Tonight’s Finales
NBC: Perfect Harmony at 9:30p
Oxygen: An Unexpected Killer at 8p

IN THE NEWS

Bill Abbott, President and CEO of Hallmark Channel parent Crown Media Family Networks, is leaving the company after 11 years, effective tomorrow. “I want to thank Bill for his many years of success and contributions to Crown Media and wish him continued success,” said Mike Perry, President and CEO of Hallmark Cards, which owns Crown Media. While no reason was given for the exit of Abbott, who saw Hallmark Channel’s “Countdown to Christmas” programming propel the network up the ratings chart, last month, Hallmark drew criticism for pulling a Zola.com ad featuring a same-sex couple. Days later, Perry issued an apology and reversed the decision. Perry said he will begin a search for Abbott’s replacement. “I have tremendous confidence in the Crown Media management team,” Perry added. “In a time when there is immense competition among television networks and streaming services, it is more important than ever that we find relevant new ways to grow our business and continue to produce high quality programming that resonates with our growing audience.”

NBCUniversal is flying high over streaming service Peacock. “Peacock can transcend the generations because we’re providing content for everyone,” said Laura Molen, President of Ad Sales and Partnerships for NBCU, at NATPE. Comcast reports its 4Q19 earnings this morning; the streaming service, with a tiered subscription model, launches April 15 for Comcast Xfinity X1 and Flex subscribers, and nationwide July 15.

ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, World News Tonight anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis will moderate The Democratic Debate in New Hampshire on Friday, February 7 at 8p on ABC. They’ll be joined by WMUR-TV political director Adam Sexton and WMUR-TV news anchor Monica Hernandez. Muir will anchor World News Tonight from the debate hall in Manchester on Thursday, February 6, and Friday; Stephanopoulos will anchor GMA and anchor Byron Pitts will anchor Nightline from Manchester on Friday. ABC News is partnering with Apple News and Hearst Television’s WMUR-TV for the event.

The Supreme Court refused to hear Facebook’s appeal of a lower court ruling that allows Illinois residents to sue the social media giant. Facebook is accused of violating the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act with its facial-recognition software. Facebook argues that the lawsuit should be dismissed since Illinois residents weren’t harmed by its photo-tagging function.

Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard is suing Hillary Clinton for defamation, citing the former presidential candidate’s saying in October, on the podcast Campaign HQ, that a candidate assumed to be Gabbard is “the favorite of the Russians” and being groomed to be a third-party candidate. Gabbard “has seen her political and personal reputation smeared and her candidacy intentionally damaged by Clinton’s malicious and demonstrably false remarks,” said her lawyer. Gabbard is seeking $50 million.

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media is taking aim at unsafe online content. The group estimates that 620 million pieces of harmful content were removed by Facebook, Instagram and YouTube between July and September 2019, but about 9.2 million pieces reached consumers. GARM said it is working with media and digital platforms to ensure that “bad actors have no access to advertiser funding.” “It’s time to create a responsible media supply chain that is built for the year 2030, one that operates in a way that is safe, efficient, transparent, accountable, and properly moderated for everyone involved, especially for the consumers we serve,” said Procter & Gamble Chief Brand Officer and GARM member Marc Pritchard. “With all the great minds in our industry coming together in partnership with The Global Alliance for Responsible Media, we can and should avoid the pitfalls of the past and chart a course for a responsible future.”

The News Literacy Project and The E.W. Scripps Company are teaming for a national public awareness campaign on the importance of news literacy and the role of the free press in American democracy. The campaign, now running across Scripps’ local broadcast stations and national media businesses and with other journalism media partners, promotes news literacy as a fundamental life skill for America. (Tag line: “double-check your facts.”) The campaign culminates in National News Literacy Week, January 27-31.

“They’re the innovators and champions of change with the skill, commitment and passion to help guide an industry during an exciting, but tumultuous time. We are honored to shine a light on these future leaders, as well as the companies that are empowering them.” – Robbie Caploe, Publisher |CYNOPSIS

View honorees here and make plans to join us in NYC on Thursday, February 6th for the Cynopsis Best Of The Best Awards luncheon.

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Producers and entrepreneurs L.C. Crowley and Brandon Barr, along with animator and VFX artist Grzegorz Jonkajtys, announced the launch of Trioscope Studios, dedicated to next-generation enhanced hybrid animation. The LA- based studio will be developing original dramatic content as well as adapting and producing third party intellectual property. Crowley will serve as CEO with Barr as Chief Content Officer and Jonkajtys as Chief Creative Officer. Joining them is Brian Lavin, SVP of Development.

ABC gave a pilot order to Harlem’s Kitchen, an ensemble family drama set in a restaurant in Harlem. Project comes from writer Zahir McGhee (For the People), Mandeville Television and ABC Studios.

TNT has put into development Liars Club, reports Deadline. The dramedy/thriller about a woman living two very different lives comes from Amy Rutberg (Daredevil), Paul Giamatti and Dan Carey’s Touchy Feely Films, Christopher Silber (NCIS: New Orleans) and CBS Television Studios.

In development at Amazon is a series based on James Patterson’s best-selling Alex Cross novels. Project comes from Amazon Studios, Paramount Television Studios and Skydance Television.

ITV Studios has sold a range of scripted content to the US. Brassic, Sky’s highest-rating comedy in seven years, has been acquired by Hulu; Gold Digger, a character-driven relationship thriller, is headed to Acorn TV; and new comedy drama The Trouble with Maggie Cole, which delves into what happens when idle gossip escalates out of control, has been picked up by PBS Distribution. ITV has also teamed with BritBox North America to co-produce the up-coming six-part mystery series McDonald & Dodds, about a pair of mismatched police detectives.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Star Wars: The Clone Wars returns for its final 12 episodes on Disney+ on Friday, February 21.

Restaurants on the Edge, from Marblemedia in association with OutEast Entertainment, launches its first season on Netflix for US and international audiences starting February 28; Netflix Canada will stream season one starting March 14.

Not in the mood for hearts and flowers on V-Day? Season three of Facebook Watch’s The Real Bros of Simi Valley premieres Friday, February 14 at 3p. Satirical scripted series follows four best friends trying to make sense of their lives now that they’ve graduated high school – ten years ago.

The Cynopsis Sports Media Awards are dedicated to celebrating the work of producers, hosts, sponsors and executives and saluting their game-changing initiatives in the space. What has your team been up to? We want to know. Enter online here before next Tuesday, January 28th.

COMING UP

Strange email messages following the disappearance of Christopher Smith led to the revelation that his business partner, Edward Shin, had murdered him, then covered it up. A two-hour 20/20 broadcast on Friday January 24 at 9p, and multipart podcast, tell the story of how authorities connected the dots to get Shin sent to prison for life. Podcast starts Thursday, February 27, with new episodes posting every Thursday.

She’s the boss: Judith Light (Transparent) will be honored with the Excellence in Media Award at the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards on March 19 in NYC. Lilly Singh, openly bisexual executive producer and host of NBC’s A Little Late with Lilly Singh, will serve as host of the Awards; Ryan Murphy will receive the Vito Russo Award.

On the series finale of ID’s Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda, Detective Kenda is called in to investigate a triple homicide and discovers one of his most personally brutal murders to date. Titled “The End,” the episode airs Wednesday, January 29 at 9p.

The Cynopsis Best Of The Best Awards gala luncheon (Feb 6 in NYC) is a chance to cheer outstanding achievement over the past year in content, campaigns and more. We can’t wait to spotlight the work that’s been done by the groundbreaking finalists, as well as the Rising Star honorees, who make it their business to stay ahead of the curve. Register your team today before we sell out!

TECH TALK

DoubleVerify announced a certification program designed to protect advertisers from fraud and invalid traffic in the CTV space. In order to be certified by DV for CTV Targeting, a platform must demonstrate the ability to prevent fraud and IVT by applying DV’s pre-bid app and device fraud protection for CTV inventory transactions. The program includes five ad tech platforms at launch: Amobee, The Trade Desk, AppNexus, MediaMath and SpotX.

Shipments of smart devices, including PCs, notebooks, personal audio devices, smart speakers, smartphones, tablets and wearable bands, will hit 3 billion in 2023, projects Canalys. Smartphones are expected to make up over half of shipments, while the fastest-growing category will be smart personal audio.

STREAMING SNIPPETS

Gusto TV is launching OTT and IPTV platform TikiLIVE, expanding Gusto TV’s presence in the US and Latin America. Said Chris Knight, President and CEO of Gusto Worldwide Media, “It’s an exciting kick-start for Gusto TV… with more news to come. This agreement with TikiLIVE is another demonstration of the growing global appetite for our culinary content.”

Speaking of global appetites, celebrity chef Guy Fieri will go live on the Food Network Kitchen app on Friday, January 31 at 8p, to whip up Super Bowl recipes like nachos, wings, burgers and, of course, game day cocktails. Joining Guy live will be Alex Guarnaschelli, Antonia Lofaso, Josh Capon and Aaron May, along with fans, who will be able to ask questions in real time.

Arts net Ovation acquired the exclusive US digital rights to two titles for its AVOD travel and culture channel, Journy, from TVF International. Glamping Adventures explores eco-tourism experiences, while Vanishing Foods takes a look at disappearing traditional culinary recipes.

Ovation also nabbed non-exclusive US broadcast rights for eleven mystery titles from DCD Rights. Joining the net’s Mystery Mornings block, the deal includes two seasons of McCallum; three seasons of Rebus; drama series The Code; and drama series The Strange Calls, among others.

GOING GLOBAL

NBCUniversal Formats signed a deal with Floresta (Shark Tank Brazil), a joint venture between Executive Producer Elisabetta Zenatti and Sony Pictures Television, for a second season of Top Chefs, which will air on Record TV. Medcom has also signed a deal with NBCUniversal Formats, for a fifth season of Top Chef and a second season of spin off show, Top Chef Junior in Panama.

Northern Irish independent production company Green Inc. has been commissioned by Irish public broadcaster RTÉ to produce a travel entertainment series, High Road Low Road (wt), featuring celebrity friends or colleagues embarking on a holiday destination and having very different vacation experiences.

Banijay Rights acquired the rights to Thomas Markle: My Story from Alaska TV, excluding US and Canada. Commissioned by Daniel Pearl (Leaving Neverland) and executive produced by Paul Sommers, the special aired on Channel 5 in the UK yesterday.

Viacom International Studios announced the launch of production for El Asesino del Olvido (Before I Forget), the adaptation from Turkish series ?ahsiyet (Persona) produced by Ay Yapim. VIS also announced it has signed a first-look deal with director and screenwriter Ariel Winograd to develop and produce premium content for global audiences.

Multicultural broadcaster Ethnic Channels Group ramped up its English language distribution with the launch of PeopleTV in Canada on Ignite TV.

European Kids content producer Cottonwood Media signed a deal with U.S. based Bentex Group to launch a line of apparel for the global tween drama series Find Me in Paris.

GRB Studios picked up two scripted drama films, part of a portfolio expansion outlined for GRB this year. You Are Here and All The Little Things We Kill come from Courageous Content.

New Smithsonian Channel series Las Cantinas de Cornelio debuts throughout Latin America early this year. A Mexicanal original production, the series, hosted by radio and TV personality Cornelio García, invites viewers into the most historic and popular cantinas in Mexico.

CASTING

Billy Eichner (American Horror Story) will play Matt Drudge in FX limited series American Crime Story: Impeachment…Rosario Dawson (Daredevil) landed the lead in HBO Max pilot DMZ, based on the DC comic book series…Johnny Flynn (Beast) will star with Andrew Scott in Showtime drama Ripley, based on the Tom Ripley novels by Patricia Highsmith.

PODCAST POSTS

HLN’s first podcast, Down The Hill: The Delphi Murders, launches Wednesday, February 5. Hosted by HLN producers Barbara MacDonald and Drew Iden, the eight-chapter series will look at the crime that took the lives of adolescent girls Abigail Williams and Liberty German in the small town of Delphi, Indiana three years ago. Podcast is jointly produced by HLN and the WarnerMedia Podcast Network.

Audity, the audio company under the Asylum Entertainment Group banner, struck a production partnership with Spotify, and announced the appointment of Frank Hajdu as EVP of Audity. Under the deal, Audity will produce podcasts and audio-forward content across all scripted and unscripted genres for Spotify’s audience. For more, go here.

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Answer to our last Trivia Question
What was Jason Segel’s first major television role? Nick Andropolis in Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000). Kudos to: Dennis Dorfmeister-Showtime Networks/Hauppauge, NY, Rick Dascher-Turner Studios/Atlanta, Art Salisch-Nielsen/NYC, Joel Maxwell/NYC, Kara Rheingans-Kennedy Communications/Madison, WI, Eric Litt-Tribune Media/Chicago, John Kukla-KDFW Fox 4/Dallas, Amy Kessler-Merola Opera Program/San Francisco, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
In which show was Julia Ormond’s character in the pilot recast with Alfre Woodard? (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.).