ONLINE TALENT SEARCH, BIG SHOT, CLEARED IN 60% OF THE COUNTRY
70 Markets Including 9 of the Top 10 Markets Sign On
CBS Stations Group, Gannett, Young Broadcasting, Cox, Belo, Post-Newsweek, Sinclair, Scripps-Howard and Others Take a Shot at Unique Interactive Endeavor
LOS ANGELES - December 3, 2007 - CBS Television Distribution (CTD) has cleared "Big Shot" on local broadcast affiliates' web sites representing more than 60% of the country. "Big Shot," produced by Madison Road, Madonna's Maverick Entertainment and James Bruce Productions, is a first of its kind daily online contest offering aspiring actors, singers, models and other talent the chance to come to Hollywood and land real jobs in the cutthroat entertainment business.
"Big Shot" is set to launch nationwide on February 4, 2008 on the websites of WCBS-TV (New York, #1), KCBS-TV (Los Angeles, #2), WBBM-TV (Chicago, #3), KYW (Philadelphia, #4), KRON-TV (San Francisco, #6), WBZ-TV (Boston, #7), WSB-TV (Atlanta, #8), WUSA-TV (Washington, D.C., #9), KPRC-TV (Houston, #10).
Other stations on board in the top 20 markets include: WXYZ-TV (Detroit, #11), KTVK (Phoenix, #12), KIRO-TV (Seattle, #14), KARE-TV (Minneapolis, #15), WFOR-TV (Miami, #16), WKYC-TV (Cleveland, #17), KUSA (Denver, #18) and KOVR-TV (Sacramento, #20).
Station groups initially committing to take part in "Big Shot" include CBS Stations Group, Gannett, Young Broadcasting, Cox, Belo, Post-Newsweek, Sinclair, Scripps-Howard, Clear Channel, Gray Television, Barrington Broadcasting, Raycom, New Vision, Morgan Murphy, Local TV and LIN-TV.
"'Big Shot' is a cutting edge competition series that offers stations a chance to engage their audiences more completely," said John Nogawski, President and COO, CBS Television Distribution. "We are thrilled by the positive reception from affiliates as they see that the series has been engineered for them to recruit and interact with local contestants and engage local advertisers in big new ways."
Jak Severson, partner in Madison Road, stated, "BIG SHOT is highly localized, designed to maximize local promotion. We've assigned every zip code in the country to a local television station. Every BIG SHOT viewer will be directed into the relationship we've created for them with their local stations."
For its part, CBS Television Distribution will distribute the contest domestically to television stations. CTD is initially targeting stations that carry "Entertainment Tonight," which will also act as a promotional partner for the 13-week contest. The participating stations and the weekend edition of "Entertainment Tonight" will prompt their on-air viewers to participate in "Big Shot" via their web sites, where stations will also be able to highlight videos produced by local contestants. Each day, one winner with the most online votes in seven different performance categories will be flown to Hollywood and given the chance at a dream job. Their entire experience will be shot on video and cut down to a 3- to 6-minute online video segment.
About CBS Television Distribution
CBS Television Distribution is the preeminent company in worldwide television syndication. Comprised of the assets of King World Productions, CBS Paramount Domestic Television, CBS Paramount International Television and CBS Home Entertainment, CTD produces or distributes 11 first-run series -- including the #1 syndicated entertainment newsmagazine "Entertainment Tonight" -- and holds the largest internationally distributed television library at 70,000 hours strong. CTD is a unit of CBS Corp.
About Madison Road
Madison Road Entertainment is a branded entertainment studio, specializing in creating entertainment platforms that can bridge the gap between old and new media. The company serves the advertising and broadcast television industries by developing new ways for advertisers and audiences to connect, while improving the value of content. Its clients include some of the world's largest advertisers, broadcasters and distributors.
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