ABC Boss Addresses Oscars Host Plan, Status of Primetime All My Children, Grey’s, Millionaire and Live Sitcoms
The Academy Awards airing on ABC in March will have a host — for the first time in four years.
Appearing at the Television Critics Association virtual winter press tour on Tuesday, Craig Erwich, president of ABC Entertainment and Hulu Originals, affirmed that filmdom’s biggest night will have a host this year, though he had no details to share at this time — including whether ABC’s late-night star, Jimmy Kimmel, might make a return as emcee.
Other topics addressed, even if vaguely, by Erwich during the TCA press conference:
* Declaring Grey’s Anatomy to be “still at the top of its game creatively” (as well as broadcast-TV’s No. 2-rated entertainment program), Erwich said that beyond this week’s Season 19 renewal, “any decisions around that franchise are going to be made by the stewards of the franchise — [series creator] Shonda [Rhimes] and [showrunner] Krista [Vernoff] and [star] Ellen [Pompeo].” He then added, “We will have as much Grey’s as as we can have. It’s one of the things we’re most proud of at ABC.”
* Erwich had no updates at this time on the primetime All My Children follow-up, titled Pine Valley, which was sent into development over a year ago. But he did say that a la NBC rival Days of Our Lives‘ recent streaming miniseries and standalone holiday movie, he is “always open to additional iterations or explorations” of ABC’s General Hospital franchise.
*Erwich affirmed that there will be more installments of Jimmy Kimmel and Norman Lear’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience franchise, but again had no details to share.
*Asked for an update on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire‘s fate (the primetime quizzer’s Season 2 finale aired back in late March), Erwich again had nothing to share.
What is the point of holding a press conference, if all he is going to do if give a few headlines, with “Nothing to Share” for every one??
That’s what I was thinking.
It isn’t nothing for every one, obviously.
I would argue more that host or not, awards shows are increasingly obsolete unnecessary mass gatherings.
Agree with this, Craig is so useless. Susan Rosner Rovner of NBC is far more entertaining.
“ Declaring Grey’s Anatomy to be “still at the top of its game creatively””
What show is he watching???
He isn’t watching it. The only show on his network that he watches is Home Economics.
He’s not watching the show, he’s watching the bucketloads of cash that it makes.
“Live in Front of a Studio Audience” is a good idea, but the next time Jimmy Kimmel says “wouldn’t it be funny if…,” someone should tell him to sit down, and cast people of appropriate ages for the characters rather than having 60 year olds play teenagers. (He can do the overly cutesy stuff on his own show.)
Just remember, if you get attached to a show on ABC; it’s Already Being Canceled.
I just want All My Children on a streaming site! the whole series. I want to see young erica cane. I want to see Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kendall.
There’s this thing called YouTube, maybe you’ve heard of it?
You obviously have reading incomprehension. The person was talking about streaming vintage episodes. Duh.
You can stream episodes there to your heart’s content, especially the Kendall years.
The network taped over a lot of the older episodes of the soaps so that’s not possible. That’s why you can only find episodes going back to 1979.
Yeah, plus no one is going to digitize and upload 11,000 hours of a largely low-def soap. How would the 11,000 episodes even be listed on a service?
I really wanted some good news, but…one thing I do know is that one of the two contestants who missed the million dollar question on Millionaire is now a high-ranking network exec. :(
I really want to hear that AMC show is moving forward. Live… is good but the first shows chosen were better than the most recent two (both the shows themselves and the episodes chosen) so I hope it doesn’t continue to go downhill
so I’m guessing it’s going to be up to kimmel in regards to Millionaire?
If the Oscar’s best pictures nominations don’t include Spider-Man: No Way Home and Tom Holland is not nominated for best actor, I don’t care!
Pine Valley needs to happen. ABC please pick up the series.