17489: On Late Night Television And Byron Allen.

 

NBC News revealed how Byron Allen persuaded CBS to award him the time slot formerly held by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

 

Allen delivered a unique pitch, as detailed via the article below.

 

The image directly below unintentionally underscores Allen brings diversity to late night television—which will likely get the critical attention of President Donald J. Trump, who recently boasted, “We ended DEI in America!”

 

 

Byron Allen on how CBS handed him Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ time slot

 

The comedian-turned-media mogul spoke to NBC News this week about how “Comics Unleashed,” as well as his majority stake in Buzzfeed, will help him grow his media empire.

 

By Chloe Melas

 

As CBS sunsets “The Late Show,” media executive Byron Allen is gearing up to take over one of television’s most coveted evening time slots.

 

Starting Friday, Allen’s long-running syndicated comedy series, “Comics Unleashed,” will air at 11:35 p.m. ET.

 

Allen, who rose to fame as a stand-up comic, described the move as a “business opportunity” that he believes could help further expand his media empire. Last week, he bought a controlling stake in Buzzfeed, the digital media company co-founded by Jonah Peretti that helped define virality online.

 

His CBS pitch formed much earlier, however. Allen said that when news broke in July that the Paramount-owned CBS would be booting Stephen Colbert and the late-night staple off the air, he approached the network with a simple question.

 

“I said, ‘OK, do you like money?’” he said in an interview this week. “They said, ‘Yes!’”

Allen is friends with Colbert — the two go way back. He urged CBS to “not put on another show” if it went through with canceling the cancellation. He said he told the network, “I’ll buy the time period, and you can save over $110 million.”

 

Under the arrangement, Allen leases the hour and sells the advertising inventory himself. Although he wouldn’t reveal exactly how much he’s spending on the deal, he did say he’s “putting a lot of money in their cash register.”

 

“I am a gift from the money gods and the comedy gods,” he said.

 

Allen’s dream of appearing on late-night television dates back decades. When he was a child, his mother — an NBC employee who couldn’t afford childcare — took him to the lot in Burbank, California, where he got to watch late-night legend Johnny Carson in action.

 

“You know, my mom ended up convincing NBC to start an intern program with her, so she could work here for free,” he said. “While I was there, waiting for her to get off work, I’m watching Johnny Carson, and I’m like, wow, Johnny Carson is amazing, and he’s having the time of his life, lots of laughs, lots of fun.”

 

It all came full circle in 1979, when Allen got to do stand-up comedy on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

 

“I was thinking to myself, in the next five minutes I’m going to change my life and my mother’s life forever, so I’m going to go out there and have a great time, and after I make these people laugh, we’re never going to worry about a bowl of cereal again,” he said.

 

Eventually, he jumped into the media business and founded Allen Media Group (Entertainment Studios) in 1993. He owns television channels such as Pets.TV and Cars.TV. And in 2018, Entertainment Studios bought the Weather Channel’s parent company.

 

He sees a bright future for Buzzfeed, a brand that he said has “a great following.”

 

“Everything Jonah [Peretti] has built in the last 20 years, we are not touching that,” he said. “That is the foundation we are building on that, and we’re making it additive.”

 

But the media company, which was among the first digital-media startups to be valued at over $1 billion, has struggled to maintain a sustainable business model, as Axios reported this week.

 

Allen’s plan for the site involves having user-generated content that won’t live behind a paywall and will instead be available on his ad-supported streaming platform, Local Now.

 

“‘Free’ is the world’s favorite word,” he said. “The two best words in media: ‘free’ and ‘streaming’ ... bring it together and, poof, you’ve got something magical.”

 

Allen’s ambitions stretch even further. He said he eventually wants to control the premium cable network Starz, where he is the second-largest stockholder.

 

“I want to own it. I plan to own it, and somehow one day I’m going to own it and control it,” Allen said. “What I’ve said to them is, what I would like for you to do is, I would like to keep it publicly traded, and I would like for you to let me put more capital in Starz and become the controlling shareholder.”

 

That may be difficult, however.

 

Allen previously explored deals that didn’t materialize, including deals with TV station operator Tegna and the NFL’s Washington Commanders. In 2024, he also tried to make a play for Paramount, CNBC reported.

 

Last year, Starz separated from the studio, Lionsgate, to become its own standalone public company. In March, “the Starz board unanimously voted to adopt a limited-duration shareholder protection rights agreement, also known as a ‘poison pill,’” according to Deadline, which described the move as a “defensive strategy used by companies against activist investors and hostile takeovers.”

 

A representative for Starz didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

That hurdle doesn’t appear to deter Allen, however. At 65, he continues to pursue his dreams, with his mother remaining one of his biggest motivations in life.

 

“It makes me feel great, because at the end of the day, all I want to do is make my mama proud, no matter how rich I get,” he said. “I’m just still a little scared little boy hanging on to my mother’s leg.”

17132: Malcolm-Jamal Warner (1970-2025).

From PEOPLE…

 

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Who Played Son Theo on The Cosby Show, Dies at 54 After Drowning on Family Trip

 

The actor died while on a family trip, a source confirms to PEOPLE

 

By Julia Moore

 

Malcolm-Jamal Warner has died. He was 54.

 

The actor was in Costa Rica on a family vacation and drowned while swimming, a source confirms to PEOPLE.

 

A rep for Warner did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

 

The actor played the only son of Bill Cosby’s character, Heathcliff Huxtable, in the sitcom from 1984 to 1992.

 

In 2023, Warner told PEOPLE of the show, “I know I can speak for all the cast when I say The Cosby Show is something that we are all still very proud of.”

 

“We share a unique experience that keeps us lovingly bonded no matter how much time goes between seeing or hearing from each other.”

 

Warner did, of course, acknowledge how the show’s legacy had changed given the allegations made against Cosby, 88, who was convicted of sexual assault in 2018 but later had the charge overturned in 2021, only for five more women to accuse him of sexual assault.

 

“Regardless of how some people may feel about the show now, I’m still proud of the legacy and having been a part of such an iconic show that had such a profound impact on — first and foremost, Black culture — but also American culture,” Warner said.

 

Following The Cosby Show, Warner went on to star in several other successful TV shows and movies.

 

He and Eddie Griffin led the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie from 1996 to 2000, and Warner was also well known for his role as Alex Reed on Reed Between the Lines, which he starred in alongside Tracee Ellis Ross from 2011 to 2015.

 

More recently, Warner had starred in Major Crimes as Chuck Cooper, as Julius Rowe in Suits and as AJ Austin in The Resident.

 

9-1-1 and Alert: Missing Persons Unit were his most recent credits.

 

His latest venture was a podcast, Not All Hood, that he launched with two others as a means of breaking down barriers to mental health in the Black community.

 

Last June, he launched the podcast with cohosts Weusi Baraka and Candace Kelley, and he told PEOPLE it was a space where he could be his “most vulnerable.”

 

“It’s been an interesting experience for me, because it’s a place where I feel safe enough to be able to be as vulnerable as I allow myself to be,” he said.

 

“When we talk about the Black community, we tend to speak of it as a monolith when the reality is there are so many different facets of the Black community, and we wanted to have a space where we can really explore, discuss, and acknowledge all of those different aspects,” he said at the time.

 

Warner is survived by a wife and daughter, whose identities he opted to keep private.

16945: The End Of ‘End Racism’ In End Zones…?

 

NBC News reported the NFL will delete ‘End Racism’ from the end zones for the Super Bowl.

 

It’s unclear if the end zones edit was made to appease President Donald J. Trump—scheduled to attend the game—who has expressed his disdain for all DEIBA+ initiatives.

 

Somebody should invite Colin Kaepernick to take a knee during the opening ceremonies.

 

NFL will remove ‘End Racism’ from the end zones ahead of Super Bowl

 

The announcement comes the same day a White House official told NBC News that President Donald Trump would be attending the game.

 

By Kyla Guilfoil

 

The NFL will remove the words “End Racism” from the end zones at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday, the NFL confirmed to NBC News.

 

Instead, the field will have stencils of the phrase “Choose Love” as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement Tuesday.

 

Throughout the 2024-25 season, NFL teams have advertised pro-diversity slogans at their stadiums and on their uniforms. The field stencils have been a part of the league since 2020, McCarthy said.

 

“Teams have used on the field this year ‘Vote,’ ‘End Racism,’ ‘Stop Hate,’ and ‘Choose Love.’ This is part of the NFL’s Inspire Change,” he said.

 

At their conference championship games on Jan. 26, the Chiefs had “Choose Love” in their end zone and the Eagles had “End Racism.”

 

The NFL said Tuesday that it would have stenciling only of the phrase “Choose Love.” Sunday’s game will be the first Super Bowl since February 2021 at which “End Racism” will not be in an end zone stencil.

 

“The Super Bowl is often a snapshot in time and the NFL is in a unique position to capture and lift the imagination of the country,” McCarthy said.

 

He said the phrase is most fitting because of tragedies the country has endured in recent weeks.

 

“‘Choose Love’ is appropriate to use as our country has endured in recent weeks wild fires in southern California, the terrorist attack here in New Orleans, the plane and helicopter crash near our nation’s capital and the plane crash in Philadelphia,” McCarthy said.

 

The statement comes the same day a White House official told NBC News that President Donald Trump will attend the Super Bowl.

 

The Secret Service said in a statement that “extensive planning and coordination have been in place to ensure the safety of all attendees, players, and staff,” with security measures having been “further enhanced this year, given that this will be the first time a sitting President of the United States will attend the event.”

 

“The U.S. Secret Service has been on the ground for days, working in close collaboration with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, as well as the NFL, to implement a comprehensive security plan,” said Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service’s communications chief.

 

Trump has made his stance against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives clear since he took, signing an executive order on his first day in office to end DEI programs in federal agencies and putting employees in those programs on leave.

 

After the deadly midair collision of an American Airlines plane and Army Black Hawk helicopter in the Washington, D.C., area last week — which McCarthy cited as one of the tragedies inspiring the “Choose Love” slogan — Trump again took aim at DEI, implying diversity policies were at fault for the disaster.

 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a news conference Monday that he does not think the league’s policies to promote diversity conflict with Trump’s push to eliminate DEI programs.

 

“Our policies have been designed to be well within the law, well within the practice,” Goodell said. “There are no quotas in our system. This is about opening that funnel and bringing the best talent into the NFL.”

 

He added that the NFL’s policies are consistent “with the current administration, as well as the last administration.”

 

“We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League, and we’re going to continue those efforts because we’ve not only convinced ourselves, I think we’ve proven ourselves, that it does make the NFL better,” Goodell said.  

16509: Diddy v Diageo Dropped.

 

NBC News and The Associated Press reported Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs withdrew a lawsuit accusing Diageo of racism and reneging on promised investments for CÎROC vodka and DeLeon tequila, two brands that Combs had part-owned and promoted. Per terms of the settlement, both parties will cease all business relationships.

 

Combs claimed London-based Diageo treated the booze brands as inferior “urban” products, a scenario that allegedly worsened after Diageo bought two competitive products, Don Julio and Casamigos.

 

Additional accusations of racism included Combs stating Diageo leadership told him race was a motivation for making limited distribution to “urban” communities; plus, Combs was informed that some Diageo honchos resented him for earning too much loot. Of course, Diageo denies the allegations, arguing that Combs trumped-up the lawsuit for maximum payout.

 

Wonder if the settlement prohibits Combs from joining Byron Allen as panelists at the upcoming Blackweek.

 

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, who accused Diageo of racism, withdraws his lawsuit against spirits giant

 

Combs sued Diageo in May, saying the company didn’t make promised investments in Ciroc and DeLeon and treated them as inferior “urban” products.

 

By The Associated Press

 

Rapper and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs has withdrawn his lawsuit against Diageo as part of a settlement with the London-based spirits giant.

 

Combs and Diageo “have now agreed to resolve all disputes between them,” the two parties said in a statement released Tuesday. Diageo is now the sole owner of Ciroc vodka and DeLeon tequila, two brands Combs had part-owned and promoted in the past, and has no business relationship with Combs going forward.

 

No further details of the settlement were released.

 

Combs sued Diageo last May, saying the company didn’t make promised investments in Ciroc and DeLeon and treated them as inferior “urban” products.

 

Combs, who signed a deal to promote Ciroc in 2007 and purchased DeLeon with Diageo in 2013, said the neglect worsened after Diageo bought two competing tequila brands: Don Julio in 2014 and Casamigos in 2017. Diageo owns more than 200 brands, including Guinness beer and Tanqueray gin.

 

Combs, who is Black, also accused Diageo of racism. In court filings, Combs said Diageo leadership told him race was one of the reasons it limited distribution to “urban” neighborhoods. Combs was also told some Diageo leaders resented him for making too much money.

 

Diageo denied those claims. In legal filings, Diageo accused Combs of resorting to “false and reckless” allegations “in an effort to extract additional billions” from the company.

 

Combs’ reputation took a serious hit after the lawsuit was filed. In November, he was sued by R&B singer Cassie, who said he subjected her to a yearslong abusive relationship that included beatings and rape. Combs settled the lawsuit with Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, a few days after it was filed.

15630: Bad Timing Is Everything.

 

Dr. Death starring Alec Baldwin…? Ouch.

15533: Overreaction Of The Week.

 

NBC News presented a viral video that “shows black bear stealing Amazon package from Connecticut porch.” Sure, black bears are always stealing…

14957: From The Ad Council, #AloneTogether Sounds Like #SeparateButUnequal.

CNBC reported the Ad Council is partnering with the White House, the CDC, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and media companies on a PSA campaign addressing the COVID-19 pandemic via #AloneTogether. Nice. The exclusive organization representing the ultra-exclusive advertising industry presents a sentiment that has been consistently experienced by segregated, underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities in the field for generations.

NBCU, ViacomCBS, Walt Disney Television and other media companies will run new coronavirus PSAs

By Megan Graham

The Ad Council says it’s working with the White House, the CDC, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and media companies to show public service ads across major media platforms that discuss social distancing, personal hygiene and mental health in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ad Council is a nonprofit that makes and distributes public service announcements, including campaigns such as “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” and “Smokey Bear,” and has distributed information during times of crisis including the period after Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina.

The idea is to use the nation’s largest media companies and digital platforms to get out consistent messaging across television, radio, social media, out-of-home and digital media. All of the new ads direct audiences to www.coronavirus.gov and appear during time or space that’s donated by the media.

NBCUniversal will be displaying digital videos and social graphics in Spanish and English “to inform high-risk populations about the steps they can take to protect themselves and the public about how they can help stop of the spread of coronavirus,” the Ad Council said. Those messages, developed through a partnership between the Ad Council and the White House, will begin Tuesday.

National broadcast PSAs featuring the Surgeon General will also describe how Americans can protect themselves and those who are at risk. Those will be distributed to stations later this week, the Ad Council said.

Ad Age reported last week that President Donald Trump had requested to meet with top broadcast TV executives and the Ad Council to discuss COVID-19 on Monday.

Other creative pieces were developed by the Ad Council working with media companies and platforms, such as a campaign from ViacomCBS about the importance of social distancing, called ”#AloneTogether.” The campaign was led by MTV and ViacomCBS’ Entertainment & Youth Brands and will extend to all ViacomCBS platforms, the company said.

The campaign will include selfie videos and takeovers from music and celebrity talent across the company’s portfolio showing them at home. The company said a focus on mental health will be a major part of the campaign, “underscoring that social distancing does not mean social isolation.”

ViacomCBS said it’s also developing a toolkit of creative assets so #AloneTogether messaging can be used by other media companies.

The Ad Council said Walt Disney Television and ABC are working on messaging for parents and families to be distributed across their channels and platforms. Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for details on what the assets would look like or when those would start appearing.

Additionally, The Atlantic’s internal creative studio is developing digital creative to point to relevant information, while iHeartMedia will “support messaging around social distancing and high-risk populations, among other important COVID-19-related topics, across their network of stations,” the Ad Council said.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC and CNBC.

14236: The Mama & The Papa.

NBC News reported Papa John’s Founder John Schnatter—who resigned as chairman of the board after getting caught using the N-word—is also being removed from marketing materials. This is a major endeavor, as it requires completely revising the brand. How far will the company go? The scenario offers a unique opportunity for the pizza maker to reach out to a wider audience. Expect to soon meet Annie the Chicken and Pizza Queen.

Papa John’s pulling founder’s image from marketing after racial slur report

John Schnatter resigned as chairman of the board following a report of his use of the N-word during a media training exercise.

NEW YORK — Papa John’s, which has featured founder John Schnatter as the face of the company in logos and TV ads, is pulling his image from its marketing after reports he used a racial slur.

His face was off at least some materials by late morning Friday, though the company said the details and exact timing for everything were still being worked out. The pizza chain said there are no plans to change its name.

Schnatter is still on the board and is the company’s largest shareholder — meaning he remains a key presence. Papa John’s has acknowledged in regulatory filings that Schnatter’s public role as its pitchman could be a liability if his reputation was damaged. The company got a taste of that last year, when Schnatter stepped down as CEO after blaming disappointing pizza sales on the outcry surrounding football players kneeling during the national anthem.

This week, Papa John’s was already trying to further publicly distance itself from Schnatter after Forbes reported he used the N-word during a conference call in May. Schnatter apologized and said he would resign as chairman. That prompted the company’s stock to recover some of the losses it suffered after the report, and shares were up less than 1 percent Friday. Schnatter owns nearly 30 percent of the stock.

In addition to appearing in TV ads, Schnatter’s image has been on packaging and at the center of a logo that usually was all over the website of the Louisville, Kentucky-based company.

Keith Hollingsworth, a professor with Morehouse College’s business department, said keeping Schnatter in the marketing and advertising would signal to people that the company does not have a problem with his comments, or that it doesn’t think they are a big deal.

“Five years from now, they might be able to start bringing him back. But at the moment, you have to be very decisive and show you take this very seriously,” Hollingsworth said.

Schnatter had used the slur during a media training exercise, Forbes said. When asked how he would distance himself from racist groups, Schnatter reportedly complained that Colonel Sanders never faced a backlash for using the word. Schnatter subsequently issued a statement acknowledging the use of “inappropriate and hurtful” language.

“Regardless of the context, I apologize,” the statement said.

The fallout from his comments continued Friday. The University of Louisville said it will remove the Papa John’s name from its football stadium, and that it will rename the John H. Schnatter Center for Free Enterprise at its business college. Earlier in the week, the school said Schnatter resigned from its board of trustees.

Major League Baseball had also said it was indefinitely suspending a promotion with Papa John’s that offered people discounts at the pizza chain after a player hit a grand slam.

Papa John’s International Inc. began operations in 1984 and had more than 5,200 locations globally. The company cannot afford to alienate customers, with sales already under pressure from rivals such as Domino’s. For the first three months of this year, Papa John’s said a key sales figure fell 5.3 percent in North America.

13554: BHM 2017—Comcast NBCUniversal.

Technically, this is not a BHM advertisement; rather, it’s another example of self-promotional pap tied to the EBONY Power 100, this time from Comcast NBCUniversal. Congratulating its VP of Inclusion & Multicultural Marketing, the company proclaimed, “Leaders Drive Innovation.” Okay, but the advertisement is anything but innovative.

12959: The Wiz Is Anti-White…?

From The New York Daily News…

‘Reverse racism’ social media backlash over ‘The Wiz’ is absurd

By Leonard Greene

If there are any doubts remaining over how polarized this nation is over race, consider the social media backlash that developed over a simple TV musical.

NBC drew 11.5 million viewers Thursday evening with a live production of “The Wiz.”

The telecast also prompted immediate cries of “reverse racism” from some whites upset with the all-black cast.

“Can you imagine the outrage if a show advertised an “All White Cast”?! But #TheWizLive is getting praised for having an “All Black Cast” tweeted a user named Melly.

Another user wrote: ‘why are there no whites starring in #TheWiz? this is racist! can u imagine if it were the other way? #whitelivesmatter #TheWizLive.’

Yes, we can imagine. But we don’t have to. They called that one “The Wizard of Oz.”

Let’s get this out of the way first: There is no such thing as reverse racism. Something is either racist or it’s not.

Secondly. The Wiz debuted on Broadway 40 years ago before it became a motion picture starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor.

If you’re just learning about it now, you have bigger problems than your faulty racial meter.

The argument over “The Wiz” is similar to ones we’ve heard for generations about black organizations. It goes something like this:

Why do we need historically black colleges and universities? If we had historically white colleges and universities, then black people would be up in arms.

Here’s the response: We’ve had historically white colleges and universities in our country We just didn’t call them that. Instead, we used names like Harvard, Yale, Georgetown and Ole Miss.

“The Wiz” racist? Please. Only if they had made all the wicked witches white.

12313: Networking With República.

From Adweek…

Without a Pitch, República Wins Creative Work on Telemundo and NBC Universo

NBCU gives its theme-park agency a crack at networks

By Andrew McMains

In a sign of the vastness of NBCUniversal’s empire, República has added creative responsibilities on the company’s Telemundo network and NBC Universo, five years after the shop landed Hispanic marketing efforts on the corporation’s Universal Orlando Resort.

Media spending behind the new assignments is estimated at $15 million.

The Miami-based República landed the new business without a pitch, which, of course, is the sign of a happy client.

In a statement, Joe Uva, chairman of NBCU’s Hispanic enterprises and content unit, said República would “play an integral part in strengthening and expanding NBCU’s connection with the U.S. Hispanic community.”

The agency will work closely with Jacqueline Hernández, the unit’s chief marketing officer. Hernández has been in that role since May. The assignments don’t include media responsibilities, which remain at Horizon Media.

NBC Universo is the new name for mun2 and will launch Feb. 1 with a Hispanic language broadcast of the Super Bowl, the most watched program of the year.

República’s other accounts include Toyota, Google, Goya and Boehringer Ingelheim.

11739: BHM 2014—Lunch Menu.

NBC Bay Area News reported a high school sought to celebrate Black History Month with a lunch menu featuring fried chicken, cornbread and watermelon. No word if Annie the Chicken Queen was scheduled to make an appearance too.

Controversy Surrounds Lunch Menu at Concord High School

By Cheryl Hurd

Administrators at a Northern California private school are facing tough questions and offering a big apology after a menu controversy.

Students at Carondelet High School for Girls in Concord wanted to come up with ways to celebrate Black History Month in a lunchtime celebration. But when the Christian school announced a lunch of fried chicken, cornbread and watermelon, students and parents were outraged and offended.

The principal and dean of the school refused to talk to NBC Bay Area on Wednesday, but school officials held an assembly on campus to discuss the issue and sent an apology letter to parents.

“I’d like to apologize for the announcement and any hurt this caused students, parents or community members,” Principal Nancy Libby said in the letter. “Please know that at no time at Carondelet do we wish to perpetrate racial stereotypes.”

University of San Francisco professor James Taylor said he can see why some students and teachers would be offended, even though the lunch may have been well-intentioned.

“Chicken, watermelon, collard greens — these stereotypes of black Southern culture that come from the same place where the N-word comes from,” he said.

Ruth Wilson, chair of the African-American Studies Department at San Jose State University, said the food isn’t offensive, per se — in fact, fried chicken is an American mainstay, thanks in large part to Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders.

The reason this particular meal sparks bad feelings, she said, is because blackface-era cartoons and plays showed African-Americans eating these foods in ugly caricature depictions.

The school community could have prevented this, she said, by reaching out to the key stakeholders — black students and parents — and asked them what they think was appropriate. In Silicon Valley, she added, many blacks are not even from the United States, but from around the world and may have enjoyed another cultural dish.

Several students told NBC Bay Area that Libby talked to members of the Black Student Union on campus, and the students suggested that the watermelon be taken off the menu.

Libby agreed to make that change, they said. She also said in a letter to the school community that they will remove fried chicken and cornbread from the menu.

In addition, the campus plans to hold a diversity assembly for faculty and students, Libby said in the letter.

NBC Bay Area’s Lisa Fernandez and Gonzalo Rojas contributed to this report.

11641: Saturday Night—In Living Color.

From The New York Times…

‘S.N.L.’ to Add Black Female Performer

By Bill Carter

How seriously did “Saturday Night Live” take the furor around its lack of a black female performer?

Seriously enough to hold a special audition Monday night on the “S.N.L.” stage for seven or eight candidates, one of whom will be hired and will join the cast for shows beginning in January.

The show’s creator and executive producer, Lorne Michaels, said in an interview on Thursday that he had committed to that timetable to add the show’s first black woman since Maya Rudolph left the series in 2007. Several casting sessions were held over the last few weeks leading to this week’s audition.

“All told we’ve seen about 25 people,” Mr. Michaels said. “A lot of the people we saw are really good. Hopefully we’ll come out of the process well.”

He said he believed that as many as two performers could potentially be considered, but he did not want to add too many women at this time because the cast already includes five.

“S.N.L.” had been subjected to a barrage of criticism over the last several months over what seemed to be a glaring absence on the comedy show, which has had relatively few black female performers over its long history.

The criticism was kicked off by comments from two of the show’s black cast members, Jay Pharaoh, who said the show needed to “follow up” on the promise to add a black woman, and Kenan Thompson, who announced he did not want to do any more impressions of black women in drag.

Comments reverberated in the media and around the Internet, with Mr. Michaels explaining that his process for selecting cast members was driven purely by talent considerations.

He repeated that point on Thursday, saying, “We’re all about talent. It doesn’t help if somebody’s not ready — and ‘ready’ is one of the charged words. But you want to be sure you give people the best possible shot.”

Mr. Michaels said he had seen two black women performers in Chicago when he was hiring for the show this fall, but “it just wasn’t there in the studio” when they were brought to New York for the final audition. “Then when the deck got reshuffled and as we premiered we realized, it looks a different way.”

That was when a new search began, he said.

The show’s talent department held an audition for about a dozen in Los Angeles at the theater used by the improvisational group The Groundlings on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Mr. Michaels saw another dozen in New York the following Monday. (The news of the auditions first appeared on the website Gothamist on Thursday, which included a series of tweets from the women who had tried out in Los Angeles.)

Though he did not attribute the surge of interest in securing a black female directly to the criticism the show had faced, Mr. Michaels acknowledged that it was “100 percent good for the show to have an African-American woman” in the cast.

It is not merely because the show could use a woman capable of playing the first lady, Michelle Obama, in sketches, he said, though that was important enough a consideration that all the candidates will be asked to try an impression of her Monday night.

Mr. Michaels said there had been too much focus on how the show had no one to play Mrs. Obama or Beyoncé. “That’s a weird sort of way at looking at it because you don’t judge comedy that way,” Mr. Michaels said. “Versatility is what we look for.”

Mr. Michaels said he could not remember ever adding a new cast member in the middle of its season, but he said he had frequently added players in March or April to work them into the last few shows of a season. This season is different, he said, because NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in February will pre-empt two editions of the show.

Given the attention the issue has received, the woman who makes it onto the cast is certain to be much talked about — and subjected to unusual scrutiny. “That’s one reason we took extra time,” Mr. Michaels said. “You have to be careful to try to protect your players.”

Mr. Michaels will be in the middle of probably the busiest period of his career when all this takes place, because he is also preparing the new “Tonight” show starring Jimmy Fallon and the new edition of “Late Night” with his longtime “S.N.L.” star Seth Meyers.

And then there is the pilot he is working on for NBC’s prime-time schedule, a new take on the traditional television comedy-variety show. The star of that one: the “S.N.L.” alum Maya Rudolph.

9534: Bachmann’s Not With The Band.

From national news sources…

NBC apologizes to Michele Bachmann for Fallon song

Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. — GOP Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann received an apology from an NBC executive after an off-color song was played during her appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night,” her spokeswoman said late Wednesday.

The Minnesota congresswoman received a personal letter from NBC’s vice president for late night programming, Doug Vaughan, a day after she appeared on the show. As Bachmann walked onstage, the show’s band had played a snippet of a 1985 Fishbone song entitled “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.”

Vaughan wrote that the incident was “not only unfortunate but also unacceptable,” Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart told The Associated Press. She said Vaughn offered his sincerest apologies and said the band had been “severely reprimanded.”

Fallon also apologized to Bachmann when they spoke earlier Wednesday, she said. He’d tweeted earlier, saying he was “so sorry about the intro mess.”

“He was extremely nice and friendly and offered his apology, and she accepted it,” Stewart said, adding that the comedian said he was unaware the band planned to play the song. “It’s just unfortunate that someone had to do something so disrespectful.”

Bachmann lashed out earlier Wednesday at NBC for not apologizing or taking immediate disciplinary action. In her first comments on the flap, Bachmann said on the Fox News Channel that the Fallon show band displayed sexism and bias by playing the song.

“This is clearly a form of bias on the part of the Hollywood entertainment elite,” Bachmann said. She added, “This wouldn’t be tolerated if this was Michelle Obama. It shouldn’t be tolerated if it’s a conservative woman either.”

She went further on a national radio conservative radio show hosted by Michael Medved, calling the incident “inappropriate, outrageous and disrespectful.”

On Fox, Bachmann expressed surprise that she’s heard nothing from the TV network. She suggested that discipline for the show’s band, The Roots, was in order. She said she believed Fallon’s comments to be sincere.

One of Bachmann’s congressional colleagues, New York Democrat Nita Lowey, had called on NBC to apologize for its “insulting and inappropriate” treatment of its guest.

An NBC spokeswoman didn’t return a phone message from The Associated Press.

The Roots’ bandleader, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, has said the song was a “tongue-in-cheek and spur-of-the-moment decision.”

Bachmann, who is lagging in presidential polls, has spent the week promoting her new autobiography in national television interviews.

9192: Black and White TV.

Do these ads—which literally appeared side by side in the latest issue of Essence magazine—show how race, culture and stereotypes work on primetime TV? The White actress portrays a smart and strong character in the series’ lead role. The Black actress plays a sexual object.

8427: NBCU Comcast Deal Minority Report.

From Advertising Age…

Minority Content Helped Seal NBC Universal Deal for Comcast

But Will Commitment Help Marketers Looking to Spend More Advertising Dollars in the Sector?

By Edmund Lee

NEW YORK—As it turns out, minority programming became the linchpin to Comcast’s expensive and hard-fought campaign to win federal approval for its merger with NBC Universal. In what some observers saw as a cynical, yet savvy ploy, the cable giant specifically sought to appease Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat who had expressed concerns that the merger would drown out diverse voices in an increasingly conglomerated media world.

Comcast put her at ease by agreeing to add at least four African-American-managed or -owned cable networks and four Latino-owned or -managed networks over the next eight years, as well as some English-language programming geared toward Asian Americans. Subsequently, Ms. Clyburn voted to approve the merger in a 4-1 ruling that turned Comcast into what some now see as the most powerful media company on the planet.

Eight more minority-owned or minority-managed channels would seem to be good news for general-market marketers that say they want to spend in the minority media sector but often can’t find enough places to put their money. But will that actually help marketers looking to spend more advertising dollars in the sector?

It’s a touchy subject and one that few industry executives would publicly say was even a matter of concern. Over the years, major marketers have openly stated their commitment to spend more advertising dollars in minority media, whether in TV, magazines or newspapers, but goals varied from company to company and were entirely voluntary, making it a fairly opaque process. Companies did not have to answer to any independent body or open their books to show exactly how much they had spent in minority-owned media. In addition, there were questions over what constituted minority ownership or management.

“What is minority-owned media?” one media buyer asked. “BET is owned by Viacom, and they say they’re urban content, but if a channel like BET doesn’t get what they want, they start accusing people of being biased.”

Most marketers, according to this person, are looking to reach as many consumers as possible, regardless of ethnicity, and reaching out to minority media is often done separately, typically as part of a corporate “goodwill” initiative, without any real concern over the advertising’s effectiveness. “When they do that, it doesn’t come out of the advertising budget,” the buyer said.

Comcast’s concessions came partly under pressure from various advocacy groups, which underscores that these new channels, which are yet to be named, were borne out of a political arrangement instead of a business one.

“I have to admit to being always a little bit skeptical to corporate actions that are being defined first and foremost as actions taken because of the twisting of elbows,” said Jeff Yang, VP-global media entertainment technology at consumer research firm Iconoculture and a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’m not saying that these initiatives are going to fail,” he continued. “I do think, however, we need to be vigilant that these types of investment are not seen as nominal bones thrown to allay the very real concerns on the part of minority advocates.”

Whether Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal will make it any easier for companies looking to make those “goodwill” commitments, however, is still unknown.

“It’s hard to say if the merger means anything to our clients about minority groups,” said Ethan Heftman, senior VP-director of national broadcast at Initiative. “Decisions around that are similar to every other decision we make for our clients—it’s about what business opportunity are they trying to fulfill?”