CBS has named a veteran of several Grammy Awards telecasts to oversee its broadcast of the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
Ken Ehrlich, who has been a producer or executive producer of the last eight Grammy shows, will oversee the Emmys this year as they try to bounce back from a dismal ratings performance in 2004. Nominations for the Emmys will be announced Thursday, July 14, and the ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 18.
“We are thrilled to have a creative force like Ken Ehrlich on board to executive produce the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards,” says Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment. “Ken has helped take the Grammy telecast to untold heights and has produced notable musical and entertainment specials for some of the most popular artists of our time. We’re confident that his experience and vision will bring a fresh perspective to this year’s Emmy broadcast.”
New hit for Bravo
Just when it appeared the celebrities-are-people-too subgenre of unscripted TV was fading, Bravo has come up with what might possibly be a new hit in the category.
The cable network says more than a million people tuned into the premiere of “Being Bobby Brown” last week, making it the highest-rated series debut on the channel since late 2003 and the best Thursday premiere in Bravo’s 25-year history.
Despite reviews that ranged from bemused to downright savage, the show’s June 30 premiere drew an average audience of 1.1 million people curious to peek into the life of the Grammy-winning singer and frequent defendant, along with that of his wife, Whitney Houston, and their family. The vast majority of those viewers -829,000 – were in the adults 18-49 demographic, the holy grail for advertisers.
“Bobby Brown” also added viewers in the second episode of its back-to-back premiere, a good sign for a new show.
“‘Being Bobby Brown’ shows a rarely displayed verite glance at the lives of a pop culture icon and his famous family,” Bravo President Lauren Zalaznick says. “The strong growth of the series over the course of the first two episodes demonstrates the audience’s desire to come to Bravo for a deep, inside peek into the lives of these megastars.”
The 1.1 million viewers aren’t a huge number in the larger cable universe-top-rated shows like TNT’s “The Closer” draw about five times that-but they represent a huge improvement for Bravo. “Being Bobby Brown’s” 1.1 household rating was an improvement of close to 200 percent over the channel’s season average in the time period, and the show’s 18-49 audience was almost 300 percent larger than normal.
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AP-NY-07-05-05 1600EDT
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