IN THE NEWS

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang has joined CNN as a political commentator. The former Democratic presidential candidate, who drew followers known as the Yang Gang during his campaign, ended his run last week. “I’m excited to join @CNN to help shed light on the election and the candidates’ experiences. Learned a lot these past months and am glad to contribute to the public discussion,” Yang tweeted on Wednesday.

CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell and CBS This Morning host Gayle King will anchor the February 25 Democratic candidate debate in South Carolina. Margaret Brennan, Major Garrett and Bill Whitaker will help question the presidential hopefuls. Twitter is a debate partner; the Congressional Black Caucus Institute will co-host. The event will be simulcast on BET.

A merger with DirecTV is “inevitable,” said Dish Network head Charlie Ergen during Dish’s 4Q19 earning call on Wednesday, “because growth in TV is not coming from linear.” On the bright-ish side, Dish reported a decrease in net pay-TV subscribers of 194,000 in 4Q19, to about 12 million, versus a year-ago loss of 334,000. Net income for DirecTV rose to $389 million, up from $337 million.With the proliferation of streaming services, Sling TV had a subscriber loss for the first time, dipping from 2.69 million subs in 3Q19 to 2.59 million at the end of the year.

Viewership declines have accelerated, to start 2020 with Person 2+ PUT (persons using television) trending down 7.5% quarter-to-date vs. -6.3% in 4Q19, and -7.0% a year ago, wrote UBS analyst John C. Hodulik in an investor note. “If the trend holds, it would represent the largest quarterly decline for TV viewership in our data set,” added Hodulik. “Trends have worsened across most age demos with persons 25-34 now falling -17% vs. low double-digit declines throughout 2019. The persons 55+ demo continues to trend down ~2%, similar to 2019 (the first year of declining ratings for the demo).”

Discovery, Inc. is developing a consumer products program inspired by adventurer Coyote Peterson, YouTube star and host of Animal Planet’s Coyote Peterson: Brave the Wild. Discovery will represent Peterson across all licensing categories and develop a consumer products program that extends his mission to engage the next generation of animal enthusiasts. “Coyote Peterson is a great example of Discovery talent whose personality transcends the screen and connects deeply with our passionate fans around the world,” said Carolann Dunn, VP, Consumer Products, Discovery, Inc. “Animal Planet serves animal lovers of all ages, and with Coyote we are thrilled to be able to connect with that younger audience through a line of fun, innovative and inspirational toys.”

The Paley Center for Media has moved out of its Beverly Hills location and into new offices in Century City. The Beverly Hills Public Library will house the center’s TV and radio archives, under a two-year lease. Three employees were let go as part of the relocation, reports Variety. “We are so proud to announce the Beverly Hills Public Library as the new home of the Paley Archive, and are incredibly grateful to the city of Beverly Hills for recognizing the historical and educational value of the Paley Archive,” said Maureen J. Reidy, the Paley Center’s President and CEO.

Entries are being accepted for the first edition of HITN TV’s ¡Tú Cuentas! Cine Youth Festival, running April 15 – May 15. The festival is designed to support emerging Latinx filmmakers. “We wanted to showcase the unique perspectives and experiences of young Latinos, and we decided the best way to do this was to give young Latinos a platform to express their perspectives,” said Michael D. Nieves, President and CEO of HITN.

In addition to categories that celebrate individual Top Women in Media, Cynopsis is recognizing distinguished companies who champion women in media. These are the companies who strive for equal opportunity, inclusion, pay parity and women in leadership position.

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HBO Max is getting in business with Real Housewives of New York City standout Bethenny Frankel

. In The Big Shot with Bethenny (wt), from MGM Television, Mark Burnett and Frankel and her B Real Productions, the next generation of business moguls will compete for a chance to be second-in-command to the Skinnygirl founder.

Cosmos: Possible Worlds, hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, premieres with back-to-back episodes on Nat Geo on Monday, March 9 at 8p. Series continues the long-running story that started in 1980 on PBS, Cosmos: A Personal Journey, with Carl Sagan.

MTV and Sean “Diddy” Combs didn’t have to look far to enlist judges for their Making the Band revival. Combs’ sons Christian Combs, Quincy Brown and Justin Combs are onboard the competition series, along with a returnee, celebrity choreographer LaurieAnn Gibson. The series revival, which launched on ABC in 2000 before moving to MTV from 2002-2009, will premiere in 2020.

Fuse Media and Genius, the media company that delivers music knowledge, announced a partnership that will bring Genius’s digital content to Fuse. Genius x Fuse will premiere on March 18. Series will feature Genius’s artist-centric content, including Verified, Deconstructed, and For The Record With Rob Markman, along with other existing formats that will air under the Genius x Fuse banner. Said Fuse Media Chief Content Officer J-T Ladt, “Partnering with such a credible resonating brand like Genius allows us to continue to expand our music culture-based content offerings to our growing young audience in an impactful way.”

The Daily Show writer and stand-up comedian Josh Johnson is set to commence production on his first one-hour stand-up special, in Chicago. Trevor Noah Presents: Josh Johnson will be taping at The Laugh Factory on Saturday, April 4, for a 2020 premiere on Comedy Central.

History is launching a new non-fiction programming strand, “History’s Greatest Mysteries,” hosted and narrated by Laurence Fishburne (black-ish, The Matrix) that will investigate historical events and topics and the mysteries surrounding them. Slated to launch this summer, programs will offer new evidence and perspectives including never-before-released documents to the general public, personal diaries and DNA evidence. Initial projects (all working titles) include: Titanic’s Lost Evidence; The Escape of John Wilkes Booth; Roswell: The First Witness; The Final Hunt for DB Cooper; Bermuda Triangle: Expedition to the Abyss; Endurance: The Hunt for Shackleton’s Ice Ship; and Hunting Hitler’s U-Boats.

Cartoon Network’s Ben 10 vs. The Universe: The Movie is currently in production and set to premiere this fall, with new settings and characters from the series. Season four of Ben 10 air Sundays at 10a.

In more kids’ content news, multiplatform animated preschool brand Zoonicorn has teamed with Toonz Media Group for a development, co-production and distribution partnership that will launch 52 seven-minute episodes in 2021. The 3D CGI content will be distributed for the worldwide TV and digital marketplace by Toonz..

The media world has more data than ever before – and more companies boasting solutions that would allow programmers and advertisers to increase revenue, reach niche consumer groups, map the consumer journey and harness omni-channel efficiencies. Learn how to cut through the clutter at the 4th Annual Cynopsis Measurement & Data Conference, taking place June 2nd at the Edison Rooftop in NYC.

Lifetime gave a series order to Battlefield of Love, a docu-series centered on members of the military who fell in love with civilians they met online. “Battlefield of Love is another authentic offering in our core relationship genre,” said Gena McCarthy, EVP and Head of Lifetime Unscripted. “This dating phenomenon really happens, and the series blends aspects of Army Wives with Married at First Sight, with incredibly high stakes and a legitimate ticking clock.”

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Nickelodeon renewed Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Top Elf and The Casagrandes for second seasons, as well as 10 more episodes of freshman reboot All That. Also returning to the kids’ net are Blue’s Clues & You! for season three; Blaze and the Monster Machines and Bubble Guppies for sixth seasons; and PAW Patrol for season eight.

New shows coming to Nick include action-adventure series The Astronauts, taking off this summer; TV-movie The Loud House: A Very Loud Christmas!; animated series Big Nate; Henry Danger spin-off Danger Force, premiering Saturday, March 28; Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan, bowing Saturday, February 29; and prequel Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years.

Aspiring food truck owners compete for big-money opportunities in a new season of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race: Gold Coast, launching Thursday, March 26 at 9p. First stop: Los Angeles.

In Smithsonian Channel’s Humboldt: Epic Explorer, historian Andrea Wulf follows the footsteps of German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, who over 200 years ago made revolutionary discoveries about the natural world during travels across the South American continent. Docu-drama launches Wednesday, March 25 at 8p.

Chris Anderson and criminal defense attorney Fatima Silva team up again for a third season of Reasonable Doubt, helping families who are convinced that their loved ones were wrongfully convicted of murder. Series returns to Investigation Discovery on Tuesday, March 3 at 10p.

Also on ID, the net is teaming with the New York Post for a pair of true crime shows. Torn From the Headlines: New York Post Reports takes viewers “into some of the most inconceivable crimes of all time,” starting Monday, March 16 at 10p. New York Post Reports: Off the Record will be available on IDGO on March 30. “When you think of New York, there’s great pizza, Broadway … and the New York Post. Their headlines are infamous, and their crime reporting is what investigative reporting is all about,” said Henry Schleiff, Group President of Investigation Discovery, Travel Channel, American Heroes Channel and Destination America.

Escapade Media has sold its new TV series, Crash Test World, to Discovery for the US and Canada. Hosted by Kari Byron (MythBusters), series takes viewers on a journey to explore how history, technology, culture and people come together to make the world a better place. Andrew Zimmern’s Intuitive Content is producing the 6-parter.

My Perfect Landing jumps to Canada’s Family Channel on Sunday, March 1 at 11:30a. Drama stars real-life gymnast Morgan Wigle as a gymnast who moves to a new city when her parents get an opportunity to start their own gymnastics club.

Call for submissions: To be included in the Cynopsis Upfronts Online Navigator, the go-to resource for buyers and planners during the 2020 Upfronts season, please submit the dates/times/locations of upfront events (if no events are planned, include a tagline or up to 25-word mission statement) and logo by March 1 to [email protected]. For sponsorship opportunities, contact [email protected].

Paradise Lost drops Monday, April 13, ad-free on Spectrum Original’s on-demand platform. Gothic mystery series set in small-town Mississippi stars Josh Hartnett as a prodigal son returning to his hometown.

COMING UP

Women’s lifestyle site Popsugar is expanding its experiential IP with a one-day “Grounded” fitness and wellness event on Saturday, March 7 at Goya Studios LA to kick off International Women’s Day. The event is inspired by the media brand’s two most popular villages, fitness and wellness.

Fox News will host a town hall with Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar on Thursday, February 27, moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. It’s FNC’s eighth town hall of the election season, and second with Klobucar.

Sundance Now nabbed US rights to six-part Australian drama series The Secrets She Keeps from DCD Rights. Based on the novel by Michael Robotham, the Lingo Pictures Production is written by Sarah Walker (All Saints) and Jonathan Gavin (Offspring) and stars Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey), Jessica de Gouw (The Crown), and Michael Dorman (Patriot). Domestic noir thriller will make its exclusive US premiere on the streamer in 2020.

The Paley Center for Media added a lineup of new programs to its spring calendar. Among the offerings: Girls Trip & First Wives Club: An Evening with Creative Powerhouse Tracy Oliver on Thursday, April 9; 50 Years of PBS on Monday, May 4; and Lessons in Leadership: A Candid Conversation with Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn CEO, and his father, Bruce Weiner, on Wednesday, April 29. Events take place at the center’s NYC location.

The third annual Disney Channel Fan Fest kicks off at at Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, on Saturday, May 9. The event will also expand to Lake Buena Vista, Florida, during the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival at Walt Disney World Resort over three weekends (May 16-17, May 23-24 and May 30-31).

Sponsors for Univision’s 32nd annual Premio Lo Nuestro include first-timers Dolby and the U.S. Census Bureau, who join returning partners State Farm, T-Mobile, and Universal Pictures. Music awards show telecasts live tonight from Miami.

NYC Television Week runs March 24-26 in midtown, kicking off with a day-long series of speakers and panels focused on advanced advertising.

TECH TALK

OTT ad fraud is projected to cost marketers $4 billion globally this year, projects cybersecurity company CHEQ. OTT spend will reach $23.8 billion in 2020, says the report, with ad fraud levels reaching 17%. The most common OTT ad frauds involve networks of bots generating massive amounts of fraudulent traffic. “Marketing budgets are steadily flowing to OTT, offering a mouthwatering proposition of brands being able to reach consumers on their screens with relevant messages at the right time,” said Guy Tytunovich, founder and CEO fo CHEQ. “However, as with other nascent markets online, ad fraud and fakery follow, and every day we are seeing new and sophisticated attacks attacking the OTT ecosystem. The challenges of ad fraud must be tackled if we are to create trust, transparency and efficiency in this fast-growing market.”

Another report focused on fraud showed 90% of influencers reach less than half of their audience and 30% of influencers showed fraud levels for engagement purchasing in 4Q19 campaigns, according to research from Sylo that analyzed over 5000 influencers’ social media accounts. Among the highlights of the report, “Growing Levels of Influencer Fraud Swindling Ad Dollars”: Metrics produced through scraping, such as “Fake Followers” or “Bot Percentages,” were not indicative of influencer fraud activity, and were inaccurate by as much as 129%; “Fake Follower” rate of 23% was within the normal range, implying that a typical influencer purchases nearly a quarter of their audience; and influencer network (scraped) engagement and impressions were off by an average of 55% and 48 %, respectively, from verified data. For more, go here,

Although 5G technology for consumers isn’t likely to reach mass adoption until 2022, it holds “limitless” potential for brands to connect with customers in new and innovative ways, says John Petrocelli, CEO of Bulldog Digital Media. “We’ll be able to drive major improvements in mobile content consumption, creation, and engagement. Livestreaming provides an ideal opportunity to focus on all three of these concepts,” he says in Cynsiders. For more, go here.

STREAMING SNIPPETS

DVD rental company Redbox is diving into the streaming TV market. Redbox Free Live TV features nearly 30 channels of movies and episodic content, including three exclusive Redbox-branded channels: Redbox Comedy, action/adventure-oriented Redbox Rush and Redbox Spotlight, with curated titles. Lionsgate is a “key strategic launch partner for programming content,” said Redbox.

CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive have launched CBSN Denver, the seventh of ViacomCBS’ 13 local direct-to-consumer streaming news services in major markets. CBSN Denver features anchored programming, breaking news in the region, as well as a library of local news content for on-demand viewing. “The response to our first six launches is exceeding our expectations, and we look forward to seeing this trend continue in Denver and the six other markets where we will be rolling out these OTT services in the near future.” said Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations.

CASTING

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues alums Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd will re-team as stars of MRC Television dark comedy The Shrink Next Door, based on the podcast…Annaleigh Ashford (Masters of Sex) landed the female lead in CBS comedy pilot B Positive. Ashford is also co-starring as Paula Jones in FX’s Impeachment: American Horror Story…Odessa Young (Assassination Nation) and Ella Rumpf (Raw) have boarded HBO Max’s Tokyo Vice…Patina Miller (Madam Secretary) has joined Starz’ Power prequel Power Book III: Raising Kanan.

GOING GLOBAL

Four-part drama The Drowning is headed to UK’s Channel 5, from Unstoppable Film & Television. In the identity thriller, Jill Halfpenny (Three Girls) plays a woman who sees a teenage boy she is convinced her son, missing for eight years.

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Univision’s Saturday night live coverage of the Liga MX matchup drew 1.0 million total viewers 2+, 563,000 A18-49 and 217,000 A18-34, making it the No. 1 and No. 2 program on broadcast television on Saturday night in the respective 18-34 and 18-49 demos.

All rise: Led by Judge Judy, four of the six veteran court shows saw double-digit rating increases in the week ending February 9, when television was dominated by the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump. Even though the program’s primary run was blown out by the trial and the President’s response to his acquittal, Judge Judy (6.5 Live+SD national Nielsen rating, up 10% from the week before) was the highest rated show in all of syndication for the 22nd time in the past 28 weeks. Hot Bench (2.1, up 17%) was the second highest court show. Judge Mathis (1.0, up 25%) and Caught in Providence (0.5, up 25%) also increased.

ABC’s The Conners maintained its A18-49 1.1 rating from its live episode last week, and delivered 5.54 million viewers. NBC’s This Is Us tied a demo low but was again Tuesday’s highest-rated show, scoring 1.3 among A18-49, and 6.42 million viewers.

UniMás’ Enamorándonos averaged its highest-rated weekly performance since its premiere with week-to-week audience gains among Total Viewers 2+ (+3% to 759,000), marking the fourth consecutive week of audience growth.

TV Time’s Binge Report for the Week of February 10
Locke & Key (Netflix) – 4.45%
Sex Education (Netflix) – 2.56%
Cable Girls (Netflix) – 2.13%
Vikings (History) – 2.02%
Friends (NBC) – 1.86%
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix) – 1.80%
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC) – 1.59%
You (Netflix) – 1.40%
BoJack Horseman (Netflix) – 1.35%
The Good Place (NBC) – 1.30%
The weekly Binge Report ranks shows with the most binge sessions. A binge session is when four or more episodes of a show are watched and tracked in the TV Time app within a given day.

Basic Cable Top 5 for the week of February 10
Primetime (P2+)
Fox News (3,231,000)
TNT (2,124,000)
MSNBC (1,677,000)
HGTV (1,224,000)
History (1,192,000)
Total Day (P2+)
Fox News (1,743,000)
MSNBC (920,000)
TNT (700,000)
HGTV (695,000)
CNN (630,000)
Hallmark Channel (596,000)
Source: Nielsen

Top 11 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of February 3 ranked in order by HH Rtg
Judge Judy (CTD) 6.5 AA
Jeopardy (CTD) 6.4 AA
Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 6.3 AA
Family Feud (CTD) 6.1 AA
The Big Bang Theory (WB) 3.4 AA
Entertainment Tonight (CTD) 3.0 AA
Inside Edition (CTD) 2.8 AA
Dr. Phil Show (CTD) 2.5 AA
Last Man Standing (DAD) 2.1 AA
Live with Kelly and Ryan (DAD) 2.1 AA
Hot Bench (CTD) 2.1 AA

Top 14 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of February 3 ranked in order by A18-49 Rtg
Family Feud (CTD) 1.4 AA
Judge Judy (CTD) 1.3 AA
Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 1.1 AA
Jeopardy (CTD) 1.1 AA
The Big Bang Theory (WB) 1.1 AA
Family Guy (DAD) 0.8 AA
Modern Family (DAD) 0.7 AA
Entertainment Tonight (CTD) 0.7AA
Last Man Standing (DAD) 0.6 AA
Inside Edition (CTD) 0.5 AA
The Goldbergs (SPT) 0.5 AA
Dr. Phil Show (CTD) 0.5 AA
TMZ (WB) 0.5 AA
Ellen DeGeneres ((WB) 0.5 AA
Source: Nielsen

Late Night Broadcast Shows the Week of February 10
CBS: Late Show 2.88 million total viewers, 0.33/3 rating A18-49
NBC: Tonight 1.89 million total viewers, 0.35/3 rating A18-49
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel 1.77 million total viewers, 0.30/2 rating A18-49

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Tuesday, February 18
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: The Conners 5.5 (1.1), Bless This Mess 3.3 (0.6), mixed-ish 2.5 (0.5), black-ish 2.4 (0.5), For Life 2.6 (0.5)
CBS: NCIS 11.8 (1.1), FBI 9.2 (0.9), FBI: Most Wanted 6.2 (0.7)
CW: The Flash 1.1 (0.4), DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 0.74 (0.2)
FOX: The Resident 3.8 (0.7), Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back 2.2 (0.6)
NBC: Ellen’s Game of Games 4.6 (1.0), This Is Us 6.4 (1.3), New Amsterdam 4.8 (0.7)
TELEMUNDO: Exatlon Estados Unidos 1.32 (0.4), La Dona 0.92 (0.3), Operacion Pacifico 0.91 (0.3)
UNIVISION: Ringo 1.57 (0.5), Amor Eterno 1.73 (0.5), Rubi 1.61 (0.5)
Source: Nielsen, live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

TEGNA Inc. announced that Karen Grimes has been appointed to TEGNA’s Board of Directors as a new independent director. Grimes spent more than 20 years at Wellington Management Company, where she was a partner, senior managing director and equity portfolio manager until her retirement in 2018.

Wasting time sifting through resumes? Benefit from the high-volume of media professionals who check the Cynopsis Jobs boards daily. Reach out to Trish Pihonak for info on how to place a jobs ad.

Vox Media has appointed John Legend to its board of directors. The EGOT winner will advise the company on its strategy for growth and new business opportunities.

Sarah Schecter has been promoted to the newly created position of Chairwoman and Partner of Berlanti Productions. Schecter had been President of the company for six years. She’’ll be replaced in that position by David Madden, former AMC Networks and Fox Broadcasting Company President, who will spearhead television operations.

QuickFrame named Joe Reid as COO. Reid was previously Chief Data Strategist at Salesforce.

IN MEMORIAM

Actress Ja’Net DuBois died February 18. She was 74. Best known to TV audiences for her role in Good Times, DuBois also appeared in series including The Love Boat, The Facts of Life, ER and The PJs. “Ja’Net DuBois was all light and will be missed,” said Good Times executive producer Normal Lear. “I love that she wrote the theme song for her passing, ‘Movin’ on Up,’”

Answer to our last Trivia Question
Which actor asked “who wrote this sh**?!” during his audition for a 70s/80s sitcom? Taxi’s(1978-1982) Danny Devito, who opted to test in full-on Louie De Palma mode. Kudos to: Rory Rosegarten-The Conversation Company/Roslyn, NY, Andrew M. Hunn-Hunny Media Marketing/NYC, Charles Lore/NYC, Carl Mayer-Active International/Pearl River, NY, Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank, Gary Moglovkin-CBS Studios/Studio City, CA, Michael Coscia/LA, Dan Haberer-Creo Entertainment/Playa del Rey, CA

Today’s Trivia Question
Which animated series’ characters included a teen named Gilda Gossip? (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.).