Conrad Riggs will be joining Amazon, though plans to recreate his hit reality TV show “Survivor” with Amazon employee contestants is probably not in the cards. More likely, according to a GeekWire report, Riggs is expected to help Amazon bolster its video service and challenge Netflix. Amazon has already launched two comedies: "Alpha House” and “Betas”. Both were well received by critics, but neither has achieved the knock-out success of the Netflix hit “House of Cards”.
As it readies new shows for fall, here's a suggestion for Amazon execs. Why not turn the company's standoff with Hachette — the one that compelled 900-plus authors to sign a public letter demanding that Amazon resolve its differences with the book publisher — into a juicy soap? Those 900 writers, a group that includes high-fliers Stephen King, Sherman Alexie and Elizabeth Gilbert, will reprint their angry missive as a full-page New York Times ad this Sunday. "It is not right for Amazon to single out a group of authors, who are not involved in the dispute, for selective retaliation," wrote the author/victims.
