Mariah Carey and her camp allegedly agreed with NBC's 'Today' first to promote her album before quietly signing with ABC's 'Good Morning America'.
- Mar 10, 2008
AceShowbiz - Bidding wars to have Mariah Carey's new album, "E=MC²", being promoted in TV networks turned out being such a big issue. NBC reportedly is furious over the singer, her manager Benny Medina and Carey's label Def Jam for giving the opportunity to rival ABC after all the demands are agreed to be fulfilled.
Carey allegedly was due to promote the album on NBC's "Today" show but Medina has given the right to ABC's "Good Morning America" instead. A source told Page Six that Medina initially agreed to promote it on "Today" if the network also promote her fragrance M by Mariah Carey, and give her a cameo role on their TV series "My Name Is Earl".
NBC reportedly have agreed to all of these but because the album's release date was pushed back from 2007 to April 15 this year, her scoring part on "My Name Is Earl" was terminated. As a compensation, the source claimed that Medina promised a slot at NBC's concert series, Rockefeller Plaza. "The entire time, Benny told 'Today' it would get Mariah for its concert series on Rockefeller Plaza," the source added. "But then he stopped returning calls. Turns out, he had done a side deal behind everyone's back with 'Good Morning America' - after NBC had agreed to all of his demands."
Responding to the allegations, Medina then released a statement saying, "We want to do something really spectacular for Mariah's album debut. I don't want 'Today' to feel disrespected by me trying to do right by my client. But when we went on 'GMA' (two years ago), they closed down Times Square. It got great ratings and was a big success."
Medina also denied ever promising a concert on Rockefeller Plaza, daring if anyone can show a written prove of him approving such deal. Reasoning on why Carey is not going to appear at the annual event, Carey's rep from Def Jam, Laura Swanson, said that the venue is not big enough to hold "a spectacular launch event".
Bruised but still hopeful, NBC is still longing for Carey to appear on "Today". Megan Kopf, a rep that show said, "Mariah has been a guest on 'Today' several times since the start of her career. We would certainly like to have her back on 'Today.' "
