Stern returns to ‘America’s Got Talent’

Even so, comparatively, “The Winner Is” is dirt cheap.

Big climate-change docu

More from Lisa de Moraes

Pulitzer Prize winner, Peabody recipient, Medal of Freedom honoree -- Lisa de Moraes is none of these, but she is an authority on the bad direction, over-acting, and muddled plot lines being played out in the TV industry's executive suites.

Archive

• Live Q&As
• @WaPoTeamTV

(STEPHEN CHERNIN/REUTERS) - Howard Stern’s return to ”America’s Got Talent” means the show has a huge payroll.

Showtime has ordered a documentary series for next year on the impact of climate change on humans — to be exec-produced by two enormous Hollywood egos, two “60 Minutes” producers, one ex-California governor and a partridge in a pear tree.

“Years of Living Dangerously” is literally polluted with exec producers, including James Cameron and Jerry Weintraub, former governer Arnold Schwarzenegger, “60 Minutes” producers Joel Bach and David Gelber and climate expert Daniel Abbasi.

“60 Minutes” is a CBS newsmag — CBS being the owner of Showtime.

Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Alec Baldwin are set to narrate “Years of Living Dangerously,” and Ed Norton may jump on board, too, Showtime said in Monday’s announcement.

Reporting for the project: New York Times journalists Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof and Mark Bittman, as well as MSNBC host and political commentator Chris Hayes.

Abbasi is founder of GameChange Capital, a venture capital firm that funds low-carbon solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“We’ll make it exciting. We’ll make it investigative. We’ll bring people the truth. . . . People are always hungry for the truth,” Cameron swash-buckled in Monday’s announcement. Cameron’s sci-fi flick “Avatar” included themes of the havoc wrought by civilization on the planet, Showtime reminded us.

“The recent devastation on the East Coast is a tragic reminder of the direct link between our daily lives and climate change,” David Nevins, Showtime’s entertainment president, said more cautiously.

Schwarzenegger had no statement, but, as Governator, he’s the guy who takes credit for enacting the nation’s largest greenhouse-gas emissions trading program. He recently announced plans to establish the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, devoted to seeking bipartisan solutions to environmental, economic and other public policy issues — with him on the think tank board and holding a public policy professorship at the school.

To read previous columns by Lisa de Moraes, go to washingtonpost.com/ tvblog.