Madison Avenue: Last News

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox is getting ready to put on a new show for advertisers. After scaling back its upfront presentation in 2022, Fox Corporation will return the event to its usual wide-consumption format, moving the event to New York’s Manhattan Center on Monday, May 15. The company intends to focus attention on its broader portfolio of assets that includes Fox Sports, the Fox broadcasting network, Fox News Media and the Tubi streaming hub. “In a time of such complexity, strength, strategic focus and stability are the foundational elements that lead to success. Fox’s advantage is our ability to focus on what matters most — our advertising partners — and delivering for them, and our viewers, the best content across the industry’s leading sports, entertainment, news and streaming platforms,” said Marianne Gambelli, president of advertising sales at Fox, in a prepared statement. “For this year’s Upfront, we are hosting an in-person event — complete with a new venue and format — to connect with our clients in the most meaningful way, by showcasing the value of FOX’s best-in-class portfolio and its ability to innovate and engage with a wide array of consumers.”

Drake's sprawling Beverly Hills mansion was reportedly burgled Thursday night and a suspect has been arrested.The 36-year-old music star was out of the house when the home invasion is said to have taken place, law enforcement sources informed TMZ.His security team purportedly called the police after spotting a strange man exiting the property with an object from the house. Trouble: Drake's sprawling Los Angeles mansion was reportedly burgled Thursday night and a suspect has been arrested; the superstar is pictured last yearThe suspect vanished before the authorities got to the house, so the police searched the area and after a few hours came upon a man matching his description.According to law enforcement insiders, the man was discovered walking up the road, still holding the object that was allegedly removed from Drake's mansion.

Drake's sprawling Beverly Hills mansion was reportedly burgled Thursday night and a suspect has been arrested.The 36-year-old music star was out of the house when the home invasion is said to have taken place, law enforcement sources informed TMZ.His security team purportedly called the police after spotting a strange man exiting the property with an object from the house. Trouble: Drake's sprawling Los Angeles mansion was reportedly burgled Thursday night and a suspect has been arrested; the superstar is pictured last yearThe suspect vanished before the authorities got to the house, so the police searched the area and after a few hours came upon a man matching his description.According to law enforcement insiders, the man was discovered walking up the road, still holding the object that was allegedly removed from Drake's mansion.

Drake's sprawling Beverly Hills mansion was reportedly burgled Thursday night and a suspect has been arrested.The 36-year-old music star was out of the house when the home invasion is said to have taken place, law enforcement sources informed TMZ.His security team purportedly called the police after spotting a strange man exiting the property with an object from the house. Trouble: Drake's sprawling Los Angeles mansion was reportedly burgled Thursday night and a suspect has been arrested; the superstar is pictured last yearThe suspect vanished before the authorities got to the house, so the police searched the area and after a few hours came upon a man matching his description.According to law enforcement insiders, the man was discovered walking up the road, still holding the object that was allegedly removed from Drake's mansion.

A Glasgow woman has been ordered to tear down her garden decking for a second time after an appeal to keep it in place was rejected by the council. Theresa McInally first built the raised decking at her home on Madison Avenue, Catchart, during a garden makeover in 2020.

Fashion designer Vera Wang showed off her age-defying looks as she attended the CFDA Fashion Awards on Monday night.The 73-year-old seemed to have found the fountain of youth as she flaunted her incredible figure at the event that celebrated her with a Lifetime Achievement Award nearly ten years ago.Wang also received the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year award in 2005. Spotlight: Vera Wang as she attended the CFDA Fashion Awards in New York City on MondayThe fashionista styled her dark locks in two long braids and wore a bandeau-style spaghetti strap top that flared out on the sides with sleeves, leaving her shoulders bare.The designer added thigh-high black stockings and black platform heels.

With her wildly successful beauty brand empire, return to music that includes a new studio album, and the arrival of her first child, Rihanna has been one busy lady.But on Saturday, the fashionista decided to take a reprieve from all her responsibilities, albeit short, and head out for dinner in her adopted hometown of New York City.The brains behind Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty was spotted just as she was leaving a high-end restaurant in Manhattan and getting into an awaiting vehicle. Dinner date: Rihanna, 34, stepped out for dinner in an all-black ensemble in her adopted hometown of New York City on SaturdayThe Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman (born Robyn Rihanna Fenty), 34, showed off her curves in black low-cut blouse and skintight leggings.She also wore black boots and carried a small clutch purse for her short walk to an SUV that was seemingly going to take her back home to her awaiting infant son, who only six-months-old.

Andrew Wallenstein President and Chief Media Analyst Bob Iger shared a pessimistic outlook on the future of movies and traditional TV in an interview Wednesday at the Code Conference in Los Angeles.  The former Disney CEO was, however, particularly bullish on the growing number of streaming services embracing Madison Avenue, including Disney+, but predicted that not all of the current market entrants would survive in the long term.  “Advertising will thrive in the streaming world,” Iger told moderator Kara Swisher from the stage at the Beverly Hilton. “I think what Netflix is going to do in advertising, what Disney announced, those are smart moves because it’s going to give consumers choice.” 

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Karen Grinthal, a veteran ad-sales executive who has long represented cable’s Food Network and other properties to Madison Avenue, is set to retire from her post. Grinthal, who has worked at Scripps and then Discovery Communications for years, was recently named part of the new senior ad-sales executive team at Warner Bros. Discovery. Grinthal was named in July to be one of three top executives overseeing linear and digital sales for cable networks reporting in to Jon Steinlauf, head of U.S. ad sales for the company. Grinthal was assigned to supervise linear and digital sales and revenue for Food Network, TLC, TBS Entertainment, OWN, Cooking Channel, Cartoon Network and WB Syndication.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorRunning traditional ads on streaming services like Disney+, Netflix and Amazon can be difficult. Some advertisers may choose a different route by creating some of the programming those broadband services use to get people to subscribe in the first place.A new study from Interpublic Group’s Magna media-research unit and Amazon Ads found that consumers don’t seem overly concerned whether a TV show they watch is created by an advertiser or a more traditional production studio, so long as the content is entertaining.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThe hottest place to be in TV may not be traditional television, but Paramount Global was able to make the medium seem pretty cool.Paramount Global has largely completed its upfront sales negotiations. And while the company saw its volume of advance advertising commitments rise most significantly for digital venues like Pluto and Paramount Plus, ad dollars committed for the traditional primetime schedule on the CBS broadcast network rose as well, according to a person familiar with current negotiations  The company expects at least a 10% rise in volume for its primetime schedule, this person says.  In 2021, CBS may have seen its primetime commitments total between $2.03 billion and $2.64 billion, according to Variety estimates, compared with $2.03 billion and $2.51 billion in 2020.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTV’s upfront market is starting to close and ad dollars seem harder to collect.NBCUniversal expects the volume of advance advertising commitments secured in the annual haggle to be “in the same range as last year,” according to Jeff Shell, CEO of the Comcast owned unit. He said that declines due to “cord cutting were offset by pricing and Peacock for us,” during remarks made at an investor conference organized by Credit Suisse.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticIn “Mad Men,” Jon Hamm had his corner office: the room with a view, overlooking Madison Avenue, where Don Draper could work, drink and brainstorm in peace. Maybe that’s why the actor was drawn to playing a lowly paper-pusher with a bad mustache and big dreams of occupying such a space in “Corner Office,” a low-key, screw-loose workplace satire that offers audiences a side of Hamm they’ve never seen before — and might not be in such a hurry to experience again, unless the toil-from-home blues of the pandemic have made them receptive to the call of cubicle life.Premiering at the Tribeca Festival, “Corner Office” is director Joachim Back’s slightly taxing cinematic take on “The Room,” a slender novel by Swedish actor-cum-author Jonas Karlsson, unread by me, that bills itself as “a short, sharp and fiendish fable in the tradition of Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett and Charlie Kauffman.” Check, check and check, insofar as those three absurdist writers are concerned, though I’d quibble with the other descriptors in that pitch.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorBefore finalizing Discovery’s purchase of WarnerMedia from AT&T, David Zaslav spent months holding friendly conversations with Hollywood moguls and influential agents. Now he’s locked in contentious discussions with Madison Avenue.Warner Bros. Discovery is making what media buyers and other executives say are  severe demands on advertisers in the course of discussions around the industry’s annual “upfront” market, when TV networks try to sell the bulk of their advertising inventory.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTV’s “upfront” ad-sales market is starting to move — and earlier than expected.Just days after the networks wrapped glitzy programming presentations to Madison Avenue executives, Walt Disney Co. is said to have written some business with at least one major media buying agency, according to three executives familiar with recent discussions.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorHow did the simple act of counting TV viewers become so controversial? David Kenny thinks he knows.The CEO of Nielsen has been under fire for months, ever since some of his company’s biggest customers — the nation’s TV networks — began to complain about how Nielsen tabulated viewers during the coronavirus pandemic. They are still complaining.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterComedy “Pivoting” has been canceled after just one season at Fox, Variety has confirmed.The midseason single-cam sitcom starring Eliza Coupe, Ginnifer Goodwin and Maggie Q, concluded its 10-episode first season March 10.Set in a small, middle-class town in Long Island, NY, “Pivoting” follows close-knit childhood friends Amy (Coupe), Jodie (Goodwin) and Sarah (Q) as they cope with the death of the fourth member of their group. When faced with the reality that life is short, these women pivot, and alter their current paths, by way of a series of impulsive, ill-advised and self-indulgent decisions.

Lea Michele and Tommy Dorfman stepped out to attend a celebration of Balmain‘s flagship store on Madison Avenue.

In a fast-moving, 40-minute pitch to media buyers on Day 1 of the NewFronts, NBCUniversal’s Peacock touted its advertising DNA at a moment when some streaming rivals are just now cozying up to Madison Avenue.

Anne Hathaway enjoyed a brief reprieve from her hectic schedule after working on four projects since the spring of 2021, including the Apple TV+ series WeCrashed.Having wrapped on three of the jobs by February,the Oscar-winning actress was able to get in some retail therapy on Saturday in New York City.Hathaway made a stop at Stubbs & Wootton, which is located on NYC's world famous Madison Avenue. Retail therapy: Anne Hathaway, 39, took advantage of a brief reprieve in her hectic schedule and made a stop to buy luxury slippers at the Stubbs & Wootton shoppe in New York CityThe company, which prides itself by having anattention to detail and an emphasis on craftsmanship,produces ready-to-wear luxury slippers.With spring in the air, Hathaway, 39, opted for a more conservative look in khaki trousers and a blue short-sleeve sweater over a blue denim shirt.She matched the fitted pants with white sneakers, and donned stylish, wide-frame sunglasses on the sunny Saturday.

Estelle Harris, who played George Costanza’s (Jason Alexander) mother Estelle on the popular NBC sitcom “Seinfeld” has died days before her 94th birthday.