IN THE NEWS

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are returning to the Golden Globes stage in 2021, for their fourth time as co-hosts. “NBC has long been the home to two of the funniest people on the planet – Tina Fey and Amy Poehler – and we didn’t want to wait any longer to share the great news that they’ll be hosting the Globes once again,” said Paul Telegdy, Chairman, NBC Entertainment, breaking the news at TCA. The SNL alums hosted the Globes from 2013-15.

More highlights from NBC’s TCA sessions: New Amsterdam landed an early renewal through the 2022-23 season, and Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman’s Making It was renewed for season three…Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon will host and exec produce comedy variety series That’s My Jam, featuring celebs competing against each other…Daytime soap Days of Our Lives “is going to carry on,” said Telegdy; negotiations for year 56 are underway…The results of the investigation into the “toxic” culture Gabrielle Union described during her season on America’s Got Talent will be delivered within weeks. “We’ll put new practices in place if necessary,” said Telegdy. “We always want to go after the truth.”

NBC is shuttering its unscripted division, Peacock Productions, effective March 2. “NBC News is shifting its documentary strategy to an entirely new model, consistent with industry trends, and unfortunately the existing operation is no longer viable,” said NBC News said in a statement. “We are working with affected employees to help find positions around NBCUniversal.” Recent Peacock Productions projects include Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly: The Impact and MSNBC’s American Swamp. The production company was founded in 2007.

Seth MacFarlane inked a five-year deal with NBCUniversal Content Studios reportedly worth about $200 million. MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door Productions will create content across the NBCU portfolio including upcoming streaming service Peacock. MacFarlane, whose deal with 20th Century Fox expired last summer after 21 years, will continue his role on Family Guy, American Dad and The Orville. “One of my oldest memories from Fox is of a young Seth MacFarlane hanging out in the halls of the studio. He entertained all of us with his incredible wit and hilarious observations. He is a brilliant artist and a great friend; and, there is no one we root for more than him,” said Dana Walden, Chairman, Disney TV Studios and ABC Entertainment. “As a fan, I look forward to whatever he creates next, and as his studio partner on Family Guy, American Dad and The Orville, I feel lucky to be continuing an extraordinary partnership.”

CBS gave a series commitment to crime drama Clarice, it was announced at TCA. A sequel to the film 1991 The Silence of the Lambs, the project, produced by MGM and CBS Television Studios in association with Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout, is written and exec produced by Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet and focuses on fictional FBI agent Clarice Starling. “After more than 20 years of silence, we’re privileged to give voice to one of America’s most enduring heroes,” said Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet. “Clarice’s bravery and complexity have always lit the way, even as her personal story remained in the dark. But hers is the very story we need today: her struggle, her resilience, her victory. Her time is now, and always.”

CBS is airing three primetime Price Is Right celebrity specials this spring, it was announced at TCA, following December holiday specials. Fremantle is producing, with Drew Carey as host…Survivor will celebrate its 40th season with one-hour special Survivor at 40: Greatest Moments and Players, on Wednesday, February 5 at 8p. Season 40 launches one week later…Dick Wolf series FBI and FBI: Most Wanted will have a crossover episode this spring. What about crossovers with Wolf series like those in the Chicago franchise, which air on NBC? “Stay tuned…. It’s going to get very interesting,” Wolf told the TCA crowd.

CBS All Access officially renewed Star Trek: Picard for a second season. “The energy and excitement around the premiere of Star Trek: Picard has reached a magnitude greater than all of us at CBS All Access could have hoped for,” said Julie McNamara, EVP, Original Content, ViacomCBS, at TCA. “We’re thrilled to announce plans for a second season before the series’ debut, and we are confident that Star Trek fans and new viewers alike will be captured by the stellar cast and creative team’s meticulously crafted story when it premieres on January. 23,”

Mark Pedowitz inked a new deal with The CW that ups him to Chairman and CEO. Pedowitz, who will continue to oversee all creative and business aspects of the network, joined The CW as President in 2011.

HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher will start season 18 with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The show, also featurin Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, will air live on the East Coast Friday, January 17 at 10p.

PBS President and CEO Paula Kruger made it clear at the TCA Winter Press Tour that while the public broadcaster is celebrating its 50th anniversary, eyes are on the future. “PBS is multi-platform and experiential, guided by mission and storytelling,” she said. “Everyone should be able to see the diversity of their perspectives reflected on the screen. You want to be able to talk about where that takes you moving forward: looking at our legacy, at our history and how it informs what we’ll do moving forward.”

As part of its new strategy to present themed programming each quarter, PBS announced a spring line-up focused on health. From April through May 2020, PBS will premiere 14.5 hours of new series and specials showcasing how humans can influence their brains and bodies to achieve a sense of well-being. Programs will examine the science of how the human brain and body work and will seek to educate viewers about health issues that sometimes get stigmatized. “This compelling collection of health and wellness-based programming will explore what it takes to care for yourself and your loved ones,” said Perry Simon, Chief Programming Executive and GM, General Audience Programming at PBS. The schedule launches with Antique Roadshow’s “Treasure Fever,” featuring appraisals related to health and wellness, on Monday, April 6 at 8p.

In the summer, PBS will launch a slate of multiplatform content to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. Programming will include American Masters’ Unladylike2020; Great Performances shows focused on Gloria Steinem and Ann Richards; American Masters episodes on Toni Morrison and Mae West, and more.

With Australia suffering from devastating wildfires, BBC America’s upcoming nature documentary series on the seven continents, Seven Worlds, One Planet, will now begin with the Australia episode, and inform viewers how they can support relief efforts. The Sir David Attenborough-narrated series begins Saturday, January 18, at 9p on BBC America, AMC, IFC and SundanceTV.

Are Fox’s Flirty Dancing and Almost Family almost out of time? The last two episodes of the first-year series have been moved from Wednesday to Saturday, starting January 25.

Discovery Inc. and Tigers United, an organization comprised of four tiger mascot universities, launched a text to donate activation that will be highlighted at the College Football National Championship game tonight at 8p. The campaign is raising funds with the goal of doubling the wild tiger population by 2022; proceeds are directed to Discovery’s Project C.A.T. and Tigers United. Fans can donate through January 15 at 11:59p.

Original Grey’s Anatomy cast member Justin Chambers is leaving the ABC drama. “There’s no good time to say goodbye to a show and character that’s defined my life for the past 15 years,” said Chambers. “For some time now, however, I have hoped to diversify my acting roles and career choices. And, as I turn 50 and am blessed with my remarkable, supportive wife and five wonderful children, now is the time.” Grey’s has been picked up for season 17.

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CNN agreed to pay $76 million to settle a case that started with the firing of a group of unionized subcontractors in 2003. “After more than a decade of litigation, negotiation and appeals we are pleased to have resolved a longstanding legal matter,” a CNN rep said.

Western lifestyle network Rural Media Group is teaming with Canada’s adventure network Wild TV for the launches of RFD TV and The Cowboy Channel Canada. The partnership will bring outdoor lifestyle programming to the Canadian market beginning February 1.

Terri Minsky, creator of Disney Channel hit Lizzie McGuire, is stepping down as showrunner for its Disney+ sequel. “After filming two episodes, we concluded that we need to move in a different creative direction and are putting a new lens on the show,” said a Disney spokesperson. Hilary Duff reprises her role in the revival as a 30-year-old navigating life in NYC.

The Late Show host Stephen Colbert will host animated variety series Tooning Out the News, featuring short daily segments and a weekly full episode, for CBS All Access. Colbert and Late Show showrunner Chris Licht are teaming with Our Cartoon President’s RJ Fried and Tim Luecke for the show, produced by CBS Television Studios. The streamer also ordered animated family comedy The Harper House, from Brad Neely, Katie Krentz, CBS TV Studios and 219 Productions.

In more CBS All Access news, Richard Linklater (Boyhood) and Bill Guttentag (Knife Fight) are partnering for a ten-part animal rescue series that takes place in Austin. CBS Television Studios, Stage 29, Detour Filmproduction and 1891 Productions are producing.

NBC gave a straight-to-series order to Young Rock, a comedy inspired by the life of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Series from Johnson and Nahnatchka Khan (Fresh Off the Boat) is produced by Universal Television. The net also gave a greenlight to sci-fi drama Debris, from J.H. Wyman and Legendary Television.

On the unscripted front, the peacock net ordered docu-series The New World, from BBC Studios Natural History Unit, exploring the landscape, wilderness and creatures that inhabit North America, Central America and South America. “The New World is a massive piece of four-quadrant commercial entertainment that has the capacity to capture the curiosity and minds of millions,” said Paul Telegdy. “I believe that great storytelling told on a broad scale has the power to produce wide-sweeping cultural change, and this project has all the makings to deliver on that potential.” Series is slated to air in 2024.

Chucky, a TV series based on the horror movie franchise that began in 1988, nabbed a straight-to-series from Syfy. In the series, after a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos. Produced by UCP, series will be executive produced by creator Don Mancini (Hannibal), David Kirschner (Hocus Pocus), and Nick Antosca (The Act) via his Eat the Cat, through his overall deal with the studio.

Comedy Central renewed stand-up series This Week at the Comedy Cellar for season three. New run launches Friday, February 21 at 11p.

Straight Up Steve Austin was picked up for season two on USA Network. The series was 2019’s #1 new unscripted cable series among M18-49 and M25-54 in Nielsen Live+3.

Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: January 10-12
1917 (Universal) $36.5 million (week 3), cume revenue $39.2 million
Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (Walt Disney) $15.1 million (week 3), cume revenue $478.2 million
Jumanji: The Next Level (Sony Pictures) $14.0 million (week 5), cume revenue $257.1 million
Like a Boss (Sony) $10.0 million, opening weekend
Just Mercy (Paramount) $10.0 million (week 3), cume revenue $10.4 million
Little Women (Sony) $7.7 million (week 3), cume revenue $74.0 million
Underwater (Twentieth Century Fox) $7.0 million, opening weekend
Frozen II (Walt Disney) $5.8 million (week 8), cume revenue $459.4 million
Knives Out (Lionsgate) $5.7 million (week 7), cume revenue $139.6 million
Spies in Disguise (Twentieth Century Fox) $5.1 million (week 3), cume revenue $54.6 million
Source: Comscore

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Sofia Wylie (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series) stars in scripted short form dance series Shook, which moves from YouTube for its television debut during a special programming event, Monday, January 20 at 8p on Disney Channel and DisneyNOW.

PBS Kids announced a new social-emotional series for children ages 3-5. Donkey Hodie, created by Fred Rogers Productions and Spiffy Pictures, follows the granddaughter of a puppet from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and is slated to premiere nationwide on PBS stations, the PBS KIDS 24/7 channel and PBS KIDS digital platforms in winter 2021.

COMING UP

Documentary Who Will Write Our History, a story of Nazi resistance focused on a secret band of journalists, scholars and community leaders who vowed to defeat propaganda with pen and paper, makes its television debut Sunday, January 26 at 3p on Discovery. The premiere coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Explorer Colin O’Brady and a crew of world-class ocean rowers crossed the \ Drake Passage from the southernmost tip of South America, Cape Horn, to Antarctica in a rowboat with no sail and no motor – an achievement documented by Discovery in mid-form video series The Impossible Row for DiscoveryGo. A feature length documentary will air on Discovery in Spring 2020.

HDNET Movies presents its annual celebration of Oscar-winning films in honor of Hollywood’s biggest night, airing 24/7 starting Saturday, February 1 and running through Sunday, February 9. The 30-film event includes the network premieres of American Beauty (February 2), Inside Job (February 4), Still Alice (February 5) and The Big Short (February 6).

Weakness is the Brand, a special from “Lady Dynamite” Maria Bamford, will be released via Spectrum, iTunes, Amazon, and more, on January 28 via the Comedy Dynamics Network.

Spanish-language movie network Cinelatino announced its lineup of box-office hits coming up this month, beginning with the premiere of romantic comedy, Que Pena Tu Vida on Sunday, January 12, at 9p.

ADVERTISING

Group Nine Media launched its new e-commerce advertising solution, “Sparkle Ads,” featuring a suite of mini apps to help marketers engage mobile shoppers. Sparkle allows brands to facilitate commerce across multiple retailers and allows retailers to create customized pages featuring multiple product SKUs while collecting purchase intent data. Campbell’s and a global cleaning company are the first advertisers in the beta launch. “Sparkle Ads marks the latest expansion of our e-commerce suite and creates frictionless commerce solutions that make shopping easier for consumers,” said Chris George, COO of Group Nine Media. “We plan to extend Sparkle and Sparkle Ads to all of the brands within the Group Nine portfolio.”

Chewy, the online destination for pet parents, is the official sponsor of A&E’s new competition series America’s Top Dog. “America’s Top Dog shows the amazing bond between people and animals, and how that bond can transform a dog’s life,” said Orlena Yeung, VP of Brand Marketing at Chewy. “At Chewy, we are thrilled to sponsor a show that puts that relationship on the center stage.” America’s Top Dog premiered Wednesday January 8 at 9p, and was the net’s best non-crime launch in over three years in Total Viewers (1.2 million) and A25-54 (507,000).

CASTING

Mark-Paul Gosselaar will be a producer and appear on at least three episodes of Peacock’s Saved By The Bell reboot, reports Deadline…Among the season two cast of CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone will be Billy Porter, Morena Baccarin, Jenna Elfman, Gillian Jacobs and Chris Meloni.

GOING GLOBAL

A UK employment tribunal ruled that television presenter Samira Ahmed was entitled under the 2010 Equality Act to pay equivalent to male counterpart Jeremy Vine, who presented a show similar to a BBC program for which Ahmed was paid $576 per episode. Vine received $4000 for his show. “The BBC found itself in difficulties in this case because it did not (and, to an extent, still does not) have a transparent and consistent process for evaluating and determining pay for its on-air talent,” the ruling said.

APC Kids inked a deal with French kids free-to-air television channel Gulli (M6 Group) for series one and two of Kid-E-Cats.

The debut of True Life Crime on January 8 delivered an 0.88 rating (P18-49) across both MTV and VH1 with over one million total viewers (P2+) tuned in for the hour-long series premiere. The season debut of MTV’s Catfish on the same night was up +13% from last season’s average and VH1’s Black Ink Crew hit a season high with 0.60 in the demo.

The season two premiere of HGTV’s Christina on the Coast delivered a .79 Live+3 rating among P25-54 on Thursday, January 2, at 9p – the highest-rated episode since the series originally premiered in May 2019. The next night, the net’s My Lottery Dream Home delivered a 0.78 Live+3 rating among P25-54, a 24% increase over the prior six weeks in the timeslot. Among W25-54, it garnered a 1.03 live plus three-day rating, a 27% increase over the previous six weeks.

The 3-hour season premiere of The Bachelor handed ABC a new Monday season high among A18-49 (2.4/12) and delivered its highest-rated Monday with entertainment programming since March 2019

Night 1 of Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time averaged 16.1 million Total Viewers and 2.7/13 among A18-49 in Live+3 Nielsens, ranking as Tuesday’s #1 program and #2 among non-sports telecasts this season.

Live + Same Day Viewers AA (millions) Thursday, January 9 time period averages
Source: Nielsen Live+SD
ABC: 10.78 million
Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time 15.55, Truth and Lies: Jeffrey Epstein 6.02
CBS: 5.25 million
Young Sheldon 7.57, The Unicorn 4.75, Mom 5.99, Carol’s Second Act 4.84, Evil 3.10
FOX: 4.19 million
Last Man Standing 4.35, Deputy 4.03
NBC: 2.47 million
Superstore 2.59, The Good Place 2.08, Will & Grace 2.39, Perfect Harmony 1.60, Law & Order: SVU 3.70
UNIVISION 1.68 million
Ringo 1.73, Amor Eterno 1.84, El Dragon 1.47
TELEMUNDO: 0.79 million
Decisiones: Unos Ganan 0.60, Otros Pierden, La Dona 0.71, El Senor de los Cielos 1.05
CW: 0.49 million
Supernatural 0.61, Legacies 0.37
Thursday A18-49 Ratings
ABC 1.7/9, FOX 0.8/4, CBS 0.7/3, NBC 0.6/3, UNI 0.6/3, TELE 0.3/1, CW 0.1/1

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Horizon Media upped Gene Turner from Executive Vice President/Managing Partner to President of Horizon Next. “As performance media and daily optimization yield increasing returns in our data-driven world, Gene and Horizon Next are leading the way and writing the book on the future of effectiveness and efficiency,” said Bill Koenigsberg, Horizon Media President, CEO and founder. “Horizon Next has the scale, talent and proven track record to be a truly disruptive force for brands with aggressive goals and an accountable mindset.”

CBS named Natalie Ballesteros as Director, Talent and Casting. Ballestros has cast TV series and feature films during her career as a casting director.

Jeff Collins, founder and President of Collins Avenue Entertainment, is leaving the production company he founded in 2008, reports Deadline. The move comes as backer Kew Media is undertaking a strategic review of its business.

Entertainment marketing agency Northern Lights hired Executive Creative Director Joe Nichols to launch their LA office. Nichols was formerly Creative Director of Global Brand Marketing for Amazon Prime Video.

Resolve to save time in 2020 by narrowing your job search with the help of Cynopsis Jobs. Click here to view our job board, which is updated constantly and tailored to fit the media professionals’ needs.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
How was Mildred the maid’s absence explained, when Nancy Walker opted not to return for the final season of McMillan & Wife (1971–1977)? She opened a diner, an inside joke about Walker’s Bounty paper towel commercials as a waitress. Kudos to: Andrew Goldman-Fathom Events/NYC, Jon Krongard-Wonderama/NYC, Charles Lore/NYC, Anthony Salerno-Horizon Media/NYC, Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
What was the name of the soap opera Hope was killed off of on Hope & Faith (2003-2006)? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.)