PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
HGTV has started production on season 6 of renovation competition Brother vs. Brother: Jonathan vs. Drew, starring Property Brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott. Big brother JD Scott referees the action in the suburbs outside San Francisco, with help from celeb judges.
Fox and STX Entertainment are talking about an unscripted series based on the Bad Moms film franchise. Jason Goldberg, STX’s chief creative officer, unscripted and alternative programming, and Brant Pinvidic (Bar Rescue) are exec producing. Like the films, the focus would be on imperfect parents. But real.
Four weeks into its first season, WE tv renewed Love After Lockup for an expanded second season. Lockup has grown in audience every week since its January launch among W25-54, A25-54 and A18-9, including an 86% boost among W25-54 in Live+3 Nielsens.
Returning to the Oscars production team are Glenn Weiss as director, Rob Paine as supervising producer, Derek McLane as production designer and Jon Macks at head writer. The 90th Academy Awards air Sunday, March 4 on ABC.
ABC ordered a pilot for a workplace comedy from Justin Noble (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Kapital Entertainment, TrillTV, CBS Television Studios and ABC Studios. Project is based on the book and blog, How May We Hate You?.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: February 9-11, 2018
Fifty Shades Freed (Universal) $38.8 million, opening weekend
Peter Rabbit (Sony) $25.0 million, opening weekend
The 15:17 to Paris (Warner Bros.) $12.6 million, opening weekend
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Sony) $9.8 million (week 8), cume revenue $365.7 million
The Greatest Showman (Fox) $6.4 million (week 8), cume revenue $146.5 million
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (Fox) $6.0 million (week 3), cume revenue $49.0 milllion
Winchester (Liosgate) $5.1 million (week 2), cume revenue $17.2 million
The Post (Fox) $3.5 million (week 8), cume revenue $72.8 million
The Shape of Water (Fox Searchlight) $3.0 million (week 11), cume reveue $49.8 million
Den of Thieves (STX) $2.9 million (week 4), cume revenue $40.9 million
Source: comScore
COMING UP
Details on ABC’s Scandal/How to Get Away With Murder crossover episodes, airing Thursday, March 1: In “Allow Me to Introduce Myself” at 9p, Scandal’s Olivia Pope gets a visit from Annalise Keating, who seeks her help with a judicial reform class action. The case continues in HTGAWT’s “Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” at 10p. Grey’s Anatomy at 8p isn’t left out of the crossover action – the docs meet Andy Herrera from upcoming Grey’s first responder spin-off Station 19.
Documentary Word is Bond, exploring the transformative power of hip hop lyrics, premieres on Showtime Friday, February 16 at 10p on-air, on demand and over the internet.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Four-part docu-series The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen, telling the stories of trailblazers from Davy Crockett to Lewis and Clark, debuts on History Wednesday, March 7 at 9p.
Telenovela net Pasiones is airing its first Indian production, Saras and Kumud, starting tonight at 5p. Romantic drama tells the story of star-crossed soulmates kept apart by tradition.
Season 8 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic premieres Saturday, March 24 at 11:30a. Leading up to the premiere, Discovery Family is running a “Pony Palooza” marathon of past episodes airing all day from Saturday, March 17 until the launch.
Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship returns Monday, March 12 at 9p, with “flowers, vibrant colors, bountiful fruit, and outdoor elements for inspiration,” says Courtney White, SVP programming, Scripps Networks Interactive.
Comedy Central extended its deal with Daniel Tosh for 3 additional seasons of Tosh.0. Season 10 launches Tuesday, March 27 at 10p. “Knowing when to move on in show business is highly overrated,” said Tosh.
The best chefs from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives who have also appeared on Guy’s Grocery Games compete in 4-part Guy’s Grocery Games: DDD All-Star Tournament, premiering on Food Network Sunday, March 18 at 9p.
DIGITAL DATA
With $2.5 billion spent ramping up its original content, and the launch of a virtual MVPD service, Hulu’s losses rose 73% in 2017, to $920 million, according to calculations by BTIG research analyst Richard Greenfield based on Comcast’s 10-K disclosures. Hulu owners Comcast, 21st Century Fox, Disney and Time Warner invested $1 billion in the service in 2017. Hulu reports over 17 million subscribers for its on-demand and live TV packages.
Almost 2/3 of brand-side digital marketers believe the industry will stop relying on probabilistic data within the next 12 months to 2 years, according to Viant’s “Power of the People” survey, and 32% believe the industry will not rely on cookies within the next 12 months (31% said it would take up to 2 years). The survey of over 250 marketers also found that audience reach is both the #1 reason for investing in digital marketing, and the #1 factor limiting the success of digital ad campaigns.
Snapchat’s redesign, merging friends’ snap messages with their Stories, is so unpopular with some users that there’s a workaround to bring back the old app. But it comes with a warning: if you force quit the app and re-open Snapchat, the new version appears.
Data management platform Lotame announced the global launch of its new “Precision Audiences.” The proprietary and validated on-target demographic audience segments are guaranteed to exceed industry benchmarks in over 20 major countries.
Facebook ordered a dramedy starring and exec produced by Elizabeth Olsen (Wind River) to run on Facebook Watch. The 10-episode untitled series from Big Beach TV and Brillstein Entertainment Partners was originally set up at Showtime.
ADVERTISING
The Interactive Adverting Bureau issued a white paper saying that while the market is still nascent for blockchain, the technology that records and verifies transactions, it “holds tremendous promise for digital video advertising.”
IAB Tech Lab announced steps to support ad industry adherence to the General Data Protection Regulation. The GDPR, which becomes enforceable on May 25, promotes more control for European internet users, requiring any company that processes data about a European user to be in compliance with GDPR. To support companies in complying with GDPR, IAB Tech Lab has published an OpenRTB GDPR Advisory and launched a GDPR Technical Working Group.
Content marketing will take center stage in 2018, says John DeVine, chief revenue officer, Oath. “We’ve talked about brands as publishers for years, but the focus is now on high quality content that’s delivered in the latest formats including video and AR.” For DeVine’s list of 5 trends that will shake the industry this year, see the new Cynsiders.
Primetime 30-second spots for the Winter Olympics are going for between $538,499 and $650,241, down 1.8% from the Sochi Games, according to SQAD. But NBC is fetching $561,421-$676,533 for weekday primetime spots, up 2.2%,
VIDEO SHORTS
NY: Real is a Diamond partnered with The NBCU Content Studio on custom video content launching during Winter Games. Three “The Making of a Gem” videos show the perspectives of a snowboarder, ice skating duo, and a women’s ice hockey team to demonstrate the natural forces and elements that forge both diamond and competitor. “Having a partner like Real is a Diamond enabled us to develop these unique stories, connect with an exciting cultural moment, and bring diamonds to audiences in contextually relevant environments both on and off the NBCU portfolio,” said Wendy Wildfeuer, SVP, The NBCU Content Studio.
CASTING
Rosanna Arquette (Desperately Seeking Susan) and Chelsea Frei (Hostess) have joined YouTube comedy Swipe Right as series regulars….Tracee Chimo (Private Life) landed a recurring role on Nat Geo anthology series Genius: Picasso.
