E!

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E!
E!
Launched July 31, 1987
Owned by Comcast
Formerly called Movietime (1987-1990)
Sister channel(s) Style Network
Website Official Site
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV Channel 236
Dish Network Channel 114
Sky Digital (UK) Channel 155
Sky Italia (Italy) Channel 114
Foxtel Digital (Australia) Channel 121
Austar Digital (Australia) Channel 121
SKY Network Television (NZ) Channel 7
DStv (Southern Africa) Channel 41
Astro Nusantara (Indonesia) Channel 46
Cable
NTL:Telewest (UK) Channel 173
Verizon FiOS Channel 161
Foxtel Digital (Australia) Channel 121
Comcast Channels Vary
Time Warner Cable Channels Vary
Charter Channels Vary
Cox Cable Channels Vary
Cablevision Channels Vary
Bright House Networks Channels Vary

E!: Entertainment Television is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite network. As of November 2006, it is wholly owned by Comcast. In Canada a similar channel, Star!, airs most original E! programming.

Contents

[edit] About the network

The network was launched by Rick Kaplan, former President of CNN and MSNBC, in 1987 as Movietime, a low-budget service that aired movie trailers and interviews. Three years later, in June 1990, Movietime was renamed E! Entertainment Television to emphasize its widening coverage of the celebrity-industrial complex, contemporary film, television and music, entertainment awards shows, daily Hollywood news and gossip, and fashion. In November 2006, Comcast bought the Walt Disney Company's 39.5% share of E! for $1.23 billion. E! is available to 88 million subscribers in the U.S. and 600 million homes internationally. E!'s sister channel is the Style Network.

E! has also licensed its name and brand identity to regional cable television networks in nearly every country worldwide. It also has an international network that is broadcast from the Netherlands across most of Europe and joint-venture channels in Israel and throughout Latin America.

The network has the unusual distinction of showing the technical end credits at the beginning of the program in order to seemlesly transition between shows without losing viewers. Another unusual distinction is that some sponsor tags credit current Broadway shows running in New York, obviously and subliminally meant only for those viewers in New York City.

[edit] Personalities

Award shows and the red carpet events, premieres and E! News have been hosted by a variety of personalities. Currently, Ryan Seacrest (who is also the host of American Idol) and Giuliana DePandi host award shows and E! News. Ted Casablanca still interviews various celebrities and has The Awful Truth column online while Kristin Veitch hosts all season premieres and events for television programming. Past hosts include Michael Castner on Inside Word, Behind the Scenes, Live From the Red Carpet and Sex On the Riviera, Brooke Burke on Wild On! and Rank, Jules Asner on Revealed with Jules Asner and Alisha Davis with John Burke on E! News. Red carpet events, now called Live From the Red Carpet, have been hosted previously by Joan Rivers (often with daughter Melissa Rivers), Star Jones, and even Nicky Hilton.

Other hosts have included Emme on Fashion Emergency, Suzanne Sena on Celebrity Homes (now with Kristin Malia) and A.J. Benza on Mysteries and Scandals. Adult models Jenny McCarthy and Anna Nicole Smith hosted Party @ the Palms and The Anna Nicole Show respectively.

[edit] Michael Jackson trial

E! reported on Michael Jackson's 2005 trial and acquittal. As no cameras were allowed in the courtroom, E! used the transcripts of the court case and actors to reenact the day's proceedings. The nightly airings of these reenactments attracted high ratings (for a basic cable channel). E! previously did re-enactments for the O.J. Simpson civil trial, and covered the earlier criminal trial live.

[edit] Criticism

During the week of Dimebag Darrell Abbott's birthday E! Channel producers contacted Pantera publicist Jane Hoffman to license the video tape of Dimebag's murder and to have permission to reenact it for a show titled 25 Most Chilling Hollywood Murders.[1] In a letter made public, Hoffman among turning down the request wrote, "I realize there is nothing anyone can do to stop E! from producing garbage like this below, as you've built your audience on the backs of other people's private lives." The letter closes with:

I ask that you all please take a moment from your busy days and close your eyes. Live out the fantasy of playing your favorite instrument onstage. Your closest friends in the world surround you, either in the band or in your crew. From one side of the stage, a man approaches. Thinking he's a security guy or a drunk fan who's just a bit out a line, you continue to perform. Two seconds later, he lifts his arms, aims a rifle at your brother, your best friend, your buddy and blows his brains out, not three feet from where you are.
Now imagine it's a few years later and you turn on the TV set. Just in case you may be having at least a five minute respite from that scene that plays over and over in your head, just in case .....you flip through the channels and there it is. Again. Only with some two bit actor who thinks this is his big Hollywood break.[2]

[edit] Original programming

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[edit] Current

Additionally, it has an evening news broadcast, E! News. The channel also broadcasts classic episodes of Saturday Night Live (Not aired outside the United States). The network also airs Totally Outrageous Behavior, a show shared with sister channel G4.

[edit] Canceled/retired

[edit] See also

[edit] Online content

[edit] External links

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