Today’s Premieres
ABC: Promised Land at 10p
A&E: Secrets of Playboy at 9p
ALLBLK: Social Society
CW: March at 8p
HBO: The Gilded Age at 9p
ID: Prisoner of Love at 9p
TNT: Snowpiercer at 9p
TV One: Fatal Attraction at 9p, Sins of the City at 10p
Univision: Soltero con Hijas at 8p

IN THE NEWS

ViacomCBS and Nexstar Media have reached multi-year agreements to renew the CBS Television Network affiliations in 39 markets across the country. Following three affiliation agreements that were renewed early last year, the deal completes all of ViacomCBS and Nexstar’s affiliation renewals.

Gayle King, who recently celebrated her tenth anniversary at “CBS Mornings,” plans to renew her contract when it is up this spring, reports CNN’s Brian Stelter. King was reportedly being eyed by other networks, but a decision to stay put wouldn’t surprise viewers of her anniversary show earlier this month. “After all this time, I still love this job,” said King. “I think it’s an awesome, awesome job.”

Eighty-five percent of TV viewers would be willing to hand over personal information like age, gender and location in exchange for fewer ads, according to a survey from Sharethrough. Other key data points in the report include:
· 66% of people indicate they don’t actively watch TV ads and grab their phone once a commercial starts
· 73% of respondents said they would pay more attention to the ads if they were better targeted to their interests, more diversified and with less ads per commercial breaks
· 58% said they would use their TV remote to buy a product or get a coupon for a product they liked in a commercial

Cybersecurity will likely keep Chief Information Officers busy in 2022, according to a study from IDG Communications. Security is “no longer just a technology issue,” said Stacey Raap, Marketing & Research Manager, IDG Communications, Inc. “Security is a fundamental business issue that requires CIOs to closely collaborate with organizational leaders across their company.” Fifty-seven percent of CIOs surveyed saw the need for security improvements as a top reason for increasing the tech budget this year, and 71% of expected their role in data privacy and compliance to grow.

Google has asked a federal court to throw out an antitrust lawsuit led by the state of Texas which accuses it of abusing a monopoly over online search. “Despite amassing a lengthy collection of grievances, each one comes down to a plea for Google to share its data or to design its products in ways that would help its rivals,” said Google in the filing. Responded Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, “Google’s motion attributes their monopoly status to pure success on the merits. The company whose motto was once ‘Don’t Be Evil’ now asks the world to examine their egregious monopoly abuses and see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.”

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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Disney Channel has ordered season four of “Big City Greens,” and a movie musical inspired by the series is now in the works for Disney Channel and Disney+. Season three of the comedy series launches Saturday, February 12 at 9a on Disney Channel.

Netflix hopes to flush out the next Latin urban music star with reality competition “La Firma.” Rauw Alejandro, Yandel, Nicki Nicole, and Lex Borrero will judge, with producer Tainy serving as mentor and music producer/supervisor. The winner signs with talent incubator NEON16.

Casting notes: Whoopi Goldberg has joined season two of Paramount+ Star Trek series “Picard.” Goldberg will reprise the role she played from 1988-93 in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”…Mary Elizabeth Winstead (“Kate”) has joined the cast of Disney+ limited series “Star Wars: Ahsoka.”

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

History Channel is marking President’s Day Weekend with docuseries “Abraham Lincoln.” Executive produced by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, the three-parter kicks off Sunday, February 20 at 8p.

Bravo’s “Kandi & The Gang” premieres Sunday, March 6 at 9p. The series follows Kandi Burress and Todd Tucker and the action at heir Southern eatery, OLG.

Peacock’s “Joe vs Carole,” based on Wondery podcast “Joe Exotic,” starts streaming Thursday, March 3. John Cameron Mitchell (“Shrill”) and SNL’s Kate McKinnon star. “When I took on this project a year and a half ago, I found Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin to be utterly fascinating, and this crazy tale about two big cat lovers quickly became an important story for me to tell,” said showrunner/writer/EP Etan Frankel. “I hope that when people watch ‘Joe vs Carole’ maybe they’ll see these people that they thought they knew in a brand-new way.”

“Nick Cannon” kicks off today, January 24 on VH1, via a new distribution deal. Daytime episodes will re-air at 2a. The syndicated talk show premiered on Fox Television Stations in September.

COMING UP

Shudder has acquired rights to psychological horror film “Speak No Evil” ahead of its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Written and directed by Christian Tafdrup (“A Horrible Woman”) the movie is set for release in North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland in late 2022.

STREAMING

Acquired shows were the most viewed content on streaming platforms in 2021, according to Nielsen data. The top 15 acquired programs last year averaged 19.62 billion minutes among P2+, versus 10.8 billion minutes for original content. The top three most-watched acquired shows were “Criminal Minds” (33.9 billion minutes), “CoComelon” (33.3 billion) and “Grey’s Anatomy” (32.5 billion). The most viewed originals were “Lucifer” (18.3 billion), “Squid Games” (16.4 billion) and “Great British Baking Show” (13.6 billion).

FAST platform DistroTV has launched DistroTV Español, a channel bundle featuring 20+ Spanish-speaking channels available to Spanish speakers in the US and Latin America. “Our mission is to provide free-to-stream content to our growing and increasingly diverse global audience,” said Navdeep Saini, co-founder and CEO of DistroScale, parent company of DistroTV.

GOING GLOBAL

Zodiak Kids and Family Studio France have secured a new co-production for “Totally Spies!”. The series will return for a seventh season, with commissioning partners Gulli (M6 Group – France) and Discovery Kids Latam onboard.

Stellify Media, the Sony Pictures Television-owned, Belfast-based indie, has created a new spin off-format from “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”, called “Fastest Finger First.” The new quiz show format will be hosted by broadcaster Anita Rani.

Insight TV announced the launch of its millennial-focused UHD channel on Polsat Box and Netia in Poland, making the service available to the majority of 4K subscribers in Poland.

Genius Brands International’s “Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten” launches on Alibaba Group’s video streaming platform, Youku, starting in March. Additionally, the animated children’s series will be available via the Tudou and Kumiao apps.

SPORTS MEDIA AWARDS 2022

The Cynopsis Sports Media Awards will gather on April 19th to celebrate the initiatives that drove audiences and turned sports viewers into fans. Past winners include Coca-Cola, NASCAR, ESPN, NHL, Sports Illustrated and many more. We want to add you to this list!

ENTRY DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 16

RATINGS

Univision ranked as the #1 broadcast network the week of January 10 in primetime among A18-49 and A18-34. Versus the comparable week in 2021, the network’s audience increased among Total Viewers 2+ (+25% to 1.6 million), A18-49 (+49% to 658,000) and A18-34 (+46% to 245,000).

The week of January 9, HGTV was the #1 non-news/sports cable network in Prime (#4 overall) and Total Day (#4 overall) among P2+, led by “Home Town” (2.3 million), “Flip or Flop” (1.8 million), and “My Lottery Dream Home” (1.8 million). TLC was the #1 non-sports cable network (#2 overall) in Prime last week among P/W25-54/18-49 and P18-34.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Thursday, January 20
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: Women of the Movement 3.05 (0.4), Women of the Movement 2.66 (0.3), Let the World See 2.13 (0.3)
CBS: Young Sheldon 7.76 (0.8), United States of Al 5.37 (0.5), Ghosts 6.46 (0.7), B Positive 4.88 (0.5), Bull 4.48 (0.4)
CW: Walker 1.11 (0.1), Legacies 0.32 (0.1)
FOX: Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer 1.64 (0.3), Call Me Kat 1.60 (0.3), Pivoting 1.07 (0.3)
NBC: The Blacklist 3.30 (0.4), Law & Order: SVU 4.18 (0.6), Law & Order: Organized Crime 3.13 (0.5)
Telemundo: Exatlon Estados Unidos 0.99 (0.3), Hercal: Amor y Venganza 1.27 (0.3), Malverde: El Santo Patron 0.89 (0.3)
Univision: La Rosa de Guadalupe 1.78 (0.6), Vencer el Pasado 1.83 (0.6), Madre 1.65 (0.5)
Source: Nielsen fast affiliates, live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Annie Luo is joining Peacock as Executive Vice President, Global Partnerships and Strategic Development. Most recently, Luo served as Senior Vice President, Business Development and Operations at Hulu.

Banijay Iberia has appointed Miguel Martín as Managing Director of its label, Zeppelin. Martín began his tenure at Banijay Iberia in 2019 within Banijay Birds.

IN MEMORIAM

Stand-up comic and actor Louie Anderson died January 21 of complications from cancer. He was 68. Anderson made his national TV debut on “The Tonight Show” in 1984, and went on to a long and successful career, winning Emmys for “Baskets” and “Life With Louie.”

This Day in History
1922 – Eskimo Pie was patented. The frozen dessert was rebranded Edy’s Pie in 2021.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Which short-lived drama focused on a vampire ruler and a San Francisco detective? “Kindred: The Embraced” (1996). Kudos to: Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC; Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo, CA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton, FL; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
What type of business did the title characters in “Kate & Allie” (1984-89) launch? (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