New radio smackdown:
Limbaugh vs. Huckabee
Other shorts: News Corp. settles more NOTW civil lawsuits
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Feb 9, 2012
New radio smackdown: Limbaugh vs. Huckabee
Mike Huckabee isn't running for election this year but he's about to get into a heck of a popularity contest. The 2008 Republican presidential hopeful will host a new radio show being launched by Cumulus Radio on April 2 that will run from noon to 3 p.m., a timeslot that Rush Limbaugh's syndicated show has dominated for decades. Huckabee told The New York Times that he does not envision himself as a competitor to Limbaugh, who earns a $50 million annual salary from Clear Channel. Many others still will see him that way. Limbaugh has mowed down every challenger who has come his way over the years, but Cumulus seems to have a strategy in mind. The radio outfit points out that Limbaugh's show is expensive to broadcast, and Huckabee, who is similarly conservative, will be much cheaper, which could be appealing to stations crunched by the recession over the past few years. Huckabee will continue to host a weekend show on Fox News Channel and hasn't ruled out a run for president in the future, though he says he has no immediate political aspirations.
News Corp. settles more NOTW civil lawsuits
The vast majority of the first round of civil lawsuits filed against News Corp. over the News of the World hacking scandal have been settled, with just one now slated to go forward to trial. News Corp. said yesterday that nine more had been settled, bringing the total to 54 that have been taken care of out of court. Five more cases are being delayed because of technical issues; 60 total have been filed. The case slated to go to trial Feb. 27 was filed by singer Charlotte Church, who testified before Parliament last fall about the problems that British media had caused her and her family. She was one of a number of celebrities to give testimony in the inquiry, which was launched after News of the World
shut down last summer as the furor over phone hacking grew. Still, News Corp. faces more suits to come. A second round of civil lawsuits that did not make the first-round October deadline are now on tap, and there's estimated to be at least 50 of them.
Programming notes: 'Shore' spinoff bowing in March
MTV's first
"Jersey Shore" spinoff will hit the air next month. The network plans to premiere "The Pauly D Project" on March 29 at 10:30 p.m., following the premiere of the revamped hidden camera show "Punk'd." The spinoff will feature "Shore" star "Pauly D" DelVecchio as he continues his career as a DJ. "Punk'd," meanwhile, will still be executive produced by former host Ashton Kutcher, but this time various celebrities, including Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, will take turns hosting. Meanwhile, in other programming, Golf Channel on Feb. 27 will premiere the fourth season of "The Haney Project" at 9 p.m., leading into the season premiere of "Feherty" at 10. This season Adam Levine, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mario Batali and Angie Everhart will try to fix their golf swings on "Haney." On March 3 Investigation Discovery will debut "Deadly Sins," which looks at the seven deadly sins through various crimes. Six days later, on March 9, Travel Channel will launch the sixth season of "Ghost Adventures," with the show's trio finding more haunted locations in the U.S. BBC America on March 28 will add a new season of "Whitechapel" to its Dramaville programming block, with the show airing at 10 p.m. Elsewhere, ReelzChannel has ordered 26 new episodes of "Hollywood Uncensored with Sam Rubin," in which the entertainment reporter looks at the week in entertainment news. And Syfy has ordered a 13-episode third season of "Being Human," which this season has jumped 15 percent among total viewers and 27 percent among viewers 18-49.
Nielsen: Doritos has most-remembered game ad
The New York Giants won the football portion of the Super Bowl, but the winner wasn't so clear in advertising, where a number of different ad rating systems have anointed different winners. The latest is Doritos. The snack brand's Super Bowl ad in which a grandmother slings a baby across the back yard to grab a bag of chips was the game's most-remembered ad, according Nielsen, and it also came out on top when it came to the most-liked ads. Further, another Doritos ad about a dog who buries a cat and bribes a man to stay quiet about it with chips was No. 3 on the most-remembered list and No. 2 on the most-liked list. On the most-remembered list, M&M's, Skechers and Coca-Cola rounded out the top five, while M&M's, E*Trade and Coke made up the rest of the top five on the best-like list. Overall this year's Super Bowl ads were 34 percent more memorable and 42 percent better liked than the commercials a year ago. Nine of the top 10 best-liked ads included humor, with the lone exception being Chrysler's "Halftime in America" ad featuring Clint Eastwood. Doritos
also won the Brand Bowl and USA Today Admeter.
Now playing at Amazon Prime: Viacom shows
Just days after Redbox signaled a growing desire to challenge rival Netflix by
signing a deal with Verizon that will put it in the online streaming business, another Netflix competitor is stepping up its offerings as well. Amazon has signed a deal with Viacom to stream much of the cable giant's programming on Amazon Prime, a subscription service with an estimated 7 million customers. Hit shows from Viacom networks like Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central will be added to Amazon Prime's video options, which will rise to 15,000. That will include some of the networks' most popular shows, like "Dora the Explorer" and "Jersey Shore." The service is accessible via the Kindle Fire, the popular new tablet that Amazon introduced before Christmas. Amazon Prime costs $79 per year and gives subscribers access to video content as well as free shipping on their Amazon purchases. Amazon already has streaming deals in place with CBS and Fox.
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