Tonight’s Finale
ABC: The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Snap is launching Bitmoji TV, a cartoon series starring users’ customizable avatars and those of their friends, for its Discover section. The Snapchat Show page for Bitmoji TV says it will debut globally in February.

Hasbro’s $3.8 billion acquisition of Canadian studio Entertainment One is complete. “Our businesses are highly complementary with substantial synergies and a great cultural fit,” said Hasbro chairman and CEO Brian Goldner of the deal, which gives Hasbro access to popular characters like Peppa Pig and Ricky Zoom. “The addition of eOne accelerates our blueprint strategy by expanding our brand portfolio with eOne’s beloved global preschool brands, adding proven TV and film expertise, and creating additional opportunities for long-term profitable growth.” Darren Throop, eOne president and CEO, will report to Goldner.

Eddie Murphy, up for a Critics’ Choice Award for his role in Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name, won’t go home empty-handed even if he doesn’t win Best Actor. The SNL vet will receive the Critics’ Choice Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in the ceremony on Sunday, January 12 broadcast on The CW.

Carrie Underwood announced that after 12 years of hosting the CMA Awards, she’s stepping down. “It’s hard to imagine topping what we have accomplished together, so I’ve decided that it’s time to pass the hosting torch (at least for now!) to others that will cherish it and honor it as much as I do,” said the country music star. Underwood hosted the show for 11 years with “partner in crime and friend for life” Brad Paisley, and last year was joined by Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton.

The industry needs to rethink what they’re buying and selling when it comes to pre-roll video ads, GumGum CTO Ken Weiner tells Cynopsis. “Additional video content on a site shouldn’t be a bad thing. If it’s real video on a quality site and featuring relevant content, additional video could deepen engagement and give the publisher another chance to monetize,” notes Weiner. “But that’s a best-case scenario. In fact, that rarely happens – for any number of reasons, from metadata-related accidents to simple greed.” To hear more from Weiner about “side-door videos,” go to Cynsiders.

VSiN Studio • SouthPoint Casino Hotel & Spa

Join us for our second annual Sports Betting Summit featuring panel conversations with industry experts and happy hour during CES 2020 in Las Vegas!

Click here to request your free ticket

Science Channel space series How the Universe Works returns for season eight tonight at 9p with a two-hour special that investigates the threat of a catastrophic asteroid impact.

YouTube and Justin Bieber are partnering for Justin Bieber: Seasons. The 10-part docu-series chronicling the making of Bieber’s new album is set to debut Monday, January 27 at 12p; new eps will launch Mondays and Wednesdays at noon. For more on streaming premieres, go here.

TECH TALK

With the California Consumer Privacy Act now in effect, 2020 will be another significant year for data privacy and the implementation of browser cookie tracking policies. Omar Abdala, Chief Data Scientist at Lotame, predicts two industry changes – what he calls Data Quality Against the Ropes, and Data Pricing Dust Up. “With more teams able to do predictive modeling on their own and so much third party data readily available, third party data will be forced to prove its veracity rather than to continue to purport to represent truth without any justification. Verification of data even beyond demographics will begin in earnest in 2020,” said Abdala. As for pricing, “The accelerating volume of data and greater tools available to evaluate which of that data truly impacts advertising will test the limits of a pure data CPM (cost per volume),” he predicts. “It will have to give way to something closer to CPQ (cost per data quality and volume), which will disincentivize the data stuffing the industry has suffered from.”

The facial recognition market will hit $9 billion by 2024, from $4.5 billion in 2018, according to a study by Mordor Intelligence. Smartphones with fingerprint sensors will drop from 94% to 90%, says Mordor, while technologies like 3D facial recognition will become standard.

STREAMING SNIPPETS

Disney-owned FX, FXX, FXM and Nat Geo have been cut from OTT service fuboTV. Also dropped were Fox Sports RSNs.“Standalone rates for these RSNs are not consistent with fuboTV’s mission to provide value and keep costs low to consumers,” said a statement from sports-centric fuboTV. “As of January 1, 2020, these networks have left fuboTV, like they have with other virtual MVPDs. Despite these changes, fuboTV continues to be a sports-focused cable TV replacement with home team coverage in top markets.”

Netflix shared its Top 10 lists of titles for 2019. Topping the chart in the US is Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston movie Murder Mystery, followed by season three of Stranger Things; Ryan Reynolds movie 6 Underground; The Incredibles 2; The Irishman; new series The Witcher; Triple Frontier, starring Ben Affleck; Ted Bundy film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile; The Umbrella Academy; and movie The Highwaymen.

One popular show fans will no longer find on Netflix is Friends, which ended its run at midnight on December 31, and is set to join HBO Max when the service arrives in May. If you gotta have Friends, the 1994-2004 sitcom that never gets old is still airing on TBS and Nick at Nite, and is for sale via digital retailers,

In more Netflix news, The Witcher was the most in-demand TV series in the world during its first full week of availability, from December 22-28, according to Parrot Analytics. The new fantasy drama was 37.12x more in demand than the average series globally.

1 Entering is Easy: Summarize your initiatives with synopsis & supporting materials
2 Make News: Finalists are covered on ALL of Cynopsis’ platforms
3 Fuel Innovation: Boost team morale & inspire success by joining this elite group
4 Showcase Your Work Where It Counts: With over 40 categories to choose from
5 NETWORK: When winners are announced at the 8th Annual Awards Breakfast in NYC

2019 WINNERS VIEW CATEGORIES ENTER BY 1/28

Fox News Channel scored its highest-rated year in primetime in its 23-year history with an average 2.5 million viewers, wrapping the year as the most-watched basic cable network for the fourth consecutive year in primetime and total day (1.4 million) among total viewers, according to Nielsen. FNC also ranks as a top five network in primetime in all of television for 2019.

The debut of Fox’s Flirty Dancing, following football, delivered 3.2 million viewers and an 0.9/4 rating among A18-49 on Sunday.

Univision’s broadcast of the second leg of the LMX Apertura Final on Sunday night drew 3.0 million total viewers and 1.6 million among A18-49, making it the highest-rated LMX MX match in 2019 on the net.

Top 20 Cable Channels for 2020 – Primetime (Mon-Sun, 8-11p)
P2+ AA (000)
1 Fox News 2,481
2 ESPN 1,784
3 MSNBC 1,753
4 HGTV 1,199
5 Hallmark Channel 1,100
6 TBS 1,055
7 TNT1,050
8 USA 1,042
9 CNN 972
10 History 969
11 TLC 945
12 A&E 935
13 ID 910
14 Discovery Channel 894
15 Food Network 823
16 TV Land 609
17 FX 605
18 AMC 600
19 Bravo 598
20 Insp 589
Nielsen Live+SD through December 9

Shareablee Top 10 TV Shows for the week of December 23
Program, Network, Total Actions, Total Content, Actions per Content, Fans & Followers
E! News (E!) 9M, 459, 19,689, 36.7M
The Ellen DeGeneres Show (WB/syndicated) 4.8M, 51, 94,085, 193M
Today Show (NBC) 1.4M, 588, 2,338, 13.4M
Entertainment Tonight (WB/syndicated) 815K, 245, 3,326, 8.6M
Good Morning America (ABC) 641K, 860, 745, 13.5M
The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC) 366K, 31, 11,818, 12.4M
World News Tonight with David Muir (ABC) 350K, 522, 671, 5.5M
Nightly News with Lester Holt (NBC) 334K, 598, 558, 5.1M
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC) 300K, 38, 7,905, 25.2M
Fox & Friends (Fox News) 295K, 58, 5,091, 4.7M

Late Night Shows Weekly Average Ratings Week of December 23
CBS: The Late Show With Stephen Colbert 1.86 million total viewers; 0.22/2 A18-49
NBC: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 1.68 million total viewers; 0.30/2 A18-49
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live 1.43 million total viewers; 0.21/2 A18-49

Live + Same Day Viewers AA (millions): Monday, December 30
Time period averages
Source: Nielsen Live+SD
CBS: 4.20 million
The Neighborhood 5.12, Bob Hearts Abishola 4.37, All Rise 3.69, Bull 4.19
NBC: 2.55 million
Ellen’s Greatest Night of Giveaways 3.24, Manifest 2.50, Manifest 1.93
ABC: 2.53 million
Spider-Man: Homecoming 2.53
FOX: 1.67 million
9-1-1 2.06, Prodigal Son 1.28
UNIVISION: 1.43 million
Ringo 1.69, El Dragon 1.30
CW: 0.83 million
iHeartRadio Festival Night 1 0.83
TELEMUNDO: 0.82 million
Decisiones: Unos Gana, Otros Pierden 0.71, La Dona 0.71, Al Senor de los Cielos 1.04
Monday A18-49 Ratings
ABC 0.6/3, CBS 0.4/3, NBC 0.4/2, UNI 0.4/2, FOX 0.3/2, TELE 0.3/1, CW 0.2/1

IN MEMORIAM

Jazz trumpeter Jack Sheldon died December 27 at age 88. Sheldon was best known to TV audiences as a sidekick to Merv Griffin, as well as for work in shows including Run, Buddy, Run, The Simpsons and Family Guy, among others.

Answer to our last Trivia Question
Who hosted New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 1973? Three Dog Night. Kudos to: Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC, Charles Lore/NYC, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
Which sitcom was the first to debut as a midseason replacement? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: A limit of four correct answers from each time zone will be selected.).