Carell’s ‘Office’ work pays off
Steve Carell’s annual performance review at NBC must have gone pretty well.
Carell, the Golden Globe-winning star of “The Office,” is in line to get a hefty raise when he returns to work on the show later this year. He’ll make in the neighborhood of $175,000 per episode, which is about double his current salary, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Along with the extra money, Carell will receive a perk common to a lot of real-life offices: flex time. The show’s production schedule will incorporate a couple of hiatus periods for Carell so he can work on the numerous film projects to which he’s attached.
He’s currently at work on “Evan Almighty,” a sequel to the 2003 Jim Carrey comedy “Bruce Almighty” that focuses on his character. The producers of “The Office” let him go a little earlier than normal this spring to begin work on the movie.
Also on tap for Carell are the romantic comedy “Dan in Real Life” and a big-screen version of the 1960s sitcom “Get Smart.”
The salary bump for Carell hardly comes out of nowhere. During its second season “The Office” increased its audience by close to 3 million viewers over its brief run in the spring of 2005. It also performed fairly well in the adults 18-49 demographic NBC covets and was a critical darling.
‘Dancing with the Stars’ hoofer to be a dad
“Dancing with the Stars” viewer favorite John O’Hurley is stepping into fatherhood.
The actor and his wife Lisa announced Wednesday that they are expecting their first child, report news sources.
The couple wed in August 2004 and currently live in Beverly Hills with their dogs. O’Hurley, 49, was previously married to soap actress Eva LaRue for two years.
Although he’s a daytime TV veteran, O’Hurley made his first big impression as the eloquent yet pompous catalog king J. Peterman on “Seinfeld,” for which he earned a Screen Actors Guild award for best ensemble. This also led to numerous advertising campaigns.
In 2005, he became even more popular on ABC’s ballroom dance reality show “Dancing with the Stars,” for which he was voted the runner-up after fellow contestant Kelly Monaco wowed the judges and created a fan uproar. Several months later, viewers selected O’Hurley as the winner in a televised rematch.
CBS uploads to iTunes
A number of CBS’ hypercompetent crime-solvers, and Jeff Probst, are now available in convenient downloadable form.
The network on Thursday became the latest media company to make its content available on Apple’s iTunes service. Users can now download episodes of all three members of the “CSI” franchise and reality flagship “Survivor,” along with the dramas “NCIS” and “Numb3rs.”
CBS joining the iTunes roster means that shows from each of the Big Four networks are now available on the service. The new additions will cost $1.99 an episode, the same as most other video offerings on iTunes.
“ITunes has proven that people enjoy viewing shows on their computer or iPod, which provides an opportunity to reach new audiences with our hit shows and gives our existing viewers a chance to catch up on missed episodes,” says Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media.
CBS’ initial iTunes offerings will include episodes from the recently wrapped 2005-06 season (some shows will go farther back than that). Starting in the fall, new episodes will become available they day after they air on the network.
The iTunes venture is one of several online efforts CBS has embarked on in the past year. Episodes of some current and older CBS shows are also available on Google’s video service, and the network recently launched a broadband channel called innertube that will eventually offer streaming video of CBS shows.
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