Entertainment Tonight
The longest-running entertainment news program on television.
via Wikipedia: Entertainment Tonight · see source
Paramount Streaming owns this American syndicated newsmagazine, distributed by CBS Media Ventures. It debuted on September 14, 1981, and is the longest-running entertainment news program on TV, per Guinness World Records. Paramount Global Content Distribution handles its international versions. As of 2021, the weekday broadcasts are anchored by Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Entertainment
- Creator
- Al Masini
- Presenter
- Kevin Frazier; Nischelle Turner
- Theme music
- Michael Mark (original); will.i.am (2012 recomposition)
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Seasons
- 14 September 1981
- Episodes
- 13,146 (10,955 weekdays; 2,191 weekend)
Facts from the source article.
Format
The program features stories from the entertainment industry, exclusive set visits, first looks at upcoming film and television projects, and one-on-one interviews with actors, musicians, and other entertainment personalities. The weekend edition, ET Weekend (known as Entertainment This Week until September 1991), originally recapped the week's news; most episodes later centered on a special theme, though either format may be used. A daily radio feature, ET Radio Minute, is syndicated by Westwood One.
History
When it debuted in September 1981, Entertainment Tonight took a local-news approach, focusing on the latest movies, music, and TV projects. The show secured exclusive rights to cover the wedding of Mary Kay Letourneau, a convicted child molester who married the student she had an affair with, Vili Fualaau, as well as attorney Howard K. Stern, who represented Daniel Birkhead in the paternity case for Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn. ET also ran exclusive stories about Smith, including her funeral and her surviving daughter. In 1996, George Clooney boycotted the program to protest intrusive paparazzi after Hard Copy aired an exposé on his love life, breaking a deal he had with Paramount, which produced and syndicated both shows. Clooney sent a letter to Paramount urging his friends to join the boycott. On September 8, 2008, the show switched to high-definition and moved its production from Stage 28 on the Paramount lot to Stage 4 at CBS Studio Center, part of merging Paramount Domestic Television into CBS Television Distribution after the 2005 split of CBS and Viacom. Following a social media campaign by Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell, ET announced in February 2014 it would stop accepting paparazzi photos or footage of celebrities’ children. In January 2020, the show earned a Guinness World Record as the longest-running entertainment news program on TV. CBS launched ET Live in November 2018, a free 24-hour streaming service with the show’s correspondents and expanded coverage; it became available on Pluto TV in November 2019.
More in Entertainment News Shows in the United States
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