Byron Allen suits allowed to proceed

[Bob Jersey]

The Entertainment Studios exec's other seven networks (not the Weather Channel) have been kept off major cableco players Comcast and Charter, and he claims it's racial discrimination... they'll fight it, they said...

Variety (link)

B

[Bob Jersey]

Moi, 11/20/18:

The Entertainment Studios exec's other seven networks (not the Weather Channel) have been kept off major cableco players Comcast and Charter, and he claims it's racial discrimination... they'll fight it, they said...

Variety (link)

And now the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to deal with his complaint (by the cablers, not him)

https://www.philly.com/business/comcast/comcast-hollywood-racism-suits-supreme-court-magic-johnson-20190401.html (link, possible soft paywall)

B

[M-D November]

I'm going to ask the obvious question here - isn't it possible that Comcast, Charter, et al aren't carrying his networks because they don't bring anything to the table? I'm 43 years old, and I can't remember once in my life when I've watched something produced by or starring Byron Allen (at least, intentionally - there were occasions when I'd fall asleep during Scottish Conan Guy and "Comics Unleashed" would come on - that would normally be the signal to shut the damn TV off already). A quick review of Entertainment Studios' theatrical releases reads mostly like SyFy/Lifetime MOTW fare, and their TV output is, at best, derivative of more popular fare that's already saturated their various markets. I can see why Allen and his team say it's discrimination, but isn't it *possible* the issue is that he isn't that creative?

M-D
Playing devil's advocate - no hitting in the face, please.

[Kevin M.]

My experience with Byron Allen is much the same as yours. In the days before cable, his syndicated clone of Entertainment Tonight (which consisted mostly of Allen’s interviews at press junkets), was basically free to any TV station who wanted to air it. It was watered down, even by entertainment journalism standards. Allen never met an actor, singer, or director he didn’t like, and every piece of media he “reviewed” was some variation of great. He lacks the credibility needed to be taken seriously as a mogul, but then again so do most network executives.

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[John Edwards]

You all are being very unkind to this artiste. Something has to air on Sunday nights at 2:30 a.m.

John Edwards
"You can insure against the weather, but you can't insure against incompetence, can you?" - Phil Tufnell

[Joe Hass]

Excuse me: there's zero shame in running bars and tone.

[PGage]

I share your opinion of Allen, and of course it’s possible this is purely a business decision. But that seems like the wrong question at this point. The court did not find that there was bias, only that both the applicable law and the facts justify that the question be litigated in court. 

Also - the point that always seems to need to be made, if it were true that the only mediocre material given exposure was produced by white people, whole black people need to produce excellent material to get on, that would be discrimination. So even when this gets to court, the question is not really “is Allen’s product mediocre?”, but more like, is it significantly more mediocre than material that routinely does get a tv contract?

On Mon, Apr 1, 2019 at 12:36 PM M-D November <mdnov...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Kevin M.]

I suspect the argument could be made that Allen is ill-equipped at the job of differentiating between good or bad media, regardless of race. As stated above, I don’t know that any TV executive is any better or worse at it, but Allen’s history of basically producing free EPKs for media companies in exchange for a weekends at posh hotels is evidence that his judgment is, put mildly, impaired. And in a court he would have to establish race was the factor, when any reasonable defense could establish other factors. I’m not saying race didn’t enter into the decision of the cable company execs, but unless there are emails or records indicating it, the verdict is unlikely to be in Allen’s favor 

Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Steve Timko]

Some where there is a clip of a very young Byron Allen doing a killer set. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I can't find it. I can find his second Tonight Show appearance and his Midnight Special appearance, where he does the same jokes. Lots of obvious edits and it sounds like they added a laugh track. That Byron Allen was someone going for white bread appeal.

[Bob Jersey]

Moi, 4/01/19:

The Comcast side of the case will go before the High Court in the coming term, said its website... no clues re the Charter side...

https://www.inquirer.com/business/comcast-racial-byron-allen-cable-channels-supreme-court-20190610.html (link)

B

[Bob Jersey]

Allen made his case today, and Variety led its report with a local woman who attended as part of a group of his supporters...

https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/byron-allen-comcast-racial-discrimination-supreme-court-arguments-1203403994/ (link)

B