I thought Martha would come out ahead. I felt the same way this article summed it up.
"Millions of people feel Martha got a raw deal,"
washingtonpost.com
Martha, From Slammer To Syndication
By Lisa de Moraes
Thursday, December 9, 2004; Page C01
Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group, announced yesterday that reality TV impresario Mark Burnett will create for the company "the most exciting offering to come along in daytime television" -- development of which will get underway just as soon as the star gets out of the slammer.
Jailed nesting diva Martha Stewart will host a one-hour daily syndicated daytime show for the General Electric division, debuting next fall and featuring a live studio audience and celebrity guests.
"Millions of people feel Martha got a raw deal," Burnett said at a news conference at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's Manhattan headquarters.
"I cannot wait until she comes out of jail and we can work together," added Burnett, who is best known for his Thursday reality series "Survivor" on CBS and NBC's "The Apprentice."
Stewart, founder and former CEO and chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, began serving a five-month term at a federal prison in October, after being convicted of lying to government investigators about her 2001 sale of ImClone Systems Inc. stock. She is scheduled to be released from "Camp Cupcake" in Alderson, W.Va., in March.
Stewart is not allowed to do business while doing time; executives onstage at yesterday's news conference, including Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's new CEO, Susan Lyne, stressed that the deal was sealed without Stewart's involvement. Burnett said he and Zucker met with Stewart last spring about working together.
"Before Martha left for West Virginia, we promised her we would find the parties who would accomplish this," Lyne said, adding that Stewart is "very pleased."
Lyne said she has no reservations about making the announcement with Stewart still in the pokey. "This is a forgiving country; people love redemption stories," she said. Stewart went to jail vowing to learn something new every day she was there, Lyne said, and "knowing her, I am convinced that much of it will end up in the show."
The still-untitled show won't begin taping until September because after her release Stewart still has to serve five months' house confinement with an ankle bracelet, and the show will be shot in front of a live studio audience.
The 14 NBC-owned TV stations, including Washington's WRC, have signed on to air the program.
Stewart's previous syndicated daytime show, "Martha Stewart Living," was yanked off Viacom-owned CBS and UPN stations when she was convicted in March; not long thereafter, production stopped on the 11-year-old show, which now runs on the Style Network.
Last May, when Burnett met with Stewart, they also discussed developing a prime-time series, according to trade paper accounts at that time. But yesterday Burnett and Zucker dodged questions as to whether they are discussing a prime-time role on NBC for Stewart, including the possibility that she would replace Donald Trump on NBC's Thursday tent-pole, "The Apprentice," the Associated Press reported.
Ironically, CBS -- which used to feature Stewart on "The Early Show" until that one fabulous broadcast in June '02 when anchor Jane Clayson grilled Martha about her legal problems while Martha hacked a cabbage to shreds with a large kitchen knife -- announced this week that when it rests "Survivor" on Thursday nights in January, it will fill the slot with a new reality series in which a dozen Martha Stewart wannabes compete to become "the country's new authority on at-home living." The name of the show is "Wickedly Perfect."
ABC's plan to have Dick Clark headline its New Year's Eve programming for the 33rd consecutive year may be subject to change after Clark suffered a stroke.
The entertainer was taken to the hospital Monday, the Associated Press reported yesterday, after suffering what Clark's publicist, Paul Shefrin, called a "minor" stroke.
Clark insisted in a statement that he would recover in time for the annual marathon of kitsch.
"The doctors tell me I should be back in the swing of things before too long so I'm hopeful to be able to make it to Times Square to help lead the country in ringing in the new year once again," said Clark, who recently turned 75.
Last April, the TV icon announced he had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the '90s and that he was going public with his condition to let people know that the disease puts them at an increased risk for a heart attack and stroke.
In addition to his regular ABC New Year's Eve gig, Clark produces the Golden Globe Awards telecast for NBC and the American Music Awards and is an executive producer of NBC's prime-time "American Dreams." But Clark is best known as the pop-idol maker of the longest-running dance and music show on TV, "American Bandstand."
ABC seemed extremely out of the loop on the situation, putting out a news release about its Clark-hosted New Year's Eve programming plans late Monday, the same day Clark was admitted to the hospital.
Yesterday afternoon The TV Column contacted ABC to see whether it had any news about its New Year's Eve programming plans or whether the network was in a wait-and-see pattern. After much pestering, we were able to learn that Andrea Wong, ABC's executive vice president of alternative programming, specials and late night, would commit, in a statement, only to saying that "all of us at ABC look forward to Dick's fast and full recovery." Which was valuable information because otherwise we and millions of TV viewers might naturally have mistakenly thought the network wished him dead. So glad they cleared that up.
Fortunately for ABC, Clark had planned for a co-host this year. According to the network's news release . . . oh, noooooo! Ashlee Simpson will co-host the rockin' New Year's Eve festivities. Doesn't that just figure?
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