Columbia Tristar Television Distribution

Sony Corp.'s Columbia TriStar is planning a joint bid with Germany's third-largest bank and a German publisher for KirchMedia, the main entertainment unit of the insolvent German media giant Kirch Group, a source with knowledge of the talks said Sunday.

Helene Michaels is leaving her position as president of network production at Columbia TriStar Television, continuing a period of executive turnover at the Sony Pictures Entertainment division. Michaels' forced exit comes six months after the arrival of Len Grossi as president of Sony's television unit.

No official fight bell will clang when the two latest entries in the late-night talk-show arena, "Vibe" and "The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show," square off at 11 p.m. Monday. But publicists, agents and talent managers are getting their scorecards ready for what they say will be one of the fiercest late-night showdowns since CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" first went toe to toe with NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" in 1993.

Jerry Seinfeld dropped a Christmas Eve bomb on NBC by deciding the time had come to end his long-running series. Now the network can only sweat it out as the stars of "Mad About You" debate whether to light their own fuse. Series leads Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt say that they've yet to determine whether to return next year and that peripheral considerations--including NBC's dire need and Hunt's burgeoning film career--won't sway that decision.

"Seinfeld" may be on its way out, but its value is on its way up. TV industry insiders say that even before the top-rated comedy airs its final original "yada, yada, yada" on NBC this May, the syndication rights for the show are likely to skyrocket for stations wanting to broadcast "Seinfeld" reruns for years to come. Columbia TriStar Television Distribution, which distributes the reruns, already has started discussions with stations in the top markets about a new syndication deal for "Seinfeld."

Brillstein-Grey Entertainment has ended its television production arrangement with Universal Studios Inc. and struck a new joint venture with Sony Corp.'s Columbia Tristar Television Group. Under the settlement with Universal, which bought 50% of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment in 1996 for $80 million, the Hollywood studio will retain control of three programs Brillstein-Grey has on the air: "NewsRadio," "Just Shoot Me" and "The Steve Harvey Show."

Michael Ovitz, the super-agent who was formerly president of Walt Disney Co., is moving his talent management firm into television production. Eric Tannenbaum, the president of Sony Corp.'s Columbia TriStar Television, is joining Ovitz's new agency, AMG Entertainment, as a partner and will be president of Artists Television Group, a newly formed TV studio.