Entertainment Tonight turned 20 this season, but what gifts do you give a show that has everything?
After notching its 218th consecutive week as the top-rated magazine strip (a 5.6 for the period ending Sept. 17, according to Nielsen Media Research), the show will get a new set, crafted by Oscar, Grammy and Emmy design alum Bob Keene.
"There's no telling reason off the top of our heads to say that we have to fix this show," says Terry Wood, Paramount Domestic Television's vice president of programming. "But the 20th season was a great time to stop and say, 'How can we keep doing what we're doing and do it even better?'"
Well, you can get Keene, who won an Emmy this year for designing last year's Grammy Awards, to add encrusted ice-glass detailing and eight plasma screens-"something that I've never seen before on television," says Linda Bell Blue, ET's executive producer.
However, ET anchors Mary Hart and Bob Goen stay. "This is a fresh look for the same Entertainment Tonight that millions of people watch every night," says Blue.
Besides beauty, the set's multiple screens will also provide function, allowing ET to integrate more Internet elements into its story segments. "It wasn't about creating a glitzy set," says Paramount's Wood. He says he hopes viewers come away thinking, "They fixed their place up a bit and it sure looks nice."
