‘The Bible’ Producers Deny Suggested Obama Link

The producers of the hit History Channel mini-series scoffed Monday at suggestions that an actor who plays Satan resembles President Obama.

Discovery Wins Bid to Televise Canyon Crossing

Nik Wallenda, the daredevil who crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope last year, will try a similar stunt at the Grand Canyon in June, he announced on Monday.

Local TV News Is Following Print’s Path, Study Says

Despite a robust public appetite for news, local television newscasts are cutting back, according to the Pew Research Center.

Media Decoder Blog: HLN’s Jodi Arias Coverage Helps Bolster Ratings

The lengthy trial of Jodi Arias has helped the cable news channel HLN entice new viewers.

The Media Equation: Barry Diller’s Aereo Service Challenges Cable Television

Aereo, a start-up backed by Barry Diller that captures broadcast signals to be streamed online, is sowing chaos in the cable television business.

Media Decoder Blog: NBC Executive and Leno Said to Have Clashed Over Jokes

Three executives close to the situation said that NBC’s entertainment chief had taken offense to jokes that Jay Leno made last month about NBC’s ratings struggles.

How Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones Would Have Looked Circa 1995

With chillingly accurate typography and scrolling VCR recording lines, fans on YouTube have been reimagining their favorite current shows as cheesy '90s sitcoms. User Goestoeleven started the trend with a masterful 1995 take on Breaking Bad as a family comedy and The Walking Dead as a cop show. (Breaking Bad was also recently reimagined as a Mentos commercial.) Then, Hunterlsanders uploaded Game of Thrones Circa 1995, managing to find every smile in the entire series and set them all to Queen's epic ballad "I Want It All." It's amazing how far show credits—and well, the shows themselves—have come in a decade. Though TV watching itself has declined, the content keeps getting better. We may yearn for the viewership numbers of 1995, but none of us wants to go back to a time when Highlander was one of the best shows on TV.

Media Decoder Blog: Chris Hayes to Take Over 8 P.M. Slot on MSNBC

Mr. Hayes, who has been hosting a weekend morning show, will replace Ed Schultz, whose working-class bluster wasn’t always a good fit with MSNBC’s other prime-time shows.

Media Decoder Blog: Recapping episode six of “House of Cards” with a detour through Austin.

As soon as someone at SxSW found out I was from D.C.,, the first question they invariably asked was, “Do you watch ‘House of Cards?’”

Media Decoder Blog: Schultz to Give Up Weekday Slot on MSNBC

Ed Schultz, host of “The Ed Show,” will take a new weekend shift in April.

Media Decoder Blog: NBC Moves Struggling ‘Smash’ to Saturday Slot

NBC’s announced it will move “Smash” to Saturday nights to play out the remainder of its second season.

At NBC, a Struggle to Revive the Morning Magic

The last year for Matt Lauer, the once-popular host of the network’s “Today” show, is a lesson on how a combination of missteps can precipitate a star’s fall.

Media Decoder Blog: Winter TV Schedule Brings Shift in Ratings Race

Cable shows continue to dominate over most network offerings on Sunday nights, and Fox overtakes a flagging NBC for the season.

Media Decoder Blog: J.R. Ewing Funeral Brings Season-High Ratings to ‘Dallas’

With the funeral of the famous character a centerpiece of the episode, “Dallas” attracted 3.6 million viewers, well above this season’s average of 2.6 million.

Sports Briefing | Television Sports: Turner May Broadcast 2014 Men’s Final Four

Turner Sports, CBS’s partner in carrying the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, could carry the Final Four and national championship game in 2014, instead of 2016 as originally envisioned.

Fox Sports and New Big East Are Teaming Up

The new Fox Sports 1 cable channel will present the basketball games of the seven Catholic universities taking over the Big East name, including Georgetown, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Providence.

Don Draper Is Seeing Double in Poster for Mad Men Season 6

Don Draper is a man with at least two identities, so it shouldn't be surprising that he's seeing double on the Mad Men Season 6 poster, which AMC unveiled today. The New York Times has the story behind its creation:

Showrunner Matthew Weiner, inspired by a childhood memory of lush, painterly illustrations on T.W.A. flight menus, decided to turn back the promotional clock. He pored over commercial illustration books from the 1960s and '70s and sent images to the show's marketing team, which couldn't quite recreate the look he was after.

"Finally," he said, "they just looked up the person who had done all these drawings that I really loved, and they said: 'Hey, we've got the guy who did them. And he's still working. His name is Brian Sanders.' "

UPDATE: AMC also released this video offering a sneak peek at the new season.

For use on external sites w/exclusive video premieres.

 

Media Decoder Blog: With Few Details, Lucasfilm Signals ‘Star Wars’ Plans for TV

The company, owned by Disney, says it will pursue a “new direction” in animated programming based on the Star Wars narrative.

After Rough Patch, ‘The Bachelor’ Wins Back Viewers

After several seasons in decline, ABC’s “The Bachelor” has had a resurgence rare among network reality shows thanks to social media, casting and a push to attract younger viewers.

Gilbert Gottfried on ‘Celebrity Wife Swap’

To the world, Gilbert Gottfried is known for his deliberately abrasive stage presence and bottomless vulgarity, but to his wife, he is a “gentle genius.”