When she was on Dancing with the Stars, ET completely ignored her presence on the show. She was She Who Shall Not Be Named. Every other star was featured, interviewed, etc. ET acted like she didn't exist because she worked for the competition. Flash forward to ET hiring her to replace Mary Hart.
Best YouTube channel you're not watching:
http://bit.ly/1cXwOlg
No, producer Linda Bell Blue broke ET -- it's been broken for years.
For a decade, ET has been a weird blend of smarmy and vacuously chipper. It's absolutely dire.
Oh, the good old days when ET was legit showbiz news program back in the '80s and the '90s which even Conkrite praised.
In the 21st century, however, it's now worse than its imitators.
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Non-sequiturs are delicious.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/11/cbs-makes-it-official-linda-bell-blue- exiting-as-ep-of-entertainment-tonight/
sharehttp://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,298303,00.html
Should Susan Smith live or die?. You'll have a chance to vote in a special ET poll that's coming up.
That's entertainment? These days it is. Though a poll on the fate of the convicted child killer is like something you'd see on Hard Copy, this was how John Tesh kicked off the July 24 Entertainment Tonight — and it's the most visible example yet of ET's new tabloidlike direction.
Since July 5, ET has been helmed by executive producer Linda Bell Blue, who held the same post at Hard Copy and has given the softer ET more edge. Blue replaced Tesh and coanchor Mary Hart's start-of-show spiel with a punchier intro emphasizing the sensational. A segment inspired by the Hugh Grant scandal included a visit with Sunset Boulevard prostitutes. Another promised that Keanu Reeves ''is finally coming clean about some dirty Hollywood rumors'' — then revealed that in an interview, Reeves declared (surprise!) he's not gay.
For her part, Blue insists no such overhaul is in the works. ''I'm not going to make ET into a tabloid show,'' says Blue, 39, who took Hard Copy from worst to first against hard hitters A Current Affair and Inside Edition. ''I'm just producing it a little differently. This ship is not broken; I'm not going to fix it.''
But shoring up the 14-year-old show makes sense given the choppy waters ahead. Produced by Paramount Domestic Television, ET can't afford to dismiss its direct competitor, Time Warner's Extra, even if the year-old upstart hasn't proven itself a ratings threat. And ET will likely face off against Seinfeld and Home Improvement in many markets this fall, as the sitcoms go into syndication. ''Entertainment Tonight is not considered a tabloid, so it doesn't hurt their reputation to do this,'' says Steve Sternberg, a senior partner at BJK&E Media Group. ''If they can get viewers who watch Hard Copy and Inside Edition without alienating the viewers they have, they only gain from that.'' Other insiders note that ET won't become a replay of Hard Copy, also produced by Paramount. ''It doesn't make economic sense,'' says one source, ''to drain viewers from a moneymaker like Hard Copy. Each show has its own niche.''
The new approach seems to be working: In the first week of ET's Blue period, ratings jumped 11 percent, besting the other syndicated newsmagazines by the biggest margin since March.
Even ET's hosts appear sanguine. Despite rumors that Yanni-come-lately Tesh was displeased with Blue's initiatives, Hart insists they're shiny happy anchors. Admitting that they've asked for script changes before, Hart adds, ''[but only] a few words here and there.'' Tesh, who quarreled with Paramount in May over his work schedule — he wants more time for his music — declined to comment.
In the end, the speculation may work to ET's advantage. ''Everybody is looking at what we're doing,'' says Hart. ''If it gets a few new people to tune in, good!''
''Entertainment Tonight is not considered a tabloid, so it doesn't hurt their reputation to do this"
http://pagesix.com/2014/05/18/former-et-producer-dishes-on-mental-boss -in-new-novel/
TV insiders are tittering over a new novel by former “Entertainment Tonight” producer Heidi Clements, which some say surreptitiously dishes on behind-the-scenes drama with Linda Bell Blue, executive producer of “ET” for 19 years.
Other characters in the humor book may be based on Sharon Osbourne, Lara Spencer and Jane Seymour, sources speculated.
In “Welcome to Heidi,” Clements — who was Blue’s No. 2 at “ET” until 2011 — writes in the voice of a TV producer character who’s “run right out of the Valley” by her boss, “a 50-something plastic-surgery addict who was so overcome with jealousy of me that she went mental.”
In a chapter called “The Devil Wears Lululemon,” our heroine explains, “Every day at work was an adventure in insanity,” working for “a peroxide-blond dictator” who was “about as warm and fuzzy as a porcupine popsicle” and “loved when employees called her ‘Mommy.’
“She actually loved to scream and yell at people, and the bigger the crowd that was watching — the better,” pens Clements. Rewards were “very expensive gifts. I got two Chanel handbags and a Louis Vuitton suitcase. Blood luggage, I call it.”
After the protagonist is promoted to the unnamed show’s “Number Two” job, she’s constantly threatened with demotion, and her boss explains: “I want you to tell me the truth but . . . I want you to talk to me like a wounded baby girl.”
The heroine says, “Getting called into the bathroom [for a meeting] . . . was everyone’s worst nightmare. Faces would turn to stone and you would follow her into that dark abyss.”
When the boss blows up at a Spencer-like anchor for daring to wear beige to the Met Ball, the anchor pleads, “But Gucci made it.” The boss rages from her LA studio, “I don’t care if Jesus made it!” The heroine quits her job during a dramatic blowup behind the scenes of the Prince William-Kate Middleton nuptials — which “ET” hired Seymour and Osbourne to cover.
Clements is now co-executive producer of ABC Family’s “Baby Daddy.” A rep for “ET” declined to comment.
The irreverent book also tackles topics including dating, aging and the main characters’ wild days living in New York.
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/paramounts-entertainment-tonight .201588/#post-4988024
Linda Bell Blue rules the show with a pretty iron fist, and given their ratings and longevity, she must be doing something right. But it's not a happy set, at least for the peons behind the scene. And I think the show is about 70% gossip and (at best) 20% actual entertainment news. I particularly hate it when they cover mainstream news stories that have little or nothing to do with movies, music, TV, or stage, like celebrity fashion shows and crap like that. Unwatchable.share
http://da.radio.cbssports.com/2014/08/22/pat-obrien-in-entertainment-w e-ruin-peoples-lives/
After spending decades in the juicy world of sports and entertainment broadcasting, Pat O’Brien has written a memoir detailing those experiences.
In I’ll Be Back Right After This, the 66-year-old takes us from the rise of the NBA to his time in the entertainment industry. In the end, O’Brien, who battled alcoholism throughout his career, reveals a world that isn’t quite so glamorous when the studio lights are off.
“I just figured people should know what some of these people were like to work with,” O’Brien said on The Damon Amendolara Show. “I was very harsh with Linda Bell Blue, my executive producer, because there was no worse person to work for. The funny thing about it is a couple of (my former colleagues) have called me and said, ‘Why did you do that?’ And I said, ‘Listen, we were in the business of destroying people’s lives. How does it feel?’”
“I’m not destroying anybody’s life, but we would put out rumors (that would just ruin) people’s days by saying stuff that wasn’t true – and my stuff is true. So once they turn the table on you, it’s a little different.”
According to O’Brien, Blue would force hosts to find roundabout ways to ask questions that could result in dramatic previews. If O’Brien were talking to, say, Julia Roberts, he might ask if it’s harder to find work in Hollywood as you get older. He then might ask if that depresses her, which leads to asking if she’s depressed in general, which leads to asking if she’s ever committed suicide. Then the show could say in its preview, for example, “Did Julia Roberts ever contemplate suicide? Find out tonight!”
The answer, of course, was no.
“It was a moronic way to play it, and that’s why these shows suck right now,” O’Brien said. “That’s why the ratings have gone down so much because people have figured it out. But you put out anything to get ratings.”
It was a little different in sports, where athleticism and personality are enough to draw people in.
“You can’t give Magic Johnson enough credit for bringing a face to the NBA and being that athlete everybody wanted to be around,” O’Brien said. “It was genuine. And it helps to have dynasties, and it helps to have rivalries. It couldn’t have been a better gift to the NBA (to have) the Celtics and the Lakers back in those days. For some reason, it was the perfect storm.”
Unlike most people, O’Brien had a great deal of access to Magic, Michael Jordan and other great athletes. He got to know them away from the court – flaws and all.
“Their weakness is they hated to lose,” O’Brien said. “If you’re playing pool with Magic, you play until he wins. If you’re playing cards with Jordan, you play until he wins. I’ve played golf with him. They’re winners. Around me, they were always great. Jordan had more security in those days than the president. He had 12 security guards, so it was quite the storm to be involved in.”
“I think Jordan really could not believe how big he got,” O’Brien continued. “I really think that he got to be so big that it was hard for him to go out. It was a menace just for him to go to dinner. I don’t think he enjoyed that a lot, but he always played along.”
In O’Brien’s opinion, Jordan was wired differently from the start, but the media helped his rise to immortality.
“He always was a winner,” O’Brien said. “You come from Carolina and play for Dean Smith, you’re going to have that embedded in your DNA. I think through the years, Michael developed a tremendous relationship with the public, but it was hard for him. He just got so big. He was more than basketball. He was a god to many people.”