News

TNT has ordered 10 episodes of On The Menu (working title), billed as TV’s first cooking show ever to give viewers the chance to taste the winning dish after every episode. It’s slated to launch in 2014. Each episode of On the Menu will center on a different American food business – ranging from restaurant chains and stadium concession stands to amusement parks and cruise lines. Passionate home cooks, working in conjunction with professional chefs, will be challenged to create the business’ next signature menu item. The winning dish will immediately go on the menu, giving viewers at home the chance to go try the dish the very next day. Mark Burnett (The Bible, The Voice, Survivor) serves as executive producer for On the Menu, which is being produced by One Three Media, Burnett’s joint venture with Hearst Corporation. Burnett launched TNT’s first push into reality programming with the 2009 series Wedding Day,...

Exclusive: TNT is re-entering the reality arena with The Great Escape, a new action adventure series from Oscar-winning filmmakers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and Emmy-winning Amazing Race creators Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri. The show, which has been picked up for 10 episodes for summer premiere, will be hosted by Rich Eisen (NFL Total Access). The Great Escape puts teams of ordinary people in the middle of their own epic action/adventure movie. Players must work together to evade pursuers, overcome obstacles, solve puzzles and be the first to reach freedom to win a cash prize. The Great Escape is produced by Fox TV Studios, Imagine Entertainment, The Hochberg Ebersol Co., Profiles TV Prods. and executive produced by Imagine’s Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo, Elise Doganieri, Bertram van Munster, Justin Hochberg and Charlie Ebersol. This marks TNT’s biggest foray into reality since the 2009 series Wedding Day,...

In case you didn't know it, gentle readers, today Stacey Nosek, Original Link Wench and all around Cool Chick, is getting hitched. Several Pajiban writers and commenters are surely, at this moment, wriggling into their powder blue ruffled tuxes and magenta taffeta gowns in anticipation of Stacey's kickass day. Prisco is a groomsman. Need I say more? So for Stacey, I present to you, A Very Matrimonial Pajiba Love. No, not all the links are Strictly wedding themed, but I'll let Miss Amy Pond clue you into how I got around that:

This link is old, but good. By good I mean delicious. Here the always hilarious Allie Brosh debates the merits of pie versus cake. I've been to two weddings this summer and missed the cake ceremony at both. What? I was kidnapping the groom the first time and scrawling all over the happy couple's car the second time.

Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are crafting an action-adventure reality show pilot for TNT that challenges contestants to escape from big-screen-inspired situations.

In "The Great Escape," ordinary people are put in cinema-inspired settings, challenging them to find a way out using everyday ingenuity. Each week, teams are dropped off blindfolded in a different extreme environment -- lost in the desert, trapped in the mountains, locked in a prison, marooned on an island.

The team must figure their way out through multiple stages and escape to win a cash prize.

"Escape" is from Imagine Entertainment and Fox TV Studios, executive produced by Justin Hochberg, Grazer, Howard and David Nevins. This marks one of several current network pilots for Hochberg, who through his Hochberg Ebersol Co. also has projects set up at Cartoon Network, Style and the CW.

With the pilot shot, the project is a bit further along than a somewhat...

TNT might know drama, but does it remember how to launch a hit show?

On Monday night, the network premieres its dramedy series "Men of a Certain Age," which follows a trio of fortysomething guys as they navigate friendships, work and romance. Critics are raving about "Men," which marks Ray Romano's return to television in a starring role.

If the show can draw ratings to match its reviews, it won't be a moment too soon. TNT, the once-dominant basic cable brand, is stuck in a midlife crisis of its own.

Despite making a push for a new hit this year by debuting the most new series in the network's history (five), TNT is nearly flat with 2008, averaging 2.3 million viewers in primetime and a 0.8 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic. Although broadcast has suffered drastic declines during the past four years and basic cable has enjoyed overall growth, TNT hasn't...

By Daniel Frankel

Mark Burnett will receive the Producers Guild of America’s Norman Lear Award at the guild’s annual trophy presentation Jan. 24.

The prolific reality TV producer, whose docket includes “Survivor,” “The Apprentice” and “Wedding Day,” will receive an award previously given to David Chase (last year’s winner), Dick Wolf, Jerry Bruckheimer, John Wells, Lorne Michaels, Bud Yorkin, David Wolper and Don Hewitt.

“Just to have my name mentioned in the same sentence as Norman Lear is truly a reward in itself,” Burnett said...

TNT has premiered its first-ever unscripted drama .Wedding Day. from producing giants Mark Burnett Productions and DreamWorks Television, with Mark Burnett (Survivor); DreamWorks. Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey (Las Vegas, TNT.s Into the West); and Janelle Fiorito (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) serving as executive producers. The series features celebrity wedding/event planners Alan Dunn and Diann Valentine. .Wedding Day. gives deserving couples a helping hand to ensure the most important day of their lives is also the most magical. Each week, Dunn (For Better or Worse) and Valentine (author of Weddings Valentine Style) host as family, friends and community come together to create a dream wedding. Along the way, viewers will learn each couple.s compelling story, from their...

No eating bugs. No "you're fired." This is a different side of renowned television producer Mark Burnett, the man behind Survivor and The Apprentice. In TNT's new reality series Wedding Day, nuptial planner to the stars Diann Valentine bursts into the lives of deserving couples and sets up their dream weddings, all in under a week and completely by surprise. June, of course, is the perfect month to kick off a wedding show--nearly 300,000 couples will wed in June, contributing to the massive $72 billion wedding industry. Valentine talked with Fast Company's Zachary Wilson to explain her new show, how it's just a small piece of her growing empire, and just why we're all so obsessed with weddings.

Fast Company: Tell me about Wedding Day. Diann Valentine: It's all about making dream weddings come true. We go around the country and in four days we come in and super size it.

I had a hard time reconciling the fact that reality series Wedding Day was airing on TNT... much less in primetime. If anything, the Mark Burnett-produced reality series, which throws elaborate "dream" weddings for deserving couples, feels more suited for a daytime slot on Lifetime or Tlc. There's a softness that seems completely out of touch with the high-stakes drama that has become the network's bread and butter, with series like The Closer, Leverage, or Saving Grace. I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to watch the first three episodes of Wedding Day and was shocked to discover that it was executive produced by Mark Burnett; it's certainly a departure from the producer's fast-paced reality series like Survivor and The Apprentice. Granted, this isn't a reality competition series but a feel-good wedding-themed series but it could have used some of the polish and smoothness of Burnett's other series.

TNT's procedural heavy hitters "The Closer" and "Raising the Bar" delivered very different-sized audiences Monday night, with "Closer" nearly matching last year's debut and "Bar" dropping sharply.

The fifth season premiere of "The Closer" at 9 p.m. delivered its typically enormous cable viewership of 7.1 million. "Closer" had ad-supported cable's biggest audience for a scripted series telecast so far this year, though it was 9% off last summer's bow

But then half of TNT's audience changed the channel at 10 p.m. and missed the second season debut of "Raising the Bar," which garnered 3.6 million viewers, down 53% from last year's premiere. "Bar" was expected to take a hit given its record-setting "Closer"-level opener last summer (and subsequent drop off) and the legal drama remained above the show's first-season average.

TNT's premieres continue next Tuesday night with the Season 3 debut of "Saving Grace," Mark Burnett's new reality series "Wedding Day" and Jada Pinkett Smith...

On the heels of the broadcast network’s fall announcements comes the never-ending trickle of cable commitments. As is their wont, many of these shows will debut in the summer months (like, June) when broadcast network series are on hiatus.

TNT will be showing us a hospital series starring Jada Pinkett Smith called Hawthorne, Jerry Bruckheimer’s got a cop show called Dark Blue that stars Dylan McDermott, Mark Burnett’s got a new reality series called Wedding Day, and this December a series with an impressive pedigree called Men of a Certain Age starring Ray Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula.

truTV has a bunch of “reality” shows that fit square into their format: a behind the scenes show called NFL Full Contact– the sort we used to call a “documentary,” Conspiracy Theory with Governor Jesse Ventura, U.S. Special Ops: Declassified – a program that outs our nation’s terrorist hunters,...

On hand to pitch his new TNT cop drama "Dark Blue" to media buyers Wednesday, Dylan McDermott posed a hypothetical question that could prove the underlying theme for the 2009 upfront.

"How long can you pretend to be something before you become it?" McDermott asked onstage at the Turner upfront presentation. And while he was referring to his character, a two-fisted undercover cop, the actor might as well have been talking about his new home network.

TNT has spent the past few years trying to erase the distinction between broadcast and cable television. To hammer home the point that it functions as a sixth broadcast network, the cabler scheduled its upfront in the heart of the broadcast upfront week and packed it with A-list talent.

TNT unveiled a drama slate that includes projects from Steven Spielberg, Steven Bochco, "Roseanne" creator Matt Williams and the husband-and-wife team of Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon.

Leverage and Raising the Bar return to TNT this summer for their sophomore seasons, while three new shows make their debut. The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick, and Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter, are also among the cabler's returning original series.

As for new fare, TNT is rolling out this summer HawthoRNe, a medical drama fronted by Jada Pinkett Smith; Dark Blue, a police drama led by Dylan McDermott (The Practice); and Wedding Day, a reality series from Mark Burnett.

The cabler's development slate for the 2009-10 season and beyond, meawhile, is both out-of-this-world and down-to-earth.

The dramedy Men of a Certain Age — starring Ray Romano (also a creator on the series), Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula — has been greenlit and tabbed for ...

Read More >...

There will be no lack of drama on TNT this summer. The cable network announced an ambitious summer schedule that includes new seasons of returning shows "The Closer," "Raising the Bar," "Saving Grace" and "Leverage," plus the new scripted dramas "Hawthorne" and "Dark Blue." The network will also dip its toes into the unscripted waters with the premiere of "Wedding Day," from uber-producer Mark Burnett. Starting on June 8, Monday nights will feature "The Closer," featuring Golden Globe winner Kyra Sedgwick, at 9 p.m. Et and the second season of "Raising the Bar" at 10 p.m. While "Raising the Bar" premiered...

Vampire Blockbuster and Oscar Award®-Winning Breakout Neck-In-Neck with Both Films Receiving Nominations in 6 Categories

Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Friday The 13th, and Prom Night also represent genre nods with Johnathon Schaech, Derek Mears, and Luke Goss being honored.

New York, May 4 -- The hit films "Twilight" and "Slumdog Millionaire" get ready to battle it out as MTV: Music Television announces this year's final nominees for the "2009 MTV Movie Awards." Pitting Hollywood vampires against the Mumbai slums, the movies' rabid fans proved their loyalty as they sent both flicks to the head of the cinematic pack with each film receiving nominations in six award categories including "Best Movie," "Best Kiss" and "Breakthrough Performance Male."

MTV will up the cinematic fun quotient this year by debuting the two new categories "Best Song From A Movie" and "Best Wtf Moment." Fans will get the chance to vote on such movie soundtrack...