ROME — The Weinstein Company has closed a deal with Beta Film to acquire U.S. rights to “Gomorrah,” the hot Italo TV series that depicts the real Neapolitan mob with a degree of authenticity never seen before. The deal marks the first time an Italian TV skein gets potential access to millions of U.S. TV homes. Though it is not known yet what U.S. outlet will carry the show, Netflix, with which TWC has a multiyear pact, seems like a good fit. Shot in Naples and its crime-ridden environs, “Gomorrah” is a TV spinoff of the gritty eponymous Matteo Garrone movie that was based on Roberto Saviano’s bestselling investigative tome. The first series of the skein, consisting of 12 one-hour episodes, is co-produced by Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia paybox with Rome’s Cattleya, Domenico Procacci’s Fandango – which produced the film – Italo free TV La 7 and Germany’s Beta Film. The “Gomorrah” TV series tells the story of 30-year-old Ciro (Marco d’Amore), the right hand of the Savastano clan’s godfather Pietro (Fortunato Cerlino), and the ruthless war to take over “the System.” Some of the 12 episodes are told through the eyes of the boss; others from the perspective of his hit men, or of his wife, or of their son and heir to the criminal kingdom. Sollima, who helmed Sky’s widely exported “Crime Novel,” directed six “Gomorrah” episodes, while helmer Claudio Cupellini (“A Quiet Life”) and Francesca Comencini (“A Special Day”) helmed three each. Saviano oversaw the script for the TV adaptation, which Sollima has described as “more dramatic, more post-modern and more pop, even visually,” than the Garrone pic. “But just as rooted in reality.” “This is a project that caught our eye a while back for its world class acting talent, as well as Stefano Sollima’s phenomenal abilities to craft a thriller like none other,” enthused TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. The “Gomorrah” deal was negotiated for TWC by COO David Glasser, Michal Steinberg, exec VP, business/legal affairs & acquisitions, and Robert Walak, president-managing director Europe, production, acquisitions and TV with Dirk Schürhoff of Beta on behalf of the filmmakers. It will be officially announced at MIP tomorrow (April 8). Negotiations with TWC began at last year’s Mipcom. Beta Film has sold the show to more than 30 countries. “We are thrilled that, thanks to our international partners, ‘Gomorrah’ will be available for such a wide international audience after its debut on our newly launched channel Sky Atlantic,” said Sky Italia’s programming exec VP Andrea Scrosati. TWC is also mulling a U.S. adaptation of the “Gomorrah” skein, according to sources.

Las Vegas — National Assn. of Broadcasters president and CEO Gordon Smith and Univision chairman Haim Saban issued a call for a new broadcast standard that would put television on all platforms and devices. Smith and Saban, speaking at the opening session of the 2014 NAB Show here, drew battle lines between broadcasters and what they define as a hostile FCC, especially federal policies that they say favor broadband over broadcasting. Smith praised the efficiency of broadcasting’s one-to-many technology. “The wireless industry covets our spectrum, because they chew through their massive allocation of spectrum, attempting to deliver the video we deliver far more efficiently,” he said. But his embrace of the idea of a new TV standard amounts to an admission that broadcasters will be at a disadvantage until their programs are on tablets and smartphones as well as TVs and radios. “In order to continue adapting and responding to consumers’ demands, I believe television broadcasting should seriously consider the challenges and the opportunities of moving to a new receiver standard,” he said. “This would allow stations the flexibility and efficiency they need to innovate, to better serve their viewers and compete in the mobile world, and to find new revenue streams.” In his keynote, Smith delivered his usual paean to broadcasting as a localized, diverse industry that provides essential public services. TV broadcasters are suing Aereo, a startup that streams TV signals over the Internet to multiple devices without the industry’s permission, with the Supreme Court scheduled to hear the case later this month. A new TV broadcasting standard, as outlined by Smith, could let stations themselves stream live TV more easily to multiple platforms. It’s not the first time Smith has broached the topic at the NAB Show, but this year his message was stronger. And minutes later, in a keynote conversation with Smith, Saban was yet more emphatic. “I believe it is vital for the broadcasting industry,” said Saban, “to develop a standard that will allow us to deliver our content to all platforms, all the time. I urge the ATSC to seriously not consider anything else but this option… If we do not develop that new transmission standard, we’ll be left back in the 20th century. Which is where the FCC has us.” Saban told the hundreds of broadcasting pros gathered at the LVH Hotel & Casino that failing to develop such a standard is not an option. “There are a lot of smart people here. We’re not going to let it happen,” he said. “It is not just important — it is vital for us to be able to deliver that signal. It is vital for us to have a new transmission standard. People that work on this, they have their marching orders: Make it freakin’ happen.” The tensions between the FCC and the broadcasting industry were a recurring theme of the session. Both Smith and Saban stressed the need to preserve the current retransmission-consent process. “The government should continue to encourage fair and market-based negotiations,” said Smith. “Government interference would only tip the scales toward pay TV providers, whose endgame is to drive free TV out of business.” Smith assured the gathering that the NAB “will not let down our guard” on retrans fees and other issues of concern to broadcasters. Later, Saban quipped, “You know what FCC stands for? Friendly Cable Commission.” He said the idea that cablers would resell broadcasters’ content without paying for it made no sense. “At Univision, we’re underpaid for our content. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.” Smith said that the government treats the broadcasting industry “as if we’re dinosaurs” and is trying to push TV stations out of business. “On the other hand, the FCC says we’re so important and so powerful, that two television stations can’t share advertising in the same market, when multiple cable and satellite stations can do the same thing. So which is it? Too powerful, or irrelevant?” Smith criticized the FCC’s spectrum incentive-auction process as well. “While we understand the goal of freeing up spectrum, an equal aim should be to ensure that broadcasters and their customers are not harmed in the process. But at the moment it is an open question whether the FCC has balanced these aims.” Noting that the FCC had reversed some longstanding policies on sharing, Smith said broadcasters are finding it hard to trust the FCC. “How can we be sure the carpet won’t be pulled out from under us again, even after we’ve followed the rules?” He said that to restore trust between the FCC and broadcasters, the FCC should work collaboratively with broadcasters. Smith also renewed his call for a National Broadcasting Plan to stand alongside the federal government’s National Broadband Plan. The other highlight of the opening session was a the presentation of the NAB’s Distinguished Service Award to Univision’s Jorge Ramos. Ramos is the first Hispanic to receive that award. Ramos noted the “Latino Wave” sweeping the U.S., with the number of Latinos expected to reach 155 million in 30 years. Pointing with pride to last summer, when Univision was the No. 1 network in the U.S., he said, “We want to be No. 1 not just for one summer, but year after year after year. And I think we can do that.” Ramos added that though some have doubts whether journalists can compete in a world where billions have cellphones and do their own reporting on news events through social media, “I would argue journalists are more important than ever before, because we can put information in context, we can tell what’s real from what’s false, because we know what’s relevant, because we know what news will affect your life.” But more than that, he said, journalists must speak truth to power. “Sometimes we say to be neutral is what we do as journalists. But I think we’re wrong about that. Sometimes I think that’s an excuse not to do our job. Many, many times journalists in this country are way too close to the powerful, and as journalists, we have to make them uncomfortable.” Citing the need to confront the leaders of Venezuela about killings of students there, he said, “I think it’s great we’re talking about Ukraine, but I don’t understand why we aren’t talking more about Venezuela.” And on the domestic front, he said, “If President Barack Obama wants to be a friend to the Latino community, first of all he has to stop deporting us.” But all in all, said Ramos, “It’s a great time to be a Latino journalist. I think we have finally found our voice, both in English and in Spanish.”

A&E has picked up a third season of original series “Bates Motel,” A&E Network exec VP and general manager David McKillop announced Monday. Production will begin in the fall for the 10 episodes slated for season three of the series, a contemporary prequel to Hitchcock’s “Psycho” starring Freddie Highmore as a teenage Norman Bates. “The incredible writing team and talented ‘Bates Motel’ cast has made this series one of the most compelling original dramas on television,” McKillop said in a statement. “The brilliant twists and turns of the past two seasons keep its loyal fanbase coming back for more. We are so proud of the show.” “Bates Motel” has prevailed as A&E’s No. 1 drama series of all time among adults 18-49. The show’s March 3 season-two premiere drew 4.6 million total viewers, including 2.6 million adults 18-49 and 2.2 million adults 25-54. The series is produced by Universal Television for A&E Network, with Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin serving as exec producers.

HBO will let all Microsoft Xbox users watch the first episode of “Game of Thrones” season four — on track to become the most-pirated TV episode ever — for free starting Tuesday. The episode will be available on Microsoft Xbox 360 and Xbox One from April 8-14, in a sampling strategy designed to drive non-HBO subscribers to sign up for the service. In addition to Xbox, the episode of HBO’s hit fantasy series is available to pay-TV subscribers on the websites and free on-demand platforms of multiple cable and satellite providers during the sampling period. All episodes from previous seasons of “Game of Thrones” are currently available on HBO Go — which suffered an outage when the season-four premiere became available on Sunday night. On TV, the “GoT” season-four premiere garnered 6.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen estimates, up 50% from the season-three opener (4.37 million) and triple the 2.2 million who watched the show’s inaugural telecast in April 2011. It was the biggest TV audience for any HBO program since the 2007 finale of “The Sopranos,” which drew 11.9 million. The popularity of “Game of Thrones” also makes it an unprecedented target for pirates: 1.17 million unique IP addresses accessed illegal torrents of the season-four premiere within the first 15 hours of the episode popping up online, according to piracy-tracking firm Excipio. That’s more than the third-season opener in April 2013, which drew 1.15 million downloaders in the first 24 hours. An HBO rep said the sampling deal with Microsoft for Xbox had been in the works for some time, and that it wasn’t a response to piracy estimates for the episode. Separately, HBO on Monday posted the first episode of Mike Judge’s comedy “Silicon Valley” free on YouTube. “Silicon Valley,” a spoof of Internet startup culture, premiered Sunday following the “GoT” season-four opener. The episode will be available free on YouTube until April 28.

Most people who perceive the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as having led the British Invasion might be surprised to learn that the Dave Clark Five gave both groups a run for their money during their mid-’60s heyday. And that whole Beatles vs. Stones thing? The DC5 vs. the Fab Four constituted its own rivalry, at least according to the documentary “The Dave Clark Five and Beyond” — Glad All Over,” airing Tuesday, April 8, at 8 p.m. and Friday, April 11, at 10 p.m. on PBS (KOCE in Los Angeles) as part of the “Great Performances” series. Judging by the milestones, the Tottenham-based DC5 made it their business to one-up their Liverpool counterparts, beginning with the single “Glad All Over,” which supplanted “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at the top of the U.K. singles chart in 1964 and performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” 18 times compared to the Beatles’ trio of appearances. Their film “Catch Us If You Can” (1965), the feature debut of director John Boorman, attempted to catch the lightning in a bottle that was “A Hard Days Night” (1964), but with nowhere near the same success. If the Beatles, the Stones and the Who went on to far greater heights musically, it’s because their sound evolved with each album, while the DC5 seemed to be stuck in a ’60s pop-rock time warp, with only their fashion changing with the times. Which is not to belittle what the DC5 accomplished in their meteoric rise to fame, notching 15 consecutive top 20 singles in the U.S. during a two-year period and selling more than 100 million records before they broke up in 1970. The doc’s title tune, and other such hits as “Bits and Pieces,” perfectly showcased the DC5’s wall of sound, a particularly muscular brand of pop accentuated by the robust drumming of Dave Clark and the virility of keyboardist Mike Smith’s vocals, which bring to mind Roger Daltrey’s cocksure wail. That the drummer was front and center, and with a saxophone in the mix — which inspired the E-Street Band’s configuration, say Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt in the film — made the DC5 pioneers in their own right. Clark also had the business acumen not to relinquish the rights to the group’s masters — a coup that his better-known peers could not claim, and would forever lament — and would end up buying the rights to the U.K. music series “Ready Steady Go,” containing a treasure trove of timeless live performances by a who’s who of ’60s superstars, from Merseyside to Motown. In this two-hour doc, with plenty of rare footage of the band, Paul McCartney and Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Max Weinberg, Tom Hanks (whose speech inducting the DC5 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 evokes the fiery oratory of a Baptist preacher) and Gene Simmons, inexplicably in full KISS makeup, sing the group’s praises. And figures like Twiggy and a plethora of “original DC5 fans” testify to the members’ sex appeal. A bit too much is made of the London stage production of “TIME – The Musical,” co-written and exec produced by Clark — with an accompanying album featuring Wonder, Freddie Mercury and Cliff Richard, among others — which might have to do with Clark having written, directed and produced the documentary, which would have benefited from some trimming and a less self-aggrandizing approach. (Judging from the film, the DC5 were seemingly as squeaky clean as the Partridge Family, with no hint of drug use or scandal.) Still, for those who look back fondly on Top 40 radio at its height, this is viewing time well spent.

Software developer The Foundry introduced a new product Monday evening: Nuke Studio Nuke Studio offers multiple phases of post within a single application, including editorial, timeline, conform, color correction, visual effects, versioning, 4K playback and finishing. The new software is aimed at short-form content creators, such as those working on commercials and episodic. The announcement was made a The Foundry’s booth at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. Nuke Studio runs alongside Nuke, The Foundry‘s popular compositing program, so Nuke compositing can be used with anything in the Nuke Studio timeline. Nuke Studio combines features from Nuke and Hiero, The Foundry’s shot management, edit and review software. “Nuke started as a tool for people doing film visual effects, but it has been adopted by people doing TV episodic and short-form commercials work,” said The Foundry’s chief scientist, Simon Robinson. “Nuke Studio lets an individual do everything at a desktop, but collaborate with a larger team.” The Foundry has become a key software developer for visual effects and digital production. It has taken over development and commercial distribution of several software packages that began as proprietary software fpr individual vfx houses. Nuke itself was originally developed by Digital Domain. Katana lighting and look development software began at Sony Pictures Imageworks and is now a Foundry product. Robinson said that while Nuke Studio is aimed at short-form filmmakers, the industry might well find ways to apply it to long-form. “People use our tools quite wildly,” he said.

ROME – Italo helmer Paolo Sorrentino, winner of this year’s foreign-language Oscar for “The Great Beauty” will write and direct his first TV series, working-titled “The Young Pope,” about an imaginary pontiff who is the first Italian-American Pope in history. Sorrentino’s skein conceived for the international market will be produced by Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani’s Wildside in collaboration with Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia paybox which will air the show in Italy. U.S. producer John Lyons, the former president of production at Focus Features, is executive producing. The eight-episode series in fifty-minute format is penned by Sorrentino in collaboration with his “Beauty” writing partner Umberto Contarello and veteran Italo film and TV scribe Stefano Rulli. Set in Vatican City, Italy, the U.S. and Africa, “Young Pope” will have an international cast. “The series is about dreams, fears, conflicts, battles, the search for meaning and the need for love of a Pope, seen through the prism of Sorrentino’s unique vision capable of creating worlds that are at the same incredible and more real than reality itself,” said Mieli and Gianani in a statement. ”We are elated that the director who just won an Oscar for Italy after a 15-year dry spell has chosen Sky for his new project, his first for TV,” enthused Sky Executive Vice President of Programming Andrea Scrosati who called the project: “original, bold and ambitious.”

CANNES — FremantleMedia, whose formats include “Idols,” “The X Factor” and “Got Talent,” has inked an exclusive multi-year co-development deal with Dick De Rijk, the creator of “Deal or No Deal.” De Rijk developed several hit formats during his exclusive partnerships with John de Mol, Endemol and Red Arrow Intl. “Deal or No Deal” has been on air in more than 150 countries. Other formats include “Set for Life,” “Show Me the Money” and “You Deserve It.” De Rijk, who is based in Hilversum, the Netherlands, will work with Rob Clark, FremantleMedia’s director of global entertainment development, to create the next generation of game and entertainment formats. Clark said: “Dick is an ideas man, with a fantastic understanding of the global TV market, and you can see from the formats that he’s developed, that he thinks creatively and strategically. I hope that alongside our global network of production companies, we can together build the next global entertainment TV franchise.” De Rijk said: “A distributing partner of this size, both creatively and geographically, offers every opportunity to create some new fireworks in the television landscape. Working closely with Rob is a privilege, and will be great fun.”

CANNES — Red Arrow Intl. has sold family movie “Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot,” which stars Judi Dench and Dustin Hoffman, to German broadcaster ARD. Hoffman plays a retired bachelor, Mr. Hoppy, who harbors a secret passion for his neighbor, the lovely Mrs. Silver (Dench). Unfortunately she lavishes all her affection on Alfie, her pet tortoise. Dahl’s story has been adapted by Richard Curtis (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Love Actually”) and Paul Mayhew-Archer. Endor Prods.’ Hilary Bevan Jones (“The Escape Artist”) is producing; Dearbhla Walsh (“Little Dorrit”) directs. It is set to begin shooting in May. The project was commissioned by the BBC. Dahl’s books, which include “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda,” have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.

Russian TV auds will be getting a local version of hit brit sitcom “My Family” in a deal marking the first scripted format sale for independent distributor DLT Raydar. Leading Russian broadcaster CTC Channel has commissioned a localised pilot of the sitcom, which was one of the longest-running sitcom successes on the Beeb until the show was axed in March 2011 after 121 episodes. Russian production company Art Pictures Vision is on board to adapt the show. Original producers DLT Entertainment will consult on the project. The original series focuses on the life of Ben Harper, a moderately successful family man and dentist. He is undergoing a mid-life crisis while trying to cope with raising his three, very different, teenage kids. Vyacheslav Murugov, Chief Content Officer CTC, said that “My Family “conceptually suits the audience of CTC.” DLT Raydar Rights is a joint venture between producers DLT Entertainment and Raydar Media. BBC Worldwide and DLT Raydar jointly handle finished program sales. “My Family” has a longstanding loyal global fan base with finished program deals already inked in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Dubai, Eire, Estonia, Finland, France, Holland, Iceland, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal and the U.S. TELE MUNCHEN GRUPPE TAKES “OLYMPUS” FOR GERMANY Germany’s Tele Munchen Gruppe has acquired all rights for Germany to “Olympus” the mythology drama series produced by Robert Halmi Sr. The deal between TMG and London-based Great Point Media covers 13 episodes (plus any additional episodes) of the series which revolves around a young man who emerges as leader of a group of people banished to Hades by Greek gods. Nick Willing (“Tin Man,” “Alice,” “Neverland”) wrote and will direct the first episode. He exec produces with Halmi Sr. and Jim Reeve for Great Point Media and Matthew O’Connor and Lisa Richardson for Reunion Pictures. SyFy will air the series in the U.S. “Having co-produced, co-financed, and co-distributed hundreds of projects with Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr., we are excited to be a part of this exciting new project”, said TMG Managing Director, Herbert L. Kloiber in a statement. FREMANTLE RENEWS ‘X FACTOR’ DEALS ACROSS CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE FremantleMedia has renewed deals for “The X Factor” across Central Eastern Europe, where the Syco Entertainment-owned format has been recommissioned for Romania, Ukraine, Albania and Kazakhstan. In Romania the first three seasons of the talent show have grown year-on-year on broadcaster Antena 1, Fremantle boasted in a statement. The third season outperformed the channel’s average by 80% and scored audience shares of 130% higher than the broadcaster average amongst adults in the 18-49 demographic. FremantleMedia and Antena 1 have now inked another three year deal for a further three seasons of “X Factor.” STB (Ukraine) has also signed the show for a fifth run after the previous season became the country’s second highest rated entertainment show in 2013. TV Klan (Albania) will have their fourth “X Factor” season while Eurasia 1 (Kazakhstan) will also launch its fifth and sixth seasons. Over 350 million viewers in 48 territories have watched “The X Factor” format across the globe since its launch in 2004. PGS INKS ITALY AND LATIN AMERICA DEALS FOR PLAYMOBIL-INSPIRED KIDDIE SERIES New animated series “Super 4,” inspired by Playmobil toys, has been sold by Paris-based distributor PGS Entertainment to Cartoon Network in Italy and Latin America. “Super 4″ is produced by France’s Method Animation and Germany’s Morgen Studios with France Televisions as the commissioning broadcaster. The (52 x 11’) series, produced in CGI native 3D, features four key characters: Alex the Knight, Ruby the Pirate, Agent Gene, Twinkle the Fairy. Together they travel through five islands: Technopolis, Kingsland, Enchanted Island, Gunpowder Island and a Lost World. They get around in a transformable vehicle called Chameleon. The series marks the first time the 40-year-old children’s brand has come to television. “Playmobil is a kid-friendly, parent-approved brand that’s been around for three generations,” noted Cecilia Padula, Content Director, Cartoon Network, Italy in a statement. “The charm and imagination of the toyline has been beautifully translated to this series by Method and Morgen,” she enthused. SPAIN’S ATRESMEDIA BUYS KESHET’S “BOOM!” GAME SHOW FORMAT Spain’s Atresmedia has acquired rights to game show format “Boom!,” following earlier sales during Mip TV by Israel’s Keshet International of the format to Fox for the U.S. and to TF1 for France In “Boom!” a team of four players must defuse eight fake bombs by answering trivia questions correctly within a strict time limit. The nominated player has to defuse one bomb per question by cutting through colored wires that represent multiple choice answers against the clock. “Boom!,” which is the highest-rated game show in Israel, where it airs on Channel 2 Israel, was created by Keshet and by Ido Rozenblum and July August Productions.

CANNES — French pay TV company Canal Plus has greenlit crime drama “Spotless,” which was co-created by Ed McCardie (U.K. version of “Shameless”), and Corinne Marrinan (“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”). The 10-episode series is to be produced by Tandem Communications, which is owned by Canal Plus’ production arm Studiocanal. Principal photography is set to begin this summer on location in London. The first two episodes will be directed by Pascal Chaumeil (“Heartbreaker,” “A Long Way Down”). Principal casting will be announced soon. The show, which will be peppered with black humor, centers on a troubled man, Jean, whose tidy life is turned upside down when his outlaw brother, Martin, crash lands into his world, and gets both of them involved in the deadly dynamics of organized crime. Played out against a backdrop of Jean’s niche crime-scene cleaning business, with gangsters, corruption, drugs and death a constant hazard, Jean, Martin and their dysfunctional family struggle to gain control over life, business and their shared destiny. Executive producers include Tandem’s Rola Bauer (“The Pillars of the Earth,” “Crossing Lines”) and Jonas Bauer (“Impact,” “The Company”), and Suzanne Berger (“Hell on Wheels,” “Majority Rules”), who first brought the project to Tandem. “Spotless” is produced by Hugh Warren, most recently producer of the hit U.K. drama series “Call the Midwife.” Producing for Tandem is Moritz Polter (“Crossing Lines,” “Labyrinth”). Fabrice De La Patelliere, director of French drama and co-productions for Canal Plus, said: “This partnership brings together top international talents, and we are very excited to offer this dramedy to our subscribers. This 10-part series marks a new step in the channel’s international production of original content.” Jonas Bauer said: “Working with Fabrice de la Patelliere and Dominique Jubin from Canal Plus drama department, has been a very rewarding experience. They have provided the flexibility and open boundaries to develop a series which features an off-color, dark and funny storyline, and edgy characters.”

Barbara Walters is known for turning her interviews into sob sessions, but as she exits the business she’s known all her life, she’s determined not to do that. When the legendary broadcaster retires next month at age 84 from ABC’s “The View,” following a groundbreaking career that’s featured more than 50 years in front of the television cameras, she’s adamant she won’t shed any tears. “I’m not going to cry,” Walters says, from her corner office at ABC News in midtown Manhattan. She recalls watching Jay Leno’s misty final appearance on “The Tonight Show” in February. “I think Jay felt that he was pushed out,” Walters says. “I don’t feel like I’m being pushed out. This was my decision.” Walters says she settled on a timeline for her departure three years ago, as rumors about her retirement began to swirl. It’s been a long goodbye. With Disney chairman-CEO Bob Iger in the “View” audience last spring, Walters first announced she would step down in 2014; this week she told viewers her final day on the show would be May 16. The send-off will include a two-hour primetime documentary about her career. Walters’ longevity is notable in that she was a driving force in the rise of the superstar TV news personality, and she has endured into an era when that kind of authoritative star power is waning. (Just ask Katie Couric or Brian Williams.) As she prepares to leave, Walters admits she doesn’t feel sad. “I should really be depressed, but I’m not,” she says. “So maybe there’s something wrong with me. What’s wrong with this woman that she’s not depressed about leaving television?” Walters has been a broadcasting fixture for so long, it’s hard to remember all the glass ceilings she shattered. She was the first woman to co-host NBC’s “Today,” paving the way for others who used the post as a springboard. In 1976, she accepted a $1 million-a-year contract with ABC, a record at the time for a news personality. She became the first woman to co-anchor the evening news (although her shotgun marriage with Harry Reasoner was fraught with tension), and she later launched her namesake primetime specials with world leaders and celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn. While still hosting weekly newsmag “20/20,” she debuted “The View” in 1997, a daytime talk show that shook up the conventions of femme-focused yakkers with its blend of politics, entertainment and opinion. This last act has given Walters a new generation of fans, stay-at-home parents and others who tune in to hear about the day’s headlines in the show’s dishy Hot Topics segment. “I think there was a time when I was considered too serious and without a sense of humor, because I was always in charge, especially asking very strong men questions,” Walters says. “It was considered rude or pushy.” For 17 seasons, she’s been able to show her tart wit on the “View,” cracking jokes about sex and dating — even planting a peck on the cheek of Vice President Joe Biden during a recent appearance. Was it the first time she’s done that? “I haven’t kept track of the number of times I’ve kissed the Vice President,” Walters quips. Walters’ friends say they didn’t think she’d ever retire. “I still don’t believe she’s going to,” says Diane Sawyer, her longtime colleague at ABC. “I think we’re going to be able to knock on her door and say, ‘We need you,’ and it will be like on one of those great Western movies, where she and I get on our horses and ride back into action.” Sawyer, like Waters, acknowledges how much the news business has changed. “It’s impossible to look back and remember you used to do a show called ‘Primetime Live’ and think, ‘Dang, why did we only get a 29 share?’” Anne Sweeney, the outgoing president of Disney/ABC Television Group, met Walters as a college page answering phones at ABC in 1978. The unwritten rule for the underlings back then was: “Never ever talk to Barbara Walters, because she was the absolute star of ABC,” Sweeney recalls. “She was the first because she was bold and fearless.” Star Jones, who co-hosted “The View” from 1997 to 2006, says: “There is no woman that does what we do that won’t say Barbara Walters is her idol. She took the arrows that were shot her way, and women were able to advance in that field because of Barbara.” Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the “Fox and Friends” co-anchor who sat next to Walters for a decade on “The View,” credits her former boss with teaching her how to be a journalist. “I attended the Barbara Walters University,” Hasselbeck says. “I could not feel more prepared to interview anyone.” But Walters’ persistence also makes her an unlikely candidate for retirement. “I thought Barbara was a forever person,” says friend Larry King, who left his long-running gig on CNN in 2010. “I thought she and television were like ham and eggs.” When she announced her departure, Walters said she was hanging up her microphone for good. As her last day draws nearer, she’s become less sure. “I don’t want to say I will never come back,” she says. “If the president came on, depending on the circumstances, I might come back. If Fidel Castro said I will do an interview with you, which he has not in 25 years, I would go off and do it.” She says these rare assignments would be on a case-by-case basis. “I’m not going off into the sunset.” Besides, she’ll remain executive producer of “The View,” the show she created with longtime producing partner Bill Geddie. She co-owns the series with ABC through her Barwall Prods. banner. Over the years, the gabfest has spawned its share of imitators, including “The Talk,” which launched in 2010 with Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert and a “View”-like panel of other co-hosts. Only recently has “The Talk” been nipping at the “The View’s” heels with its younger demographic. Walters says she’s never seen a full episode of “The Talk,” though she’s friendly with Chen and her husband, CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves. Her competitive streak shines through as she sizes up her rival. “We are not at all affected by ‘The Talk,’” Walters says. “I don’t think the success of her show diminishes us, nor do I think the success or failure of ‘The View’ affects them. The only thing I’ll say is if you’re married to the president of the network, you get more promos.” It’s a good punch line, but Walters is half serious. “I envy that,” she says. “I don’t have the same appeal to Bob Iger.” Barbara Walters didn’t set out to become a journalist, as she explained in her 2008 memoir “Audition.” Her father was nightclub owner Lou Walters, who uprooted the family from Miami for New York, after he opened the Latin Quarter in Manhattan. He earned — and squandered — a fortune, which forever made Walters cautious about upswings in her career. She changed high schools three times. “I had to make friends, be alert, ask questions, and I was never in awe of celebrities, because they worked for my father,” Walters says. “I was curious. Even today, if I go out to dinner and I’m sitting next to someone and I ask questions, they’ll say, ‘Oh, you’re interviewing me.’ ” Walters once taught a master class that at ABC News, where she told young journalists to always ask subjects about their childhood. She believes this question unlocks a key to their personalities. Walters says she was shaped most by her older sister Jackie, who was disabled. “It gave me a childhood that was sad and kind of lonely, because there were things I couldn’t do, like have friends over,” she says. “I think it gave me empathy.” At Sarah Lawrence College, she considered a career as an actress, but she was too frightened of rejection. When she accepted a job as a writer on “Today,” the staff there was comprised of six men and a lone woman. “And you didn’t get to be the female writer unless the other one got married or died,” Walters recalls. She eventually parlayed her writing gig into an on-air job, and set her sights on the anchor chair. “This is my big line: They hired me for 13 weeks and I stayed on for 13 years,” says Walters, who landed her first on-air assignment in 1961. “I am very hard to get rid of.” Since she started behind the camera, she has a strong grasp of what makes a good story. “What I do better than anything, I’m an editor,” says Walters, who can look at an interview transcript and instantly assemble the parts. (She generously offered to edit this story for Variety.) Although she became a major star at ABC, she long regretted her decision to move to the network. When she arrived in 1976 to do the evening news, she found herself in an acrimonious partnership with future “60 Minutes” correspondent Reasoner. Viewers could cut the tension with a knife, and didn’t tune in. “I considered that my biggest failure,” Walters says. “I was drowning without a life preserver.” She saved her career with her primetime interview specials and big gets like Barbra Streisand, Jimmy Carter, the Shah of Iran, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, John Wayne and Christopher Reeve, the latter of which earned her a Peabody Award. She explains she’s never intimidated by an interview because she is so thoroughly prepared. She writes her questions by hand on a stack of note cards after polling everybody in her life about what to ask. “Here is my idea of hell,” she says. “I sit down and do the interview. I ask the questions, and the lights go down. I walk outside and someone says, ‘Did you ask such and such?’ I go, ‘Coulda, shoulda, woulda!’ ” Walters wakes up every morning at 6:30, and sometimes she’ll walk — or “slush,” as she puts it — through Central Park to the “The View” studio off the Hudson River. She reads three newspapers: the New York Times, New York Post and Wall Street Journal, all in print. She’s the rare TV anchor who books her interviews by sometimes phoning publicists herself. “She has a lot of energy for calling back again and again,” Sawyer says. Even after she retires, Walters plans to keep her ABC News office, lined with 11 Emmy Awards (there’s another in her apartment) and framed pictures of her 45-year-old daughter Jackie and beloved dog, Cha-Cha. Walters has been married three times, and confesses she’s a romantic at heart — she loves to watch reruns of “Sex and the City” (which might be described as a scripted, racier version of “The View”). She doesn’t regret placing her career ahead of her personal life. “I don’t think there’s a person I should have been with,” Walters says. “Isn’t that amazing? I don’t look back and think, ‘How did he get away?’ ” She isn’t sure what she will do with all her new free time. She says she looks forward to sleeping late, taking in a Broadway matinee and traveling, and she might even go back to school. She recently enrolled in an art history class at NYU. “There were seven of us, and the professor never showed up,” Walters says. “That’ll teach me. I’m going to find another professor.” For now, she needs to choose a last guest to interview. She hasn’t decided who that will be, but a good bet might be a certain former White House intern. Walters’ exclusive with Monica Lewinsky for a “20/20” special in 1999 reached 74 million viewers, a record for a TV news telecast on a single network. “It’s the biggest interview I’ve ever done,” Walters says. “I’d like to interview Monica again. I think Monica’s story is very interesting, because everybody else has been able to move on. I’m touched by the fact that she hasn’t been able to.” Thanks to Walters, “The View” has been the rare place in daytime that celebrated politics. It’s been a stumping ground for presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama. But last year, the show lost its fire and ice: Both Hasselbeck, the conservative voice, and Joy Behar, the liberal, exited amid speculation “The View” was trying to become less political. “These are not Barbara and Bill’s decisions,” Walters says. “The network is also involved. I think the feeling was if one went, both had to leave. We needed to shake things up.” That will certainly happen in the show’s 18th season, which will likely add two new co-hosts. Plus there will be a void from the natural gravitas Walters lent to the program. “We’re experimenting a little bit,” she says. “Sometimes we think we should add a man.” And it looks like “The View” will hire another right-leaning personality to keep those Hot Topics segments heated. “We need a conservative voice,” Walters says. “We do try to present a different side.” Even if Walters is the co-executive producer, she won’t be tuning in from home — but not because of any ill will. “I think it will make me feel bad,” Walters says. “I think I will miss it. If I don’t see it, I won’t miss it.” For sure, the ultimate career woman has loved the time she’s spent in the (usually) relaxed environment of “The View.” “The fact that it’s been on for 17 years amazes me,” she says. “The only way I can tell is when I think of some of the cast members, and the only original one is me.” Soon that won’t be true anymore. “No,” Walters says, looking sad for a moment. She lifts her head and gives a knowing smile. “Don’t cry for me, Argentina.”

Any discussion of Barbara Walters’ trademark primetime interview specials inevitably winds back to the famous question: “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” Except that she never delivered that query in quite in that way, even though it has become apocryphal punchline. The tree moment cropped up during Walters’ 1981 interview of Katharine Hepburn, who described herself as feeling like a very strong “tree” in her old age. Walters pressed her on “what kind of tree are you?” To which Hepburn said she preferred to be an oak rather than an elm, in order to avoid Dutch elm disease. Among other probing questions over the years from Walters’ primetime specials: “Is it all you?” — to Dolly Parton in 1977, regarding her physique “Do you think that helped him lose the election?” — to Chevy Chase in 1990, regarding his impersonation of President Ford as a bumbling idiot “Your husband has three other children by two other women. That didn’t bother you?” — to Whitney Houston in 1993, regarding her husband Bobby Brown “Do blondes have more fun?” — to Elizabeth Taylor in 1999, regarding her switch to platinum blonde hair “Why didn’t you have your nose fixed?” — to Barbra Streisand in 1985, regarding her early insecurities “Is Bill Clinton a sensuous, passionate man?” — to Monica Lewinsky in 1999, regarding her relationship with President Clinton

The show snuck on the air in the middle of August, using a set recycled from the defunct soap opera “The City.” Nobody, not even exec producers Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie, thought “The View” had much of a chance of surviving in the 11 a.m. weekday time period that had been a black hole for ABC for a more than a decade. Seventeen years and nearly 3,800 episodes later, “The View” has made an enormous mark on morning TV. And it has contributed greatly to Walters’ considerable legacy by showing a side of her that viewers previously hadn’t seen. But make no mistake — “The View” was never designed to be softball TV. “We’re not a puff show,” Walters says. “We can be more opinionated.” Walters deliberately cut through the aura of her news icon persona, and in so doing extended her on-air career in a way that was a few steps ahead of its time. “View” was akin to social media when it started in 1997 — a group of friends yakking about things on their minds and in the newspaper. “Barbara wanted people to see that she was funny, and that she had a sense of humor about herself,” Geddie tells Variety. The show’s format of a panel of women discussing topical issues, the morning headlines, relationship issues and gossipy matters in coffee-klatsch style was inspired by the lively conversations Walters had with her daughter, Jackie. She recognized the importance of putting women of different backgrounds and generations together to offer perspectives on all manner of subjects. From the start, the energy of the program came from its ability to turn on a dime. “We wake up every morning, and about half of our show is decided in the makeup room,” Geddie says. “We’ll talk about the missing (Malaysian Airlines) plane and about what the Kardashians are doing in the same segment. That was always our vision. Barbara and I would have been very bored doing a traditional daytime talkshow. We felt women at home deserved a better kind of show.” Geddie and Walters have worked together for 25 years — ever since he took over as exec producer of Walters’ primetime specials in 1989. “The View,” which is co-produced and co-owned with ABC by Walters’ Barwall Prods., was first pitched to the network as a half-hour program. Pat Fili-Krushel, then president of daytime programming at ABC (and now chairman of NBCUniversal News Group), loved the concept, but knew the network couldn’t make it work as a half-hour. At the time, most of the successful talkshows in daytime were edgy solo-host vehicles such as those fronted by Sally Jessy Raphael, Montel Williams and Maury Povich. ABC was looking to replace its flagging daytime talk/variety series “Caryl & Marilyn: Real Friends,” which had followed underwhelming efforts such as lifestyle skeins “Mike and Maty” and “The Home Show.” Walters and Geddie went through some focus-group research to get a better handle on the interests of typical femme daytime TV viewers. The show’s name was inspired by the setpiece that ABC gave them for a backdrop. It was a picture window that looked out on a not-terribly convincing painting of a New York City brownstone. The initial moniker, “The View From Here” was shortened when they discovered a Canadian series had already claimed that name. Fili-Krushel thought the combination of Walters’ celebrity and the unusual format of five co-hosts speaking conversationally would draw attention. Roone Arledge, head of ABC News and Sports at the time, tried to have the project killed out of concern it would harm Walters’ credibility as a journalist. Bob Iger, then-head of ABC, was skeptical but supportive in light of Walters’ involvement. “I remember him saying ‘Five women; are you crazy? It’s hard enough to get one talent to work,” she says. Walters and Geddie tested numerous combinations and number of panelists, but wound up sticking with the four who came together early on: Joy Behar, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos and Meredith Vieira. “The View” had an unspectacular launch, hampered by years of low numbers in the timeslot and a lack of uniform nationwide clearances. Six months after its launch on Aug. 11, 1997, Fili-Krushel asked Iger for more time to let the show find its legs. Gradually, “The View” found its rhythm, and convinced straying stations to carry the show in pattern. “Every few months on the air we’d make a big deal of saying, ‘Welcome, Boise’ … ‘Welcome San Antonio,’ ” Geddie says. The real turning point came when they decided to hold a nationwide contest to replace Matenopoulos, who was abruptly dismissed at the end of the show’s second year. By the time Lisa Ling settled into the slot in 1999, the show’s ratings had doubled. Walters scaled back her appearances to two or three times a week, but her workload still marked an extraordinary commitment from a journalist who continued to co-host “20/20” and handle other ABC News assignments, as well as host her own periodic primetime specials. “The thing about Barbara is that she is so smart. She wore two hats on the show — as an executive producer as well as talent,” Fili-Krushel says. “Sometimes we would say to her, ‘Take off your talent hat and put on your executive producer hat.’ She was very capable of doing both. You don’t often find those skills in the same person.” With Walters officially bowing out of her on-air role in May — she and Geddie will remain exec producers — “The View” is in the midst of reinventing its lineup for its 18th season, experimenting this year with a profusion of guest hosts. The current panel stands at Whoopi Goldberg as moderator, comedian Sherri Shepherd and actress Jenny McCarthy. Walters’ pumps will be very hard to fill. “Nobody’s going to replace Barbara Walters,” says Geddie, who is producing a two-hour retrospective on her career that will air on ABC later this year.

“On demand and online video are no longer competing with each other, they’re competing with every other sources of entertainment,” pointed out Alex Carloss, global head of entertainment for Youtube, in his high-powered mastermind keynote titled “The Power of Choice” at MipTV. Citing the innovative digital efforts developed by late night hosts in the U.S., Carloss said the battlefield for ratings has completely shifted as passive audiences have evolved into potentially highly-engaged fans. “Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman have all realized that the size of their late night audience has peaked and (…)they’ve realized that if they’re going to succeed they have to find younger audiences,” said the exec, joined Youtube in 2011 from Paramount where he headed digital distribution Using YouTube to create easily sharable sketches that have a life well beyond their time slots has proven effective path to help traditional TV shows bolster their brands and lure the young auds. Carloss also said YouTube conducted a research with Nielson which revealed that when consumption for a show goes up on YouTube so does TV ratings. Case in point: When Jimmy Fallon took over Jay Leno as the new host of The Tonight Show in mid-february, 10 million people tuned in to watch its debut. And for that same show, the views on YouTube reached 20 million. During the first two weeks of the show, Fallon’s YouTube channel generated 90 million views, according to Carloss. Letterman, meanwhile, has uploaded nearly 3000 videos on his YouTube channel and he’s just reached half a billion views. But the best late night show advocate for YouTube is Kimmel. “(Kimmel) spends his time with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and for the last three years he’s generated over 108 million views on a channel where he asks parents to upload their kids reactions when they pretend they’ve giving them their Halloween candy,” quipped Carloss. Carloss also discussed Ellen Degeneres’ innovative way of tracking down talent behind Youtube’s most popular clips, bringing them on air and turning them into stars. Degeneres for instance spotted the two little girls Sophia Grace and Rosie on YouTube in 2011 and has been bringing them regularly into her show. Sophia Grace and Rosie are so popular to Youtube and TV audiences that Degeneres recently announced she was developing a talent show around them. Another building trend highlighted by Carloss during his keynote was the globalization of YouTube content and its fanbase. “Today no one cares where the content comes from as long as it is good – In fact more 60% of views for our creators’ videos come from outside of their home country,” explained Carloss. As an example, Carloss cited K-pop, which he said has gone from being a local phenomenon to a five billion dollar industry. “Today, 91% of people watching K-Pop videos live outside of South Korea,” claimed Carloss.

The Queen Latifah-produced scripted series “Single Ladies” has found new life on Centric, the BET sibling cabler. Centric has ordered a fourth season of the romantic comedy series, which previously aired on VH1, as part of a larger content development pact with Latifah’s Flavor Unit Entertainment. Centric will also carry repeats of Latifah’s daytime syndie talker. “We are thrilled to be working once again with Flavor Unit Entertainment and Queen Latifah. She does it all and we are happy to have her join us as a creative force as we continue to grow Centric into a premiere destination for African American women,” said BET Networks chairman-CEO Debra Lee. The “Single Ladies” pickup was the centerpiece of Centric’s portion of BET Networks’ upfront presentation announcement in Los Angeles Tuesday. Flavor Unit, run by Latifah and partner Shakim Compere, is already in business with BET as the producer of the scripted comedy “Let’s Stay Together.” “Single Ladies,” created and exec produced by Stacy Littlejohn, revolves around three female friends in Atlanta.

CANNES — Frank Spotnitz’s Big Light Prods. has inked a first-look deal with Tandem Communications, which produces NBC crime series “Crossing Lines.” Spotnitz’s credits include “The X-Files,” “Strike Back” and “Hunted.” American writer Spotnitz, who is based in London, has worked with a range of broadcasters, distributors and production partners. Action series “Strike Back” was produced by Left Bank Pictures for Cinemax in the U.S. and BSkyB in the U.K. Spy thriller “Hunted,” which stars Melissa George, was produced with Shine-owned Kudos for Cinemax and the BBC in the U.K. Spotnitz is working on the second season of “Transporter: The Series.” The action skein will air in the U.S. on TNT starting this fall. Other broadcasters include M6 in France and HBO in Canada. It is produced by Atlantique Productions.

Amid a spate of live-action comedies featuring boys as the protagonist, Cartoon Network’s animated “Clarence” arrives as a nifty little gem, so quirky and idiosyncratic as to feel fresh, even if it treads in well-worn territory. The characters aren’t much to look at — indeed, they’re generally grotesque — but its two mini-stories in the premiere are certainly a lot of fun. If only some of that creativity rubbed off on the channel’s new and wholly unnecessary “The Tom and Jerry Show” reboot, which, to the target audience, will probably just feel like a watered-down “Itchy & Scratchy.” TV PILOTS/DEVELOPMENT SCORECARD: Follow all of the development action during upfront season Created by wunderkind producer Skyler Page (who also provides the voice of the title character) through the network’s digital-short initiative, “Clarence” focuses on a young boy who, for once, actually acts like one. That is to say, he’s cheerfully oblivious to almost everything except eating and trying to enjoy himself, while his mother (Katie Crown) sounds OK with him doing just about anything as long as it doesn’t end with him getting hurt. The premiere focuses on an outing to a burger joint/play space with a group of Clarence’s friends, who are equally odd, including one who is positively phobic about anybody touching his French fries. A second yarn involves Clarence spending the afternoon hanging out with a girl, which sends his buddies into a tizzy, unleashing a strange mix of jealousy and outrage. One frets that the two might be making out, even though he’s unsure what exactly that means. By contrast, “Tom and Jerry” relies on the same old cat-and-mouse sight gags and slapstick, without adding the kind of wrinkles to the chase that would justify digging up the 74-year-old concept. Nor should it be overlooked that the shorts baby boomers were weaned on actually originated in movie theaters, where adults watched them every bit as much as kids. The animation is fluid, certainly, and the voice cast includes Jason Alexander. Beyond that, these mostly silent shorts feel like a throwback and, with apologies to the cat half of the equation, they simply didn’t scream out for additional lives. As for “Clarence,” the TV market has become so glutted with cheeky animation — Comedy Central seems to premiere a new show every week, whether or not anybody’s asking for it — that it’s nice to see someone conjure something with a genuine creative spark and relative lack of cynicism. By that measure, “Clarence’s” eponymous star might be a pretty dim bulb, but he casts an unexpectedly warming light. TV Review: Cartoon Network's 'Clarence,' 'The Tom and Jerry Show' (Series; Cartoon Network, Mon. April 14, 7 p.m.) // (Series; Cartoon Network, Wed. April 9, 5:30 p.m.) Production Produced by Cartoon Network Studios. // Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Renegade Animation. Crew Executive producers, Skyler Page, Brian A. Miller, Rob Sorcher, Jennifer Pelphrey, Curtis Lelash; supervising producers, Bob Boyle, Yvette Kaplan; producer, Keith Mack; supervising director, Raymie Muzquiz; supervising animation director, Andrew Overtoom; voice director, Kristi Reed writers, Page, Patrick Harpin; storyboards, Nelson Boles, Page. 30 MIN. // Executive producer, Sam Register; producers, Darrell Van Citters, Ashley Postlewaite. 30 MIN. Cast Voices: Skyler Page, Sean Giambrone, Tom Kenny, Katie Crown. // Jason Alexander, Grey DeLisle Griffin, Rachael MacFarlane

Carla Pennington never knows when a compelling idea for a show segment might strike. It could come from the salon, where she’s listening to the lively chatter, from family members’ conversations or from her producers who’ve approached her with a pitch. The longtime exec producer of “Dr. Phil,” whom McGraw plucked for the position following her successful run as second-in-command behind exec producer Linda Bell Blue at NBC’s “Entertainment Tonight,” always has her ears pricked up for the latest, greatest trends, whether it’s in social media, the field of psychotherapy or on the domestic front. “You always want to find people that really tell the story in a unique way and with a lot of personality,” she explains of the casting process for the show. “I’ll listen to literally anyone. My older niece will mention something and I’ll go, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know that existed.’ And then I’ll start researching and I go, ‘Oh my God, that’s everywhere.’” Her finger firmly pressed on the hot button of pop culture, in particular those issues affecting women, Pennington is an indispensable asset at “Dr. Phil,” a show with a predominantly female fanbase. (Its 2014 season to date audience is 74% female and 26% male.) “(Phil) has got a very analytical brain, and so he’ll think of these very male things that women don’t really care about, which is where I come in,” says Pennington, a single mom of teenage twins. “I’m always saying things like ‘Let’s do a show on women who are more successful than their man and they’re always propping them up.’ And he’ll go, ‘Well that’s boring’ and I’ll go, ‘Not to the women who watch the show.’” When it comes to booking guests, Pennington is at the helm of the in-depth vetting process (that often occurs over a two-day period), working with a team that includes an advisory board of experts from UCLA and Harvard. “It’s much different than other talkshows because (McGraw) holds himself to a higher standard,” she says. “Sometimes (a potential guest) will have a problem but it can be solved quickly. We like things that can unfold.” Overseeing all aspects of McGraw’s ever-expanding production slate — she is also the exec producer of the Daytime Emmy Award-winning “The Doctors” and the conflict-resolution show “The Test,” which bowed September — Pennington has helped propel McGraw’s talker fiefdom to lofty heights. With her as his partner, McGraw has been honored with numerous accolades including a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers Media Award and 25 Emmy nominations. “Hiring Carla Pennington was by far and away the smartest move I could have made when launching 12 years ago,” says McGraw. “Carla is an amazing, passionate and talented leader. She is a behind-the-scenes superstar unrivaled in Hollywood or the history of daytime television.” As for her professional pairing with McGraw, Pennington says: “We agree to disagree a lot of the time, but he really does listen to me in terms of what people want to see and how to tell a story. I always tell him, ‘Don’t fix them too fast.’ You’ll be talking to yourself by segment three. I have to remind him that a lot.”

While shooting the 2,000th episode of his hit talkshow, airing April 8, Dr. Phil McGraw stood on the show’s stage on the Paramount lot and looked out at some 200 familiar faces. Over the course of several months, McGraw, executive producer Carla Pennington and the show’s crew of producers all culled through the names of nearly 15,000 guests to pick the ones they felt that fans would most want to see again. Among them are Josh, a young man who was removed from his mother’s custody at McGraw’s recommendation after she had allowed him to become morbidly obese as a toddler. He grew up instead with his father and is now happy and healthy. Another featured guest is Brandon, a recovering addict and the subject of one of television’s first interventions. “Now he pays it forward,” says Pennington. “He helped save ‘Survivor China’ winner Todd Herzog, who was a full-blown alcoholic and showed up drunk on our stage. Todd returned to our stage clear-eyed and sober.” Over its 12-year run, “Dr. Phil” has talked to all types: addicts and abusers, the broken-hearted, the mentally ill and the chronically angry. The show has spent more than $21 million on aftercare for many of its guests. While “Dr. Phil” is now a fixture in the daytime TV landscape, McGraw and his producers have been clear about the show’s mission since day one. “From the show’s conception, we’ve always asked, ‘What’s the takeaway?,’” says McGraw. “I don’t believe in doing voyeuristic television. We always think about what will come out of every show that millions of viewers can use in their lives every day.” “Phil has become America’s psychologist,” says Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS Corp., who came by to wish McGraw well during the filming of his 2000th episode. “He’s a recognizable entity and an important part of our lineup, and not only from a revenue point of view.” “The longevity of ‘Dr. Phil’ is truly amazing,” adds Joe DiSalvo, CBS Television Distribution’s president of broadcast sales, who notes that “Dr. Phil” is sold on TV stations across the country through the 2016-17 season. “I just think he knows how to reach his audience, and I think he knows what that audience expects of him.” McGraw, who hasn’t officially practiced psychology in an office setting since 1990, is not a TV star by design. At age 48, he was happily married, raising a family and co-running his own company, Courtroom Sciences, a trial consultancy, in Irving, Texas. But McGraw’s life changed forever when he met a very high-profile client — Oprah Winfrey — who in 1998 was being sued by the cattle industry on charges of libel after airing an episode on mad cow disease. “I could see that he had a gift for deciphering human dysfunction,” says Winfrey, who makes a video appearance during “Dr. Phil’s” 2000th episode. “I could see that he was a guy who, in the midst of my uncertainty and anxiety, could speak a sentence or two and I would immediately go calm. I thought all of that would be really good for our viewers. I thought if I liked it, a couple of million of other people will also like it.” Winfrey was absolutely right, but not right off the bat. “When we first had him on the show, we did not get a good reaction,” she says. “Viewers were upset with me for having him on. They thought he was too loud, too big and rude in a bodacious way. But I knew I could turn that around. I told him, ‘I don’t want you to dial that down, I want you to turn it up. Go out there and do with them exactly what you did with me. Put their heads up against the wall and tell it like it is.’ ” McGraw’s segments on “Oprah” ended up being the highest-rated day of “Oprah’s” week, and he showed up weekly from April 1998 until September 2002. Toward the end of that run, Winfrey could see that McGraw was ready to fly on his own. “Dr. Phil” premiered on Sept. 16, 2002, to a 4.4 Nielsen household rating. No syndicated debut has since come close to that number. “What resounds with our clients is that here is someone who, on a daily basis, puts out very sage, insightful advice in a manner that really no one else on television today can really do,” says Armando Nunez, president and CEO of CBS Global Distribution Group, noting that, domestically, “Dr. Phil” is sold on TV stations across the country through the 2016-17 season. “He has garnered the respect of the viewers and has been able to retain that respect.” “Dr. Phil” just won its seventh consecutive major sweeps, averaging a 3.5 Nielsen household rating from Jan. 30 to Feb. 26, up 3% from last year to lead all talkers. While McGraw and his family — wife Robin and sons Jay, who exec-produces CTD’s “The Doctors,” and Jordan, who plays guitar in the popular band Stars in Stereo and wrote the show’s theme song — have become accustomed to their Hollywood life, McGraw makes a point of not taking anything for granted. “Every once in a while when I am walking backstage, I take a moment to appreciate this opportunity,” says McGraw. “What we’re doing here isn’t the most important thing in the world — there are a lot of other things going on that are more important — but sometimes I just stop and reflect back and say, ‘Man, what a ride.’ For someone from a tumbleweed town who never intended to be on TV, this is pretty cool.”

A Web series produced by the broadcast net’s digital studio will graduate to primetime for the first time this summer. The CW has ordered 10 half-hour episodes of “Backpackers,” which follows a pair of twentysomething friends on their misadventures traveling the world. With a mandate to increase the number of original programs on its sked year-round, the netlet started CW Seed last year partly in hopes that its output would yield properties promising enough to elevate to on-air status without going the traditional development route, according to Rick Haskins, executive VP of marketing and digital programs at CW. While “Backpackers” wasn’t actually CW Seed’s most-watched series, the network realized early on its story had a broader-based appeal than others, and would translate well to TV. The Web series will be reconstituted into the first four episodes; six more episodes were shot that haven’t yet been seen online. “Rather than shooting a pilot for millions of dollars, this is a way of developing for much less and testing whether it works,” said Haskins, who isn’t quite ready to pull a Kevin Reilly and declare the end of pilot season. “This is still a side department.”

When it comes to critical social causes, Dr. Phil McGraw ventures beyond the walls of Paramount Studios to make an impact. McGraw has testified before Congress on two high-profile occasions, the first on June 14, 2010, before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities in an effort to stop student cyberbullying. “When I grew up as a boy all of our fantasies were about the wild, wild west … and now we’re dealing with the wild, wild Web and the gunslingers are keyboard bullies,” McGraw told the committee. “They are these people that, with anonymity, attack other students in a way that can completely destroy their reputations. It’s something that has changed and we have to change with it.” On July 13, 2011, McGraw testified to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which supports community-based organizations that are engaged in work to end domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking of women. The law was reauthorized by Congress in 2013. Per Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), “From the Dr. Phil Foundation that provides essential resources to nonprofits that are working on behalf of foster children to his advocacy on Capitol Hill, Dr. Phil improves lives for countless American families and their children.”

CNBC is adding more reality-competition series to its primetime lineup with a greenlight for Shine America’s “Restaurant Kickstart” hosted by Joe Bastianich. CNBC has also ordered eight more hourlong episodes of “The Profit” (pictured), which revolves around serial entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis’ efforts to save struggling businesses. “Kickstart” challenges prospective restauranteurs to launch a pop-up restaurant with $7,500 in seed money in the hopes of attracting long-term investors. James Bruce, Eden Gaha, Paul Franklin, Robin Feinberg and Bastianich are exec producers. Series is skedded to bow in July. CNBC said it was developing “Restaurant Confidential: New York” with All3Media, a look at competition among Gotham restaurants, and “Hard Money,” with Matador, examining the world of loan sharks and high-risk lenders. CNBC has also ordered “Filthy Rich Guide,” a chronicle of excess by the wealthy such as over-the-top mansions and parties on private islands. Series hails from Leopard USA with Dave Hamilton and Dan Taberski exec producing.

CBS rolled to a primetime ratings victory in key demos Monday as Connecticut’s victory over Kentucky in the college basketball men’s championship game is expected to more than double the young-adult tune-in of the night’s top series, NBC’s “The Voice.” TV PILOTS/DEVELOPMENT SCORECARD: Follow all of the development action during upfront season According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, college basketball averaged a 6.0 rating/16 share in adults 18-49 and 17.8 million viewers overall from 9:30 to 11 p.m., though the game didn’t end until close to midnight in the East. In the metered-market overnights, Monday’s game did a 14.2 household rating/23 share (peaking with a 17.3/32 at 11:30 p.m.), up 11% in rating vs. last year’s overnight for Louisville-Michigan (12.9/21). Last year’s game ended up doing an 8.4/22 in 18-49 and 23.43 million viewers overall in the nationals. NBC’s “The Voice” (3.4/9 in 18-49, 11.8 million viewers overall) matched last week’s demo average despite facing the big basketball game, standing as Monday’s top series in 18-49 and 25-54 (4.3/10). The Peacock closed the night with a special episode of new Sunday reality series “American Dream Builders” (1.6/4 in 18-49, 5.5 million viewers overall), which benefited from its strong lead in to log easily the show’s best averages in its four airings to date; its 18-49 high on Sunday was a 0.9. At ABC, “Dancing With the Stars” (2.1/6 in 18-49, 13.9 million viewers overall) was down a bit in the demo and up slightly in total viewers vs. last week. And compared to last year on the Monday of the college basketball title game, “Dancing” was the only returning original up in total viewers; “NBC’s “The Voice” and Fox’s “The Following” were down 16% and 30%, respectively. And at 10, “Castle” (1.3/4 in 18-49, 8.6 million viewers overall) was high for a repeat, likely benefiting from a lack of drama competition on either CBS or NBC. Fourth-place Fox’s “Bones” (1.6/5 in 18-49, 6.5 million viewers overall) was up a tick from last week, and “The Following” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 4.4 million viewers overall) figures to be up slightly as well with an expected rise to 1.5 in the nationals. CW aired an original “Star-Crossed” (0.3/1 in 18-49, 1.0 million viewers overall), which was down slightly from last week, and an encore “The Tomorrow People” (0.2/1 in 18-49, 0.8 million viewers overall). Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: CBS, 4.9/13; NBC, 2.8/8; ABC, 1.8/5; Fox, 1.5/4; Univision, 1.2/3; Telemundo, 0.5/1; CW, 0.3/1. In total viewers: CBS, 14.6 million; ABC, 12.1 million; NBC, 9.7 million; Fox, 5.5 million; Univision, 2.8 million; Telemundo, 1.2 million; CW, 0.9 million.

About seven months after placing Oxygen in the hands of Bravo chief Frances Berwick, NBCUniversal has a new direction for the female-focused cable outlet. TV PILOTS/DEVELOPMENT SCORECARD: Follow all of the development action during upfront season Once focused mostly on young women, with programs featuring reality-show doyenne Tori Spelling and an audition-competition series called “The Glee Project,” Oxygen will now center on young multicultural women, said Berwick in a media presentation Tuesday, and court them with aspirational unscripted series that are less focused on conflict and more on inner satisfaction. “Big changes are coming” to Oxygen, Berwick said. Young women between the ages of 18 and 34 represent “an arguably underserved audience” which is “hard to find.” Oxygen’s new target viewer “values happiness and experience over material things.” In pursuit of that viewer, Oxygen will unveil seven new series as well as bring back “Preachers of L.A.” for a second cycle, executives said. The programming slate is Berwick’s first for the network, which was placed under her aegis in September after Bonnie Hammer, who oversees all of NBCU’s entertainment-focused cable networks, decided to shut down the company’s Style network and broaden Berwick’s responsibilities. The move resulted in then-Oxygen chief Jason Klarman leaving the company. The theory at the time, Hammer said in a memo in September, was that between Bravo, E!, Oxygen and Style, NBCU had too many networks serving similar audiences. The network is placing emphasis on “Fix My Choir,” a music-driven series in which struggling choirs get mentoring and help form Deitrick Hadon from the “Preachers” series as well as singer Michelle Williams, best known “Fix My Choir” Produced by Pink Sneakers with John Ehrhard, Kimberly Ehrhard and Lauren Stevens along with Relevé Entertainment’s Holly Carter and Jonathan Singer, and Deitrick Haddon all serving as executive producers. Oxygen will also introduce the following series: “Nail’d It!”: The nation’s most competitive nail designers go up against one another for the right to showdown in a two-part finale claim a $100,000 prize.. Hosted by fashionista Adrienne Bailon. Produced by Matador with Jay Peterson, Todd Lubin and Shye Sutherland serving as executive producers. “Street Art Throwdown” (working title): Ten up-and-coming street artists create unbelievable art in never-before-seen ways in the hope of winning bragging rights and a cash prize. Produced by Embassy Row with Michael Davies serving as Executive Producer. “Sisterhood of Hip Hop”: The next generation of female hip-hop artists – Siya, Nyemiah Supreme, Diamond, Brianna Perry and Bia – live, love and work towards their dream of becoming the next big breakout star, Produced by 51 Minds with Chris Abrego, T.I., Rabih Gholam, Ben Samek and Roy Orecchio serving as executive producers. “Funny Girls” (working title): Comedic docu-series series showcases up-and-coming female comediennes living in Los Angeles as they strive to break the glass ceiling in the male-dominated comedy business Produced by Brownstone Entertainment with Drew Brown and Bob Gillan serving as executive producers. “My Crazy Love” (working title): Half-hour comedic anthology series showcases real people’s personal stories about the wild, crazy, romantic, eccentric and hilarious things that women and men have done in the name of love – from faking one’s own death to hiding out in a boyfriend’s closet all weekend to spy on him. Produced by Jarrett Creative with Julie Jarrett and Seth Jarrett serving as executive producers. “Living Different” (working title): Each hour-long episode in this series will offer a candid look at women who lead unconventional or alternative lifestyles, from one woman choosing celibacy to another opting to live in a cult. Produced by Hud:sun Media with Michael Rourke, Mioshi Hill and Lindsey Bannister serving as executive producers.