Russell Reynolds, ITV’s headhunter, is seeking “highly technologically competent, preferably American” candidates to be the commercial broadcaster’s next chief executive. Experience of television, particularly UK television, is a disadvantage, according to those who have had some contact with the headhunter, although candidates may take heart from the fact that last time the board simply appointed Michael Grade, ignoring a shortlist of four that had been prepared by the headhunter.
• V, a glitzy remake of the 1980s aliens who disguise themselves as humans to take over the earth, is the best of this year’s crop of American shows, says one recovering veteran of this year’s LAScreenings, where British executives are treated to US shows. The worst, though, was from Friends star Courtney Cox, who stars in Cougar Town as an older women seeking the pleasures of the flesh. Seems a bizarre choice for a 9pm comedy on ABC.
• Congratulations are due to Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary. His protestations that Sir Alan Sugar cannot be both government enterprise czar, Labour lord, and host of The Apprentice seem certain to result in a Tory victory over the BBC. Rumours are rife, however, that the vehemence of the Tory attack is as much down to upholding the BBC’s impartiality as it is to the fact that Andy Coulson, the party’s communications chief, is a die-hard Spurs fan. Coulson, it is said, has not forgiven Suralan for his tumultuous term as chairman of the club.
• Guardian journalists are girding themselves for a series of staff meetings next week amid fears that the newspaper will announce plans for job cuts, given that a merger between The Guardian and The Observer, its Sunday sister title, has seen little rationalisation so far. Now reporters have been asked to disclose whether they have a Twitter account, making journalists wonder if evidence against them is being collected.