Line #22 Series/EntertainmentTonight


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Entertainment_Tonight_8889.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:Mary Hart and an adorable friend.]]
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4	''Entertainment Tonight'' is a magazine-format journalistic television series, created by Al Masini in 1981 and originally produced and distributed by Creator/{{Paramount}}, featuring Mary Hart and John Tesh and a score of other hosts and reporters discussing the recent news in Hollywood. A major enabler of the HollywoodHypeMachine, as well as a tabloid journal, it's a mixture of hype, interviews, and sensationalism about the latest rumors and dating habits of the rich and famous. Airs daily in half-hour segments, and has done so for years. Country-specific spin-offs have popped up in the UK, Canada, Brazil, and others. The show is now produced and distributed by Creator/{{ViacomCBS}}, which replaced Paramount successor CBS Paramount Television after the CBS-Creator/{{Viacom}} breakup in 2005; the two companies re-merged in 2019.
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7	!!This series contains examples of:
8	* EveryEpisodeEnding: Before they would end the program, they would do a birthday announcement.
9	* {{Fanfare}}: Composed by Michael Mark.
10	* {{Fanservice}}: Movies featuring strippers or bikinis will get a ''lot'' more hype than you'd normally expect. When ''Film/{{Striptease}}'' was coming out, ''ET'' literally did ''weeks'' of hype, chatting up every single star of the movie, showing as many clips of Demi Moore's fit body doing strip-teases in bikinis, and nearly taking everything off. When the movie bombed, they simply dropped it and moved on to something else. John Tesh actually hated covering these types of stories, and it proved to be a major factor in him departing in 1996 and being replaced by weekend co-anchor Bob Goen.
11	* HollywoodHypeMachine: Pretty much its sole purpose is to "hype" the latest movies, music, and television, doing interviews with the stars, and general promotion. It worked hand-in-hand with the Hollywood studios to create new stars (it was a ''major'' proponent of Matthew [=McConaughey=] when he was supposed to be the "Next Big Thing", and constantly touted him as such) and make big hits. It was mutually beneficial, because after all, without hype, the movies might fail, and if the movies fail, ''ET'' wouldn't have as much to talk about. It wasn't always just hype, however, especially during the first two years, when Jim Bellows served as managing editor. Under Bellows' watch, in addition to general entertainment promotion, the show would frequently feature investigative reports about the entertainment industry's drug use and hiring practices.[[note]] Not really surprising since Bellows previously had a long and storied career in legitimate journalism, which in addition to working on ''ET'', also included serving as editor of the ''New York Herald Tribune'' (1961-1967), associate editor of the ''Los Angeles Times'' (1967-1974), editor of the ''Washington Star'' (1975-1978), and editor of the ''Los Angeles Herald Examiner'' (1978-1981). In fact, Bellows' investigative stories were so recognized in the industry, that after ''ET'''s second season ended in 1983, ABC News president Roone Arledge asked him to serve as executive editor for the network's nightly newscast, ''World News Tonight with Peter Jennings''. Bellows accepted and served in that role until 1986.[[/note]]
12	* MagazineShow: One of the Trope Codifiers.
13	* {{Paparazzi}}: A lot of footage of celebrities came from them for many years; has been tamped down as new management came in and decided to finally stop out-TMZ'ing TMZ before they lost many celebrities from even contributing to the program. Celebrity-run social media accounts have also helped push this type of footage off ''ET''.
14	* SignificantBirthDate: At the end of each episode, They would announce a list of celebrity birthdays.
15	* SpinOff: Multiple versions in various markets, and ''The Insider'', another show of the same ilk.
16	* TabloidMelodrama: Since 1999, when the staffers at sister show ''Hard Copy'' lost their jobs and needed a place to work elsewhere on the Paramount lot, the show has had a lot of this. After the executive producer of the show from then until 2014, Linda Bell Blue was finally gently nudged out the door, the tabloid content has also quietly been pushed away.
17	* {{Unperson}}: Unless a program is very dominant in the ratings, don't expect {{Creator/Fox}} or {{Creator/NBC}}'s TV shows to be promoted here (in the latter case especially, as the NBC-produced SpiritedCompetitor ''Access Hollywood'' claims dibs for their shows), appropriate for a show produced by {{Creator/CBS}}'s syndication division and aired on many {{Creator/ABC}} stations; both networks get the bulk of ''ET'' attention for television series promotion; however, all this was not the case during the show's first decade on the air, when all three (later four) network's output gained equal attention.
18	* WolverinePublicity: The show seems to think that ''Film/TheBigChill'', a 1983 film about baby boomers, is the greatest film of all time and has days of footage about it. Every time a year ending in "3" or "8" or a new home media release comes around, expect to be reminded of how this movie only thought of by most as filler on {{Creator/HBO}} or Creator/USANetwork is the best two hours ever put to celluloid by this program.

Context Series / EntertainmentTonight