"TV Land Awards" 10th Anniversary to be Hosted by Kelly Ripa; Aretha Franklin to Receive Music Icon Award

Star-Studded Event Returns To New York City, Taping Saturday, April 14th And Airing Sunday, April 29th

NEW YORK, March 5, 2012 -- The "TV Land Awards 2012," honoring classic television, film and music icons, will return to New York City and be hosted by Kelly Ripa (nationally syndicated talk show "LIVE! With Kelly"), it was announced today by Larry W. Jones, president, TV Land. Ripa previously hosted the show in 2007.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the awards show will honor powerhouse songstress Aretha Franklin with the Music Icon Award and will be held at the Lexington Avenue Armory at Gramercy Park on Saturday, April 14th. The "TV Land Awards 2012" will air on Sunday, April 29th at 9:00pm ET/PT. More honorees will be announced in coming weeks.

"We are ecstatic to welcome back Kelly as she reprises her role as host of the 'TV Land Awards' this year for our 10th annual celebration," said Jones. "Her energy, enthusiasm and love of television make her the perfect person to lead the evening on the occasion of our 10th Anniversary."

The successful "TV Land Awards" has scored a decade of success including the record-breaking numbers from the "TV Land Awards 2011," which attracted over 2 million viewers for its premiere telecast. The star-studded special, which was held last year in New York City for the very first time, was the highest rated "TV Land Awards" show since 2004 across all key demos and posted double-digit gains in rating and delivery over preceding shows.

The "TV Land Awards" pays tribute to classic and contemporary luminaries of television, music and movies. The 90-minute telecast will feature exhilarating musical performances and will reunite some of the most iconic celebrity TV casts.

Previous honorees include Regis Philbin, Michael J. Fox, John Travolta, Bill Cosby, Mike Myers, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Garry Marshall, the cast of "Glee," "Desperate Housewives" and the hilarious sitcoms "Cheers," "The Cosby Show," "Family Ties," "The Facts of Life," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Bosom Buddies," "Welcome Back, Kotter," "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "M*A*S*H*." Past presenters include Academy Award©-winner Halle Berry, Barbara Walters, Justin Timberlake, Ray Romano, Steve Carell, Billy Crystal, Sharon Stone, Robin Williams and Academy Award©-nominee Robert Downey, Jr., to name a few.

Past musical performers include Liza Minnelli, Stevie Wonder, Blondie, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson and Lionel Richie.

Michael Levitt ("Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List," "Billboard Music Awards," "Scream Awards") is executive producer; Five-time Emmy Award©-winning Glenn Weiss is director ("Primetime Emmy Awards," "BET Awards," "The Tony Awards"); Greg Sills serves as supervising producer ("VH1 Rock Honors," "The Teen Choice Awards," "Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards") and TV Land's Larry W. Jones and Casey Patterson are executive producers. Tim Bruno is executive in charge of production for TV Land.

TV Land and all related logos and titles are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.

About TV Land

TV Land is the programming destination featuring the best in entertainment on all platforms for consumers in their 40s and 50s. Consisting of original programming, classic and contemporary television series acquisitions, hit movies and a full-service Web site, TV Land is now seen in over 98 million U.S. homes.

About Viacom

Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB) is home to the world's premier entertainment brands that connect with audiences through compelling content across television, motion picture, online and mobile platforms in more than 160 countries and territories.

With approximately 170 media networks reaching more than 600 million global subscribers, Viacom's leading brands include MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, BET, CENTRIC, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, Nick at Nite, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV Land, Spike TV and Tr3s. Paramount Pictures, America's oldest film studio and creator of many of the most beloved motion pictures, continues today as a major global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment. Viacom operates a large portfolio of branded digital media experiences, including many of the world's most popular properties for entertainment, community and casual online gaming.

For more information about Viacom and its businesses, visit www.viacom.com .

SOURCE TV Land

Tony Bennett: Duets II, Behind the Scenes of the Legendary Singer's History-Making Number One Album, on THIRTEEN's Great Performances Friday, January 27 at 9 p.m. on PBS

Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Michael Buble, k.d. lang, Aretha Franklin, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Queen Latifah, Norah Jones, Josh Groban, Natalie Cole, Andrea Bocelli, Faith Hill, Alejandro Sanz, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse join Bennett in the studio

NEW YORK, Dec. 27, 2011 -- Tony Bennett made music history with the Grammy-nominated CD Duets II when it debuted at the top of the Billboard Album charts, making Bennett the oldest vocal artist ever to achieve the number one spot. Recently nominated for three Grammys, including Best Traditional Pop Vocal, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), the critically acclaimed album followed the 85-year-old singer's Grammy-winning 2006 Duets CD, which had, in turn, been released in honor of his 80th birthday.

Tony Bennett: Duets II , a presentation of THIRTEEN's Great Performances, features the singer's greatest hits, performed by Bennett and today's biggest stars, including John Mayer, Michael Buble, k.d. lang, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Queen Latifah, Norah Jones, Josh Groban, Faith Hill, Alejandro Sanz, Carrie Underwood and more.

The sessions, filmed to capture the magic of these performers singing with the master of the Great American Songbook, airs on Friday, January 27, 2012, at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).

Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America's most prolific and respected public media providers. For nearly 50 years, WNET has been producing and broadcasting national and local arts programming to the New York community.

The album took more than six months to record, with each track recorded face-to-face with his singer partners in studios around the world, from LA to Nashville to London. Among the many highlights is Amy Winehouse's last recorded track ("Body and Soul"), which was produced in London's famous Abbey Road Studios in March. Other tracks were recorded in New York in late July: the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart classic, "The Lady Is a Tramp," with Lady Gaga, and the Alan and Marilyn Bergman classic, "How Do You Keep the Music Playing," with Aretha Franklin , and "Stranger in Paradise," with Andrea Bocelli , recorded at the singer's Italian home (see full track listing below).

The CD received kudos from all quarters. The Wall Street Journal noted that the singer was "…constantly reaffirming his position as pop music's greatest living patriarch," and Associated Press observed, "Tony Bennett is as timeless as the songs he sings on 'Duets II.'"

The musical segments are highlighted by insights on the process from the performers, making for an up-close look at one of the year's most celebrated recordings. The sessions were filmed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe ("Chicago," "Memoirs of a Geisha," "Collateral"), providing a personal, behind-the-scenes look at Bennett's latest collaborations and his artistic approach with each song.

Entering his seventh decade as a recording artist with more than 100 albums and 15 Grammy Awards including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Bennett has earned his legendary status many times over. He remains the Columbia recording artist with the greatest longevity at the label. His 2007 primetime special, "Tony Bennett: An American Classic," won seven Emmy Awards and was directed by Academy Award winner Rob Marshall.

He has performed for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama. He also worked with and marched alongside Martin Luther King in his 1965 civil rights march and was honored with the Martin Luther King's Salute to Greatness Award.

In addition to performing, he is a visual artist as well, with three of his original paintings featured in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian, including his portraits of Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. His humanitarian efforts are renowned, and the United Nations honored him with their Humanitarian Award in 2007.

He has published three books — his autobiography, The Good Life, and two collections of his paintings, Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen and Tony Bennett in the Studio: A Life of Art and Music. Bennett founded, in association with the Department of Education in New York City, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts — a public arts high school in his hometown of Astoria, Queens. With his wife, Susan, he established Exploring the Arts, a charitable organization that supports arts education in NYC public high schools. Exploring the Arts supports 14 public high schools throughout New York City.

In the fall of 2007, a documentary of Bennett's life and career, produced by Clint Eastwood, "Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends," aired on THIRTEEN's American Masters on PBS.

The full song program follows:

"The Lady Is a Tramp" (Lady Gaga)
"One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" (John Mayer)
"Body and Soul" (Amy Winehouse)
"Don't Get Around Much Anymore" (Michael Buble)
"Blue Velvet" (k.d. lang)
"How Do You Keep the Music Playing" (Aretha Franklin)
"The Girl I Love" (Sheryl Crow)
"On the Sunny Side of the Street" (Willie Nelson)
"Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)" (Queen Latifah)
"Speak Low" (Norah Jones)
"This Is All I Ask" (Josh Groban)
"Watch What Happens" (Natalie Cole)
"Stranger in Paradise" (Andrea Bocelli)
"The Way You Look Tonight" (Faith Hill)
"Yesterday I Heard the Rain" (Alejandro Sanz)
"It Had to Be You" (Carrie Underwood)

Great Performances is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the Starr Foundation, the Filomen M. D'Agostino Foundation, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, public television viewers, and PBS.

Tony Bennett: Duets II is produced by RPM TV Productions, Inc. For Great Performances , Bill O'Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

Visit Great Performances Online at www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information about this and other programs.

KNEW YOU WERE WAITING: THE BEST OF ARETHA FRANKLIN 1980-1998

QUEEN OF SOUL'S 70th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATED WITH 16-SONG COLLECTION SPOTLIGHTING HER FIRST 18 YEARS AS AN ARISTA ARTIST

FROM 1980'S "UNITED TOGETHER" TO 1998'S "ROSE IS STILL A ROSE" - INCLUDING #1 HITS "JUMP TO IT," "GET IT RIGHT," AND GRAMMY AWARD®-WINNING "FREEWAY OF LOVE" (WITH CLARENCE CLEMONS)

Star-powered collaborations with Keith Richards ("Jumpin' Jack Flash"), the Eurythmics ("Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves"), George Benson ("Love All The Hurt Away"), Whitney Houston ("It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be"), George Michael (Grammy Award®-winning "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)") - and more!

Previously unreleased mix of "Ever Changing Times" duet with Michael McDonald, written and produced by Burt Bacharach & Carol Bayer Sager

Available everywhere through Arista/Legacy starting January 31, 2012

Release coincides with observance of Black History Month in February, and Aretha's return to Radio City Music Hall in New York for concerts on February 17 & 18th

NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2011 -- The 70th birthday of Queen Of Soul Aretha Franklin , winner of 15 Grammy Awards® and the first female ever to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, will be celebrated on March 25, 2012. In honor of this momentous occasion, and also in advance of Black History Month in February, KNEW YOU WERE WAITING: THE BEST OF ARETHA FRANKLIN 1980-1998 will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting January 31, 2012, through Arista/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

KNEW YOU WERE WAITING puts the spotlight on Aretha's hitmaking years as an Arista Records artist, working closely with Arista founder and president Clive Davis. Davis served as executive producer of KNEW YOU WERE WAITING , which was compiled and produced by Leo Sacks, known for his work on last year's definitive box set, Take A Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia , as well as scores of historic Soul and R&B projects for Legacy Recordings over the past two decades.

The new chronologically-sequenced, 16-song collection is the first major U.S. release to focus on the nearly two-decades string of hits that marked Aretha's tenure at Arista. These range from her label debut, 1980's #3 comeback R&B smash "United Together" (her first Top 5 hit in over three and a half years), to 1998's iconic #5 R&B entry, "A Rose Is Still A Rose," written, produced and arranged by Lauryn Hill of the Fugees.

"When Aretha Franklin signed to Arista Records in 1980," writes Ernest Hardy in his liner notes to KNEW YOU WERE WAITING , "she had nothing left to prove… She had redefined the terms and reset the boundaries of both R&B and pop. She had sung jazz, gospel and blues, and erased the lines between them. She embodied the beauty that was Blackness while providing a soundtrack to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. She had worked with the very best songwriters, musicians, producers, arrangers and visionaries, and proved herself to be one of the best singers, songwriters, musicians and visionaries the music industry had ever seen." Hardy is an award-winning cultural critic and essayist based in Los Angeles.

Underscoring Hardy's point, Aretha's Arista years were indeed marked by a steady flow of successful collaborations with contemporary music's "very best songwriters, musicians, producers, arrangers and visionaries." Virtually every track on KNEW YOU WERE WAITING supports this, starting with "United Together," which was written and produced by Chuck Jackson (known for his career-making hits with Natalie Cole), and features Aretha's beloved Sweet Inspirations on backing vocals (the 'original' lineup of Cissy Houston, Myrna Smith, Sylvia Shenwell and Estelle Brown). Likewise, "Love All The Hurt Away," a duet with George Benson, was written by Sam Dees, and produced by the late Arif Mardin, the legendary producer who worked on so many of Aretha's early breakthrough '60s and '70s Atlantic LPs.

Lauryn Hill, Arif Mardin and Chuck Jackson are just three of the important producers with whom Aretha worked at Arista. In addition to tracks produced by Luther Vandross (with arrangements by Marcus Miller), Narada Michael Walden, and Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds, KNEW YOU WERE WAITING also includes tracks produced by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics.

In addition to the collaborations above, KNEW YOU WERE WAITING contains many more A-list collaborations that have become cornerstones in the Aretha canon:

• "Freeway Of Love" (1985), featuring the late Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band on tenor saxophone, Randy Jackson on bass, and percussion by the Santana rhythm section, was a #1 R&B hit for 5 weeks, and went on to win the Grammy Award® for Best R&B Female Vocal;
• "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" (1985), a Top 20 pop hit with the Eurythmics' Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart (who produced), also features [Tom Petty] Heartbreakers band members Benmont Tench (organ), Stan Lynch (drums), and Mike Campbell (lead guitar);
• "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (1986), a Top 20 R&B and pop crossover smash duet with Keith Richards (who produced and played lead guitar, along with fellow Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood), was the title song from the movie Jumpin' Jack Flash starring Whoopi Goldberg;
• "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1986), a duet with George Michael, was another mega-hit, #1 pop for a fortnight and #5 R&B, and winner of the Grammy Award® for Best R&B Vocal Duo;
• "Through The Storm" (1989), a Top 20 R&B and pop crossover hit vocal duet with Elton John, is one of two Albert Hammond/Diane Warren compositions (among many!) that were brought to Aretha by Clive Davis;
• "It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be" (1989), a #5 R&B hit duet with Whitney Houston, is the other Hammond/Warren composition here, from the same album ( Through The Storm ); and
• "Ever Changing Times" (1991), a Top 20 R&B hit vocal duet with Michael McDonald, written and produced by the hitmaking duo of Burt Bacharach and Carol Bayer Sager, in a mix previously unreleased on CD.

KNEW YOU WERE WAITING as Hardy concludes, "makes clear that Aretha Franklin was a vibrant, soulful, stretching, creative, forceful artist at Arista Records. She kept her fingers on the pulse of the world around her while sating old fans and scoring new ones. Her music at the label was about a place that exists behind and beyond mere words... No one expresses joy the way she does. No one conveys grief or loss with anywhere near her force or heartbreaking precision. She burns right through the words she sings, taking you straight to the core. That is her unmatched genius."

KNEW YOU WERE WAITING: THE BEST OF ARETHA FRANKLIN 1980 -1998(Arista/Legacy 88697 99780 2 7)
Title	Chart(s)	From album	Year
1. United Together	#3 R&B, Hot 100 #56	Aretha	1980
2. Love All The Hurt Away	#6 R&B, Hot 100 #46	Love All The Hurt Away	1981
(Duet with George Benson)
3. Jump To It	#1 R&B, Hot 100 #24	Jump To It	1982
4. Get It Right	#1 R&B, Hot 100 #61	Get It Right	1983
5. Freeway Of Love	#1 R&B, Hot 100 #3	Who's Zoomin' Who?	1985
6. Who's Zoomin' Who	#2 R&B, Hot 100 #7	Who's Zoomin' Who?	1985
7. Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves	#66 R&B, Hot 100 #18	Who's Zoomin' Who?	1985
(Duet with the Eurythmics)
8. Another Night	#9 R&B, Hot 100 #22	Who's Zoomin' Who?	1985
9. Jumpin' Jack Flash	#20 R&B, Hot 100 #21	Aretha	1986
10. Jimmy Lee	#2 R&B, Hot 100 #28	Aretha	1986
11. I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)	#5 R&B, Hot 100 #1	Aretha	1986
(Duet with George Michael)
12. Through The Storm	#17 R&B, Hot 100 #16	Through The Storm	1989
(Duet with Elton John)
13. It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be	#5 R&B, Hot 100 #41	Through The Storm	1989
(Duet with Whitney Houston)
14. Ever Changing Times	#19 R&B	What You See Is What You Sweat	1991
(Duet with Michael McDonald)
15. Willing To Forgive	#5 R&B, Hot 100 #26	Greatest Hits (1980-1994)	1994
16. A Rose Is Still A Rose	#5 R&B, Hot 100 #26	A Rose Is Still A Rose	1998

http://www.legacyrecordings.com/

SOURCE Legacy Recordings