 Sean Spicer |
Fresh on the heels of president Trump skewering Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel at a South Carolina rally Monday night, comes news that former White House press secretary Sean Spicer is hatching plans to join the ranks of talk show hosts himself.
The show, which would have one guest per episode, is being pitched with the name “Sean Spicer’s Common Ground.” Spicer’s guests would include “some of the most interesting and thoughtful public figures,” according to a pitch sheet obtained by the New York Times. The pitch also touts the projected show’s “relaxed atmosphere.”
Debmar-Mercury, the syndicator of such programs as “The Wendy Williams Show,” “Family Feud” and “Celebrity Name Game” would be producing the show alongside Pilgrim Media Group, the production studio behind “Zombie House Flippers,” “Ghost Hunters” and “Fast N’ Loud,” among other titles.
The pilot of the show is set to be filmed in July.
Spicer’s projected talk show follows several other multi-media ventures. In addition to “The Briefing: Politics, The Press, and The President,” a book set to be released on July 24, he is co-hosting the podcast “Everything’s Going to Be All Right” with Katie Pavlich, a Fox News contributor and editor of the conservative website Townhall. He also unveiled a wax likeness of Melania Trump at New York’s outpost of Madame Tussauds in April.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
