E! Entertainment Television, or more simply referred to as
E!, is an American cable television and
direct broadcast satellite network. The network has been wholly owned by
Comcast since November of 2006.
History
E! Entertainment Television was launched by Larry Namer, Brian Owens, Mike Sobel, Rick Portin, Mark Hale, Bill Zaccheo, Alan Mruvka, and others on July 31, 1987 as
Movietime, a service that aired movie trailers, entertainment news, event and awards coverage, and interviews
[query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DD173CF930A35755C0A966958260&sec=&spon=]. Early Movietime hosts included
Greg Kinnear,
Paula Abdul,
Katie Wagner,
Julie Moran, Suzanne Kay (daughter of Diahann Carroll),
Mark DeCarlo, Sam Rubin and
Richard Blade. Three years later, in June 1990, Movietime was renamed
E! Entertainment Television[Box Office Magazine, July 1990] to emphasize its widening coverage of the
celebrity-industrial complex, contemporary film, television and music, daily Hollywood gossip, and fashion.
Controlling ownership was originally held by six cable companies, HBO, Warner Brothers, and various founding shareholders. In 1989, after Time-Life bought Warner Brothers to fend off a takeover bid by Paramount, the new Time-Warner company held four of the eight major ownership positions and took over management control of Movietime and renamed the network E! Entertainment Television. In 1997, Comcast, one of the minority partners, teamed up with
The Walt Disney Company to buy the channel after Time-Warner had exercised their put agreement. In November 2006, Comcast acquired Disney's 39.5% share of E! for $1.23 billion to gain full ownership of the network as part of a broader programming carriage agreement between Disney/ABC and Comcast
[www.comcast.com/About/PressRelease/PressReleaseDetail.ashx?PRID=24].
E! has an audience reach of 88 million cable and satellite viewers in the U.S. and 600 million homes internationally. E!'s sister networks are the
Style Network and
G4, along with Comcast's sports networks
Versus and
Golf Channel. In the case of Versus, E! staff produce that network's
Sports Soup, while the Orlando-based Golf Channel features no crossovers with E! at all due to incompatible audiences and operations.
Personalities
[E! Television Personalities]
- Giuliana Rancic and Ryan Seacrest host award shows and E! News.
- Ken Baker is E!'s executive news editor.
- Ted Casablanca interviews various celebrities and has The Awful Truth column online.
- Jason Kennedy is a correspondent and fill-in host for E! News and the Daily 10.
- Ashlan Gorse is a correspondent and fill-in host for E! News and the Daily 10.
- Chelsea Handler hosts Chelsea Lately.
- Ben Lyons is E!'s film critic.
- Sal Masekela co-hosts the Daily 10.
- Catt Sadler co-hosts the Daily 10.
- Kristina Guerrero is a correspondent for E! News and a fill-in host for the Daily 10.
- Kristin Dos Santos (née Veitch) hosts all season premieres and events for television programming along with her online column Watch With Kristin.
- Marc Malkin provides breaking news and commentary on E! News and various other programs on the network along with his online column Planet Gossip and online videoblog of the same name.
- Joan Rivers hosts Fashion Police.
- Joel McHale hosts The Soup.
- Amy Paffrath hosted E! News.
- Michael Yo is a celebrity correspondent of the Daily 10.
- Anna Nicole Smith former star of The Anna Nicole Show.
E! HD
The network launched their HD simulcast on December 8, 2008, like the rest of E!'s sister lifestyle and sports networks, in
1080i format. Currently only some filmed content and limited series are carried in high definition.
E! Online
E! Online is the online arm of E!, featuring live updates on Hollywood.
Kristin Dos Santos runs the 'Watch with Kristin' blog, which features spoilers, scoops and exclusives on TV shows. While other columnists include
Ted Casablanca, who is in charge of breaking the latest celebrity news and Marc Malkin.
Programming
See also
