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Friday February 26, 2021

Saturday’s Premiere
Apple TV+: “Losing Alice”

Sunday’s Premieres
Cooking Channel: “My Fave vs. Your Fave” at 9p
TLC: “Seeking Sister Wife” at 9p

Sunday’s Finales
Epix: “Bridge and Tunnel” at 9p
Food Network: “Worst Cooks in America” at 9p

Hallmark Channel’s When Calls the Heart
#1 Most Watched Scripted Series This Year

Hallmark Channel
Connects Advertisers to Our Loyal Fans
&
Connects Viewers to Stories Full of Hope & Love

Don’t Miss Fan-Favorite Original Series All Year Long
Click here for source.

NBCUniversal is expanding addressable via Charter Communications. The advanced advertising agreement will expand NBCUniversal’s US household addressable footprint by nearly 40 percent, to 45 million households, allowing access to NBCUniversal to sell addressable campaigns on their own inventory across Charter’s Spectrum platforms. The integration across Charter’s Spectrum VOD is slated for launch in 4Q21. “Advertisers need to meet viewers in the moment, and that’s why NBCUniversal has been laser-focused on expanding our addressable capabilities,” said Krishan Bhatia, President & Chief Business Officer, Global Advertising and Partnerships, NBCUniversal. “Through our partnership with Charter Communications, we are taking an important step forward by delivering targeted advertising to millions of Spectrum viewers who are watching video on demand.”

AT&T is spinning off its video business, including DirecTV, U-Verse and AT&T TV, in a deal that has private equity firm TPG acquiring 30% of the new company, valued at $16.25 billion. AT&T paid $48.5 billion for DirecTV in 2015. “As the pay-TV industry continues to evolve, forming a new entity with TPG to operate the US video business separately provides the flexibility and dedicated management focus needed to continue meeting the needs of a high-quality customer base and managing the business for profitability,” said AT&T CEO John Stankey. The new DirecTV will be jointly governed by a board with two representatives each from AT&T and TPG, as well as a fifth seat for the CEO, which at closing will be Bill Morrow, CEO of AT&T’s US video unit.

ViacomCBS promises a lot of everything with Paramount+. The streamer, launching March 4, will feature a content catalog of more than 30,000 episodes, 2,500 movie titles and over 1,000 live sporting events, plus around-the-clock news coverage. It’s a family affair – among the Paramount Pictures films to stream on Paramount+ following a short theatrical release will be “A Quiet Place Part II,” “PAW PATROL: The Movie,” and “Mission: Impossible 7.” Series set to premiere over next two years include “Halo,” a “Frasier” revival, “Criminal Minds,” “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” and shows from the Avatar, Yellowstone, Star Trek and SpongeBob SquarePants universes, among others. Sporting leagues and events on the service include the NFL, Masters, PGA TOUR, NCAA, SEC, The PGA Championship, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, National Women’s Soccer League, Concacaf, and news offerings including CBS News programs, new series such as “60 Minutes+,” live streams of local affiliates in over 200 markets, and CBSN. A premium plan will cost $9.99/month and an ad-supported base plan at $4.99/month will be available in June.

What will be missing on Paramount+? A third season of CBS All Access’ “The Twilight Zone.” “We greatly enjoyed our time working on ‘The Twilight Zone’ — particularly when the real world around us often felt more and more like another dimension,” said a statement from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw and Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films. “After 20 unique episodes, we have told the stories that we wanted to tell, and CBS All Access was gracious in their understanding of our decision.”

Gray Television announced total 4Q20 revenue of $792 million, an increase of $213 million, or 37%, from the same period last year. Local advertising was down 9% and national advertising was down 7%, but political ad revenue was up 545%, to $245 million.

Fourth quarter earnings at Graham Holdings Co., including revenue from its television broadcasting division, Graham Media Group, hit $175.2 million, an increase of 42% from 4Q19. The results were goosed by a $50.3 million increase in political advertising revenue and a $5.2 million increase in retrans revenues.

An ad campaign from The Ad Council that launched yesterday to promote the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines includes over $500 million in donated media. Running on TV, radio, on web sites and on social media, the campaign, called “It’s Up to You,” is “one of the largest public education efforts in history,” according to The Ad Council.

Australia passed a law on Thursday that makes tech companies pay publishers for news content. Facebook and Google opposed the initial version of the law, which would have allowed media outlets to bargain either individually or collectively with them, and to enter binding arbitration if an agreement isn’t reached. The new legislation includes a provision that a case “must take into account whether a digital platform has made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry through reaching commercial agreements with news media businesses.” Facebook said the revised law allows it to “support the publishers we choose to,” while Google worked around the new law by forging partnerships with media organizations in Australia ahead of its passage.

Director Betty Thomas will receive the DGA’s Robert B. Aldrich Award at the 73rd Annual DGA Awards. “Betty means so much to our guild,” said DGA president Thomas Schlamme. “No matter how busy she’s been throughout her remarkable, ceiling-shattering directing career, she’s always placed service to her fellow members among her highest priorities, fighting for their creative and economic rights.” Thomas serves as the guild’s secretary-treasurer.

The most prestigious names in the industry, unveiled.

The Cynopsis Best Of The Best Awards Virtual Gala
Featuring Media’s Rising Stars
Sponsored by Crown Media Family

FINALISTS SAVE YOUR SEAT

“Iron Mike,” exploring the life of heavyweight champ Mike Tyson

, scored a straight-to-series order from Hulu. The limited series comes from “I, Tonya” screenwriter Steven Rogers and director Craig Gillespie; “I, Tonya” star Margot Robbie will executive produce via her LuckyChap, with Karin Gist (“mixed-ish”) as showrunner and executive producer.

Netflix renewed “Elite” for season five, ahead of the soapy Spanish teen drama’s season four premiere. Added to the cast: Valentina Zenere (“Soy Luna”) and Andre Lamoglia (“Juacas”).

In another part of the globe, Netflix plans to spend over $500 million in 2021 on local content production in Korea. The streamer has over 3.8 million paid memberships in the area.

Marcus Lemonis, investor and host of CNBC’s “The Profit,” is partnering and investing in Zero Point Zero Productions (“My Next Guest Needs No Introduction”), founded by producers Lydia Tenaglia and Chris Collins. Under this new partnership, Lemonis will serve as the company’s Chairman and James Bolosh has been named President and Partner.

Wapanatahk Media, co-owned and headed by Indigenous producers Tania Koenig-Gauchier and Shirley Mclean, has launched in partnership with Great Pacific Media, the Factual and Scripted Division of Thunderbird Entertainment. Wapanatahk Media aims to create content for broadcasters and streaming platforms that tells original and authentic Indigenous stories. The studio also prioritizes the training and employment of BIPOC peoples. “We are not waiting around for opportunities to come to us. We are taking Indigenous characters and stories to mainstream networks,” said Tania Koenig-Gauchier. “Broadcasters like ?APTN and ?Blue Ant ?Media are supporting our productions and we in turn, are in a position to offer emerging Indigenous talent training from some of Canada’s top media professionals.” Wapanatahk Media’s first green-lit series, ?“Dr. Savannah: Wild Rose Vet”, ?goes into production in April.

Freeform picked a pilot for an adaptation of Everything’s Trash But It’s Okay, by Phoebe Robinson (“2 Dope Queens”). Robinson is attached to star, write and exec produce the series, about a podcast star forced to grow up when her brother becomes a leading politician.

Christopher Potts and Jonty Nash (“Nailed It,” “Sugar Rush”) launched production label Nobody’s Hero in Spring of 2020 – just as the pandemic set in. There were a few Cynopsis just had to ask them, in Cynsiders.

Casting notes: Bruce Davison (“Longtime Companion”) will recur in the fourth and final season of Netflix’s “Ozark.”…Naturi Naughton (“Power”) landed a lead role in ABC pilot “Queens,” about four women in their 40s who reunite for a chance to recapture their fame…Eric Lange and Justin Kirk have been upped to series regulars on season two of HBO’s “Perry Mason.”…O-T Fagbenie (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) will play President Barack Obama in Showtime anthology series “The First Lady.”…Abigail Spencer (“Timeless”) landed a recurring role on new ABC drama “Rebel,” starring Katey Sagal.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Hulu launches: Dystopian drama “The Handmaid’s Tale” returns for season four on Wednesday, April 28…The third and final season of Hulu’s “Shrill,” starring SNL’s Aidy Bryant, premieres Friday, May 7… New adult animated comedy “M.OD.O.K.”, following a megalomaniacal villain played by Patton Oswalt, debuts Friday, May 21…All 10 episodes of season two of teen dramedy “Love, Victor” drop Friday, June 11.

Home renovation expert and social media creator Jenn Todryk tackles home renovations without major demolition in the new HGTV series “No Demo Reno,” premiering Thursday, March 25, at 8p

Limited series “The Underground Railroad” will have its series premiere on Friday, May 14. The Amazon Prime Video 10-parter chronicles the story of a slave’s desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South.

“Tiny Audience,” featuring intimate live performances and interviews with Latin artists, returns to HBO Max and HBO Latino for season two on Friday, March 19 at 9p.

STREAMING

Podcast audiences are more diverse than the US population, and highly inclined to take action based on advertising, confirms a new Nielsen report. Whites make up 67% of the US population and 59% of podcast listeners, while non-Whites make up 34% of the population but 41% of podcast listeners. But marketers need to be mindful of podcast preferences among groups, cautions Nielsen. For example, while music is the top category for Black audiences, it ranks third with Hispanics, and is not in the top 5 with White or Asian audiences.

Pluto TV is launching a new channel with Major League Baseball on March 2, featuring classic games and highlights. The branded MLB channel will stream over 200 hours of classic content licensed from the Major League Baseball Film & Video Archive, with quarterly refreshes.

Pluto TV is also getting in the game with PokerGO, with programming ranging poker tournaments to series. Tournaments from PokerGO now available to stream on Pluto TV include Super High Roller Bowl London 2019 (Final Table), Super High Roller Bowl Bahamas 2019 (Final Table), 2019 Poker Masters and more.

Canela.TV, a streaming service aimed at US Hispanics, is now available on Samsung TV Pus and select Galaxy devices. Available on channel 1272, Canela.TV, features a mixture of Spanish-language movies and series.

TECH TALK

During its virtual analyst day presentation, Twitter shared a peek at a new feature, Super Follow, that would allow users to charge followers a monthly fee for things like “exclusive content” and “subscriber-only newsletters.” Super Follow would also enable creators to put certain tweets, fleets and chats behind a paywall. The feature is still being tested; no roll-out date was announced.

Twitter Canada and so.da unveiled a new online shopping experience, Twitter Shops Fueled by so.da. Users can discover and shop for products on Twitter with virtual pop-ups designed to help people discover brands, learn more about their products, and then drive traffic directly to the brand’s site.

Facebook reposted a video of Rep. Marie Newman (D.-Ill.) placing a transgender pride flag outside her office, after first taking it down and labeling “hate speech” – while allowing a video showing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) hanging a transphobic flag. “Congresswoman, this plainly should not have happened. We’ve restored this content and you have our sincere apologies,” said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone.

Enterprise software platform and data provider Whip Media announced that media company Tastemade will utilize its data performance tracking solution for linear free ad-supported streaming TV. “We applaud Tastemade, a truly data-forward modern media company and streaming network, for bringing more visibility to the industry and FAST networks to drive innovation in their businesses,” said Carol Hanley, Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer of Whip Media. “This partnership will help Tastemade to leverage the power of their data to drive revenue and share their premium original lifestyle programming with more audiences.”

COMING UP

Showtime’s “Ray Donovan” will have a sequel as a feature-length film, following the drama series’ seven-season run on the network. Liev Schreiber will return in his role and co-write the script along with series showrunner David Hollander, who will also serve as director. Jon Voight will also reprise his role as Mickey Donovan, as will Kerris Dorsey as Ray’s daughter Bridget. The production is tentatively scheduled to begin filming later this year in New York and will air on Showtime.

Shudder has acquired “The Amusement Park,” the formerly lost film from trailblazing independent filmmaker George A. Romero. The allegory about the nightmarish realities of growing older will stream for the first time ever this summer.

Fox News special “America Together With Harris Faulkner: The Shot” will explore racial disparities in COVID-19 vaccine distribution within communities of color, the economic impact of the vaccine, the administering process, and the path forward for America, on Sunday, February 28 at 10p.

Nationally syndicated series “Law&Crime Daily” will cover the Derek Chauvin trial for the alleged murder of George Floyd on-site beginning March 8, the scheduled date for the jury selection process. The Law&Crime Network will also provide gavel-to-gavel coverage once the trial commences.

KIDS CORNER

Members of the original “Rugrats” voice cast are reuniting for a new “Rugrats” animated series. A reimagining of the 1991-2004 series stars E.G. Daily (Tommy), Nancy Cartwright (Chuckie), Cheryl Chase (Angelica), Cree Summer (Susie) and Kath Soucie (Phil and Lil). Produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio, the series is set to debut this spring on Paramount+. “Rugrats is one of the most iconic cartoons recognized by fans around the globe, and this original version is one we are taking great care and pride in creating for a brand-new audience,” said Ramsey Naito, President, Nickelodeon Animation. “Having the voice cast behind these special characters come together is one of the essential pieces to making the show recognizable and we can’t wait to watch this talented group bring them to life again.”

Nickelodeon and Hasbro’s eOne have partnered to co-produce an original animated “Transformers” series. In the action-comedy, a new species of Transformers must find their place and purpose among Autobots, Decepticons, and the human family that adopts them. The series will premiere exclusively on Nickelodeon in the US before rolling out internationally.

eOne also announced a new computer animated feature film based on the “My Little Pony” franchise, premiering on Netflix later this fall. A new “My Little Pony G5” series will be trotted out as well.

The Dodo’s children’s programming brand, Dodo Kids, has partnered with Calm, the mental wellness brand, to create new Sleep Stories featuring Dodo Kids characters. The partnership aims to leverage children’s connection to animals to help them drift off to sleep – no counting sheep needed.

Hulu handed an early season three order to “Animaniacs”; the animated series from Steven Spielberg, Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation starts its sophomore run later this year.

GOING GLOBAL

Sky Media has partnered with Seven.One Media for the launch of CFlight in Germany, introducing transparent criteria for cross-media contacts which take into account a uniform media quality. The partnership makes it possible to establish the comparability of advertising contacts and at the same time lays the foundation for a meaningful campaign evaluation. “When we first launched CFlight, our goal was to rethink our measurement techniques to reflect the future of premium video consumption and highlight the value of this content to marketers,” said NBCU’s Krishan Bhatia.

Portfolio Entertainment, has secured global distribution rights to the new comedy mockumentary series “Decoys,” lifting the veil on the cut-throat, winner-take-all sub-culture of competitive wooden duck carving. The six-part series launched on CBC Gem in July 2020.

Cineflix Rights has signed pre-sale deals with Nordic and Eastern European broadcasters for its recently acquired prime time ITV documentary from Finestripe Productions, “The Day Will and Kate Got Married.” Takers include TV4 (Sweden), YLE (Finland), TV2 (Denmark), NRK (Norway), and BBC Poland, with further deals currently in negotiation.

Quintus Studios has acquired several factual titles for its on-demand documentary channels Free Documentary, FD Real and ENDEVR. “Sky High Scrapers” will air on iFree Documentary and FD Real channels; “Mountain Rescue” and “Airshow” are headed to FD Real; and “97% Owned” will air on Free Documentary and ENDEVR.

Please take a minute to answer Cynopsis’ 3-question community poll for February
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7Q6BZWK

Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial did no favors for first run strips in the week ending February 14, according to Nielsen’s national ratings, with only two shows up over the previous week: “Family Feud” and “Entertainment Tonight.” “Wheel of Fortune” (5.8, unchanged) slipped into the lead by not falling, while “Jeopardy” (5.6, down 8%) and Family Feud (5.6, up 2%) tied for second. Talk shows, most of which are scheduled at times taken by Trump hearings, were hit hard by pre-emptions and breakouts. Four of the top five were down – “Live with Kelly & Ryan dipped 10% to 1.8, while “Dr. Phil” (1.4) slid 26%. Only “Ellen” (1.0, unchanged) held its own.

Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of February 8 ranked in order by HH Rtg
“Wheel of Fortune” (CMV) 5.8 AA
“Family Feud” (CMV) 5.6 AA
“Jeopardy!” (CMV) 5.6 AA
“Judge Judy” (CMV) 4.8 AA
“The Big Bang Theory” (WB) 2.7 AA
“Entertainment Tonight” (CMV) 2.4 AA
“Inside Edition” (CMV) 2.2 AA
“Last Man Standing” (DAD) 1.9 AA
“Live With Kelly and Ryan” (DAD) 1.8 AA
“Hot Bench” (CMV) 1.5 AA
Source: Nielsen

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Wednesday, February 26
Show, P2+ millions, (A18-49)
ABC: “The Goldbergs” 3.72 (0.7), “American Housewife” 3.15 (0.6), “The Conners” 3.79 (0.6), “Call Your Mother” 2.85 (0.5), “For Life” 1.76 (0.3)
CBS: “Tough As Nails” 3.30 (0.5), “SEAL Team” 2.25 (0.3), “S.W.A.T.” 2.22 (0.3)
CW: “Riverdale” 0.60 (0.2), “Nancy Drew” 0.53 (0.1)
FOX: “Name That Tune” 2.52 (0.5), “Name That Tune” 2.67 (0.6)
ION: “Blue Bloods” 1.29 0.2), “Blue Bloods” 1.33 (0.2), “Blue Bloods” (0.2)
NBC: “Chicago Med” 3.63 (0.5), “Chicago Fire” 3.26 (0.50), “Chicago P.D.” 2.96 (0.4)
Telemundo: “Exatlon Estados Unidos” 1.15 (0.3), “La Suerte de Loli” 1.21 (0.3), “Buscando a Frida” 1.08 (0.3)
Univision: “Vencer el Desamor” 1.72 (0.5), “Te Acuerdas de Mi” 1.52 (0.5), “Dulce Ambicion” 1.45 (0.4)
Source: Nielsen, live + same day time period averages

Friday Fun Fact
The most leaves ever found on a clover was 56.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
How many Emmys did Andy Griffith win for “The Andy Griffith Show” (1960-68)? None. Kudos to: John Ferlazzo/London, Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC, Cherie Wall-Sandbox Entertainment/Nashville, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA, Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton, FL, David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA, Tom Boyd-WGN/Chicago, Ken DuBow-Access Entertainment/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
Which 2000 drama had the same name as a drama currently on the air? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four.)