1.
Microsoft Theater
–
The Microsoft Theater is a music and theatre venue in downtown Los Angeles, California at L. A. Live. The theatre auditorium seats 7,100 and holds one of the largest indoor stages in the United States, the theatre was designed by ELS Architecture and Urban Design of Berkeley, California on a commission by the Anschutz Entertainment Group in 2002. It opened on October 18,2007 with six concerts featuring The Eagles, in June 2015, the venue was re-branded as Microsoft Theater as part of a new naming rights deal with AEG Live. Microsoft had acquired Nokias mobile device business in 2014, as part of the new naming rights deal, the L. A. Live plaza was also renamed Microsoft Square, and Microsoft provided upgrades to the venues technology, since its opening, the Microsoft Theater has been a popular venue for award shows. The theatre has hosted the ESPY Awards since 2008 as well as the American Music Awards since 2007, the venue has been the home to the Primetime Emmy Awards since 2008 and will continue to do so until at least 2018. It hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010,2011 and 2015, in 2008 and 2011, the venue hosted The Grammy Nominations Live, a concert announcing the nominees for the Grammy Awards were announced. The Microsoft Theater has hosted the Peoples Choice Awards since 2010 and it has also been used by Nintendo multiple times for press conferences during E3. It was also the venue for the finale of American Idol from seasons 7–13 as well as the 2015, vocaloid character Hatsune Miku made her US debut at Microsoft Theater on July 2,2011, as part of Anime Expo. She returned to the venue on October 11–12,2014 as part of Miku Expo LA2014, Hatsune Miku returned for another performance on May 6,2016 as part of her first North American tour. The 28th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions were held at the Microsoft Theater on April 18,2013, the BET Awards moved to the Microsoft Theater in 2013. Since 2013, the Microsoft Theater has hosted the Radio Disney Music Awards, the Microsoft Theater most recently hosted the 58th Annual Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony on February 15
2.
Los Angeles
–
Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
3.
California
–
California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
Saturday Night Live
–
Saturday Night Live is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11,1975, under the original title NBCs Saturday Night, the shows comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest and features performances by a musical guest, an episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, Live from New York, its Saturday Night. In 1980, Michaels left the series to other opportunities. He was replaced by Jean Doumanian, who was replaced by Ebersol after a season of bad reviews, Ebersol ran the show until 1985, when Michaels returned, Michaels has remained since then. Many of SNLs cast found national stardom while appearing on the show, others associated with the show, such as writers, have gone on to successful careers creating, writing, or starring in TV and film. The show format has developed and recreated in several countries. Successful sketches have seen life outside of the show as feature films, throughout four decades on air, Saturday Night Live has received a number of awards, including 50 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and three Writers Guild of America Awards. In 2000, it was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and it was ranked tenth in TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list, and in 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazines 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME. As of 2012, it has received 156 Emmy nominations, the most received by any TV show, the live aspect of the show has resulted in several controversies and acts of censorship, with mistakes and intentional acts of sabotage by performers as well as guests. From 1965 until September 1975, NBC ran The Best of Carson reruns of The Tonight Show, in 1974, Johnny Carson announced that he wanted the weekend shows pulled and saved so that they could be aired during weeknights, allowing him to take time off. In 1974, NBC president Herbert Schlosser approached his vice president of late night programming, Dick Ebersol, at the suggestion of Paramount Pictures executive Barry Diller, Schlosser and Ebersol then approached Lorne Michaels. Over the next three weeks, Ebersol and Michaels developed the idea for a variety show featuring high-concept comedy sketches, political satire. By 1975 Michaels had assembled a talented cast, including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Michael ODonoghue, Gilda Radner, and George Coe. The show was originally called NBCs Saturday Night, because Saturday Night Live was in use by Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell on the rival network ABC, NBC purchased the rights to the name in 1976 and officially adopted the new title on March 26,1977. In 1975 and 1976, they were the most desirable demographic for television advertisers, NBC executives agreed with Michaels and decided to keep the show on the air despite many angry letters and phone calls that the network received from viewers who were offended by certain sketches. Chevy Chase left the show in November of the season and was replaced a few months later by the then-unknown comic actor Bill Murray. Aykroyd and Belushi left the show in 1979 after the end of season four, in May 1980, Michaels—emotionally and physically exhausted—requested to put the show on hiatus for a year to give him time and energy to pursue other projects
5.
NBC
–
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
6.
Lorne Michaels
–
He was born Lorne Lipowitz to Florence Becker and Henry Abraham Lipowitz, a furrier, in British occupied Palestine. They moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, while he was an infant and he has two younger siblings, a sister, Barbara Lipowitz, who currently resides in Toronto, and a brother, Mark Lipowitz, who died from a brain tumor. Michaels attended the Forest Hill Collegiate Institute in Toronto and graduated from University College, University of Toronto, Michaels began his career as a writer and broadcaster for CBC Radio. He moved to Los Angeles from Toronto in 1968 to work as a writer for Laugh-In and he starred with Hart Pomerantz in The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour, a Canadian comedy series which ran briefly in the early 1970s. During the late 1960s, Michaels began a relationship with Rosie Shuster and she was the daughter of Frank Shuster, one half of the famous comedy team, Wayne and Shuster. Michaels and Shuster were married in 1971 and divorced in 1980, in 1975 Michaels created the TV show NBCs Saturday Night, which in 1977 changed its name to Saturday Night Live. The show, which is performed live in front of an audience, immediately established a reputation for being cutting-edge. It became a vehicle for launching the careers of some of the most successful comedians in the United States, originally the producer of the show, Michaels was also a writer and later became executive producer. He occasionally appears on-screen as well, where he is known for his deadpan humor, throughout the shows history, SNL has been nominated for more than 156 Emmy Awards and has won 36. It has consistently been one of the highest-rated late-night television programs, Michaels has been with SNL for all seasons except for his hiatus in the early 1980s. She also appeared in a sketch about underage drinking when Zac Efron hosted the show, perhaps Michaels best-known appearance occurred in the first season when he offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on the show. He later upped his offer to $3,200, but the money was never claimed, according to an interview in Playboy magazine, John Lennon and Paul McCartney happened to be in New York City that night and wanted to see the show. They very nearly went, but changed their minds as it was getting too late to get to the show on time and this near-reunion was the basis for the TV movie Two of Us. On the November 20,1976 show, musical guest George Harrison appeared, Harrison tells Michaels his refusal to pay him his share is chintzy, and Michaels counters by saying, The Beatles dont have to split the money equally. They can give, say, Ringo less if they want, Michaels started Broadway Video in 1979, producing such shows as The Kids in the Hall. Shortly afterwards, citing burnout, he left Saturday Night Live and he returned to the show in 1985. During his SNL hiatus, Michaels created another show titled The New Show. The show failed to garner the same enthusiasm as SNL and lasted only 9 episodes before being cancelled, Michaels was identified as the anointed successor to Greene
7.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
8.
Prime time
–
Prime time or peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television programming. The term prime time is defined in terms of a fixed time period – for example. In Chinese television, the 19, 00-to-22,00 time slot is known as Golden Time, the term also influenced a nickname of a strip of holidays in known as Golden Week. Prime time here usually takes place from 19,00 until 22,00, after that, programs classified as “PG” are allowed to be broadcast. Frontline dramas appear during this time slot in Cantonese, as well as movies in English, in India, prime time occurs between 20,00 and 22,30. Prime time usually takes place from 18,00 to 23,00 WIB, after prime time, programs classified as Adult, as well as cigarette commercials, are allowed to be broadcast. Like another Muslim-majority country, there is also a prime time during sahur time in a month of Ramadan. It takes place from 02,00 and ends at the Fajr prayer call, the time slot is usually filled with comedy and religious programming. In Iraq, prime time runs from 20,00 to 23,00, the main news programs are broadcast at 20,00 and the highest-rated television program airs at 21,00. In Japanese television, the 19, 00-to-22,00 time slot is known as Golden Time. The term also influenced a nickname of a strip of holidays in known as Golden Week, malaysian prime time starts with the main news from 20,00 to 20,30 and ends either at 23,00 or 0,30, or possibly late. Usually, programmes during prime time are domestic dramas, foreign series, movies. Programmes that classify as 18 are not allowed to be broadcast before 10,00 p. m. but on RTM, however, programmes broadcast after 23,00 are still considered prime time. As of December 2010, NTV7s prime time continues until 12,00 a. m, programmes during prime time may have longer commercial breaks due to number of viewers. Some domestic prime time productions may be affected because of major sporting events such as FIFA World Cup. However, only FIFA World Cup in the Americas did not affect the domestic prime time programmes, in the Philippines, prime time blocks begin at 18,00 and run until about 23,00 on weekdays, and 19,00 to 23,00 on weekends. The weekday prime time blocks usually consists of local teleseryes and foreign television series, the networks highest-rated programs are usually aired right after the evening newscast at 20,00, while a foreign series usually precedes the late night newscast. On weekends, non-scripted programming such as talent shows, reality shows, for the minor networks, prime time consists of American television series on weekdays, with encores of those shows on weekends
9.
Downtown Los Angeles
–
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, as well as a diverse residential neighborhood of some 58,000 people. A2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs, Downtown Los Angeles is known for its government buildings, parks, theaters and other public places. The earliest known settlements in the area of what is now Downtown Los Angeles was by the Tongva, on September 4,1781, the city was founded by a group of settlers who trekked north from present-day Mexico. Land speculation increased in the 1880s, which saw the population of the city explode from 11,000 in 1880 to nearly 100,000 by 1896. Infrastructure enhancements and the laying of a street grid eventually brought development south of the settlement into what is today the Civic Center. By 1920, the private and municipal rail lines were the most far-flung and most comprehensive in the world in mileage. By this time, an influx of residents and aggressive land developers had transformed the city into a large metropolitan area. Rail lines connected four counties with over 1,100 miles of track, during the early part of the 20th century, banking institutions clustered around South Spring Street, forming the Spring Street Financial District. The Los Angeles Stock Exchange was also located on the corridor from 1929 until 1986 before moving into a new building across the Harbor Freeway, Broadway became the nightlife, shopping and entertainment district of the city, with over a dozen theater and movie palaces built before 1932. Numerous specialty stores also flourished including those in the business which gave rise to the Downtown Jewelry District. Among these early jewelers included the Laykin Diamond Company and Harry Winston & Co. both of which found their beginnings in the Alexandria Hotel at 5th and Spring Streets. The Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal opened in May,1939, unifying passenger service among local, regional. It was built on a scale and would be one of the last of the Great Railway Stations built in the United States. Following World War II, suburbanization, the development of the Los Angeles freeway network, many corporate headquarters slowly dispersed to new suburbs or fell to mergers and acquisitions. The once-wealthy Bunker Hill neighborhood became a haven for low-income renters, the drastic reduction in the number of residents in the area further reduced the viability of streetfront businesses that would be able to attract pedestrians. For most Angelenos, downtown became a destination as they would come into the area for a particular objective. This period saw the clearing and upzoning of the neighborhood as well as the shuttering of the Angels Flight funicular railway in 1969. Angels Flight resumed operation in 1996 for a period of five years, on March 15,2010, the railway once again opened for passenger service following extensive upgrades to brake and safety systems
10.
Ryan Eggold
–
Ryan James Eggold is an American actor. He is known for playing Ryan Matthews on the CW teen drama series 90210 and Tom Keen on the NBC crime drama series The Blacklist and The Blacklist, Eggold was born in Lakewood, California, the son of Karen and James Frederick Eggold. In 2006, Eggold made his television debut by way of a guest appearance on the show Related. He made his debut the same year in the short film Con. Besides his success as an actor, Eggold writes music, plays guitar and piano, in January 2012, he played Mischa Bartons love interest in Mark Edwin Robinsons supernatural romance thriller Into the Dark. Since the fall of 2013, he has appeared as Tom Keen. In January 2015, Eggold appeared on the History Channels three-night miniseries Sons of Liberty as Dr. Joseph Warren, Ryan Eggold at the Internet Movie Database Ryan Eggold at The CW
11.
Samira Wiley
–
Samira Wiley is an American actress and model best known for playing Poussey Washington in the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black. Wiley was raised in Washington, D. C and she is a graduate of Burgundy Farm Country Day School and The Juilliard School. Her parents, Christine and Dennis W. Wiley, are the co-pastors of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ. Wileys parents have been referred to as pillars of the LGBT religious community and she has two siblings, Aiyana Kai Maat and Joshua Wiley. Wiley studied drama at the Juilliard School in New York, and she trained in theater performance and worked mainly in theater in her early career. In 2011, she played Maria in a production of Loves Labours Lost by The Public Theater, Wileys audition was ultimately successful, she appeared in all twelve episodes of the series first season and was featured prominently throughout the second season. She was promoted to regular for the third season. The fourth season revolves heavily around her character, Wileys wife, Lauren Morelli, is a writer on the show. Morelli wrote the 12th episode of Season 4, which featured Wileys character, the episode received lots of positive feedback. Wiley appeared in an advertisement for the digital monetary service PayPal in 2014, Wileys first major acting role was in the comedy film The Sitter. In between seasons of Orange Is the New Black, Wiley filmed Rob the Mob, an independent crime film directed by Raymond De Felitta and released in March 2014. Wiley also starred in a movie called 37 as Joyce Smith, Wiley has modeled for Maniac Magazine, appearing on the cover and in an editorial of the 2014 September/October issue. She was pictured modeling a series of bold, chic, high fashion looks, Wiley was also featured on the cover of 2014 edition of Out magazine, along with Sam Smith, Ellen Page, and Zachary Quinto. In December 2015, it was announced Wiley had been cast to voice the character in the video game The Walking Dead. The game was released by Telltale Games in February 2016, in 2014, Wiley was named Out magazines Ingenue of the Year. In February 2015, she was awarded the Human Rights Campaigns Visibility Award, according to the Human Rights Campaigns website, Wiley was always accepted and embraced by her parents, regardless of her sexuality, and to this she attributes her success. On October 4,2016, Wiley announced her engagement to Orange Is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli and they married on March 25,2017. Samira Wiley at the Internet Movie Database
12.
FX (TV channel)
–
FX is an American basic cable and satellite television channel launched on June 1,1994, based in Los Angeles, California and owned by 21st Century Fox through FX Networks, LLC. FXs programming primarily includes original drama and comedy series, and reruns of theatrical films, as of July 2015, FX is available to approximately 94,006,000 pay television households in the United States. In addition to the flagship U. S. network, the FX name is licensed to a number of related pay television channels in various countries around the world, FX, originally stylized as fX, launched on June 1,1994. Broadcasting from an apartment in Manhattans Flatiron District, fX was one of the first forays into large-scale interactive television. FX had two taglines during this period, TV Made Fresh Daily and The Worlds First Living Television Network, the live shows were each mostly focused on one broad topic. Shows included Personal fX, The Pet Department, Under Scrutiny with Jane Wallace, other notable fX personalities included Karyn Bryant and Orlando Jones, who were panelists on Sound fX. The channel prided itself on its interactivity with viewers, FX, in 1994, was an early adopter of the internet, embracing e-mail and the World Wide Web as methods of feedback. Select viewers were allowed to spend a day at the apartment, the first incarnation of fX was not available on Time Warner Cable, one of the major cable systems in New York City, where its programming originated. TWC would not carry the channel until September 2001, the live shows gradually disappeared one by one until only Personal fX remained. Breakfast Time was moved to the Fox network and renamed Fox After Breakfast in mid-1996 and it underwent several format changes, but never found a substantial audience and was canceled less than a year later. By the time that all programming was dropped, the channel focused entirely on its classic television shows until its relaunch in mid-1997. Personal fX remained on the refocused FX until May 1,1998, FX vacated the apartment in the summer of 1998 and the channels operations were streamlined with the other Fox-owned cable channels. In early 1997, fX was relaunched as FX, Fox Gone Cable, during the first few years after its relaunch, FX was known for little else than airing reruns of such Fox shows as The X-Files and Married. With Children, as well as 20th Century Fox-produced shows such as M*A*S*H, the channel also added Major League Baseball games to its lineup at that time, and eventually expanded its sports programming to include NASCAR races in 2001. In the summer of 1998, FX debuted three original series, Bobcats Big Ass Show, Instant Comedy with the Groundlings and Penn & Tellers Sin City Spectacular, all three series were cancelled the following year. Soon after its relaunch, the Fox Gone Cable tagline was dropped, by 1999, new original programs were added with the debut of shows such as Son of the Beach and The X Show. Beginning in 2002, the channel emerged as a force in original cable programming, gaining both acclaim and notoriety for edgy dramas. That year, FX debuted the police drama The Shield, which became a breakout hit, both shows were lauded by critics, and achieved equal success with viewers
13.
HBO
–
Home Box Office is an American premium cable and satellite television network that is owned by Time Warner through its respective flagship company Home Box Office, Inc. HBO is the oldest and longest continuously operating pay television service in the United States, in 2014, HBO had an adjusted operating income of US$1.79 billion, compared to the US$1.68 billion it accrued in 2013. HBO has 49 million subscribers in the United States and 130 million worldwide as of 2016, the network provides seven 24-hour multiplex channels, including HBO Comedy, HBO Latino, HBO Signature and HBO Family. It launched the streaming service HBO Now in April 2015, and has over 2 million subscribers in the United States as of February 2017. In addition to its U. S. subscriber base, HBO distributes content in at least 151 countries, HBO subscribers generally pay for an extra tier of service that includes other cable- and satellite-exclusive channels even before paying for the channel itself. Cable providers can require the use of a converter box – usually digital – in order to receive HBO, many HBO programs have been syndicated to other networks and broadcast television stations, and a number of HBO-produced series and films have been released on DVD. The new system, which Dolan named Sterling Information Services, became the first urban underground cable system in the United States. In that same year, Time-Life, Inc. purchased a 20% stake in Dolans company, in the summer of 1971, while on a family vacation in France, Charles Dolan began to think of ideas to make Sterling Manhattan profitable. He came up with the concept for a television service. Dolan later presented his idea to Time-Life management, though satellite distribution seemed only a distant possibility at the time, he persuaded Time-Life to back him on the project. To gauge whether consumers would be interested in subscribing to a pay television service, in a meeting of Dolan and some Time-Life executives who were working on the project, various other names were discussed for the new service. Home Box Office launched on November 8,1972, however, HBOs launch came without fanfare in the press, as it was not covered by any local or national media outlets. Home Box Office distributed its first sports event immediately after the film, Four months later in February 1973, Home Box Office aired its first television special, the Pennsylvania Polka Festival. Home Box Office would use a network of relay towers to distribute its programming to cable systems throughout its service area. Sterling Manhattan Cable continued to lose money because the company had only a small base of 20,000 customers in Manhattan. Time-Life dropped the Sterling name and the company was renamed Manhattan Cable Television under Time-Lifes control in March 1973, Gerald Levin, who had been with Home Box Office since it began operations as its vice president of programming, replaced Dolan as the companys president and chief executive officer. In September 1973, Time-Life, Inc. completed its acquisition of the pay service. HBO would eventually increase its fortunes within two years, by April 1975, the service had around 100,000 subscribers in Pennsylvania and New York state, in 1974, they settled on using a geostationary communications satellite to transmit HBO to cable providers throughout the United States
14.
Black-ish
–
Black-ish is an American sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross broadcast on ABC. The single-camera comedy centers on an upper-middle-class African-American family, the series premiered on September 24,2014. On March 3,2016, the show was renewed for a third season, Anthony Anderson as Andre Dre Johnson Sr. an advertising executive who tries to pass on some of his urban culture to his seemingly uninterested children. His alma mater is Howard University, Tracee Ellis Ross as Dr. Rainbow Bow Johnson, who is Dres wife. She is a biracial anesthesiologist who was raised by hippies and her alma mater is Brown University. Yara Shahidi as Zoey Johnson, Dre and Rainbows 17-year-old daughter and she is the attractive, popular, entitled, stylish, and socially active member of the Johnson family. Marcus Scribner as Andre Johnson Jr. Dre and Rainbows 16-year-old son and he is a so-called nerd who is confused by the world around him and frequently subjected to disdain and pettiness at the hands of his more shallow and obnoxious father and siblings. Miles Brown as Jack Johnson, Dre and Rainbows upbeat 8-year-old son, fraternal twin of Diane, marsai Martin as Diane Johnson, Dre and Rainbows 8-year-old daughter, fraternal twin of Jack, who considers herself smarter and more mature than her twin brother. Jenifer Lewis as Ruby Johnson, Dres mother, jeff Meacham as Josh Oppenhol, Dres co-worker. Peter Mackenzie as Leslie Stevens, Dres boss and co-owner of Stevens & Lido, Laurence Fishburne as Earl Pops Johnson, Dres father. Deon Cole as Charlie Telphy, Dres co-worker, raven-Symoné as Rhonda Johnson, Dres sister who is a lesbian but is not yet comfortable discussing her sexuality. Catherine Reitman as Lucy, Dres co-worker, wanda Sykes as Daphne Lido, ex-wife of Phillip Lido and new co-owner of Stevens & Lido. Allen Maldonado as Curtis Miller Jr. Dres co-worker, elle Young as Sharon Duckworth, Rhondas fiancée. Regina Hall as Vivian, Jack and Dianes nanny, daveed Diggs as Johan Johnson, Rainbows brother. Nelson Franklin as Connor Stevens, Leslie Stevens son, Diane Farr as Rachel, Stevens & Lidos HR rep. On January 16,2014, ABC greenlit the pilot episode, two weeks later, Larry Wilmore joined the show as showrunner. In mid-February, Laurence Fishburne was cast as the father of Andersons character, on May 8,2014, ABC picked up the pilot to the series for the 2014–15 television season. A few days later, Anderson announced that Larry Wilmore would be stepping down as early in the shows run due to his forthcoming late night show
15.
American Broadcasting Company
–
The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate
16.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
–
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO that premiered on October 15,2000. The series was created by Larry David, who stars as a version of himself. The series follows Larry in his life as a television writer and producer in Los Angeles. Also starring are Cheryl Hines as his wife, Cheryl, Jeff Garlin as his manager, Jeff, Curb Your Enthusiasm often features guest stars, and many of these appearances are by celebrities playing versions of themselves fictionalized to varying degrees. The plots and subplots of the episodes are established in a written by David. The character has a hard time letting such annoyances go unexpressed, the series was developed from a 1999 one-hour special, Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm, which David and HBO originally envisioned as a one-time project. The special was shot as a mockumentary, where the characters were aware of the presence of cameras, the series itself is not a mock documentary but is shot in a somewhat similar, cinéma vérité-like style. Curb Your Enthusiasm has received critical acclaim and has grown in popularity since its debut. It has been nominated for 38 Primetime Emmy Awards, and Robert B, weide received an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the episode Krazee Eyez Killa. The show won the 2002 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, after season eight finished in 2011, the series went on an indefinite hiatus. In June 2016, after an absence, it was announced the series would return for a ninth season. The series stars Larry David as a fictionalized version of himself. Like the real-life David, the character is known in the entertainment industry as the co-creator. For most of the series, the Larry David character is living a life in Los Angeles with his wife. Davids main confidant on the show is his manager, Jeff Greene, a large portion of the shows many guest stars are celebrities and public figures, such as actors, comedians, sportspeople, and politicians, who play themselves. These include Davids longtime friend Richard Lewis as well as Ted Danson and his wife, Mary Steenburgen, the show is set and filmed in various affluent Westside communities of Los Angeles, as well as in the adjacent cities of Beverly Hills, Culver City and Santa Monica. Davids hometown of New York City is also featured in some episodes, most of the series revolves around Davids interactions with his friends and acquaintances, with David often at odds with the other characters, usually to his detriment. Despite this, the characters do not seem to harbor ill feelings toward each other for any extended period, and this conflicts with his dry style
17.
Netflix
–
Netflix is an American entertainment company founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph on August 29,1997, in Scotts Valley, California. It specializes in and provides streaming media and video-on-demand online and DVD by mail, in 2013, Netflix expanded into film and television production, as well as online distribution. As of 2017 the company has its headquarters in Los Gatos, Netflixs initial business model included DVD sales and rental, although Hastings jettisoned DVD sales about a year after Netflixs founding to focus on the DVD rental by mail business. In 2007, Netflix expanded its business with the introduction of streaming media, while retaining the DVD, Netflix entered the content-production industry in 2013, debuting its first series, House of Cards. It has greatly expanded the production of film and television series since then, offering Netflix Original content through its online library of films. Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or films in 2016, in January 2017, Netflix reported having over 93 million subscribers worldwide, including more than 49 million in the United States. Netflix was founded on August 29,1997, in Scotts Valley, California, by Marc Randolph, Randolph worked as marketing director for Hastings company, Pure Atria Corporation. Randolph was a co-founder of MicroWarehouse, a mail order company. Hastings, a computer scientist and mathematician, sold Pure Atria to Rational Software Corporation in 1997 for $700 million in what was then the richest acquisition in Silicon Valley history. Hastings, Randolphs mother and Integrity QA founder Steve Kahn invested $2.5 million in cash for Netflix. Randolph admired the fledgling e-commerce company Amazon and wanted to find a category of portable items to sell over the internet using a similar model. He and Hastings considered and rejected VHS tapes as too expensive to stock and too delicate to ship. When they heard about DVDs, which were available in only a few markets in 1997, when the disc arrived intact, they decided to take on the $16 billion home video sales and rental industry. Netflix introduced the monthly subscription concept in September 1999, and then dropped the model in early 2000. Since that time, the company has built its reputation on the model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees. In 2000, Netflix offered to be acquired by Blockbuster for $50 million, Netflix initiated an initial public offering on May 29,2002, selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at the price of US$15.00 per share. On June 14,2002, the company sold an additional 825,000 shares of stock at the same price. After incurring substantial losses during its first few years, Netflix posted its first profit during fiscal year 2003, in 2005,35,000 different films were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day
18.
Silicon Valley (TV series)
–
Silicon Valley is an American comedy television series created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. The series focuses on six young men who found a company in Silicon Valley. The series premiered on April 6,2014, on HBO, the first season consisted of eight episodes. HBO renewed the series for a season, which premiered on April 12,2015. On April 13,2015, HBO renewed Silicon Valley for a third season, on April 21,2016, HBO announced it had renewed the series for a fourth season to premiere on April 23,2017. Richard Hendricks is a shy, reclusive programmer who works at an internet company called Hooli. He is also developing an app called Pied Piper in a live-in startup business incubator run by entrepreneur Erlich Bachman. After a rocky post-TED elevator pitch of Pied Piper to venture capitalist Peter Gregory, within hours, however, Hooli executive Donald Jared Dunn and Gregorys assistant Monica discover that the app contains a revolutionary data compression algorithm. This leads Belson to increase his offer to $10 million, with encouragement from Monica and the support of Bachman, Hendricks chooses Gregorys offer. He hires the residents of the incubator, except for his friend Nelson Big Head Bighetti, to become the Pied Piper team, along with Dunn, Hooli works to reverse engineer Pied Pipers algorithm based on the version he demonstrated, developing a copycat product called Nucleus. Gregory and Belson later each learn that Hendricks has been slated to present Pied Piper at TechCrunch Disrupt, Belson is confounded by the news, and responds by scheduling the announcement of Nucleus at the event. Hendricks explains to Monica that he meant to withdraw from the competition, the countdown to the event means that Pied Piper has to be ready to show in less than eight weeks rather than Gregorys initial plan of five months. The team rushes to produce a cloud storage platform based on their compression technology. At the TechCrunch event, Bachman takes the lead in a dramatic presentation of Pied Piper. However the presentation is cut short when one of the judges assaults Bachman for having sex with both his current and ex-wives. Pied Piper automatically advances to the round as recompense for the assault on Bachman. Belson presents Nucleus, which is integrated with all of Hoolis services and has compression performance equal to Pied Piper, watching from the audience, the Pied Piper team generally admits defeat. The discussion sparks a sudden revelation in Hendricks, who spends the entire night coding, the next morning, Hendricks takes the lead in making Pied Pipers final presentation
19.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
–
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is an American web television sitcom created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, starring Ellie Kemper in the title role, that has streamed on Netflix since March 6,2015. Originally set for a 13-episode first season on NBC for spring 2015, since its premiere, the show has received critical acclaim, with critic Scott Meslow calling it the first great sitcom of the streaming era. As of July 14,2016, the series has been nominated for eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, on January 17,2016, the series was renewed for a third season, which is scheduled to premiere on May 19,2017. The show was created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock when NBC executives asked them to develop a show for Ellie Kemper, Fey stated that they found an innocence about Kempers face, but also noted there was a strength to it. One idea was for the show to center on Kempers character waking up from a coma, the show was initially under development for NBC under the title Tooken. However, this was changed to the current title. Eventually NBC sold the series to Netflix, Fey has stated that this was in part due to NBC not feeling confident about watching comedies. Prior to the switch, NBC planned to air the series as either a mid-season replacement or as a summer series. Casting announcements for the roles were held on March 2014, with Tituss Burgess cast as the role of Kimmys roommate. Titus is a singer who works odd entertainment jobs such as dressing up like a robot in Times Square or as a singing waiter at a theme restaurant. Also cast was Carol Kane as Kimmy and Titus landlord Lillian Kaushtupper, shortly afterwards, Sara Chase and Lauren Adams joined the series. Jane Krakowski was later cast in the role of Jacqueline Voorhees, megan Dodds was originally cast before she was replaced with Krakowski. The shows theme song, Unbreakable, was produced by The Gregory Brothers and it is a tribute to The Gregory Brothers’ YouTube show Songify the News – auto-tuned news interviews that became viral videos. Richmond also wrote Peeno Noir, a song performed by character Titus Andromedon during season 1, in the first season, Kimmy Schmidt was in 8th grade when she was kidnapped for fifteen years by Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne. The Reverend held Kimmy and three other women hostage in a bunker, and convinced them that doomsday had come, gone. Once the women are rescued, they go on to appear on the Today Show in New York City, after the show, Kimmy finds herself not wanting to return to Indiana, but instead to start a new life in New York City. Roaming around the city, Kimmy comes across landlady Lillian Kaushtupper, Kaushtupper offers Kimmy a chance to room with Titus Andromedon in her downstairs apartment. However, Kimmy has to seek a job in order to get the apartment, soon after, Jacqueline hires Kimmy to be a nanny for her 10-year-old son
20.
The Americans (2013 TV series)
–
The Americans is an American television period drama series created and produced by former CIA officer Joe Weisberg. On May 25,2016, FX set an end-date for the series by renewing it for a fifth and sixth season, the 13-episode fifth season premiered on March 7,2017. It will be followed by a 10-episode sixth and final season in 2018, the Americans, a fictional period piece set during the Reagan administration, was created by Joe Weisberg, a former CIA officer. The story picks up shortly after the two parents are activated in the early 1980s, the shows creator has described the series as being ultimately about a marriage, The Americans is at its core a marriage story. International relations is just an allegory for the human relations, sometimes, when youre struggling in your marriage or with your kid, it feels like life or death. For Philip and Elizabeth, it often is, Weisberg was fascinated by stories he had heard from agents who served abroad as spies, while raising their families. He was interested in bringing that concept to television, with the idea of a family of spies, I was totally joining the CIA because I wanted to be a spy. But the second they asked that question, then I thought, Now Im going to fail the test. Weisberg was partially influenced by the events of the Illegals Program to write a script for the series. His research material included notes on the KGBs Cold War left by Vasili Mitrokhin, an obvious way to remedy that for television was to stick it back in the Cold War. At first, the 70s appealed to me just because I loved the hair, but can you think of a better time than the 80s with Ronald Reagan yelling about the evil empire. After reading Weisbergs novel, An Ordinary Spy, executive producer Graham Yost discovered that Weisberg had also written a pilot for a spy series. Yost read the pilot and discovered that it was annoyingly good, Weisberg stated that he had no idea about who would star in the series before casting began. FX president John Landgraf had the idea to cast Keri Russell in the series, leslie Feldman, the head of casting at DreamWorks, saw Matthew Rhys in a play and suggested him to Weisberg. Russell and Rhys had met briefly at a party years before and they both were attracted to the series because of its focus on the relationship between their characters. Russell described the script as interesting, continuing, It was so far from a procedural. And I didnt know that I wanted to do it, I always say no to everything. I never want to do anything, but I just couldnt stop thinking about it
21.
Game of Thrones
–
Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martins series of fantasy novels, the first of which is A Game of Thrones. It is filmed at Titanic Studios in Belfast, on location in the United Kingdom, and in Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Spain, and the United States. The series premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17,2011, the series was renewed for a seventh season, which is scheduled to premiere on July 16,2017, and will conclude with its eighth season in 2018. Set on the continents of Westeros and Essos, Game of Thrones has several plot lines. The first story arc follows a dynastic conflict among competing claimants for succession to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, Game of Thrones has attracted record viewership on HBO and has a broad, active, international fan base. It has been acclaimed by critics, particularly for its acting, complex characters, story, scope, the series has received 38 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series in 2015 and 2016, more than any other primetime scripted television series. Its other awards and nominations include three Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, a 2011 Peabody Award, and four nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama. Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Diana Rigg, Game of Thrones is roughly based on the storylines of A Song of Ice and Fire, set in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and the continent of Essos. The series chronicles the violent dynastic struggles among the noble families for the Iron Throne. It opens with additional threats in the icy North and Essos in the east, showrunner David Benioff jokingly suggested The Sopranos in Middle-earth as Game of Thrones tagline, referring to its intrigue-filled plot and dark tone in a fantasy setting of magic and dragons. In a 2012 study of deaths per episode, it ranked second out of 40 recent U. S. TV drama series, the series is generally praised for what is perceived as a sort of medieval realism. George R. R. Benioff said, George brought a measure of harsh realism to high fantasy and he introduced gray tones into a black-and-white universe. A common theme in the genre is the battle between good and evil, which Martin says does not mirror the real world. Just like peoples capacity for good and for evil in life, Martin explores the questions of redemption. The show allows the audience to view different characters from their perspective, unlike in many other fantasies, Main characters are regularly killed off, and this has been credited with developing tension among viewers. The series also reflects the death rates in war. Although the first season is a adaptation of the novel
22.
Hulu
–
Hulu is an American subscription video on demand service owned by Hulu LLC, a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, Comcast, and as of August 10,2016, Time Warner. It is primarily oriented towards television series, carrying current and past episodes of series from its owners respective television networks, the subscription service is, in turn, divided into advertising-supported and mostly ad-free tiers. In 2016, Hulu spun out its content into a joint venture with Yahoo. called Yahoo. View and announced plans for a television streaming service some time in 2017. The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese words, húlú, calabash, bottle gourd, and hùlù, interactive recording, the company blog explains, In Mandarin, Hulu has two interesting meanings, each highly relevant to our mission. The primary meaning interested us because it is used in an ancient Chinese proverb that describes the Hulu as the holder of precious things and it literally translates to gourd, and in ancient times, the Hulu was hollowed out and used to hold precious things. The secondary meaning is interactive recording and we saw both definitions as appropriate bookends and highly relevant to the mission of Hulu. Key executives instrumental in the founding of Hulu include Bruce Campbell, Peter Chernin, JB Perrette, Michael Lang, Beth Comstock, the venture was announced in March 2006 with AOL, Comcast, Facebook, MSN, Myspace, and Yahoo. planned as initial distribution partners. Kilar was named the CEO in June 2006, the name Hulu was chosen in late August 2007, when the website went live, with an announcement only and no content. It invited users to leave their addresses for the upcoming beta test. In October, Hulu began the private beta testing by invitation, Hulu launched for public access in the United States on March 12,2008. The first product to launch was the HULU Syndication network, which was designed and developed by the NBC Universal team from New York, on October 29,2007, followed by the Hulu. com destinations site. Hulu began a campaign during NBCs broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII with an initial ad starring Alec Baldwin titled Alec in Huluwood. The ad intended to reveal the shocking secret behind Hulu. Advertisements have since aired featuring Eliza Dushku, Seth MacFarlane, Denis Leary, with its investment came a seat on the board of directors, where Providence was said to act as an independent voice on the board. In October 2012, Providence sold its 10 percent stake to Hulus media owners, ComScore says monthly video streams reached 903 million in January 2010, over three times the figure for a year earlier, and second only to YouTube. On August 16,2010, a report revealed that Hulu was planning an Initial Public Offering which could value the company at more than $2 billion. On June 21,2011, The Wall Street Journal reported that an unsolicited offer caused Hulu to begin weighing whether to sell itself
23.
Westworld (TV series)
–
Westworld is an American science fiction western thriller television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for HBO. It is based on the 1973 film of the name, which was written and directed by American novelist Michael Crichton. It is the second TV series based on the two films, the first being the short-lived 1980 series Beyond Westworld, Nolan and Joy serve as executive producers along with J. J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub, and Bryan Burk, with Nolan directing the pilot. The first season premiered on October 2,2016, concluded on December 4,2016, in November 2016, HBO renewed the show for a 10-episode second season, planned for a 2018 debut. The story takes place in the fictional Westworld, a technologically advanced Wild West–themed amusement park populated by android hosts, Westworld caters to high-paying guests, who may indulge in whatever they wish within the park, without fear of retaliation from the hosts. Westworld has received reviews by critics, with particular praise for the visuals, story. Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy, the oldest host still working in the park, Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay, a host, she is a madam. Like Dolores, she discovers that her life is an elaborate lie. Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe, a host, Head of the Westworld Programming Division, james Marsden as Teddy Flood, a host, he is a newly arrived gunfighter who is looking for Dolores to rekindle their relationship. Ingrid Bolsø Berdal as Armistice, a host, she is a brutal and ruthless bandit, luke Hemsworth as Ashley Stubbs, the head of Westworld security, charged with monitoring host and human interactions and ensuring the safety of the guests. Sidse Babett Knudsen as Theresa Cullen, Westworlds terse operations leader, Simon Quarterman as Lee Sizemore, Westworlds narrative director, whose artistic temperament aggravates his co-workers. Rodrigo Santoro as Hector Escaton, a host, he is a gang leader bent on survival. Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather, a host, she works for Maeve and is one of Westworlds most popular attractions, lili Simmons portrays another host fulfilling the same role when the original Clementine is decommissioned. Shannon Woodward as Elsie Hughes, a star in the Programming Division tasked with remedying odd behavior in the parks hosts. Ed Harris as the Man in Black, a rich, sadistic veteran guest of Westworld, Jimmi Simpson as William, a reluctant first-time visitor to Westworld, joining his future brother-in-law, Logan. Initially dismissive of the more lascivious attractions, he slowly uncovers a deeper meaning to the parks narrative. Anthony Hopkins as Robert Ford, the founder and creative director of Westworld, Ben Barnes as Logan, a long-time guest. His hedonistic romp through Westworld is equally motivated by self-indulgence and a desire to help his future brother-in-law, William
24.
The Daily Show
–
The Daily Show is an American news satire and late-night talk show television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central, describing itself as a fake news program, The Daily Show draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures, media organizations, and often uses self-referential humor as well. The half-hour-long show premiered on July 21,1996, and was first hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 17,1998, Stewart was succeeded by Trevor Noah, whose tenure premiered on September 28,2015. Under different hosts, the show has been known as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 until 2015. The Daily Show is the program on Comedy Central, and has won 23 Primetime Emmy Awards. Critics chastised Stewart for not conducting sufficiently hard-hitting interviews with his political guests, Stewart and other Daily Show writers responded to such criticism by saying that they do not have any journalistic responsibility and that as comedians their only duty is to provide entertainment. Stewarts appearance on the CNN show Crossfire picked up this debate, each episode begins with announcer Drew Birns announcing the date and the introduction, From Comedy Centrals World News Headquarters in New York, this is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Previously, the introduction was This is The Daily Show, the most important television program, the host then opens the show with a monologue drawing from current news stories and issues. Some episodes will begin with a 1-3 minute intro on a story before fully transitioning into the main story of the night. Their stated areas of expertise vary depending on the story that is being discussed. They typically present absurd or humorously exaggerated takes on current events against the straight man. While correspondents stated to be reporting abroad are usually performing in-studio in front of a background, on rare occasions. For instance, during the week of August 20,2007, in August 2008, Riggle traveled to China for a series of segments titled Rob Riggle, Chasing the Dragon, which focused on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. On July 19,2016, Roy Wood Jr. reported live from the Republican National Convention, topics have varied widely, during the early years of the show they tended toward character-driven human interest stories such as Bigfoot enthusiasts. Since Stewart began hosting in 1999, the focus of the show has more political. Under Kilborn and the years of Stewart, most interviewees were either unaware or not entirely aware of the comedic nature of The Daily Show. However, as the show began to gain popularity—particularly following its coverage of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections—most of the subjects now interviewed are aware of the comedic element, some segments have recurred periodically throughout different tenures, such as Back in Black & Your Moment of Zen. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a segment of the show has been dubbed Mess O Potamia, focusing on the United States policies in the Middle East
25.
Comedy Central
–
Comedy Central is an American basic cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Global Entertainment Group, a unit of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom. The channel carries comedy programming, in the form of original and syndicated series and stand-up comedy specials, as well as feature films. The international channels are operated by Viacom International Media Networks, as of February 2015, approximately 93,992,000 American households receive Comedy Central. On November 15,1989, Time Warner, owners of HBO, on April 1,1990, Viacom launched a rival channel called Ha. that featured reruns of situation comedies and some original sketch comedy. The Comedy Channels programs were broadcast from the HBO Downtown Studios at 120 East 23rd Street in Manhattan, the format prior to the merger with Ha. In the early days, certain hours of the day when clips were shown without host segments were dubbed Short Attention Span Theater, in 1990, hosts under this title, Jon Stewart and Patty Rosborough, were introduced. Comedian Marc Maron also hosted the series, Viacom bought out Time Warners half in April 2003 for $1.23 billion. LLC, the subsidiary that owned Ha. and Viacoms original half of the network, with the exception of the cult favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000, the channel had a relatively small viewership. A notable early success was Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, which after showing promise on Comedy Central was quickly snapped up by ABC. Additionally, The Daily Show had got its start with original host Craig Kilborn, dr. Katz, Professional Therapist was also a notable original program from this era, as well as the game show Win Ben Steins Money. Successful non-original programming included Canadian comedy group The Kids in the Hall and British shows such as the U. K. edition of Whose Line Is It Anyway. some later seasons of AbFab, as it was informally known, were partially financed by Comedy Central. Comedy Central also had the rights to broadcast reruns of Seattles Almost Live. The channel made a breakthrough when South Park premiered in 1997, being the first major basic cable show to carry the TV-MA rating for mature audiences, the show was too controversial to be picked up by a mainstream network. As word of mouth spread, the number of people who requested that Comedy Central be added to their cable providers increased, on November 13,2000, Comedy Central introduced a modernized version of its globe logo, by straightening the buildings and removing the transmitter. The management of the said that the transmitter of the 1991 logo was said to communicate the 1950s broadcast era. In 2002, Comedy Central Records was formed as a means of releasing albums by comedians that have appeared on the network, since 2003, Comedy Central has created a tradition of roasting comedians in the style of the New York Friars Club roasts. During these roasts, friends of the roastee, along other comedians, take turns making fun of the roastee, the other roasters. The success of South Park, despite its mature content, encouraged the network to continue to push the limits on adult language, every Saturday and Sunday morning at 1 a. m
26.
TBS (U.S. TV channel)
–
Turner Broadcasting System is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner, which shares its name with the channel. TBS carries a variety of programming, with a focus on comedy, along with sports events, including Major League Baseball. In its current form, TBS was originally established on December 17,1976 as a feed of Turners local, independent broadcast television station in Atlanta. The channel broadcast a variety of programming during this era, including films, syndicated series, Atlanta Braves baseball, wTBSs local programming was nearly identical to the national feed, aside from FCC-mandated public affairs and educational programming that only aired on the local signal. By the early 2000s, TBS had begun to more intensively on comedic programming, including sitcoms. As of February 2015, TBS is available to approximately 96.5 million pay television households in the United States, TBS is available on cable and satellite providers throughout the entire United States. The national TBS feed became available to cable and satellite subscribers within channel 17s viewing area as a result, TBSs programming was previously made available to cable and satellite subscribers in Canada through the WTBS Atlanta feed. As a result, following the separation of TBS and WTBS/WPCH in 2007, Canadian cable and satellite subscribers received access to WPCH/Atlanta, instead of TBS. Most of TBSs flagship programming, such as Major League Baseball and original series, are not broadcast on WPCH-TV, TBS originated as a broadcast television station in Atlanta, Georgia that operated on UHF channel 17, and maintained a general entertainment format as an independent station. Early programming included movies from the 1930s and 1940s, sitcoms, the station also carried sports, such as Atlanta Braves baseball, Atlanta Hawks basketball, Atlanta Flames hockey, and Georgia Championship Wrestling. WTCG also bid very low on programming, leaving the stations in the market – WSB-TV, WAGA-TV. By the mid-1970s, The Andy Griffith Show, The Flintstones, Leave It to Beaver, The Little Rascals, My Three Sons, Star Trek, The Three Stooges, cable providers in these areas carried stations from neighboring markets, and if possible, an independent station. Ted Turner decided to distribute his station through satellite, enabling WTCG to be received nationwide, the first broadcast was the 1948 Dana Andrews-Cesar Romero film Deep Waters, which had been in progress for 30 minutes on channel 17 in Atlanta. Instantly, WTCG went from being an independent television station that was available only in Georgia. WTCG became a superstation and set a precedent for todays basic cable television. By 1978, WTCG was carried on cable providers in all 50 states, TBS became only the second U. S. Ted Turners innovation signaled the start of the basic cable revolution. WTCG changed its callsign to WTBS on August 27,1979, the new call letters were acquired via a monetary donation to the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys student radio station for the construction of a new transmitter. In the late 1970s, WTBS continued to acquire second-hand programming such as made-for-TV Popeye cartoons, The Brady Bunch, The Munsters, and other programs
27.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
–
Jimmy Kimmel Live. is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26,2003, Jimmy Kimmel Live. is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios. Contrary to its name, Jimmy Kimmel Live, does not air live, instead, it is shot 4 p. m. Pacific Time on the day of broadcast. Until 2009, new episodes aired five nights a week, from 2009 to 2012, starting with the January 2013 move, the Friday episode had been retitled Jimmy Kimmel Live. This Week, which showed highlights from the week of shows. However, the show has reverted to airing a rebroadcast of a recent episode on Fridays. On April 14,2009 after the March sweeps break, the show began broadcasting in 720p high definition. The show began on January 26,2003, replacing Politically Incorrect, ABC had originally intended to give Jon Stewart his own late-night program following Nightline, but Kimmel was chosen instead. Jimmy Kimmel Live. is ABCs first attempt at a traditional late-night talk show since its attempt to revive The Dick Cavett Show in the 1980s, while Cavett was the longest-lasting and best remembered of these attempts, none seriously threatened the domination of the Tonight Show. As a result, in 2012, Nightline switched places on ABCs schedule with Jimmy Kimmel Live, despite its name, the show has not actually aired live since 2004, when censors were unable to properly bleep censor a barrage of swearing from actor Thomas Jane. The shows house band is Cleto and the Cletones, led by saxophonist Cleto Escobedo III, like other talk shows with live bands, Cleto and the Cletones play the shows opening and closing themes and play into and out of commercial breaks. The shows opening theme was written by Les Pierce, Jonathan Kimmel and Cleto Escobedo III, the show originally had guest co-hosts each week who would sit at the desk with Kimmel and participate in skits and questioning each nights guests. The show also featured guest announcers, until comedian Andy Milonakis took over as the announcer from late 2003 to 2004. He would also appear in comedy bits for the show, then in 2004, Mighty Mighty Bosstones singer Dicky Barrett took over as the shows announcer when the Bosstones went on hiatus. The band has become active again, and performed live on the show in 2009. Francis Uncle Frank Potenza, Kimmels real-life uncle, served as a security guard for the show and he was a New York City police officer and a personal security guard for Frank Sinatra. Potenza did not appear regularly from December 2009 through March 2010, however, he later returned as a semi-regular. Potenza died on August 23,2011, at the age of 77, Guillermo Rodriguez is the parking lot security guard for the show, and frequently serves as a celebrity gossip correspondent in a segment called Guillermos Hollywood Round-Up
28.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
–
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, often abridged as Last Week Tonight, is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by comedian John Oliver. The half-hour-long show premiered on Sunday, April 27,2014, Oliver has stated that he has full creative freedom, including free rein to criticize corporations. His initial contract with HBO was for two years with an option for extension, in February 2015, it was announced that the show had been renewed for two additional seasons of 35 episodes each. The show was renewed for a season which premiered on February 12,2017. Oliver described his preparations for the show to an interviewer for The Wire, I basically have to watch everything. The only thing I kind of watch for pleasure is Fareed Zakarias show on Sundays and that and 60 Minutes I watch for pleasure, or maybe Frontline. I have a TV on in my all the time and Ill generally flick around on that from CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Bloomberg, CNBC. Im watching with a thing in mind and that is how to see a story told badly. I think well be attracted to some extent by stories that are off the grid and our show may end up skewing more international in terms of stories. Tim Carvell, executive producer of Last Week Tonight, explained to an interviewer how the cast, Carvell also revealed that HBO gave them freedom in choosing guests for the show, advising them not to feel obligated to feature celebrities. When asked by an interviewer about correspondents such as featured on The Daily Show, Oliver replied, were not going to be a parody news show. The backdrop also includes the castle Dragonstone from Game of Thrones, the shows theme starts off every episode containing images relating to it or the world at large with satirical captions written in dog Latin. Each episode covers a small handful of segments, and then one main segment. Oliver injects humor into his presentation, including satirical analogies, and allusions to popular culture, the show includes a panel in the upper-left corner that frequently displays a photo or graphic for that accompanies subject at hand, which aids in the humor. A full-screen graphic will show and play a clip when Oliver is citing it. He often coins a hashtag for use in media related to his segment. Olivers speech is broken up with video compilations of recent news clips, or recurring segments, into which Oliver segues with the slogan, And now, Oliver has also ended some segments with mock trailers for fictional TV shows or commercials that satirize the subject of his speech. The typical structure of the show is to open with a recap of a few of the news stories, segue into a video compilation
29.
The Late Late Show with James Corden
–
The Late Late Show with James Corden is an American late-night talk show hosted by James Corden on CBS. It is the iteration of The Late Late Show. It is produced by Fulwell 73 and CBS Television Studios, Corden was announced as the shows new host on September 8,2014, succeeding Craig Ferguson. Originally scheduled to premiere on March 9,2015, CBS later pushed back its premiere to March 23,2015, to host such a prestigious show. Tassler cited Cordens work in media as theatre, film and television. The show continues to be filmed at CBS Television City in Los Angeles and he also appeared on an episode hosted by Judd Apatow to job shadow, stating he wanted to learn from his mistakes. Unlike his predecessors, Cordens Late Late Show has a band, nicknamed Karen. Watts also performs as lead vocals, keyboards, beatboxing, the other personnel in the band are Tim Young on lead guitars, Steve Scalfatti on keyboards, Hagar Ben Ari on bass, and Guillermo E. Brown on drums. The shows title sequence, which was supposed to be directed by J. J, Abrams, was filmed by the visual firm of Trollbäck + Company. Watts and the Late Late Show Band composed the theme song, according to a report in the Daily Mail, Corden hopes the credits will show him riding a BMX bike around Los Angeles, with other on-screen talent joining him as he reaches the CBS studio. The shows executive producers are Rob Crabbe and Ben Winston, the final product being James Corden and Reggie Watts going around LA in a Low Rider, LED bike, and some graphic and light painting with a Pixelstick. James originally wanted JJ Abrams to film him and Reggie scored to a Mark Ronson track and we were of course honored to take JJs place as he was a bit busy filming a blockbuster. We managed to shoot everything in one night with LED bikes, a Lowrider, however, the show has retained the monologue though it is shorter and not as important an element as the monologue on other late night shows. The show also uses a format similar to that of British chat show The Graham Norton Show. Guests do not walk on stage from the wings but emerge from the back of the studio, as is more typical in British talk shows, the host sits to the left of the guests, a reversal of the traditional American layout. Corden also does not sit behind a desk, unlike other late night hosts, tom Hanks and Mila Kunis were Cordens first guests on March 23,2015, for the debut episode featuring Corden and Hanks acting and singing their way through a retrospective of Hanks career. Later, after a prompt by Hanks, Corden appeared to score a coup by getting Mila Kunis to admit that she and Ashton Kutcher are married, the episode scored 1.66 million viewers, the shows biggest Monday rating in more than three years. Despite starting 20 minutes late due to Lettermans show running over its end time
