PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Jupiter Entertainment inked an overall co-production deal with veteran producer Chris Deaux (Trading Spaces) and his Two Fifteen West Entertainment. Under the pact’s terms, Deaux will create, develop and produce unscripted programming to be co-produced by Jupiter in the U.S. as well as internationally.
NBC greenlit two entertainment competition series to air this summer. Songland, which bows Tuesday, May 28 at 10p, centers on up-and-coming songwriters mentored by three music producers. The concept hails from Eurythmics co-founded Dave Stewart, The Voice producer Audrey Morrissey and director Ivan Dudynsky. Meanwhile, Bring the Funny, set to premiere Tuesday, July 9 at 10p, features comics vying to make audiences laugh for a chance to receive a $250,000 prize.
Janet Root’s Nutopia and Plan B Entertainment are joining forces to bring the Atlas Obscura phenomenon to television with a docuseries of the same title. The project, which is currently in development, is inspired by Atlas Obscura’s overall mission of drawing out stories of the people, food and culture behind the world’s most unusual places.
Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, Once Upon A Time) and Victoria Hamilton (The Crown) are set to star in a British political drama Cobra for Sky. Catherine the Great producer New Pictures is behind the series, which explores what happens in the corridors of power during a national emergency. Production has already begun with a fall launch expected.
“The Cynopsis Sports Awards recognize the passionate stories coming from both behind and in-front of the camera,” says Chris Pursell, Director of Content at Cynopsis Sports. “We are honored to continue that tradition and thank the industry for their continued support of the event.” View finalists and register for the 8th Annual Cynopsis Sports Media Awards (on April 25th in NYC) here.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Bravo Media expands its home and design programming with competition series Best Room Wins, premiering Thursday, May 2 at 9:30p. Each episode challenges two top interior designers to create luxury looks for less for couples in desperate need of a room makeover.
Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals is back on Monday, April 1 at 12p on Food Network. The new season features 30 episodes airing over 30 days.
Comedy Central’s Tosh.0 heads into its 11th season on Tuesday, March 19 at 10p, immediately followed by The Jim Jefferies Show, returning for its third season, at 10:30p.
Queen Sugar returns for its fourth season on Wednesday, June 12 at 9p on OWN.
Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly and Vinny premieres Thursday, April 11 with back-to-back episodes on MTV. Series features 20 contestants facing off against each other in hopes of winning the love of the Jersey Shore Family Vacation stars.
Are you part of the Television Academy? Please take the time to answer this short (and confidential) 2-question survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PVLXL29. As a thank you, we are offering $5 Starbucks gift cards to the first 50 participants!
Amazon slotted Friday, June 14 as the second season premiere date for Absentia, the thriller starring and executive produced by Stana Katic (Castle). All 10 episodes will debut to Prime members in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, Austria, India, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea and other select territories globally.
Netflix set Friday, May 3 for the premiere of animated series Tuca & Bertie, starring Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong. Project centers around the friendship of two 30-year old bird women (Haddish and Wong).
COMING UP
Michael Buble returns to NBC on Wednesday, March 20 at 10p with buble!, his seventh music special on the network.
Rome’s Chariot Superstar offers an account of the life of Flavius Scorpus and the racing contests he and other champions entered in the Circus Maximus arena. Two-hour special airs Sunday, April 21 at 8p on Smithsonian Channel.
AXS TV introduces four-part festival series, 80s in the Sand, hosted by Downtown Julie Brown, Mark Goodman, Richard Blade and Alan Hunter and featuring appearances by Bret Michaels, Sebastian Bach, Taylor Dane, Berlin and others, on Sunday, April 7 at 8p. In addition, The Big Interview with Dan Rather returns for its seventh season on Tuesday, April 16 at 8p with guest Steve Perry, followed by Docs That Rock at 9p.
Following a linear special last November ABC digital original series More in Common is set to launch a second broadcast compilation on ABC Owned Television Stations beginning Saturday, March 16.
CASTING
Child actor Seth Carr (Bosch, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Black Panther) was cast as a series regular on Netflix’s Free Rein… Asha Kamali (Milk & Honey) booked a recurring role on FOX’s Star… David DeSantos (The Rookie) landed a recurring role on the fourth season of TNT drama Animal Kingdom.
On the pilot front, Halston Sage (The Orville) was set as a series regular on FOX drama pilot Prodigal Son…Courtney Grosbeck (Parenthood) nabbed a series regular role on NBC’sLincoln… Elias Koteas (Chicago PD) landed a series regular role on Syfy’s AI drama Cipher.
DISTRIBUTION
Bring on the roses. The Bachelor is coming to Tubi as part of a content deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. Select seasons from the franchise’s history, including the first seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, 2018’s fifth season of Bachelor in Paradise, and The Bachelorette: Trista and Ryan’s Wedding, will be available starting Monday, April 1.
Antenna TV added WINK in Ft. Myers/Naples as its newest affiliate, bringing the network’s reach to 134 stations across the country and 86% of US households. “We are already receiving positive feedback form viewers who are excited about the network’s classic programming,” said Gregory Stetson, Program Director at WINK-TV.
Univision Communications Inc. launched new morning newscasts in Texas: Primera Edicion DFW in Dallas, Noticias 45 Primera Hora in Houston, and Primera Hora Texas Central in San Antonio and Austin. Programs run from 5a to 7a CT.
TECH TALK
Apple is expected to announce its magazine subscription service at a March 25 press event, at which the company appears set to unveil a TV streaming service to compete directly with Netflix and Hulu. The magazine subscription service will be called Apple News Magazines and will allow subscribers download and store publications for offline reading. Readers will also be able to receive pop-up notification when publishers post their latest issues.
Google blocked 2.3 billion ads in 2018 – roughly 6 million a day – to stop scams, malware and abuse. The company took down 1 million advertiser accounts – double compared to the prior year, and terminated 734,000 publishers and app developers from its ad network, while removing ad completely from about 1.5 million apps. In a blog post, Scott Spencer, Google’s director of sustainable ads, broke out some of the types of ads, explaining that Google removed about 207,000 ads for ticket resellers, 531,000 ads for bail bonds and 58.8 million phishing ads.
Spotify asked EU regulators to investigate Apple and its control over the music streaming industry. “After trying unsuccessfully to resolve the issues directly with Apple, we’re now requesting the EC (European Commission) take action,” Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said in a blog post. Ek noted that Apple “has introduced rules to the App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience… essentially acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers.” EK also took issue with Apple requiring Spotify and other digital services to pay a 30% tax on purchases made through its payment system.”
Funimation, the global anime content provider and a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television, licensed the Search, Recommendations and Insight modules of TiVo’s Personalized Content Discovery platform. The use of PCD platform’s integrated reporting and analytics insights module enables Funimation to test, manage and fine tune search and recommendation performance in real time.
DIGITAL DATA
Curiosity Stream acquired Jack Hanna’s Wild Countdown, Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin, Innovation Nation and Rock the Park from Litton Entertainment. The four teen series join the documentary streaming and on-demand service from Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks’ library of choices for kids and their families to watch.
Univision’s Uforia and Napstar partnered to drive and discover ways to deliver audio across digital platforms. Through the deal, Uforia unveiled its enhanced and redesigned app “Powered by Napster.”
KID STUFF
Cyber Group Studio’s preschool series Gigantosaurus, currently airing on Disney Channel, will begin airing on Disney Junior, too, effective on Friday, March 15 at 7:35p.
PODCAST POSTS
Bomber, Tegna’s Vault Studios first podcast project and co-production with Austin ABC affiliate KVUE, debuts Friday, March 15. Tegna journalist and national Verify correspondent Jason Puckett is set to host.
GOING GLOBAL
Blue Ant International bolstered its catalogue with 19 new titles, including three true-crime series: BTK: A Killer Among Us, Fred & Rose West: House of Horrors, and See No Evil’s fifth season.
LONevison boarded Cinenord Drama and Beta Films’ World War Two political thriller Atlantic Crossing, starring Kyle MacLachlan and Sofia Helin. The series is currently in production for Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
