English Entertainment
‘Baywatch’ declared worst US TV import unpalatable for Britain
MUMBAI: Over the years, Baywatch has thrilled and titillated viewers across the globe with its overabundance of bikini clad women and muscled morons cavorting on picture perfect beaches.
However Britain’s television industry appears to disagree. The Brits recently voted Baywatch the worst US show to have ever graced their television screens. The survey, which was conducted by the publication Broadcast, criticised the show for being mind-numbingly predictable.
The magazine polled around 20 executives from British television. It acknowledged the appeal of a “series about a muscular lifeguard and his crew of pneumatic young helpers with raging hormones,” but found fault with the scripts. There was a time when the programme, which made David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson household names, was seen by one billion viewers in 140 countries across the world. In India it is still airing on Star World.
The survey was done to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first ever US programme to be broadcast on UK terrestrial television. This was a black and white episode of the classic I Love Lucy. It helped to launch the new ITV channel in 1955
As far as Broadcast Magazine’s hall of shame is concerned The Anna Nicole Show came in second. Broadcast called it a textbook example of what is known technically as “car crash television.” The soapThe Bold and The Beautiful which also airs in India on Star World rounded off the list. On a more positive note The Simpsons was named the best acquisition from the US, followed by Dallas and M*A*S*H. Fox’s 24 which airs in India on AXN was also cited.
Publishing their list, Broadcast acknowledged, “Love them or loathe them, US programmes have been a vital part of UK broadcasting for 50 years. Today there’s never been so much, or in some ways so little, American programming on UK screens. You can watch US programming 24 hours a day in a multi-channel home. Yet at the same time there’s relatively less US programming than ever on the terrestrial channels, particularly at peak time.”
The supernatural series The X-Files and David Lynch’s cult show Twin Peaks also made it to the top ten list of critically acclaimed shows.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
