Real estate developer Hackman Capital Partners has purchased CBS Television City in Hollywood for $750,000,000, beating out my highest bid by a crushing $749,999,947.45. I thought it might be a nice place to store all my old comic books.
So what does this mean? Well, for the shows that "tape" there, not much for a few years. They can stay for five and even after that, the buyers will probably operate some portion of it as a TV facility and those shows may be able to lease space there. After NBC sold its big facility in Burbank, Jay Leno's show and a soap opera or two remained on the premises.
A lot of different shows are done at Television City but at the moment, the main ones are The Price is Right, The Late Late Show with James Corden, The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, Dancing with the Stars (which airs on ABC) and Real Time with Bill Maher (which is on HBO). The question of whether these shows will go or stay has a number of components including what else is available, what it will cost and in some cases, the "look" of the program. Given five years time, I would guess they can clear enough space at the CBS lot in Studio City to take in the two soap operas…and those shows would look the same there.
The Price is Right — which would probably not look the same elsewhere — is an interesting matter. The new owners of the Television City are reportedly looking to bring in condominiums and retail stores…and I would think there would be a great appeal to keeping The Price is Right there as a glamorous tenant and maybe a tourist draw. I'm also thinking the producers of that show might be thinking this is a good time to get out of Studio 33 ("The Bob Barker Studio") and relocate to a new, modern facility that was designed for that show which will never be canceled. I can see that going either way.
Really, no one knows for sure what's going to happen except that the developers probably have some plans to start adding stores and restaurants wherever they can without disrupting production. They'll keep some of what's there, add on some of what isn't and just try to start recouping the $750 mil.
Over the next few months, I may just drive my car down Beverly Boulevard past it several times a day. I drive past that building a lot and I figure that once the development reaches an advanced stage of Doneness, it will be impossible to go past it. So maybe I can store some up for later.