“Mob Wives” Gets Second Season

Electus’ hit “Mob Wives” has proved its staying power: VH1’s Jeff Olde has announced the show will be renewed for a second season. High viewing numbers encouraged the network to continue its programming, after the show averaged 1.3 million viewers during its first five weeks on air.

“Our viewers have connected passionately with these women and their unique, authentic stories in the realms of pop culture and music,” Olde said to Gather.com. “We’re very happy to be able to continue these storylines.”

The show follows the lives of four women who run their households while their husbands or fathers are focused on the Mob. The main characters are all friends who live in New York’s Staten Island. “Mob Wives” is produced by The Weinstein Company, Electus studios, JustJenn Productions and Left/Right. Alongside Olde, the show’s executive producers include Shelly Tatro, Kari McFarland and Rick Hankey.

DumbDumb Co-Founder to Star in New NBC Comedy

This year’s TV upfront week revealed a new project in the works for actor Will Arnett, a co-founder of DumbDumb, an Electus partner. The announcement came from NBC, the network with one of the most anticipated lineups. In “Up All Night,” Arnett will play a stay-at-home husband to Christina Applegate, who also serves as one of the show’s producers, alongside “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels and writer Emily Spivey. Maya Rudolph, another familiar face from “Saturday Night Live” who is most recently known from “Bridesmaids,” will also star in the pilot, as Applegate’s best friend and boss.

The show will mark Applegate’s return to television, two years after “Samantha Who?” was cancelled. Since then, the actress has appeared in movies including “Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” “Going the Distance,” and “Hall Pass.”

Arnett will also guest-star on the season finale of “The Office” tonight, which will be Steve Carell’s last show. As the season closes and we bid Carell adieu, we assure you there’s more to come from Electus, so stay tuned!

Amy Poehler Stars in Electus' and DumbDumb’s Latest Project

Mediabistro seems to have taken to DumbDumb (a partner of Electus) and its latest project involving a string of A-list comedians and Denny’s restaurant chain. Both Tonya Garcia and Kiran Aditham have written about the most recent video to come from the project, the “Always Open” web series hosted by David Koechner. The video at hand features Amy Poehler, the hilarious star of “Saturday Night Live” and “Parks and Recreation.” Over breakfast, she and Koechner chat about life and work, and it seems like Poehler gets a little creeped out by the overeager host. He calls her his “little sister” more than once and is a bit too hands-on for the comedian to handle. She shakes his hand off of her shoulder, but as always, Poehler remains a good sport.

Poehler is one of a handful of comedians who have made appearances in the web series, including Sarah Silverman, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett—who also happens to be her husband. The next episode will feature Kristin Bell, and we can’t wait to see what DumbDumb and Electus have in store for us for that one!

Electus’ Jordan Hoffner Speaks at Variety Summit

Variety’s Entertainment & Technology Summit was held on May 2, and among the renowned industry executives who were chosen as speakers was Jordan Hoffner, President of Digital at Electus. The summit’s panels explore recent buzz topics in the entertainment industry, including social networking popularity, exploding mobile platforms and new distribution strategies.

After the event, Variety spoke to Hoffner about the evolution of consumers purchasing and storing digital content for access by any digital device. He explained to the publication that “profits tend to flow more in the direction of platform owners like Facebook or YouTube than to the content creators who utilize the platforms.”

“The reality in digital is that it’s the platform that makes the most money,” he said.

Speakers who joined Hoffner include Steve Mosko, President of Sony Pictures Television; Thomas Gewecke, President of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution; Robert Kyncl, Global Head of Film and TV at Google; and director and producer Eli Roth.

At Electus, Hoffner oversees all content and distribution deals in the digital market. Before working with the company, he was the director of content partnerships at YouTube.