‘TMZ Hollywood Sports’ To Anchor Reelz Primetime
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Talk about great timing — Reelz said today it has boughtTMZ Hollywood Sports to anchor its weekday primetime lineup, at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, starting Monday, September 29.
Reelz called the newly created program “one of the freshest, most respected and energizing journalism brands in the country.” Everyone else is calling it the prettiest dress in the TV News store since TMZ got its hands on the video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice clocking his then fiancee in a casino elevator back in February. That came on the heels of another TMZ sports “get” — the audio of Donald Sterling’s racist conversation with his girlfriend. “This is sports without scores … and the highlights are what happen when athletes and celebrity culture collide off the field,” Reelz said in today’s announcement.
“This is an especially exciting venture for us because we think we can attract sports fans who love athletes and non-sports fans who are interested in athletes who have become some of the biggest celebrities in the world,”Harvey Levin said today.
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Executive producer Evan Rosenblum also will host the trademark TMZ “ensemble,” discussing athletes’ dating lives, cars, homes, toys, jewelry, social media gaffes, endorsement deals and general bad behavior.
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TMZ Sports was launched as a website in June 2013 and was developed into a show that has aired in select Fox markets since January — including KTTV LA, WTTG DC, WJZY Charlotte, KUTP Phoenix, KRIV Houston, WAGA Atlanta, and WFXT Boston — as a separate brand/show. Reelz wanted to have the show exclusively, and producers agreed to change the name (read “addHollywood“) to bring it in line with Reelz’s “Hollywood” brand. The deal was in the works before the Rice video went viral. In theory, the new franchise further strengthens the TMZ brand, which is good for Fox, an important stakeholder in TMZ on TV and TMZ Live, and other syndicated extensions of the brand.
“TMZ Hollywood Sports is a natural extension of Reelz’s Hollywood Happens Here brand,” crowed Stan E. Hubbard, CEO of Reelz, which is headquartered in Albuquerque, NM. Reelz reaches 70 million homes.
“TMZ is an amazing partner for Reelz and, together, we will deliver a fast-paced, hard-hitting and fun look at a collision of worlds where sports…meets celebrity meets Hollywood,” Hubbard said.
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7 Comments
- gobluespartyon
I will watch TMZ Sports from time to time when there isn’t anything on TV. I watch TMZ a few times a week.
- Hot Dumb Italian Mike!
Good for Evan Rosenblum, one of the very few people at Tmz that I actually enjoy hearing their work. The original Tmz peaked back in 2009 with the death coverage of Michael Jackson. Now they just indulge in “bumper car journalism”….meaning they keep covering the same celebs every day ( allegedly because of close friendships with publicists, managers, agents). I think we can all survive without a “story” about Kim Kardashian’s former dentist selling her unpaid dental work. Tmz Sports is real ,non manufactured news, best of luck to them.
- What's Reelz
Wow, 5 people will get to watch this.
- Mark
“Slight” exaggeration there. I loathe TMZ and their warped “love then hate, build up then knock down” approach to celebrity culture, but the show will do well. They do sleaze better than anyone else.
- What's Reelz
Wasn’t knocking TMZ, just the network. They’ve launched over a dozen original shows in the last two years, can you name one? Quick, what number are they on your cable box?
- gobluespartyon
Reelz is on channel 120 & 809 both HD BH Hollywood Pawn, OK! TV it is on some local TV stations it isn’t on the local TV station where I live. So I watch OK! TV a few times a week and I will watch TMZ Sports from time to time.
- Kelly
Boy that didn’t take long
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