Check out some bits about NASCAR layoffs, some crew chief moves and some driver news….
End of the 2011 NASCAR Season Brings Layoffs at Roush
In a sad bit of business news, layoffs at Roush Fenway Racing started to kick in on Tuesday, 11-22-11. Word on the street that as many as 100 folks were being cut, many of whom, are losing their jobs because the No. 6 Ford of David Ragan will not be on the track in 2012, as Roush is cutting that car from the program.
Jack Roush himself said there’s a 40% chance of Ragan returning to RFR.
As noted, in an economic rough spot, it’s a bad time, but primary sponsor contracts were expiring with Roush and UPS and Crown Royal didn’t want to foot the bill for an entire hood by themselves. Not sure what it costs these days, but I’ve seen numbers between $10 and $15 million to sit on a hood all year. ouch!
UPS will be an associate sponsor for Carl Edwards in 2012. Maybe that will help deliver a title for Carl! (Sorry, I couldn’t help it.) Crown Royal is putting its sponsor money behind the Indianapolis Brickyard 400.
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NASCAR Contracts
The bit wait is over and Carl Edwards is staying with Roush Fenway Racing. For a while fans were worried that Edwards was going to be moving on from the organization who went out on a limb and gave him his opportunity to race in NASCAR, but alas, he did.
The consensus was that since we had not heard news of his renewal, that he was moving on. And, as indicated per Sirius-XM, he was representing himself. So I had been wondering what would happen.
Part of that contract renewal also would be that he won’t be running a full-time NASCAR Nationwide Series season, but instead, wants to focus on the Cup side of things.
He’s one of the top go-to drivers in NASCAR, despite his propensity for how he races/treats his competitors, but in the end, he’s chosen to stay where he got his racing career break.
This also frees up other parties around the garage who were wondering if his ride was going to open up or not at Roush Fenway.
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Grey’s Anatomy News
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With most of the cast’ contracts coming due by the end of season 8 of Grey’s Anatomy, you’d think that with the popularity of the show, everyone would be on board.
Yet Patrick Dempsey must have other, bigger plans and has said that he will be leaving the show after the end of season 8. Season 7 just finished up and left us with a doozy.
On top of Patrick Dempsey‘s announcement, exec producer Shonda Rhimes has also said that the 8th season of the the series was what she was planning to be the last for the original cast. But then she followed that up with “It might be the last hurrah for a lot of them; you never know.”
Rhimes is messing with our heads.
I can see most of the cast going on after season 8, if for anything, the fact that it’s a paying gig and the last time I checked, not too many folks walk out on paying gigs.
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It is definitely good to be Shemar Moore, who plays Derek Morgan in the CBS hit crime-drama, Criminal Minds. It was TV Guide that reported that Shemar Moore is returning to the show and has closed a new deal that has doubled his salary on the show. DOUBLED!
As it stands right now, everyone but Thomas Gibson has re-upped their contracts for Criminal Minds.
I’d worry about such a huge pay raise. That kind of change, even if the fans and the actor think its warranted, could become a contention point for cost of production down the road, if the franchise ever gets on shaky ground. I’m not expecting that, but it definitely could be the case.
I’ve always had an uneducated guess that spin-offs are cheaper versions of the original that can be used as leverage against the first show, if negotiations got tricky! But that’s just me and my paranoid business-minded thoughts!
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A.J. Cook News
In case you had not heard the news or missed it, there’s been great news on the horizon for A.J. Cook fans, and that is that A.J. Cook will be reprising her role of J.J. on Criminal Minds.
You will be seeing A.J. Cook in the Criminal Minds May 18th season finale and be back on staff full time, come the subsequent returning season.
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Remember all that talk from Robert Sean Leonard about wanting to move home and such, and then the fans started to worry we won’t see his character on House any more? Worry no longer.
Word on the street is that Robert Sean Leonard and Omar Epps have sealed the deal to return to the next season of House M.D., on Fox.
Lisa Edelstein has yet to resign, but expectations are positive.
Hugh Laurie and Olivia Wilde still have active contracts that will take them through next season.
As far as the show goes, the other word on the street is that Fox and the series production company, Universal Media Studios, will be finalizing their deal by close of business today (5/10).
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Jayski’s wrote up a bit about the current values of various NASCAR entities based off of a piece from Forbes online. I found it interesting. Forbes reported that NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series team, Hendrick Motorsports was the highest valued team, weighing in with a current value of $350 million, with a revenue stream of about $177M and an operating income of about $18M.
Behind HMS was Roush Fenway Racing, whose estimated value was at $224M, with a revenue of $140M and an operating income of almost $9M.
RFR was followed by Richard Childress Racing, whose value clocked in at $158M, $90M in revenue, & almost $6m in operating income.
At the bottom of the 10 team list was Red Bull Racing, with $58M, $48M 7 -$2.8M.
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For drivers, it’s no surprise to see reported that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the highest paid driver in the series, pulling in $29M annually, last year. His income streams also include a 50% take on winnings & bonuses, plus his huge assortment of product endorsement contracts which include Chevy, Nationwide and Wrangler.
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The other day I was trolling the Twitter-verse and came across a great bit of insight on how a network handles different aspects of a series, in particular, the focus was on nabbing reruns. In this case, the Twitter account Syfy, with Craig Engler’s name attached, was what I was reading. On occasion he answers fans tweeted questions and on this occasion, I thought you folks would love to hear this.
The question presented to the Syfy Twitter account was “Any chance we could get Star Trek Voyager on the network?”
Response(s):
To license older series a few things have to happen. First, rights must be avail. Rights for popular series are usually in demand & tied up
If rights become avail, they’ll go to the highest bidder, so then it becomes a question of, at what $ do they make financial sense?
The Star Trek series are usually in demand, as they tend to rate pretty well and there are a lot of episodes. Thus harder to get.
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Hmm, I’m guessing no is the overall answer. But as you can see, rights to a property are very special, much coveted items that can spell success or failure for everyone involved. How one handles those rights, or contract of the property, is very important.
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Aric Almirola to JRM
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Marty Smith of ESPN reported that Aric Almirola will start driving for JR Motorsports (JRM), starting in 2011, with the possibility of maybe getting some seat time in the late part of this, the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series season.
The contract is a multi-year deal.
Good for him. I think he deserves this chance and I have a gut feeling he’ll show folks just how much of a wheel-man he is.
[ESPN]
The cards have been dealt and the deals have been set for A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster on Criminal Minds.
A.J. Cook will be wrapping up her character’s place in Criminal Minds in the first couple of episodes in the early part of the season.
Paget Brewster will be in many of the episodes next season. Possibly as many as 17.
Cook’s character will be replaced by a new, regular female character sometime next season. Which miffs me that they’re ousting Cook to bring someone else in. I can only suspect salary was the deciding factor, amongst many other unknowns.
I’m bummed. [Deadline Hollywood]
The Criminal Minds Store on Amazon
I’m sure you guys already know this, but Sci Fi Wire is reporting that the studios are breaking up the Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn movie into 2 movies. It’s been rumored for quite some time but it became official just a few days ago. The question is where will the split the Twilight book at to make it 2 movies?
SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BREAKING DAWN (Marked with warning Red below after the page break)
Crap… that’s me, I have to stop typin…….
Word on the street was the fans weren’t fans of the 4th book as much as the previous books, but somehow Summit Entertainment thinks making it into 2 different movies will improve the fan appeal of the book that some didn’t like. The logic escapes me because it seems they’ve just made 2 of something folks weren’t happy with, but I haven’t read the books and I don’t know what percentage of the fans didn’t like it, so maybe this would work.
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