Looks like Forbes is angling to be the next Entertainment Tonight.
After finding success with weekend business gabfest Forbes on Fox on Fox News Channel, the venerable business publisher has its sights set on syndication gold.
According to a source inside the Forbes operation, the publication is developing a pilot for a daily entertainment/lifestyle/business show spotlighting the gilded lives of the leisure class and evoking the blue-blood sensibility of its ForbesLife title (formerly Forbes FYI).
The project gained steam after Forbes Celebrity 100, a one-off special on E!, performed well a couple of weeks ago. Bruce Perlmutter, a veteran of ABC News, CNN and most recently MSNBC, has been brought in to executive-produce.
No talent has been attached, but there’s talk that ForbesLife editor and author Christopher Buckley may have an on-camera role in the project.
A Forbes spokesperson declined to comment. But word is that the folks at Forbes are looking for a first-run daily syndication deal and hope to have something to shop at the National Association of Television Programming Executives powwow in Las Vegas next January.
But with mainstays like ET, Extra and Access Hollywood crowding the field, Forbes may want to stick with cable.
