Deadline.com is expanding its film and television awards coverage for the 2010-2011 season and beyond. Mail.com Media Corporation’s Jay Penske and Deadline.com’s Nikki Finke today announced the hiring of Pete Hammond, the well-known Los Angeles Times/The Envelope’s “Notes On A Season” blog columnist and former Variety contributor who is widely considered the preeminent awards season commentator for film and television. Effective immediately, he becomes the Deadline.com Awards Columnist. His breaking news and analysis will also be offered on Movieline.com to reach a consumer audience as well as Deadline’s industry readership. Hammond also will be contributing original columns to Deadline|Hollywood’s five planned print newsletters during this awards season. It is Deadline’s intention to own the awards space, helped by Pete’s unique understanding of the behind-the-scenes of this very specialized process when the entertainment industry is fixated on grabbing the gold.
With the 2010 hiring of top journalism talents Mike Fleming, Nellie Andreeva, Tim Adler, and now Pete Hammond, Deadline.com continues its next phase of editorial expansion to dominate the Hollywood news and commentary arena in both film and television so the website can remain a “must-read” for influencers and leaders in the global entertainment and media business. Hammond’s status and reputation fit perfectly with the Deadline.com tradition of shattering the mold of traditional reporting and creating a new paradigm for delivering news and opinion with New Media immediacy.
“We are thrilled that Pete has joined our talented team at Deadline.com,” commented MMC Founder and CEO, Jay Penske. “He has become one of the entertainment industry’s most prominent and visible awards journalists during his tenure at the Los Angeles Times –and we felt it was essential for Deadline.com to address the needs of our audience, partners, and advertisers by hiring someone of Pete’s caliber to continue our site’s ascendancy.”
Said Finke, Deadline’s General Manager and Editor-in-Chief: “I realized that if Deadline Hollywood was going to offer expanded awards season coverage, we had to find someone of Mike’s, Nellie’s, and Tim’s caliber. Pete Hammond is a very well-established brand in this arena, and he’s among the most knowledgeable and insightful people on film and television I’ve ever encountered. If awards season is Hollywood’s Super Bowl, then Pete is the quarterback calling many of the plays. I am delighted that Jay and I could convince him to come over because hiring Pete is a game changer for Deadline|Hollywood.”
Said Hammond, “I am thrilled to bring my views and news on the Hollywood awards scene to readers of Deadline and Movieline and to be working with Jay, Nikki, and Charles and everyone at MMC in making it all happen starting this season. While I loved writing for the Los Angeles Times/The Envelope, I am really looking forward to ramping it up and taking it to the next level on two of the web’s premier sites.”
“Having Pete on board gives a whole new dimension to our academy strategy for both Deadline Hollywood and Movieline. His depth of knowledge and relationships in the industry is unparalleled,” said Lynne Segall, Publisher & Vice President of MMC entertainment. “It is fantastic to have one of the town’s foremost awards experts on our team.”
Pete Hammond is a writer, producer, movie critic, and film historian. During Hollywood’s awards season in recent years, he has been a regular contributing columnist for the online and print editions of the Los Angeles Times/The Envelope, where he wrote the well-read “Notes On A Season” blog. He formerly was a regular contributor to Variety about the Cannes Film Festival, AFI Fest, Golden Globes, and Academy Awards. His film and TV analysis and commentary has appeared in print, on air, and online for numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, NBC Nightly News, the CBC, and the BBC. Additionally, Pete hosts the extremely popular year-round KCET Cinema Series and is the instructor for UCLA Extension’s Sneak Preview Winter Session where he shows films prior to release and interviews the filmmakers.
His unique and renowned interviewing and moderating skills have been utilized by Variety for their Annual Awards Screening Series as well as by the American Film Institute, American Cinematheque, the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild Of America, the Writers Guild Of America, the Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences, and BAFTA, in addition to film festivals and entertainment conferences around the world. Pete recently has been a regular on-camera presence profiling celebrities on the Biography Channel’s series “Famous” and the longtime Contributing Editor for the bestselling Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. He was also co-author of Behind the Silver Screen. He is the recipient of five Emmy nominations for his television writing and served four years on the TV Academy’s Board of Governors representing writers. Prior to becoming an awards season analyst and film critic, Pete was a full-time consultant to the AMC Network.