TV Land and Entertainment Weekly Join Forces to Count Down the 50 Greatest TV Icons

TV Land and Entertainment Weekly Join Forces to Count Down the 50 Greatest TV Icons

Two-Hour Special Premieres on TV Land on Friday, November 16 at 8 P.M. (ET/PT)

List Prominently Featured in Entertainment Weekly on Newsstands November 16

TVLand.com and EW.com to Feature Sneak Peeks from Special, Extended Celebrity Interviews and Games

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- From Jerry Seinfeld to Oprah Winfrey to Johnny Carson, there are some individuals who have made their indelible mark in TV history. They are the trailblazers, the game changers and the legends. They are the TV icons. TV Land and America's leading consumer magazine of entertainment and popular culture, Entertainment Weekly, have joined forces to put together a definitive list of the greatest, most beloved and recognized classic and contemporary TV icons of all time with the premiere of Entertainment Weekly and TV Land Present: The 50 Greatest TV Icons, on Friday, November 16 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The list will be revealed in a two-hour TV Land Original special and in Entertainment Weekly's annual DVD issue on stands that day. The magazine feature celebrates each icon's contribution to television along with DVD recommendations from each of the icons' work. The TV special is produced by Gay Rosenthal Productions.

The 50 Greatest TV Icons features original talent interviews and archival clips of the celebrities who made the list as well as those who have been deeply influenced by them. From Lucille Ball to Simon Cowell and Susan Lucci to Homer Simpson, this countdown special showcases the stars who made a huge impact on television and continue to stand the test of time.

Viewers will be invited to text their choices for who they believe should be the #1 icon during the special's premiere. Viewers' top picks will be featured throughout the show with the final tabulated #1 viewers' choice revealed at the end of the show.

"TV Land creates original programming that truly speaks to that 40- something crowd and The 50 Greatest Icons is a testament to that," states Larry W. Jones, President, TV Land. "We are thrilled to be able to partner with Entertainment Weekly, whose rich expertise in pop culture and entertainment brings this special to a whole new level."

Added Rick Tetzeli, Managing Editor, Entertainment Weekly: "We are always looking for new and innovative ways to extend our brand for our readers. We are excited to be partnering with TV Land on this special as it taps into the unparalleled expertise of our television editors and takes that great content from the magazine to television and the web."

   ONLINE   TVLand.com  

TV Land's newly redesigned website -- TVLand.com -- will offer special content for fans throughout the month of November to celebrate The 50 Greatest TV Icons. On November 1, the site will feature a sneak peek of the special and classic clips featuring some of the top icons featured in the show. TVLand.com will also allow users to choose their own list of top 50 icons. Once they have made their selection, they can share it with a friend and see how other fans have ranked the 50. The site will also have a message board where fans can debate their choices. On November 16, TVLand.com will also feature a complete list of the top 100 greatest icons as chosen by TV Land and Entertainment Weekly, as well as a video gallery of extended celebrity interviews from the special, a TV trivia game, and a photo gallery of the icons.

EW.com

As part of Entertainment Weekly's multi-platform rollout, EW.com - the magazine's award-winning website - will take The 50 Greatest TV Icons terrific premise and content to a new level with a four-part, interactive companion site. For starters, EW.com visitors will be asked to nominate via blog entries their personal choices for the Top 50 Icons. Once the nominations are in, Entertainment Weekly fans will then have the unique opportunity to participate in an innovative interactive bracket game that allows EW.com visitors to select from the 64 fan-generated nominations and choose the ultimate TV icon. For those visitors simply wanting to take a stroll down memory lane, EW.com will also present a four-part gallery of the Top 100 Icons featuring Entertainment Weekly's stunning photography as well as memorable screengrabs from some of yesterday and today's biggest television hits. And for those looking to sneak a rare peek behind-the-pages of Entertainment Weekly, EW.com will post a captivatingly funny and insightful video that builds upon the two- hour TV Land Original special and features the magazine's editors discussing their top TV icons as well as several celebrities (including a few featured icons) discussing their favorite icons.

The 50 Greatest TV Icons is a Gay Rosenthal Production produced exclusively for TV Land. Executive Producers are Gay Rosenthal and Paul Barrosse from Gay Rosenthal Productions and Sal Maniaci, Senior Vice President, TV Land, Development and Original Production. Nicholas Caprio of Gay Rosenthal Productions is Co-Executive Producer.

TV Land continues to build the ultimate entertainment brand on all platforms for consumers in their 40s and 50s. Armed with a slate of original programming, newly acquired classic and contemporary TV, hit movies and its redesigned website -- TVLand.com -- the network is uniquely positioned to superserve the first generation of Americans who grew up alongside television. The network's program mix features original programming, popular dramas, sitcoms and westerns in a fun-filled, pop culture environment featuring a roster of popular shows including All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Andy Griffith Show and Just Shoot Me, which joins TV Land in January, 2008. In the coming months, the network will roll out a slate of new original series' such as High School Reunion, She's Got The Look, Family Foreman and The Big 4-0. TVLand.com, the network's Emmy Award-winning website, is devoted to all aspects of entertainment including TV, music and movies and features full- length episodes, a movie trailer database and over a dozen radio stations. TV Land is now seen in over 90 million U.S. homes.

About MTV Networks

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B) , is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. MTV Networks, with more than 140 channels worldwide, owns and operates the following television programming services - MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION, MTV2, VH1, mtvU, NICKELODEON, NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT, NOGGIN/THE N, VH1 CLASSIC, MTVN INTERNATIONAL and THE DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV NETWORKS, a package of 13 digital services, all of these networks trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks connects with its audiences through its robust consumer products businesses and its more than 300 interactive properties worldwide, including online, broadband, wireless and interactive television services and also has licensing agreements, joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its programming services can be seen worldwide.

Entertainment Weekly, a winner of four National Magazine Awards is America's leading consumer magazine of entertainment and popular culture. The magazine is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., and has a guaranteed circulation rate base of 1.725 million reaching an audience of 10.7 million readers. EW.com, winner of MPA's best entertainment website of the year, is one of the most popular and most comprehensive sites for online entertainment coverage. EW.com's homepage contains unique, online-only content - articles, photo galleries, reviews, Q&As and blog items, etc. - plus a complete archive of Entertainment Weekly magazine.

Source: TV Land

CONTACT: Jennifer Zaldivar, +1-212-846-8964,
Jennifer.zaldivar@tvland.com, or Rachel Sandler, +1-212-846-4412,
Rachel.sandler@tvland.com, or Vanessa Reyes, +1-310-752-8081,
Vanessa.reyes@tvland.com, all of TV Land; or Barrie Gordon of Entertainment
Weekly, +1-212-522-2752, barrie_gordon@ew.com

Web site: http://tvland.com/
http://ew.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment