E! Totally Explained

Everything about E totally explained

ť This article is about the American entertainment television channel and some of its international variants. For its Canadian equivalent, see E! (Canada).

E!: Entertainment Television is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite network. From November 2006 onwards, it became wholly owned by Comcast.

History

The network was launched by Larry Namer, Alan Mruvka, Brian Owens, Rick Portin and others, on July 31, 1987 as Movie Time, a low-budget service that aired movie trailers, entertainment news, event coverage, and interviews. Early Movie Time hosts included Greg Kinnear, Paula Abdul, Katie Wagner, and Richard Blade. Three years later, in June 1990, Movie Time 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 networks are the Style Network and G4.
The network has the unusual distinction of showing the technical end credits at the beginning of the program in order to seamlessly transition between shows without losing viewers (most other cable channels and even broadcast networks do this nowadays), meaning there's no commercial break between two shows. Another unusual distinction is that some sponsor tags credit current Broadway shows running in New York City, obviously and subliminally meant only for those viewers.

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.

Programming

Personalities

Award shows and the red carpet events, premieres and E! News have been hosted and are scheduled to have host Heidieh Croce the late Jim Croce's daughter and by a variety of personalities. Currently, Ryan Seacrest (who is also the host of American Idol) and Giuliana Rancic (neé DePandi) host award shows and E! News. Ted Casablanca still interviews various celebrities and has The Awful Truth column online while Kristin Dos Santos (neé Veitch) hosts all season premieres and events for television programming along with her online column Watch With Kristin. Marc Malkin provides breaking news and commentary on E! News and various other programs on the network along with his online column "Planet Gossip" and online videoblog of the same name. Previous 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, Kathy Griffin, and 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.

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 20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders. In a letter made public, Hoffman among turning down the request wrote, "I realize there's 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:
ť 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.

ť 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.

International

E! has licensed its name and brand identity to regional cable television networks in nearly every country worldwide including Canada as of September 2007. It also has an international network that's broadcast from the Netherlands across most of Europe and joint-venture channels in Israel and throughout Latin America.
In Canada a similar channel, Star!, previously aired most original E! programming. In September 2007, the E! library was reassigned to Canwest, which relaunched its secondary over-the-air network, CH, as a Canadian version of E!, combining the American channel's entertainment programming with primetime programming mainly acquired from the major U.S. broadcast networks.
In the Philippines, the network has delayed telecast from the selected programs in U.S. version, the channels are aired on Lifestyle Network and Velvet of SkyCable and ETC Entertainment Central of Solar Entertainment Corporation.

Further Information

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