'Approval Matrix's' Neal Brennan on being the 'Bill Maher for cultural stuff'

For a pop culture aficionado, one of the most popular magazine features is New York's back-of-book Approval Matrix grid that ranks dinner party-worthy factoids based on where they fall between highbrow and lowbrow and despicable and brilliant.

Of course, what's brilliant and what's not so hot is open to debate, so SundanceTV started one. Premiering at August 11 at 11 p.m., host Neal Brennan ("Chappelle's Show" "Inside Amy Schumer") invites a panel of guests each week for six episodes to ruminate on where various people and topics fall on the spectrum. Each episode has a different theme, ranging from entertainment (Is this really the golden age of television?) to the more serious (Can Donald Sterling say what he wants in the privacy of his own home?). Prerecorded segments also offer glimpses into Jon Stewart, Chris Rock or other high-profile comedians' takes on the topic.

Brennan is aware that this style of programming may sound slightly familiar. Here, he expands on how his show stands out from the crowd.

How did the show come about?

Michael Hirschorn, the exec producer, optioned it awhile ago. They tried with Bravo and it didn't quite pop there and Sundance needed a show to go with the Writers' Room. I got involved and they did a dragnet of people.

Most of your TV work is as a comedy writer and director. Why did you want to get in front of the camera?

In comedy, if you're not the host then you're kind of not in charge. You're basically beholden to the host and you have to make the host happy. I was sort of happy I'd rather be a host and do jokes than be a second in command.

I did a show in Dave Chappelle and that ended chaotically, so I thought, "how can I avoid that?"

The show's format of a host and four experts speaking on a subject is similar to say, "Real Time with Bill Maher" or trivia shows in the U.K. How did your show's style come about?

I think it's more to do with Bill Maher than those British shows ... I want to do a dumb Bill Maher. I think it's a Bill Maher for cultural stuff. Hopefully, there's a level of intelligence to it and you can go from there.

Not all the show's topics are pop culture-related. How did you choose which topics would you like to cover?

It's sort of stuff we'd find ourselves talking about when we were trying to come up with themes; stuff you could talk about for half an hour. It couldn't be topical topical or "in the news this week" -- it's this year or this era because we filmed in late June.

You seem to have chosen commentators based on each episode's theme, such as "Orange is the New Black" and "American Pie's" Jason Biggs appearing in an episode about celebrity.

Some of them were thematic. I think we got lucky in terms of people. Jason Biggs, I thought he was interesting and good.

You actually disagreed with Jon Stewart in one of the episodes ...

I've known Jon since before he had a show on MTV. He is a paragon of justice, truth and comedy, but he's also some dude I know.

Were there any topics you felt the show didn't get to cover?

We only had six good ideas. There are only six good ideas out there in the world.

I think Shakespeare had that problem too (well, seven).

Yeah, that was his whole idea.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Why BuzzFeed is launching its own Hollywood studio

Are you ready for "Listicle: The Movie"?

BuzzFeed, the Internet-media company best known for its shareable list-based articles, is expanding across multiple vectors -- including changing the name of its digital-video division into the grandiose-sounding BuzzFeed Motion Pictures.

The move is part of a broader restructuring by BuzzFeed to expand editorial coverage and international presence, and comes on the heels of a new round of $50 million in funding from venture-capital firm Andreesen Horowitz.

BuzzFeed Motion Pictures will encompass "all moving images" -- ranging from animated GIFs to short-form video, and from serialized content to full-length movies.

Ze Frank, formerly EVP of video at BuzzFeed and an online-video pioneer (pictured, above), will lead the division as president of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures and will remain based in Los Angeles. The studio will form a "Future of Fiction" working group to explore the future of long-form, TV and trans-media video. BuzzFeed has enlisted Hollywood producer Michael Shamberg and actor-comedian Jordan Peele (of Comedy Central's "Key & Peele") as advisers.

BuzzFeed, which may look to work with traditional Hollywood studios on joint projects, wants to greatly expand its digital-video footprint. VC investor Kenneth Lerer, BuzzFeed co-founder and executive chairman, cited video as a cornerstone of the company's strategic growth plan.

"The future of content companies is crystal clear: mobile, video, social and tech," Lerer said in a statement. "Expanding BuzzFeed's business across each of these areas is the key to the future."

In other changes, New York-based BuzzFeed announced it will split its current editorial team into three segments -News, Buzz and Life -- to expand content and delineate the differences between the three types of content. All of BuzzFeed's branded-content offerings for advertisers will be centralized into one group, BuzzFeed Creative.

The company also is creating a new distributed division with 20 staffers to create content for social web platforms such as Tumblr, Imgur, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine and messaging apps. Finally, BuzzFeed International later this year plans to expand to India, Germany, Mexico and Japan.

According to BuzzFeed, the new company structure will let it incubate -- as well as acquire -- new companies. "We're in the midst of a historic shift in the media industry where news is increasingly being distributed on social networks and consumed on mobile devices," said Andreessen Horowitz general partner Chris Dixon, who led the investment in BuzzFeed and is joining the board. "We believe BuzzFeed can emerge from this shift as a preeminent media company.

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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US agency warns consumers about Bitcoin risks

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are warning consumers about the risks of using virtual currencies such as Bitcoin.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Monday that it will begin fielding complaints from people who rely on products such as Bitcoin and online exchanges for such currencies.

In issuing an advisory warning, the agency noted that the currencies are not backed by the government, have volatile exchanges rates and are targeted by hackers and scammers. And unlike bank accounts, Bitcoin-based deposits are not federally insured.

"Consumers are stepping into the Wild West," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement.

Still, Cordray acknowledged that virtual currencies "may have potential benefits," noting that they facilitate online transactions by making it easier to process payments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission previously issued an investor alert about Ponzi schemes involving virtual currencies.

Advocates for virtual currencies said they thought the CFPB's characterization of the currencies was generally fair.

Jim Harper, global policy counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, called the CFPB's warning "pretty standard." He noted that it's "helpful to the extent that it informs consumers without scaring them."

"There are consumer risks around new technologies, and even-keeled educational material from government agencies can help make consumers aware and savvy," Harper said.

The CFPB's warning noted that Bitcoin prices can be highly volatile. In one day last year, it said, prices dropped as much as 61 percent.

But Harper said such volatility should wane in the next 10 to 15 years if virtual currencies become more common.

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Amazon Studios to bow 5 pilots in third pilot wave

Amazon.com will debut five pilots as part of its third pilot season on Aug. 28 in the U.S. and the U.K., including comedies from Steven Soderbergh and Whit Stillman.

The five pilots to be available later this month are: half-hour comedies "The Cosmopolitans," "Really" and "Red Oaks," and hour-long dramas "Hand of God" and "Hysteria."

As with its previous two pilot "seasons," Amazon will invite customers feedback to help execs decide which pilots to turn into full series that will become available to members of Prime Instant Video. During the pilot-review process any Amazon customer can watch, rate and comment on the pilots.

"We are delighted to be able to bring Amazon customers new shows from some of Hollywood's most talented actors and creators," said Amazon Studios director Roy Price. "There is something for everyone in this season and I can't wait to hear our customers' feedback when they premiere later this month."

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Ga. plant manager says mold, mildew at processor

ALBANY, Ga. — A former plant manager says he saw mildew, mold and dirty equipment at a Georgia peanut processor linked to a deadly salmonella outbreak.

Samuel Lightsey testified Monday about photographs depicting plant conditions during the trial of his former boss, Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell, and two others.

Authorities traced an outbreak of salmonella in 2008 and 2009 to peanut products shipped from the plant.

Parnell and his brother, food broker Michael Parnell, are accused of shipping tainted products to customers and covering up lab tests showing they contained salmonella. Stewart Parnell and the Georgia plant's quality assurance manager, Mary Wilkerson, are also charged with obstructing justice.

Lightsey, the witness, pleaded guilty to seven criminal counts in May and agreed to testify in exchange for a lighter sentence.

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NBCSN adds 'Men In Blazers' to draw interest to soccer

NBCSN said it had lured Embassy Row President Michael Davies and writer Roger Bennett to its fold to produce soccer program "Men In Blazers" for TV and digital outlets in an attempt to burnish the network's investment in English Premier League soccer.

The two had previously been contributing soccer commentary to ESPN during recent World Cup coverage and contributing a soccer-related podcast to the Walt Disney unit's Grantland outlet.

"Men In Blazers" will air on NBCSN and stream on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app weekly on Mondays beginning in the first month of the Premier League season. The show will follow NBC Sports Group's weekend Premier League coverage. Bennett will also serve as a special contributor on television, providing on-site features from the U.K. and making monthly studio appearances alongside Premier League Live host Rebecca Lowe. He will also contribute long-form features to NBCSports.com.

A special, digital-only version of "Men in Blazers" will be available on Friday of every Premier League match week. The videos, along with their weekly podcast, will be housed in a "Men in Blazer"s section on NBCSports.com. The videos will be distributed on the web and via mobile devices through ProSoccerTalk, and various content alliance partners including Yahoo! Sports and Soccerly.

All "Men in Blazers" content will be produced at Embassy Row, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, where Davies continues to serve as president.

The program launch on NBCSN highlights the growing interest in soccer. Fusion, a start-up cable network owned by Univision and Walt Disney, made a program called "Soccer Gods" part of its primetime lineup during the span of the recent World Cup contest.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Al-Jazeera America logs first anniversary

NEW YORK — Al-Jazeera America marks its first anniversary on the air next week, and if you haven't watched much, you're not alone.

The news network has recorded some startlingly low ratings and recently shown signs of retrenchment with layoffs and by cutting some live newscasts. Al-Jazeera America has also won awards for its work, seen some recent audience growth and its chief executive insists a steady growth plan is on target.

After several unsuccessful years trying to get its English-language network carried widely in the United States, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera bought and closed Al Gore's Current TV network last year and set up the U.S.-focused AJAM to replace Al-Jazeera English in the U.S. It is now available in nearly 60 million cable and satellite homes, just over half the U.S. market.

"The quality of the channel is very much what was promised," said Dave Marash, a former reporter for ABC's "Nightline" and Al-Jazeera English. "It is serious of purpose, by far the best news channel available to American viewers."

Al-Jazeera America won Peabody Awards for documentaries on cholera in Haiti and a deadly factory fire in Bangladesh. The network had six first-place finishes in the National Headliner Awards, which honors notable journalism. Two weeks ago, the National Association of Black Journalists honored AJAM for "creative, compelling, character-driven storytelling."

Aside from award judges, not many people have seen those stories.

So far this year, Al-Jazeera America has averaged 17,000 viewers in prime time, ticking up to 23,000 during the first week of fighting in Gaza. CNN has averaged 453,000 and Fox News Channel 1.87 million in the same period, the Nielsen company said.

Ehab Al Shihabi, AJAM's chief executive, considers that comparison unfair. The other news networks have been operating much longer, and are available in more homes. Their audiences were small at the start, if they even allowed Nielsen to measure them, he said.

AJAM's first year should instead be judged on the quality of its journalism and growth in distribution, he said.

"Americans are not yet aware of Al-Jazeera America," Al Shihabi said. "We are, on a gradual basis, continuing our advertising, continuing our outreach. Awareness and perception will take time."

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gives the network a chance to showcase strength in international reporting, Al Shihabi said it also covers stories in the U.S. that its rivals don't. The prime-time newsmagazine "America Tonight" recently traveled to all 50 states for stories — reporting on gang violence in Alaska, a slow-moving project to sculpt the image of Crazy Horse on a South Dakota mountain and a woman in Detroit who makes coats for homeless people. Next month, director Alex Gibney delivers a new documentary on high school students' lives.

"I do think there's a market for it," said Jon Klein, a former CNN U.S. president whose new startup just launched an online channel for Sarah Palin. "But to launch a cable channel in America today is a scary proposition because there is so much clutter in the marketplace. It is as much a marketing proposition as a content proposition."

He's not sure Al-Jazeera America has broken through with its message, saying people seem to be more aware of the swashbuckling news organization Vice.

There were rough times for selling hard news, too. Fox and MSNBC are more known for their points of view while CNN, which suffered through some of its worst ratings ever this spring, is beefing up its nonfiction, non-news programming.

Marash believes buying Current was a mistake because Al-Jazeera English was having modest success streaming its channel online. Because of cable deals, live streaming has stopped. People have to search for AJAM on their channel lineups and sometimes can't even get a high-definition picture, he said. Al Shihabi said he recognizes online's importance, but that Al-Jazeera is first a television network and TV is still a more lucrative business.

From the start, critics said the name Al-Jazeera — conjuring memories of Bush administration criticism post-Sept. 11 — is a handicap in the U.S. Al-Jazeera is determined not to change it, not wanting to dilute its brand worldwide.

AJAM laid off a few dozen journalists in April, and Al Shihabi recently told the staff that a smaller round of layoffs is coming. Some two and a half hours of live AJAM newscasts have been replaced by simulcasts of Al-Jazeera English programming, and staffers have been told to be mindful of travel expenses. Some wonder if the Qatar parent company's deep pockets indeed have bottoms, and whether that reflects a lack of confidence in the American network.

"There is no rethinking here," Al Shihabi said. "I just need you to be aware that I also run a business. I had a budget for my launch, and I have a budget for the operation for years one and two and three."

____

David Bauder can be reached at dbauder@ap.org or on Twitter@dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder.

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TripAdvisor completes $200M purchase of Viator

NEW YORK — Travel website operator TripAdvisor said Monday that it has completed its purchase of Viator, a website that lets consumers review and book trip activities like tours, for $200 million in cash.

TripAdvisor agreed to buy Viator on July 24. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, company says Viator offers more than 20,000 bookable tours and travelers have submitted 600,000 reviews, photos and videos to its site. Travelers Can book trips through Viator ahead of time in 10 languages and 10 currencies. Once they have reached their destinations, they can book activities through the company's app.

TripAdvisor features reader-written reviews of hotels and other businesses on its own site and websites including Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy and SmarterTravel.

The company said Viator is headquartered in San Francisco and has 250 employees. President and CEO Barrie Seidenberg will continue to lead the company.

Shares of TripAdvisor slipped 20 cents to $95.09 in midday trading. Its shares have risen 15 percent so far this year.

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AIDS activist takes up a new fight: defending FDA

WASHINGTON — As an AIDS activist in the early 1990s, Gregg Gonsalves traveled to Washington to challenge the Food and Drug Administration.

Gonsalves was part of the confrontational group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, which staged protests outside the FDA's headquarters, disrupted its public meetings and pressured its leaders into speeding up the approval of experimental drugs for patients dying of AIDS.

A quarter century later, Gonsalves still travels to Washington, but with a different agenda: to defend the FDA.

At a recent forum on FDA issues, Gonsalves implored congressional staffers to protect the agency from growing anti-regulatory sentiment that he worries will roll back safety and effectiveness standards for all types of drugs. The efforts include new state laws designed to undercut the FDA's authority by giving patients early access to unapproved drugs and a lobbying push by industry groups to speed up the time it takes the FDA to review new treatments.

Both initiatives come at a time when researchers who study the FDA say the caricature of a slow, outdated bureaucracy is inaccurate. The FDA reviews most drugs in 10 months and high-priority drugs in six months or less. And a 2012 review in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that FDA regulators approve new drugs faster than their counterparts in Europe and Canada.

"The rhetoric we hear today is that FDA stifles innovation, that FDA keeps drugs out of patients' hands. And you know, that was our rhetoric in 1989," says 50-year-old Gonsalves, now a program director at Yale University. "But there's no countervailing narrative that we need a strong FDA."

The story of how Gonsalves went from FDA critic to supporter is intertwined with the AIDS movement's impact — and its unintended consequences — on the agency.

Groups like ACT UP showed that FDA's bureaucracy could be influenced by outside pressure. Following protests by ACT UP, the FDA went from taking over two years to approve most drugs to clearing HIV drugs in a few months. In the early 1990s, those shorter review times were written into laws that have governed FDA procedures ever since. But while the push for ever-faster reviews was kicked off by AIDS activists, it is now primarily driven by pharmaceutical lobbying groups and libertarian think tanks.

Since May, three states — Colorado, Louisiana and Missouri — have passed laws designed to allow terminally ill patients to receive experimental drugs that have not been cleared by the FDA. Arizona will vote on its own so-called "right to try" initiative in November and lawmakers in Florida, Oklahoma and Utah are set to introduce similar bills. All of these efforts are driven by lobbyists from the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Supporters have dubbed the measures "Dallas Buyers Club" laws, after the Oscar-winning movie about an AIDS patient who thwarts FDA regulators by smuggling in HIV drugs from overseas. And lawyers for the Goldwater Institute acknowledge that groups like ACT UP helped pave the way for their strategy, though they say more deregulation is needed.

"Many, many groups have been trying to get FDA reform for decades and the only real successful movement was the AIDS movement," says Christina Sandefur, an attorney with the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute.

Mark Harrington, executive director of the Treatment Action Group, which spun off from ACT UP in the 1990s, says AIDS activists have long tried to distance themselves from such anti-Washington efforts. By the mid-1990s, Harrington and Gonsalves were actually pushing for longer, larger studies of HIV drugs. That's because the first drugs approved by the FDA were linked to dangerous side effects, including anemia and nerve damage.

Harrington says the Goldwater-backed state laws are political theater that will not help desperate patients. "They're providing false hope and really pushing quack cures and medicines that could be unsafe and ineffective," he says.

Federal law makes clear that patients do not have a right to experimental drugs and the Supreme Court has refused to hear challenges to FDA's authority over the matter. For its part, the FDA already gives dying patients access to unapproved medicines if drugmakers are willing to provide them.

"The agency stands ready to work with companies that are interested in providing access to experimental drugs," said FDA spokesman Stephanie Yao, in a statement.

But there's nothing in the state laws that require companies to grant early access.

While the FDA faces pushback from conservative activists at the state level, it is also faces industry pressure at the federal level.

House lawmakers have held half a dozen hearings this year on "accelerating the pace of cures in America." The push is part of a pharmaceutical industry-backed initiative dubbed "21st Century Cures," designed to streamline the drug approval process.

"There is no doubt that our antiquated, patch-work clinical trial system makes developing new treatments a cumbersome, expensive and protracted process," said the Friends of Cancer Research group in recent congressional testimony. The group receives funding from Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline and many other drugmakers.

Some FDA watchers say it's too early to worry about a major overhaul of the agency. Congress is gridlocked and no major health legislation is expected to pass until after the next presidential election.

But Gonsalves isn't wasting time. In closing his talk on Capitol Hill earlier this summer, Gonsalves warned Senate staffers that a political shift to the right in coming elections could "change the game" for drug safety and effectiveness.

"We will have a different FDA than we have had for the last 30 years."

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TV ratings for PGA Championship best in 5 years

NEW YORK — CBS Sports says Rory McIlroy's one-shot victory over Phil Mickelson in the PGA Championship produced the highest overnight ratings in five years.

CBS says the household rating was 6.0 with a 13 share, up 36 percent from a year ago when Jason Dufner beat Jim Furyk at Oak Hill, meaning probably more than 6 million people watched on Sunday. It was the highest rating since a 7.5 and 17 share in 2009 when Y.E. Yang rallied from two shots behind to beat Tiger Woods at Hazeltine.

Sunday at Valhalla featured four players with at least part of the lead on the back nine — McIlroy, Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Henrik Stenson. The round finished at 8:43 p.m. EDT because of a rain delay earlier Sunday, and McIlroy finished in the dark.

McIlroy has won the last two major championships.

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