Greg Berlanti, Emmy®-nominated writer, director and producer, will be named Television Showman of the Year at the 56th Annual International Cinematographers Guild (ICG, IATSE Local 600) Publicists Awards. The Awards, celebrating excellence in publicity and promotion for motion pictures and television programs, returns to the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Friday, February 22. More than 900 industry leaders are expected to attend this year’s luncheon, which traditionally occurs the week leading up to the Academy Awards®.
In making the announcement, ICG national president Steven Poster, ASC, noted, “Greg Berlanti has produced a prodigious amount of quality television in the 21st century –almost 30 series, over 1,000 episodes, with many more in the pipeline. This year, he set a new record with 15 current live-action scripted series. This is clearly the right time for us to honor Greg and his growing body of work.”
Berlanti said: “I’m truly honored to be receiving this recognition from the ICG Publicists. Throughout my career, the folks in the publicity departments at the various studios I’ve worked with have been some of my favorite people to collaborate with and I can say first hand that without a smart, strategic publicity campaign, my shows wouldn’t have enjoyed anywhere near the level of success that they have.”
WGA, DGA and Golden Globe nominated writer, director, and producer, Berlanti is the force behind some of the most inventive and acclaimed works in film and television.
Berlanti started in television on the hit show Dawson’s Creek. Since then, Berlanti has served as creator, writer, and producer behind shows such as Everwood, Jack & Bobby, Eli Stone, and Political Animals. He also served as a producer on Brothers & Sisters and Dirty, Sexy, Money.
During Upfronts 2018, it was announced that Berlanti’s company would make television history with a total of 14 scripted series on the air at the same time. He currently works as executive producer and co-creator on Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl and You. Additionally, Berlanti serves as executive producer on Riverdale, Black Lightning, Blindspot, Titans, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, All American, God Friended Me, as well as the upcoming The Red Line, Doom Patrol, and Stargirl.
Berlanti made his film directorial debut in 2000 with The Broken Hearts Club. His most recent feature directorial project is the critically acclaimed Love, Simon, an adaptation of the celebrated YA novel Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his husband and son.
Past recipients of the prestigious Television Showman of the Year Award include Ryan Murphy, John Landgraf, Ted Sarandos, Shonda Rhimes, Chuck Lorre, Nina Tassler, Fred Silverman, Steven Bochco, Aaron Spelling and Bob Hope.
As previously announced, the Publicists Awards Luncheon will also honor producer Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) with the Motion Picture Showman of the Year Award and Jamie Lee Curtis with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The ICG Publicists Directory, to be distributed at the luncheon, will be dedicated to Paul Bloch, co-chairman of Rogers & Cowan, who died last year. Awards chair this year is Tim Menke with Sheryl Main serving as co-chair.
More than 67 million people watched Donald Trump and Kamala Harris debate. That’s way up from June
An estimated 67.1 million people watched the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, a sharp increase from the June debate that eventually led to President Joe Biden dropping out of the race.
The debate was run by ABC News but shown on 17 different networks, the Nielsen company said. The Trump-Biden debate in June was seen by 51.3 million people.
Tuesday's count was short of the record viewership for a presidential debate, when 84 million people saw Trump's and Hillary Clinton's first faceoff in 2016. The first debate between Biden and Trump in 2020 reached 73.1 million people.
With Harris widely perceived to have outperformed Trump on Tuesday night, the former president and his supporters are sharply criticizing ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. The journalists waded into on-the-fly fact checks during the debate, correcting four statements by Trump.
No other debates are currently scheduled between the two presidential candidates, although there's been some talk about it and Fox News Channel has publicly offered alternatives. CBS will host a vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance.
Tuesday's debate stakes were high to begin with, not only because of the impending election itself but because the last presidential debate uncorked a series of events that ended several weeks later with Biden's withdrawal from the race after his performance was widely panned.
Opinions on how ABC handled the latest debate Tuesday were, in a large sense, a Rorschach test on how supporters of both sides felt about how it went. MSNBC commentator Chris Hayes sent a message on X that the ABC moderators were doing an "excellent" job — only to be answered by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who said,... Read More