A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM DISCOVERY

ON JANUARY 12TH, FIXER UPPER: WELCOME HOME ON MAGNOLIA NETWORK WAS A TOP 5 PROGRAM IN ALL OF CABLE ON W18+ AND W25+ IN THE 9PM-10PM TIME PERIOD

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Today’s Premieres
HGTV: Reno My Rental at 10p and 10:30p

Saturday’s Premiere
discovery+: Remix My Space with Marsai Martin

Sunday’s Premieres
CNN: Reframed: Marilyn Monroe at 9p
Epix: Britannia at 9p
Oxygen: The Real Murders of Atlanta at 8p

Sunday’s Finales
Cooking: Cheat Day USA at 9p
Showtime: Yellowjackets at 10p

Monday’s Premiere
Bravo: Summer House at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Discovery+ struck a licensing deal with NBCUniversal Global Distribution that will add a surplus of reality library titles to the streaming service’s roster in the US. Seasons of “The Biggest Loser,” “Flipping Out,” “American Ninja Warrior,” “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and “The Real Housewives” franchise are among content headed to the streamer.

Telemundo Enterprises will debut content brand Tplus on sister NBCU streamer Peacock this fall. The launch coincides with Telemundo’s exclusive Spanish-language coverage of the World Cup in Qatar. Tplus content—including scripted and unscripted series and features, sports and music—will be available on Peacock’s premium tier. Among projects in the works are a docuseries about music star J Balvin; a film about soccer great Lionel Messi; anthology docuseries “Mysteries & Scandals” (wt); and “Young at Heart” (wt), a reality dating series from Kinetic Content (“Love is Blind”). Telemundo Enterprises also inked a first-look development deal with Bianca Quesada’s Arcus Studios, home of “Vida.”

Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso,” HBO Max’s “Hacks,” Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” and Disney+’s “Loki” rounded out the list in the best new TV series category for Writers Guild of America Awards, announced yesterday.

NY-based LGBTQ+ film and mediaorganization NewFest launched the New Voices Filmmaker Grant in partnership with Netflix. Created to support emerging LGBTQ+ filmmakers, the initiative will select four filmmakers this year and next who will each receive a $25,000 grant and receive custom mentorship. The partnership falls under Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, established to help create more behind-the-camera opportunities for underrepresented communities.

The clock has run down on “60 Minutes+.” Paramount+ canceled the streaming version of the CBS News series after its freshman season. The program featured lengthier news segments and a new team of correspondents, who all had reported for “60 in 6,” the shortform newsmagazine that aired on short-lived service Quibi in 2020.

Amid the Omicron surge, the Producers Guild of America is pushing back its 33rd annual Producers Guild Awards. The ceremony, originally scheduled for February 26, will now take place on Saturday, March 19.

ViacomCBS and Comcast inked a multiyear distribution renewal that adds BET+ to the fold of CBS and cable networks the cable system carries in the US.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE LUSTGARTEN FOUNDATION

Save the Date – 2022 Lustgarten Foundation Winter Bash
A benefit in support of pancreatic cancer research

Thursday, February 3 | Location: TAO DOWNTOWN NYC

Presented by MSG Entertainment, MSG Sports and AMC Networks
100% of your donation goes directly to pancreatic cancer research.

Contact 914-579-1000 or [email protected] for sponsorships and tickets.

PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

In a hybrid model of streaming and theatrical distribution, MGM and Amazon closed deals for US and international rights, respectively, to Jake Gyllenhaal and Guy Ritchie’s untitled Afghan war movie. The big-budget action-thriller will see Gyllenhaal playing Sgt. John Kinley, who forms a fast bond with a local interpreter after they’re the only survivors of an ambush. Upon learning the interpreter and his family aren’t given passage to America as promised, Kinely returns to the warzone in an effort to retrieve them.

They Can’t Kill Us All, the Wesley Lowery book that chronicles the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement, is on track to become a TV series at AMC. The network is developing an adaptation of the project, housed at Don Cheadle’s This Radicle Act and Brad Weston’s Makeready. Cheadle and Weston will exec-produce along with Lowery.

WarnerMedia Kids & Family greenlit “Degrassi,” a new iteration of WildBrain’s youth franchise of the same name, slated to debut on HBO Max in 2023. The new series about the high school experience, helmed by showrunners Lara Azzopardi (“Backstage,” “The Bold Type”) and Julia Cohen (“Riverdale,” “A Million Little Things”), comprises 10 hourlong eps. HBO Max also has picked up US rights for the entire 14-season library of the franchise installment “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” which will be available on the platform this spring.

Jenna Dewan (“The Rookie,” “Step Up”) is extending her relationship with Lifetime, inking a deal to star in and exec-produce two new movies for the network. One project is a film for the net’s annual It’s a Wonderful Lifetime holiday slate. Dewan previously starred in Lifetime’s “Witches of East End, “She Made Them Do It” and “Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal.” She’ll produce through her company, Everheart Production, alongside executive Kyle McNally.

Disney+ is developing a series based on 2011 movie “Real Steel,” which centered around the reconciliation of a boxer and his son and starred Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly and Anthony Mackie. From Disney Branded Television and 20th Television in association with Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps, the series is exec-produced by Levy, Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, Jacqueline Levine, Susan Montford and Don Murphy—and is on the hunt for a writer.

Jace Norman (“Henry Danger”) signed an overall deal with Nickelodeon and AwesomenessTV to develop, exec-produce and star in content for ViacomCBS companies including Nickelodeon Studios, Awesomeness Studios and Paramount+ through his production shingle Starlight. As part of the partnership, Norman will reprise his role as Henry Hart/Kid Danger in a new live-action movie for Paramount+, based off the Nick series.

“Godfather of Harlem” will returnfor a 10-ep third season on Epix. From Disney Television Studios’ ABC Signature studio, season 2 of the Forest Whitaker-starring drama was Epix’s best-performing season of all time. Created by Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein (“Narcos”), the series is inspired by crime boss Bumpy Johnson, who in the early ‘60s returned from 11 years in prison to find the neighborhood he once ruled in shambles.

David Ramsey, who plays John Diggle in the CW’s “Arrow” and other DC series, will topline “Justice U,” in development at the network. If the series is picked up, Ramsey will also helm the new series, which is set in the Arrowverse and takes place after years of Diggle fighting alongside masked heroes.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

YA animated series “Supernatural Academy” will premiere on Peacock on Thursday, January 20. The adaptation of book series The Supernatural Academy, from Jaymin Eve, chronicles an otherworldly adventure of sisters marked at birth but raised in different worlds—one in the Supernatural world, confident and popular, the other in the human world, an offbeat outsider.

Order up! HBO Max debuts all six eps of “Take Out With Lisa Ling” on Thursday, January 27. Journalist Ling, whose family story began in a Chinese restaurant, travels from the bayous of Louisiana to Orange County’s Little Saigon to explore a broad swatch of Asian restaurants and Asian American culture.

OWN will drop season 5 of Will Packer Media’s dating series “Ready to Love” Friday, January 28 at 8p. A new cast of love seekers from Maryland, Virginia and the DC area, plus a host of new rules are headed for the new season, which tackles the challenge of finding meaningful relationships in a climate of dating apps and DMs.

Netflix is also returning to the dating circuit. “Love Is Blind” is heading back to the streamer, which set a return date of Friday, February 11 for the first five eps. From Kinetic Content, series celebrates singles who want to be loved for who they are, rather than what they look like, in an unconventional approach to modern dating. New season, hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, touches down in Chicago.

Comedy series “Murderville,” starring Will Arnett, heads to Netflix on Thursday, February 3. The series will see celeb guests improvise their way through an otherwise scripted murder mystery. Annie Murphy, Conan O’Brien, Ken Jeong, Kumail Nanjiani, Marshawn Lynch and Sharon Stone are on the guest list.

The next iteration of Kevin Hart’s limited series “Real Husbands of Hollywood-More Kevin, More Problems,” debuts on BET+ on Thursday, February 10. The series, which follows Hart and his friends’ journey to fame, first premiered on BET in 2013 and ran for five seasons.

INSP set Thursday, February 17 at 8p as the premiere for its latest historical docudrama series, “Into the Wild Frontier.” This time the lens will be on America’s expansion westward, and its irresistible pull for frontiersmen like Daniel Boone, Jim Bridger and John Colter.

At FX, season 5 of “Snowfall” is slated to premiere Wednesday, February 23, at 10p, touching down in summer 1986, when Franklin Saint and his family are rich beyond their wildest dreams, just as the ground gets shaky… “Better Things” returns Monday, February 28 at 10p for the fifth and final chapter that focuses on the road ahead for its unconventional, unfiltered heroine Sam Fox.

The first seven eps of new Fox comedy “Welcome to Flatch” will stream on-demand the same day as its linear launch. Based on British mockumentary “This Country,” the series will roll out Thursday, March 17 at 9:30p Hulu and Fox Now, marking the first time Fox has embraced this distribution strategy.

COMING UP

“CBS Mornings” today will air one of the final interviews Bob Saget gave before he died January 9. The interview, which the comedian taped December 6 with CBS News’ chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook last month, will air on the morning show co-hosted by Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson at 7a.

The life and career of trailblazing actor, director, and diplomat Sidney Poitier will be celebrated by several networks. OWN will feature special programming this Sunday, January 16 including Poitier’s 2000 and 2007 appearances on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and an airing of his 1967 film “To Sir, With Love.” Turner Classic Movies will remember Poitier, who passed away January 6, with a steady flow of 12 films including “In the Heat of the Night” and “The Defiant Ones,” Saturday, February 19- Sunday, February 20. BET and BET Her will offer programming tributes on Saturday, February 26 as a lead-in to its coverage of the NAACP Image Awards.

“MLB Tonight: A Conversation,” airing on MLB Network on Monday, January 17 at 5p—MLK Jr. Day—will examine Black representation in baseball. Harold Reynolds, MLB Network analyst and former player, will host the special, which features new interviews with Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker and Atlanta Braves coach Ron Washington, among others.

“The American Diplomat,” which explores the lives and legacies of three African-American ambassadors—Edward R. Dudley, Terence Todman and Carl Rowan—who pushed past historical and institutional racial barriers to reach high-ranking appointments, debuts on PBS Tuesday, February 15 at 9p.

“Against the Ice,” a film about Denmark’s perilous 1909 arctic expedition led by Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen to disprove the US’ claim to Northeast Greenland, will debut on Netflix on Wednesday, March 2.

ADVERTISING & MEASUREMENT

NBCUniversal inked a dealwith iSpot.tv to help brands verify the reach and impact of their TV and streaming ads. The initial “test-and-learn” phase is slated to include a pilot program for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games as well as Super Bowl LVI. Publicis Media is onboard as the first media holding company to test the iSpot.tv data across NBCU’s One Platform.

KIDS NEWS

Genius Brands International will launch its subscription-based Kartoon Channel! Kidaverse on April 15. Anchored by technology from recent GBI purchase Ameba TV, the $3.99/month service is envisioned as a kids-centric metaverse complete with custom avatars, immersive content, collectibles, NFTs, music, digital currency and child-safe messaging. In addition to Kartoon Channel! shows including “Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten,” “Rainbow Rangers,” “Peppa Pig,” “PJ Masks and “Minecraft,” Kidaverse will add 13,000 eps under license to Ameba including brands such as Casper The Friendly Ghost and Donkey Kong Country. The platform will also become home to several thousand hours of animated content available through GBI’s recent acquisition of WOW! Unlimited Media and strategic investment in Your Family Entertainment.

TECH TALK

Joe Rogan hosts Spotify’s most-listened-to podcast, but his promotion of what a group of health professionals deem falsehoods about Covid on his show has led more than 250 doctors, nurses, scientists, health professionals and academics to knock on Spotify’s door. In a January 10 open letter to the audio streaming platform, they call on Spotify to “implement a misinformation policy” specifically citing “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

Vevo dropped an updated versionof its Vevo TV app on Amazon Fire TV, with plans to roll out the revamped app across additional connected TV platforms in the coming months. The latest user interface provides an experience more consistent with the UX viewers are familiar with on live TV. Videos auto-play upon entering the app, and the more viewers visit, the more personalized the auto-play content recommendations become over time.

RetroCrush, DMR’s digital channel devoted to classic anime, launched as a linear channel on LG Smart TVs.

Nickelodeon has quite a catch with its “Baby Shark” franchise series. The video “Baby Shark Dance” has become the first video ever to hit 10 billion views on YouTube. The video was released in June 2016.

STREAMING

England’s Premier Leaguesoccer league expanded its streaming field. Paramount+ will air live Premier League games in Mexico and Central America beginning with the 2022-23 season. FuboTV will be the exclusive home to the league’s games in Canadian market for the next three seasons beginning in 2022-23.

Zooey Deschanel, Hannah Simone and Lamorne Morris will reunite to host a “New Girl” rewatch podcast, premiering on January 24 via iHeartMedia. Each segment will dive back into eps of the series, which aired on Fox from 2011-18, and reveal backstage stories.

Kerry Washington is going into business with Audible. Under a new deal, the “Scandal” and “Little Fires Everywhere” star will develop and produce three scripted audio projects for the company.

CASTING

Murray Bartlett (“The White Lotus”) is set to star as producer/choreographer Nick De Noia in “Immigrant,” Hulu’s limited series about Chippendales founder Somen “Steve” Banerjee… Production is under way on the second season of Netflix’s “Shadow and Bone,” with a few new cast members in tow. Anna Leong Brophy (“Traces”), Patrick Gibson (“The OA”), Lewis Tan (“Mortal Kombat”) and Jack Wolfe (“The Witcher”) joined the cast, and Danielle Galligan, Daisy Head and Calahan Skogman have been promoted to series regulars… William Levy (“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter”) will topline dramatic thriller “Montecristo,” from Pantaya and Secuoya Studios.

David Walton (“(JKL”), Monique Curnen (“The Dark Knight”) and Moriah Brown (“Raising Dion”) boarded Starz’s “Power Book II: Ghost” as series regulars… Camille Cottin, who recurred as Helene in Season 3 of BBC America’s “Killing Eve,” has been upped to series regular for the upcoming final season. Additionally, Anjana Vasan (“We Are Lady Parts”) and Robert Gilbert (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”) are in as series regulars and Marie-Sophie Ferdane (“I Am Not An Easy Man”) will recur.

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RATINGS

HGTV’s “Ugliest House in America” delivered a 0.67 Live+3 rating among A25-54 and a 0.86 Live+3 rating among W25-54 from Monday, January 3, through Friday, January 7. Close to 11 million viewers watched the series during its run, with the January 7 finale ranking as the No. 1 cable program among demos including A25-54, W25-54, HH and P2+.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Wednesday, January 12
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: “The Goldbergs” 3.50 (0.7), “The Wonder Years” 2.54 (0.5), “The Conners” 3.27 (0.6), “Home Economics” 2.11 (0.4), “The Chase” 2.15 (0.3)
CBS: “The Price Is Right” 4.90 (0.6), “The Amazing Race” 3.49 (0.5), “Good Sam” 2.43 (0.2)
CW: “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” 0.56 (0.1), “Batwoman” 0.52 (0.1)
FOX: “I Can See Your Voice” 2.28 (0.5), “Next Level Chef” 1.91 (0.5)
NBC: “Chicago Med” 7.33 (0.8), ”Chicago Fire” 7.41 (0.9), “Chicago PD” 5.81 (0.7)
Telemundo: “Minuto Para Ganar” 0.70 (0.2), “Hercai: Amor” 1.10 (0.3), “Malverde: Santo” 0.71 (0.2)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Sesame Workshop elevated longtime producer Sal Perez to VP/exec producer of Sesame Street Production. Most recently Perez served as Sesame Street‘s supervising producer.

Convergent TV advertising platform Beachfront added Katie Long as head of demand and Amit Nigam as VP of product. Long most recently was a senior director, platform sales, for Yahoo. Nigam was the VP of product at Perion.

Joe Schlosser has been promoted to EVP, communications, at Banijay Americas, and Jaycee Medina has been named VP, communications and marketing at the Endomol Shine company. Additionally, Abbey Maloney was promoted to publicist, Banijay Americas. Schlosser previously was SVP, communications for Endemol Shine North America. Medina formerly was executive director, communications, Endemol Shine North America.

Hearst Media Production Group named three execs to newly created positions: Bryan Curb is now EVP/GM, educational/informational programming; he previously was chief creative officer for Litton Entertainment. Angelica Rosas McDaniel is EVP/GM, entertainment. She previously was Litton’s EVP, strategy and creative development. New CFO Chris Matthews previously served as Litton’s SVP/CFO.

Barbara Ford Grant is joining NEP Virtual Studios group to lead NEP Prysm Stages. She joins from entertainment company Meow Wolf, where she served as CTO.

IN MEMORIAM

Jana Bennett, the global television powerhouse who sat at the helm of BBC TV, BBC Worldwide and History Channel during her career, has died at age 66. She is survived by her husband and two children. After being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2019, Bennett served as a trustee of the cancer research app OurBrainBank. She first rose through the ranks at the BBC, where she eventually landed the role of director of television in 2002. After serving in that post for nine years, Bennett segued to A+E Networks, where she oversaw FYI and Lifetime Movie Network before being named president and GM of History in 2015. She oversaw operations for History and H2 until 2017, when she stepped down to pursue an entrepreneurial venture.

Director Robert Allan Ackerman, whose work in television earned five Emmy nominations, died January 10 of kidney failure in Los Angeles. He was 77. “Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows,” “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” “The Reagans” and “David’s Mother” are among Ackerman’s most notable TV credits. He also had a salient Broadway run with credits including “Bent” and “Slab Boys.”

This Day in History
1784 – The United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War.

Friday Fact
Wright Brothers Orville and Wilbur tossed a coin to see who would first test the Wright Flyer on the sands of Kill Devil Hills, NC. Orville won.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Which series featured a computer known as “The Machine”? “Person of Interest” (2011-16). Kudos to: Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NY; Joe Cruse-Diesel Labs/Boston; Louis Lewow-FITE/Atlanta; Aaron Paquette-AccelerateSG/Fort Worth, TX; Sandy Spiegel-WTTW/Chicago; John Ward-VideoAmp/Chicago; Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank; David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA; Dan Harrison-Fox Entertainment/LA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
Which actress was originally cast as Mary Alice Young on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” (2004) pilot but was replaced by Brenda Strong? 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.)

Cynopsis Team