‘Entertainment Tonight’ extends brand into world of streaming with ET Live

Similar to its approach with sports and news, CBS has created a new 24/7 streaming entertainment channel leveraging the “Entertainment Tonight” brand.

Launched on Oct. 31, 2018, ET Live is available online, on mobile and on popular television streaming devices like Roku and Apple TV.

The streaming service will focus on breaking entertainment news and original programming, such as celebrity interviews, features, red carpet coverage and stories on trending topics.

“For almost four decades, ‘Entertainment Tonight’ has set the gold standard for entertainment news, utilizing our unique access to celebrities and sets to bring original reporting and great storytelling to every defining pop culture and entertainment topic and event,” said Becky Brooks of CBS Television Distribution in a statement. “We were the first to invent the daily entertainment news genre, and now the first to bring an always-on, 24/7 entertainment streaming channel to serve our expanding audience of loyal and new viewers.”

The virtual set of ET Live.

ET Live shoots at The Switch in Burbank and features a virtual set design from John Casey, with real-time integration from Full Mental Jacket.

Avid’s Maestro | Live powers the virtual set with Ross Video’s Furio for camera robotics and Ross Xpression for on-air graphics.

Lauren Zima, Denny Directo, Cassie DiLaura, Tanner Thomason, Jason Carter and Melicia Johnson will rotate hosting duties with primary “Entertainment Tonight” hosts Nancy O’Dell and Kevin Frazier making regular appearances.

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The move into OTT for “ET” follows CBSN and CBS Sports HQ, which share a similar web interface and video programming format, mixing live hits with pre-recorded content similar to HLN’s old “newswheel” format.

While the ET Live service will be cross-promoted with the flagship program and share some segments, the primary “Entertainment Tonight” show will remain an exclusive asset of local television stations, typically airing between local programming and network primetime.