Friday February 19, 2021

Saturday’s Premieres
Disney XD: “Beyblade Burst” at 8a
Nick: “Power Rangers: Dino Fury” at 8a
Ovation TV: “Murdoch Mysteries” at 7p
Snap: “Life by the Horns”

Sunday’s Premieres
BET: “Boiling Point” at 8p, “Disrupt and Dismantle” at 9p
BYUTV: “Relative Race” at 9p
discovery+: “Mountain Monsters: By the Fire,” “90 Day: The Single Life,” “90 Day: The Single Life Pillow Talk”
Fox: “Cherries Wild” at 7p, “The Great North” at 8p
Hallmark: “When Calls the Heart” at 9p
HBO: “Allen v. Farrow” at 9p
History: “Modern Marvels” at 10p
HLN: “Lies, Crimes & Video” at 9p
Nat Geo: “Wicked Tuna” at 9p
Science: “Secrets of the Viking Stone” at 10p
Showtime: “Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine” at 10p
Smithsonian Channel: “Inside the Food Factory” at 10p

Sunday’s Finales
Oxygen: “Exhumed” at 8p
PBS: “Miss Scarlet and the Duke on Masterpiece” at 8p

IN THE NEWS

ABC and Sony Pictures TV are teaming for a reboot of “The Dating Game,” with a celebrity spin. Zooey Deschanel (“New Girl”) and soft rock star Michael Bolton will host “The Celebrity Dating Game,” which promises “a wry wink at modern dating with a star-studded roster of celebrity singles in their pursuit to find love.” The original “Dating Game” aired on ABC from 1965-73.

Netflix renewed “Fate: The Winx Club” for a second season. “The six episodes in Season 1 only scratched the surface of this incredibly rich world and the powerful fairies who inhabit it,” said showrunner Brian Young. The coming-of-age series debuted in January.

Netflix also announced it is making Aaron Sorkin’s movie “The Trial of the Chicago 7” available for free for 48 hours, beginning today, to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the verdict depicted in the film.

CBS canceled “Mom” after eight seasons, setting Thursday, May 6 at 9p as the series finale date. “From the beginning, we set out to tell stories about recovery from alcoholism and addiction that are rarely portrayed in a network comedy series,” said executive producers Chuck Lorre, Gemma Baker and Nick Bakay. “Whether it was the emotional reactions of the live audience on tape night inside Stage 20, or discussions at The White House regarding the opioid crisis, or the personal stories we continue to receive on social media, we take great pride in knowing ‘Mom’ has positively impacted so many lives.” Anna Faris, who played one of the main characters, announced just weeks before this season’s production was to begin that she was not returning. Viewership numbers have dipped by about 20%.

TikTok and the UFC have inked a multi-year partnership that delivers live, weekly mixed-martial arts content toTikTok. “Now more than ever, sports fans are craving the up-close-and-personal moments they are missing by not attending live events,” said Harish Sarma, TikTok’s Director of Global Strategic Partnerships. “Through this partnership, we are excited to bring to TikTok, the action and excitement of UFC.”

Roku beat analysts’ expectations with revenue of $650 million, up 58% from year-ago. Users streamed 17 billion hours in 4Q20, and more than 58 billion hours in 2020, a 55% year-over-year increase. The company also reported 49 cents earnings per share, versus the 6 cents Wall Street had projected.

REGISTER NOW

Uzo Aduba (Mrs. America”) has signed a production deal with CBS Studios that will have her star in and executive produce “Low Country,” about a Black, openly gay sheriff in South Carolina who takes on a wealthy white crime family. Writer Dewayne Jones, CBS Studios’ Liz Glotzer and “The Good Wife” team of Robert and Michelle King are also exec producing.

The History Channel has ordered two-hour documentary “Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre” (wt), from Stanley Nelson, Marco Williams, NBA star and philanthropist Russell Westbrook, Donnell Beverly (President of Russell Westbrook Enterprises), Blackfin, and Firelight Films. Directed by Nelson (“Freedom Riders”) and Marco Williams (“Two Towns of Jasper”) and executive produced by Westbrook, the project is slated to air this spring, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

AMC and streamer Shudder announced a greenlight for scripted Untitled Black Horror Anthology, showcasing stories of Black horror from Black directors and screenwriters. The anthology is set to debut later this year on Shudder and AMC+, a windowing strategy previously used for Shudder original series “Creepshow.”

MotorTrend has ordered “Motor MythBusters,” a spin-off of Discovery and Science Channel series “MythBusters” that Beyond Productions President John Luscombe calls “a marriage made in heaven.”

Nickelodeon greenlit “Santiago of the Sea” for a second season, “Blue’s Clues & You!” for a fourth, and “PAW Patrol” for ninth run. In advance of the series premiere of “Baby Shark’s Big Show!”, Nick will air “Baby Shark Shorts,” a collection of five mini-adventures, on Friday, February 26 at 12:30p.

Disney+ nabbed a docu-series about “America’s Got Talent” finalists the Detroit Youth Choir, from Blumhouse Television, Maniac Productions and Campfire. The show has been filming in Detroit since last fall. “We guarantee you’ll be singing along with this joyful group as they learn lessons about music and life in general,” said Ayo Davis, EVP, Creative Development and Strategy, Disney Branded Group.

Casting notes: Added to the cast of AMC animated series drama “Pantheon” are William Hurt (“Goliath”), Maude Apatow (“Euphoria”), Corey Stoll (“Billions”), and Lara Pulver (“Sherlock”).

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

HGTV’s “Everything But the House” opens its doors Friday, March 19 at 9p and 9:30p. In the new series, “Good Morning America” host Lara Spencer works with expert appraisers to help homeowners cash in on their clutter.

Season two of Epix crime drama “Godfather of Harlem,” starring Forest Whitaker, launches Sunday, April 18. Cast members Erik LaRay Harvey (“Luke Cage”) and Demi Singleton (“King Richard”) have been upped to series regulars for the sophomore run.

Here’s the story…Two widowed parents find love, then combine their families (total kids: 11) in new Critical Content-produced series, “The Blended Bunch,” bowing Tuesday, March16 at 9p on TLC.

AMC+ has acquired the rights to three crime dramas. “Kin,” from BRON Studios and Headline Pictures will launch this fall as an AMC+ Original. All3Media International’s psychological thriller “Too Close, starring Emily Watson (“Chernobyl”), will debut later this year, while Lionsgate’s international crime drama “Cold Courage, starring John Simm (“Doctor Who”) is slated to premiere the first three episodes on Thursday, March 11.

More highlights of premieres on AMC Networks streaming channels include: Early access via AMC+ to the first episode of season 10 of “The Walking Dead” on Sunday, February 21; the US debut of crime thriller “Cold Courage” on Thursday, March 11, and early access to new episodes of the second half of “Fear the Walking Dead” season six on Thursdays beginning April 8. Sundance Now, Shudder and AMC+ will offer the season 2 finale of “A Discovery of Witches” on Saturday, March 13. On Sundance Now and AMC+, a special season of “The Restaurant: 1951” debuts Thursday, March 25. Season 2 of the hit horror anthology “Creepshow”, premieres Thursday, April 1, ALLBLK’s new comedy “Millennials” makes its debut Thursday, February 25, and Acorn TV crime drama “Bloodlands” bows Monday, March 15.

Among the offerings on the March slate for discovery+ are “Cocktails and Tall Tales with Ina Garten and Melissa McCarthy” (Friday, March 26), and spin-off “OWN’s Super Soul” (Saturday, March 13). Competition show “Pig Royalty” (Tuesday, March 23) documents a group of families in Texas as they navigate the world of pig showing. Documentaries include “Francesco” (Sunday, March 28) from director Evgeny Afineevksy, and “My Beautiful Stutter” (Thursday, March 11), executive produced by Paul Rudd, Mariska Hargitay, Peter Hermann, George Springer and Patrick James Lynch.

TECH TALK

With the industry moving away from third-party cookies, Nielsen is rolling out an approach that shifts to privacy-centric, people-based identifiers for attribution.
Identity Sync is a non-campaign specific tag that doesn’t depend on device IDs or the browser ecosystem, enabling always-on, real-time collection of advertiser data associated with individuals, the devices they use over time and the online actions they take. In addition, it allows Nielsen to build deterministic matches between consumers and their ad exposures using persistent identifiers as the connector to each conversion event. Early findings have shown that shifting from a cookie-based solution to Nielsen’s solution provides more accurate marketing measurement. Nielsen noted Barceló Hotel Group’s use of the Identity Sync provided a significant view of the customer journey. “With Nielsen’s innovative approach, we were able to take into account all measurable interactions along our customers’ journey and uncover waste to better allocate spend in the future,” said Johanna Álvarez, Adtech, Analytics & Attribution Manager at Barceló. “The level of accuracy that Nielsen was able to produce using persistent identifiers was unmatched, and we feel more empowered than ever to make better marketing decisions as the industry moves away from cookies.”

TV Squared and Experian have teamed to offer deterministic TV ad measurement to media publishers, agencies and advertisers. TVSquared’s technology will power the combined linear TV ad measurement offering, and Experian’s data and identity assets will be integrated into the ADVantage platform to provide more robust audience insights for advanced TV campaigns. “Experian is the gold standard for marketing data that advertisers want to leverage and measure against,” said Bob Ivins, Chief Strategy Officer, TVSquared. “With Experian’s data in ADvantage and ADvantage XP, we’re empowering advertisers to put audiences at the center of their TV strategies, providing always-on measurement to identify not only the audiences reached, but also those most responsive to their campaigns.”

COMING UP

Litton Entertainment is launching a social media campaign to celebrate National Love Your Pet Day, on Saturday, February 20. Audiences can interact with “Lucky Dog” augmented reality filters on Instagram, GIF stickers, and are encouraged to share their own pet photos and stories on “Lucky Dog’s” Facebook with the hashtag #LoveYourPetDay.

GOING GLOBAL

MTV International announced “Celebrity Bumps: Famous & Pregnant,” following six celebrity couples on their journey to become parents, will premiere across MTV International channels beginning Wednesday, March 3.

Netflix and VRT, Belgium’s public-service broadcaster for the Flemish community, are partnering to commission “Diamonds,” an eight-part crime drama set in the world’s largest diamond district.

Zodiak Kids Studios has secured a development deal to produce a live action TV series for 7 to 12-year olds, based on the Cookie books written and illustrated by Konnie Huq.

Insight TV, Spark Content and Kestrel Beer are collaborating on a short-form series and documentary film, “The Flying Kestral,” following the journey of Nigel McNally ,CEO of Kestrel Beer, his son Joel and the Webster Race Engineering team, as they discover and transform a dilapidated 1930s Riley Kestrel classic.

A reimagining of the classic Western “Django” is being produced as a TV series, with Matthias Schoenaerts (“The Danish Girl”) in the title role. The series will be produced in English by Cattleya (“ZeroZeroZero”), Italy’s independent film and TV drama producer, and by Atlantique Productions (“Midnight Sun”), the French production company.

Fugitive announced a deal with new streaming service Topic that will make South African film “Poppie Nongena” available to subscribers exclusively in North America, starting April 8.

The next step for addressing the social upheaval and need for African American inclusion in the multibillion-dollar advertising industry is to put accountability in place. In this webinar, a panel of CEOs(stay tuned for speaker updates) will discuss the changes needed to ensure economic equality for Black-Owned Media companies.

SAVE MY SEAT

The debut of Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow” drew 225,000 viewers and 34,000 among A25-54, up 116% and 183%, respectively, versus the same day last week.

Showtime’s “Your Honour” wrapped season one on track to have the net’s best debut season ever, reports Variety. The finale has been seen by about 1.7 million viewers across platforms

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Wednesday, February 17
Show, P2+ millions, (A18-49)
ABC: “The Goldbergs” 2.88 (0.5), “American Housewife” 2.00 (0.4), “The Conners” 2.05 (0.4), “Call Your Mother” 1.71 (0.3), “For Life” 1.45 (0.3)
CBS: “Tough As Nails” 3.34 (0.5), “SEAL Team” 3.67 (0.5), “S.W.A.T.” 2.93 (0.4)
CW: “Riverdale” 0.62 (0.2), “Nancy Drew” 0.42 (0.1)
FOX: “The Masked Dancer” 2.64 (0.5), “The Masked Dancer” 3.08 (0.6)
NBC: “Chicago Med” 7.29 (1.0), “Chicago Fire” 7.50 (1.0), “Chicago P.D.” 6.31 (0.9)
Source: Nielsen, live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Carlos W. Williams has been elevated to the newly-created position of EVP, Business Affairs and Operations for 20th Television and Freeform. Williams had been EVP, Business Operations, Touchstone Television.

Miranda Higham has joined WarnerMedia as SVP and Head of Communications, International. Higham was most recently SVP of Corporate Communications for 21st Century Fox.

Kim Howitt has been named Senior Creative Executive for WarnerMedia Kids & Family. Previously, Howitt served as Head of Development for HMH Productions.

Cinedigm Corp has named Daniel Schneider SVP of Revenue, and Eric Rowe Director of Programming. Previously, Schneider was VP of Business Development for Cheddar, and Rowe was Director of Content Strategy at Sony US Networks.

The E.W. Scripps Company announced the appointments of Andrew Rosner as Head of News and Unscripted Networks Programming; Sophia Karteris Kelley as Head of Program Acquisitions; and Rich Davis as Head of Digital Programming.

Unruly appointed John Rogers as VP of Business Development. Rogers was formerly a VP at Amobee.

Rich Boehne has notified the board of directors of The E.W. Scripps Company that he will step down as chairman and retire from the board when his term expires on May 3. Kim Williams will succeed Boehne as chair of the board.

IN MEMORIAM

Producer Harry Bring died February 16 after battling cancer. He was 77. Bring was an executive producer of “Criminal Minds” and “The X-File,” among others.

Friday Fun Fact
In Switzerland, it’s illegal to own just one guinea pig.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
On the premiere episode of which show did Ann Southern reprise her “Private Secretary” (1953-1957) character, Susie MacNamara? “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” (1957-60). Kudos to: Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC, Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
What was the first Norman Lear show to air on ABC? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four.)