Mtv

Danity Kane, the all-girl music group that got its start on MTV's "Making the Band," is reportedly reuniting -- without its patriarch, Diddy. The girl group, which earned fame with singles including "Damaged" but later broke up amid management issues in 2009, is said to have taken a meeting with a new manager, according to TMZ. Four of Danity Kane's five original members -- Shannon Bex, Aundrea Fimbres, Dawn Richard and Aubrey O'Day -- took...

The PTC thinks Ke$ha has gone from bladder to worse. The pro-family advocacy group is upset about Tuesday's planned airing of "Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life," in which the pop star supposedly drinks her own urine. Parents Television Council President Tim Winter is urging viewers to contact elected representatives to protest. "If given the opportunity, I can't imagine that parents would want to pay for a cable network that airs an episode of a pop star drinking her own urine, and that is why Congress needs to take seriously the idea of giving consumers the ability to choose and pay for only the cable networks they want," Winter wrote in a statement.

When Susanne Daniels was head of programming for the WB Network, she had a knack for championing both wholesome shows such as "Seventh Heaven" that families could watch together and edgier fare like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dawson's Creek" that would appeal to teens while making parents nervous. In her new gig as president of programming for MTV, she will again try to strike that kind of balance. "I have to take my job as a programmer for teens seriously," Daniels said in a Monday afternoon interview.

Last week, CBS boss Leslie Moonves told ad buyers his network was at the "center" of the media universe. On Tuesday, he proved why. CBS wrapped the 2012-13 TV season with a commanding victory in every single ratings category, according to Nielsen. That includes the key demographic of viewers ages 18 to 49, which CBS -- long the oldest-skewing of the four major broadcast networks -- had not won since the 1991-92 season. VIDEO: Fall 2013 TV trailers Actually, CBS was down 3% in that category compared with the previous season.

On last month's premiere episode of MTV's "My Life as Liz" (10:30 p.m. Mondays), Liz Lee, the show's misfit protagonist, is assigned by her Burleson High School broadcast journalism teacher to complete a profile of golden girl Taylor Terry, an anchor of the school's news program. Eyes are rolled. At one point while filming Taylor, Liz threatens to vomit. Détente is eventually reached, with Taylor opening up to Liz about her inner life, and Liz taking Taylor shopping for vintage clothes.

Twenty-five years ago, MTV was best known for music videos starring Michael Jackson and Madonna. These days, its reigning queen is not a recording star at all but rather Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, the rowdy party girl from the reality series "Jersey Shore." So maybe it's not surprising that this week the 29-year-old network bowed to the inevitable and finally scraped the legend "Music Television" off its corporate logo. The change was a belated acknowledgment of what has been obvious for years: MTV has evolved into a reality channel that occasionally runs programs that have to do with music.

For MTV, the situation was more than awkward . In fall 2008, the network was bingeing on manufactured reality shows that celebrated wealth and excess just as the country was staggering into a recession. Banks were failing, people were losing their jobs and college students were facing uncertain futures. But on MTV, the glamorous clique from "The Hills" was indulging in West Hollywood shopping trips and getaways to Cabo San Lucas. And on "My Super Sweet 16," the parents of a South Carolina beauty queen spent tens of thousands of dollars to give her the perfect birthday party, complete with a baby-blue Hummer.

The "Jersey Shore" gang took its act to Italy on Thursday night and delivered ratings that MTV was describing Friday as stupendo and fantastico. The fourth season premiere of the reality show about housemates Ronnie, Sammi, Snooki & Co. attracted 8.8 million viewers, the network said, describing it as the largest audience ever for an MTV season premiere and the third-highest MTV series telecast ever (bested only by two other "Jersey Shore" episodes last season). The audience was 4% higher than for the show's first episode last season, MTV said.

The ratings woes at Viacom's kids cable network Nickelodeon have received lots of attention lately, but one media analyst warns that the picture is not that much brighter at MTV. Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Todd Juenger noted in a report that ratings at MTV declined 32% in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago. On top of that, the hit "Jersey Shore" is wrapping up, and finding other shows that can pick up the slack won't...

As a 21-year-old college student, I found your cover stories on the 10th anniversary of MTV to be too one-sided in its favor ("The Channel That Ate the World," July 28). Because of MTV, a band is considered a success not because of its talent but instead because of its image. MTV is a business, let us not forget that. Artists that get airplay need to look presentable (for example, Poison, Whitesnake, M.C. Hammer and New Kids on the Block) rather than possess the raw energy that rock 'n' roll used to have.

Danity Kane, the all-girl music group that got its start on MTV's "Making the Band," is reportedly reuniting -- without its patriarch, Diddy. The girl group, which earned fame with singles including "Damaged" but later broke up amid management issues in 2009, is said to have taken a meeting with a new manager, according to TMZ. Four of Danity Kane's five original members -- Shannon Bex, Aundrea Fimbres, Dawn Richard and Aubrey O'Day -- took...

NEW YORK -- Popularity on social media platforms and an increase of MTV2's male viewers were among the virtues touted by MTV at its upfront presentation Thursday, amid a smaller-than-usual development slate and some rocky recent ratings. The network is looking for a rebound this year after 2012 numbers were down -- prime-time viewership among adults 18-34, for instance, dropped 27% compared with the previous year. The network also announced several new projects for MTV: a pilot greenlight for a series based on the “Scream” franchise as well as new series such as “Generation Cryo” and “Nurse Nation.” PHOTOS: 2013 MTV Movie Awards - Arrivals Clips for “Generation Cryo” showed the teenage daughter of a lesbian couple seeking out her biological father and other children from the same sperm donor.

NEW YORK -- MTV is taking a turn to the horror side, greenlighting a pilot based on Wes Craven's “Scream” film franchise. The network will collaborate with “Scream” studio Dimesnion Films on the title, with Craven directing an hourlong pilot. A potential series, which is currently seeking writers, would begin airing in the summer of 2014; plot details for the series were not revealed, though it is expected to play on the mythology of the clever serial killer Ghostface. The network is expected to make the "Scream" announcement at its annual upfront presentation Thursday in New York.

NEW YORK -- Marriage can be a tricky subject. Just ask comedian Andrew Schulz. If the question was put to him whether to ask permission from the father of a prospective fiancee, he said, he wouldn't necessarily see eye-to-eye with some of his friends.   "I'd have one opinion, and Dan Soder might have another. Then you ask Charlamagne and he'd say, 'Why are you getting married, dude?'" The characters at hand are neither Dr. Ruth impersonators nor, for that matter, spelling-challenged French emperors.

The desire of Netflix to acquire more original programming such as the political drama "House of Cards" could mean bad news for Hollywood, which has come to count on the company as a good customer and a steady source of revenue. Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings noted Monday that some of the company's big content deals didn't work out as planned. Many shows Netflix got rights to ended up having little appeal to its subscribers. "Many of our earliest deals were with networks and cable networks and included some shows that have not proven successful," Hastings said.

Maybe Aubrey Plaza is on to something with her crazy stunts: The MTV Movie Awards she spectacularly crashed Sunday posted big ratings gains. The "Parks & Recreation" costar was supposedly tossed from the premises after coming onstage unannounced and trying to grab an award from actor Will Ferrell. But the audience apparently didn't mind: An average of 3.8-million viewers tuned in, according to Nielsen. That was up 11% compared with last year's show. In MTV's core demographic of viewers ages 18 to 34, the show did even better, zooming 45%. - Scott Collins 'Breakfast' nears a Broadway end In the wake of largely negative reviews and falling box-office receipts, the Broadway production of "Breakfast at Tiffany's," starring "Game of Thrones" actress Emilia Clarke, will close on Sunday after a four-week run at New York's Cort Theatre.

To oversimplify — though not by all that much — MTV's new high school comedy "Awkward. " (the period is part of the title) is a female twist on the network's phallocentric "The Hard Times of RJ Berger," though in the same way that teenage girls are more mature than their male classmates, it is less sophomoric and sex-obsessed than its predecessor. Created by Lauren Iungerich, it has the spirit of "Juno" behind it rather than the ghost of "Porky's. " If "Awkward. " doesn't always listen to what that spirit is saying, it gets that head start nonetheless.

Selena Gomez's bindi - the sparkly gems she wore during the MTV Movie Awards Sunday - is offending Hindu groups. The actress-singer wore the Hindu symbol on her forehead during her sultry "Come and Get It" performance at the awards show and again during a televised performance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," which was taped Monday. (She gushed on "Ellen" about meeting Brad Pitt before the performance Sunday, but that's another story.) PHOTOS: 2013 MTV Movie Awards - Arrivals The inspiration for the accessory comes from the electronica song's Punjabi lyrics lyrics and tabla beat in the background, according to the Times of India.

Emma Watson seemed poised and looked elegant as she accepted the Trailblazer award at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards Sunday in Culver City. She stood out at an event where, as my colleague Glenn Whipp writes, many of the stars seemed to use the Macklemore song "Thrift Shop" as a dressing inspiration. That seemed especially true of the men. (Taylor Lautner seemed to be bursting out of his too-small shirt as he accepted for Best Shirtless Performance -- but that was probably on purpose, of course.