company – like all great companies – that has risk in its DNA. It was built around a magazine virtually no one thought would succeed, yet now it’s impossible to picture a world without Playboy.”
Business Pitch
For entertainment professionals looking to pitch themselves to the industry, Amazon.com Inc.’s Internet Movie Database is no longer the only game in town.
Fast-growing rival platform ActivePitch, headquartered on the Miracle Mile, allows clients to store a wider range of video of their work alongside screen credits in the hope of catching the attention of casting agents, production companies and studio staff browsing the site.
The company said it has 5,000 monthly subscribers paying fees ranging from $12 to $34 a month based on how much video they store on the site.
ActivePitch aims to drum up even more business with a newly added free feature called ReelTrend, which gives celebrity users more direct engagement with their fans by allowing them to post their personal favorite scenes from movies and shows they’ve appeared in.
This user friendly approach is how they will grow the business, said its co-founder and Chief Executive Garrison Koch.
“There are systems out there which lack the personal touch, beautiful design and usability we bring,” he said. “The recent spike in subscribers is all due to word of mouth as we let the quality of our work speak for itself.”
Short Takes
Ratings smash “Empire” will lead off next month’s PaleyFest Los Angeles, an annual event where the cast and creators of TV’s biggest shows take part in question-and-answer sessions with fans.
“Supergirl,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “American Horror Story: Hotel” are among the other shows participating in the March 11-20 event at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, which is organized by the Paley Center for Media of Beverly Hills.
Screenwriting software leader Final Draft Inc. was bought by Burbank production management firm Cast and Crew Entertainment Services last week in a deal that broadens Cast & Crew’s participation across the full entertainment production lifecycle, from script to screen. The two companies will continue to operate under their respective names. Their first project together will be the Final Draft Awards, a ceremony celebrating the best in screenwriting, to be held Feb. 11 on the lot of Paramount Pictures Corp.
The new Fox drama series in which the devil gets bored with life and moves to Los Angeles to open a Hollywood nightclub might face a devilish struggle to survive into a second season.
Nielsen ratings for “Lucifer” have dropped since a promising start last month and the show will need to stay around the current figure of 6 million viewers to stand a chance of renewal.
Meanwhile, leading man Tom Ellis is having fun trying to make the evil title character likable.
“I’ve based him on a cross between Mick Jagger and Oscar Wilde,” he said.
Managing editor Sandro Monetti can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 200.
