Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 7 July 2017
NBC’s Richard Engel steps

out with themed series

By DAVID BAUDER The idea is for “On Assign- on in the rest of the world
AP Television Writer ment” to be a limited se- and how it relates to the
NEW YORK (AP) — Foreign ries, in television parlance. United States.
correspondent Richard He’ll do four episodes over “It’s exactly the right time
Engel is borrowing Rachel a month, then return peri- to do it,” Griffin said.
Maddow’s MSNBC time slot odically for more. For at least its first run, En-
on Friday nights over the While Engel is expected gel gets the equivalent of
In this May 31, 2015 file photo, NBC News foreign correspondent next month for to appear live for each prime real estate in the time
Richard Engel attends the 74th Annual Peabody Awards in New “On Assignment,” a series show’s opening, an epi- slot of Maddow, now often
York. that sets aside cable news sode’s centerpiece will be cable news’ most popular
Associated Press chatter for deeply reported prepared stories by him personality, whose issue-
stories about world affairs. and other correspondents, oriented show would ap-
The first edition this week tied together by theme. pear to be a good match.
focuses on Vladimir Pu- \His second episode will Engel appears often on
tin’s Russia, using the news focus on Iraq, hence his lo- Maddow’s show and says
hook of Putin’s meeting Fri- cation for an interview this those experiences are
day with President Donald week. mentioned most frequently
Trump. “This is not just a studio show when he’s recognized by
“I’ve wanted to do some- where I sit in a studio in New viewers on the street.
thing like this for a long York or London and get a “When it comes to explain-
time,” Engel said by phone bunch of experts to pontifi- ing world events and Amer-
this week from Iraq. He’s cate about the subjects of ica’s role in them, Richard
expanding some of the re- the week,” he said. is better at that than any-
porting he routinely does Even as talk of domestic one in the business, by far,”
for NBC’s “Nightly News” politics dominates airtime Maddow said.
for a longer format in a se- on American cable net- “Our audience loves him.
ries loosely modeled on his works, MSNBC President He’s the only guest on my
November 2014 special on Phil Griffin said he believes show for whom I regularly
Kobani, Syria’s fight against there’s a hunger among get fan mail.”q
ISIS. viewers to see what’s going

Ava DuVernay to create ‘Central Park

Five’ drama for Netflix

NEW YORK (AP) — Netflix
says the historic case of
the Central Park Five will be
brought to life in a limited
series to be written and di-
rected by Ava DuVernay.
The five-episode drama
will be based on the true
story of five teenagers from
Harlem who were wrongly
convicted of raping Trisha
Meili while she was jogging
in New York’s Central Park.
Each part will focus on one
of the five teens, spanning
from spring 1989, when
each was first questioned, This May 20, 2017 file photo shows director Ava DuVernay at the
to 2014, when they were 76th Annual Peabody Awards in New York.
exonerated.q Associated Press

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