Today’s Premieres
Apple TV+: Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock; Servant
HBO: Real Time With Bill Maher at 10p, Back on the Road with Bob Costas at 11p
Nat Geo: Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back at 8p
Netflix: Summer Heat; Ozark
Prime Video: As We See It
The Roku Channel: The Fix
Travel: Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life at 9p

Today’s Finale
PBS: Stars on Stage From Westport Country Playhouse at 9p

Saturday’s Premieres
Discovery: Lone Star Law at 8p
discovery+: Radford Returns

Sunday’s Premieres
AMC: The Walking Dead: Origins at 9p
Cooking Chanel: The Best Thing I Ever Ate at 10p
Peacock: Earnin’ It: The NFL’s Forward Progress
Showtime: Billions at 9p

Sunday’s Finale
Science: Expedition Deep Ocean at 10p

IN THE NEWS

Peacock is expanding local news content on the platform with channels from its NBC owned television stations, including NBC 5 Chicago (WMAQ), NBC 10 Philadelphia (WCAU), NBC10 Boston (WBTS) and New England Cable Network (NECN), and NBC 6 Miami (WTVJ). News channels from NBC 4 New York (WNBC) and NBC 4 Los Angeles (KNBC) will be available to stream for free in the months ahead. Each channel features simulcast and encore news programming, along with breaking news and original content produced by its NBC station’s local news operations. “We know the importance of local news to our subscribers and this further distinguishes the Peacock experience,” said Jen Brown, SVP of Program Planning for Peacock.

ESPN has decided against sending people to Beijing for the Winter Olympics. “With the pandemic continuing to be a global threat, and with the Covid-related on-site restrictions in place for the Olympics that would make coverage very challenging, we felt that keeping our people home was the best decision for us,” said ESPN’s EVP Event and Studio Production & Executive Editor Norby Williamson. This follows NBC’s decision to have its announcing teams for the Games call them as they see them – from Connecticut. Earlier this week, the International Olympic Committee said no tickets will be sold the Beijing Games due to the “grave and complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The Winter Olympics take place February 4-20, followed by the Paralympic Games from March 4-13.

Pepsi dropped a trailer for its Super Bowl halftime show, featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar. “Artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg were at the forefront of the West Coast hip hop revolution, so to be able to bring them back to LA, where it all began alongside Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar will prove to be an epic, unforgettable celebration of the impact hip hop has today,” said Todd Kaplan, Pepsi Marketing VP.

NBC has canceled “Small Fortune” after one season. The game show, hosted and exec produced by Lil Rel Howery (“Get Out”), aired last summer.

“This bill would make advertising less precise, more expensive, and raise costs for everyone,” said IAB CEO David Cohen of the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act introduced in Congress. The act would prohibit ad networks and “facilitators” from drawing on information, including data about online browsing history and unique identifiers, for ad targeting. A ban on personalized ads would hit small businesses especially hard, noted Cohen. The IAB introduced a new campaign, Internet for Growth, featuring small business owners who could be affected by restrictions on online advertising.

How do consumers feel about their data being used for targeted advertising? The fourth annual ARF Privacy Study found that major resistance to targeted advertising is confined to only 25% to 40% of the population, depending on the source of the targeting information. There is much greater trust in financial (63%) and medical institutions (57%) than in digital advertisers (18%) and social media platforms (23%). But consumers express just as much resistance to being placed in target segments as they do to being targeted individually, “which throws a wrench into the idea of cohort targeting,” said Paul Donato, Chief Research Officer at the ARF. “Since consumers are more trusting of institutions with which they have personal relationships, such as banks and doctors, to manage their data, it appears that advertisers that can develop strong first-party relationships with consumers will have an advantage in this privacy-centric era.”

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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

HGTV has greenlit a new six-episode home reno series, “Steal This House” (wt), starring Cristy Lee (“All Girls Garage”). “’Steal This House’ will show a different approach to home buying that promises to re-energize buyers who are stalled in their search process due to limited inventory,” said Jane Latman, President, HGTV & Streaming Home Content, Discovery, Inc. “Buying a less than perfect property and turning it into a dream home can be a nail-biter, but Cristy will show us that when it works, it’s like winning the lottery.” The series is slated to premiere in late 2022.

Netflix adding to the library of “Iron Chef” series with “Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend.” The cooking competition is based on a Japanese format from Fuji Television Network, and Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” ran from 2005-18. The series hails from Keller Productions in association with 3 Ball Productions.

Apple TV+ has ordered a show featuring Godzilla and the Titans. The live-action series will be produced by Legendary Television and executive produced by co-creators Chris Black and Matt Fraction, alongside Safehouse Pictures’ Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell and Toho Co. Ltd.

The unsolved deaths of members of the music community is explored in unscripted series “Hip Hop Homicides,” from Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and his G-Unit Film & Television, along with Mona Scott-Young’s Monami Productions and Lionsgate Television. The eight-parter, hosted by Van Latham (“Two Distant Strangers”) will air later this year on WE tv and AMC Networks sib ALLBLK. “50 and I created this show in response to the disturbing number of murders in Hip Hop. With this boots-on-the-ground investigative series, we will look to closely examine and explore leads surrounding these cases with the hope of finally providing loved ones with answers,” said Scott-Young.

The second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” will take place in Sicily, reports Variety. The first season was set in Hawaii. Jennifer Coolidge will return, joined by new cast members Michael Imperioli (“The Sopranos”), Aubrey Plaza (“Parks and Recreation”), F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hollander (“Gosford Park”), Adam DiMarco (“The Order”) and Haley Lu Richardson (“Ravenswood”).

“The Crossover,” a drama based on the bestselling novel by Kwame Alexander, has been ordered to series for premiere on Disney+. The Disney Branded Television series will be produced by 20th Television. Executive producers include Todd Harthan (“The Resident,” “Rosewood”), Damani Johnson, Kwame Alexander, George Tillman, Jr., Bob Teitel, and Jay Marcus. Additionally LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Jamal Henderson of The SpringHill Company are joining the project as executive producers.

The partnership between 20th Digital Studio and Hulu is set to include nine horror features over the next few years, with films expanding on the shorts from the “Bite Size Halloween” collection. The films deal with topical social issues such as mental health, ecological collapse, reproductive rights, interracial adoption and online hysteria. Horror short film “Appendage,” starring Rachel Sennott (“Shive Baby”) and Eric Roberts (“The Righteous Gemstones”), now playing at the Sundance Film Festival, will expand to a Hulu Original feature film with 20th Digital Studio as part of the slate currently in development.

Fox Weather has partnered exclusively with Surfline, giving Fox Weather broadcast rights to over 500 HD cameras worldwide to showcase weather conditions at beaches around the globe. The cameras are located on both coasts of the United States, as well as the Caribbean, Mexico, South America, Europe, Northern Africa, Japan and the Philippines.

CNN has renewed “United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell” for season seven, and “This Is Life with Lisa Ling” for a ninth run. New shows on the horizon are “The Last Witness: Watergate” (wt), spotlighting John Dean; five-part series “UFOs” (wt); and “Patagonia: Life at the Edge of the World,” debuting in the spring.

CASTING

Joshua Jackson (“The Affair”) will star opposite Lizzy Kaplan (“Masters of Sex”) in a Paramount+ series based on “Fatal Attraction,” the 1987 psychological thriller starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close…Anirudh Pisharody (“The Goldbergs”) will recur on season three of Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever.”

Peacock’s “Bel-Air” has cast a crew of recurring guest stars, including Karrueche Tran (“Claws”), Duane Martin (“All of Us”), April Parker Jones (“Supegirl”), SteVonté Hart (“Queen Sugar”), Joe Holt (“The Punisher”), Scottie Thompson (“NCIS”), Jon Beavers (“Licorice Pizza”), Tyler Barnhardt (“13 Reasons Why”) and Charlie Hall (“Single Drunk Female”). The drama reboot of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” premieres Sunday, February 13.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Fox News Channel will debut a new Saturday primetime line-up beginning January 29. Lawrence Jones hosts a new one-hour show, “Lawrence Jones Cross Country” airing at 10p, and Brian Kilmeade will helm his own program at 8p. “Unfiltered with Dan Bongin” moves to 9p. The 8p hour was formerly hosted by Jesse Watters, who was named solo host of the weeknight “Jesse Watters Primetime” (debuting on Monday January 24), while the 9p Saturday timeslot was previously hosted by Jeanine Pirro, who was named co-host of “The Five.”

Discovery+ and OWN present “Profiled: The Black Man,” a four-part docuseries examining the origins of the widespread stereotypes that have impacted the lives of Black men in America for centuries. The series will premiere on Saturday, February 12, exclusively on discovery+, with new one-hour episodes available to discovery+ subscribers every Saturday through March 5.

Showtime is airing new three-part docuseries “everything’s gonna be all white,” which explores the history of race in America from the perspective of people of color, starting Friday, February 11 at 8p.

“A Different City,” a three-part investigation into the rising suicide rates among Black youth in America, will make its digital premiere on TEGNA stations’ Fire TV and Roku apps and the Watch section of all stations’ websites beginning Sunday, January 23. A special hosted by WXIA journalist Madison Carter and featuring guests from the series will debut on TEGNA stations’ streaming apps on Tuesday, February 1 at 7:30p.

Robert Irvine (“Restaurant Impossible”) and Jon Taffer (“Bar Rescue”) face off for the first time in the new three-episode series “Restaurant Rivals: Irvine vs. Taffer,” with all episodes available to stream on Thursday, March 3 on discovery+.

Crunchyroll, Fuji TV, and Slow Curve shared new details on the previously announced “Estab Life: Great Escape” and newly announced “Ooyukiumi No Kaina” (working titles) anime series, premiering April 2022 and January 2023, respectively, as part of the +Ultra programming partnership between the three companies. “Estab” takes place in an experimental city managed by AI, and “Ooyukiumi” follows the journey of two young people from different worlds, whose journey to save the world begins upon their introduction.

“Upload” will be back for season two on Friday, March 11. The Prime Video comedy follows a young app developer who winds up in the hospital and decides to be uploaded to his girlfriend’s family’s luxurious virtual afterlife.

French crime drama “Rebecca” is headed to Hulu. The series, set in Paris and produced by ELEPHANT for TF1, was the most-watched TV program in France three out of four evenings during its run. The deal follows recent sales of the series to DIRECTV Latin America and Sky Brasil.

A new season of “Fastest Cars in the Dirty South” starts streaming Friday, January 28 on MotorTrend+.

“American Anthems,” a new six-episode series from PBS, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and Academy and Believe Entertainment Group, celebrates everyday heroes with surprise songs from country music stars. Currently in production, the series premieres this summer on PBS. Also coming up on PBS: three-part docuseries “The Great Muslim American Road Trip,” this summer.

COMING UP

Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg are returning as hosts of Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl,” this time adding coaching to their duties. The three-hour event airs Sunday, February 13 at 2p.

Interactive special “Super Bowl Greatest Commercials: All Time Classics” has been set to air Tuesday, February 8 at 8p on CBS. Hosts Boomer Esiason and Daniela Ruah (“NCIS: Los Angeles”) will count down the top spots, with the audience choosing the winner.

“Torn” premieres on Disney+ on Friday, February 4. From director Max Lowe and producer Chris Murphy, along with Lightbox’s Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn, the National Geographic Documentary Films feature had its world premiere at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival.

Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz will guest on an upcoming episode of CBS’ “Good Sam,” starring their former “One Tree Hill” castmate, Sophia Bush. The three actresses host podcast “Drama Queens,” about their experience working on OTH.

FYI and The History Channel’s coverage of Barrett-Jackson’s 2022 Scottsdale Auction will include 38 hours of live coverage, premiering January 24 on FYI and culminating January 29 with six hours of evening coverage on The History Channel.

In two new Shock Docs, discovery+ presents stories, recounted by the eyewitnesses and victims themselves, of reported alien encounters. “Alien Abduction: Beety and Barney Hill: and “Alien Abduction: Travis Wilton” both stream Friday, February 18.

TECH TALK

Instagram is testing Instagram Subscriptions, allowing creators to offer paid subscriptions for exclusive content and benefits. The test has started with “a handful” of creators, who can set a monthly price of their choice, unlock a “subscribe” button on their profile, and offer their subscribers exclusive Lives, stories and badges.

Comcast Technology Solutions has launched a new service, Video Artificial Intelligence. VideoAI is a software-as-a-service aimed at helping companies understand and analyze video, audio, and closed captions to create actionable metadata around content assets, generate and manage new content, improve advertising efficiency, and streamline operations. The service can be used to identify and tag key on-screen moments (such as hard cuts, black frames and transitions) and audio events (such as silence, specific sounds). Features include metadata segmentation for dynamic ad insertion (DAI); segmentation detection (such as detecting intros, credit rolls and auto-chaptering); and creating automated on-screen highlight reels during live sporting events.

STREAMING

Netflix reported a worldwide total of 221.84 million subscribers in 4Q21, a year-over-year gain of 8.3 million that fell just short of projections of 8.5 million. The streamer said it expects to have 224.3 million subscribers by the end of this quarter. Thanks for nothing, said Wall Street, as the company’s stock dropped 10% in after-hours trading.

Future Today is partnering with YouTube’s Brat TV to launch a dedicated streaming channel featuring Brat TV’s video series and content geared towards teenage audiences. The new AVOD channel, free on Roku and Fire TV, offers more than 85 hours of original programming.

Discovery+ is launching a “Black Voices” hub, with programming spotlighting the African American community. The hub will live on the platform year-round with curated series, documentaries, and specials. “Black voices should be celebrated 365 days a year,” said Lisa Holme, Group SVP of Content and Commercial Strategy for Discovery. “We are proud to bring universal and relatable stories to the platform that highlight and represent the Black community across genres that we know will resonate with viewers.”

The Judy Justice FAST channel is joining over 50 other FAST channels on IMDb TV, including recently added channels for “The Price is Right: The Barker Era” and “Supermarket Sweep.” Launch date: Monday, January 24.

Users of Vizeo SmartCast TV’s now have access to Sling TV. “We are delighted to provide SmartCast users with access to premium channels like ESPN and Showtime as well as live sports, news and entertainment through the Sling TV streaming app,” said Katherine Pond, Vice President of Business Development at VIZIO.

GOING GLOBAL

AMC Networks International and Slovak Telekom Group’s Magio and Digi Slovakia as well as T-Mobile TV Czech Republic, subsidiaries of Deutsche Telekom, have struck a multi-year renewal of their distribution agreement. The strategic agreement provides carriage of AMCNI channels Sport1, Sport2, AMC, Film+, Minimax, JimJam, Spektrum and Spektrum Home, for viewers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The multiplatform deal includes IPTV, DTH, cable and OTT carriage.

Armoza Formats announced the recommission of studio entertainment format, “Song of my Life in Finland,” for a fourth season on Finland’s YLE.

Moonbug Entertainment is partnering with Astro to launch the first Moonbug Kids branded linear channel in Malaysia. The curated channel will launch on February 1, with additional Moonbug content available On Demand and on Astro GO.

FilmRise and Thunderbird Entertainment have entered into an agreement giving Filmrise exclusive multi-territory FAST ad-supported digital linear rights to Canadian comedy series “Kim’s Convenience.” FilmRise holds exclusive FAST rights to all five seasons of the series, which it will program across its existing FAST Channels as well as allow for the creation of dedicated marathon FAST channels of the series across the US, Latin America, German-speaking Europe, French-speaking Europe, Italy, and Spain.

Big Media has struck a distribution deal with UK-based production company Ida Rose for international distribution rights for three of Ida Rose’s new scripted projects: music drama “The Underground,” true crime series “Doors,” and action feature “Stolen.”

Discovery+ is now available on LG Smart TVs in Canada, including LG’s LG OLED TVs and LG QNED MiniLED TVs. discovery+ is available starting at CAD $4.99 per month, with an ad-free version available for CAD $6.99 per month.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FINALISTS

This year’s Best of the Best finalists include Nickelodeon, Food Network, SiriusXM, MTV, discovery+, Viacom, NBC News and more. Join us on Feb 24th when we announce the winners!

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RATINGS

The Saturday, January 15 premiere of “The Perfect Pairing,” part of Hallmark Channel’s 2022 New Year New Movies programming event, was the #1 most-watched entertainment cable program of the day and week among Households, Women 18+ and Total Viewers, and averaged 2.3 million Total Viewers and 180,000 Women 25-54.

Nielsen’s Top 10 Streaming Titles for the week of December 20
Show, # episodes, # minutes viewed
The Witcher (Netflix), 16, 2.7 billion
Emily in Paris (Netflix), 20, 938 million
Hawkeye (Disney+), 6, 938 million
Elf (Hulu), film, 782 million
CoComelon (Netflix), 15, 707 million
Home Alone (Disney+), film, 700 million
The Wheel of Time (Prime Video), 8, 638 million
Being the Ricardos (Prime Video), film, 604 million
Criminal Minds (Netflix), 317, 582 million
NCIS (Netflix), 354, 581 million

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Wednesday, January 19
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: The Goldbergs 3.02 (0.5), The Wonder Years 2.08 (0.4), The Conners 2.87 (0.4), Home Economics 1.92 (0.3), The Chase 2.09 (0.3)
CBS: The Price Is Right 4.81 (0.7), “The Amazing Race” 3.51 (0.6), Good Sam 2.30 (0.3)
CW: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 0.56 (0.1), Batwoman 0.44 (0.1)
FOX: I Can See Your Voice 1.98 (0.4), Next Level Chef 1.79 (0.4)
NBC: Chicago Med” 7.23 (0.8), Chicago Fire 7.08 (0.8), Chicago PD 5.65 (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

Charter Communications announced that Tom Adams, Executive Vice President of Field Operations and Jon Hargis, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Office, will transition to advisory roles in April and retire later this year. Tom Monaghan has been elevated to EVP, Field Operations, and Adam Ray takes on the newly created role of EVP, Chief Commercial Officer. Sharon Peters and Christian Ruiz have been promoted to EVP, Chief Marketing Officer, and EVP, Sales, respectively.

Nick Tran is out as TikTok’s Global Head of Marketing. Tran was reportedly ousted because of stunt marketing like a creator-led NFT collection and plans for a TikTok Kitchen.

Gabriel Gazoul has joined FilmRise as Director of Film Acquisitions. Gazoul was previously Senior Director, Content Acquisitions for Showtime Networks.

Genius Brands International has named Todd Steinman as Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer of the Company’s recently announced Kartoon Channel! Kidaverse. Steinman most recently served as Vice President in the Direct to Consumer and International division at The Walt Disney Company.

Mediaocean has tapped John Malysiak to serve as SVP of Cross-Platform Solutions, and Perianne Grignon as VP of Strategy for Agency Solutions. Malysiak is former U.S. Managing Director of Influencer Media at Omnicom Media Group, and Grignon co-led client engagements at Media Plus Advisors.

Finland’s Take Two Studios has appointed Sara Norberg as a partner and COO. Norberg was most recently CEO and executive producer of Cinematic, a Finnish film, TV and digital indie.

Integral Ad Science has named Robert Janecek as Chief Information Officer. Janecek was most recently SVP, Enterprise Systems at IAS.

Arianna Saiti has joined ScreenHits TV as Chief Marketing Officer. Saiti was Chief Brand Officer at Foxtel Group before launching a digital consultancy.

Trisha Husson has been promoted to Head of Strategy, Business Operations and Finance for Disney General Entertainment. With Husson’s elevation, Eric Marcotte takes on oversight of the Strategy & Business Operations team for DGE as SVP.

Latifa Ouaou has been appointed Executive Vice President, Movies and Global Franchises, Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation. Eryk Casemiro, who formerly served as Nickelodeon’s Senior Vice President of Preschool, will now assume the role of Executive Vice President, Nickelodeon Animation, Global Series Content.

This Day in History
1789 – The first American novel, WH Brown’s The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature, was published.

Friday Fun Fact
On “Game of Thrones,” coats worn by members of the Night’s Watch were were made from IKEA rugs.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What role earned Claire Danes her first Primetime Emmy? The title role in 2010 HBO film “Temple Grandin.” Kudos to: Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton, FL; Traci Liner-Initiative/NYC; Erik Rankin-CoxReps/NYC; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo, CA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank; Matt Sautter-WIdeOrbit/York, PA

Today’s Trivia Question
Which short-lived drama focused on a vampire ruler and a San Francisco detective? 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