Thursday April 15, 2021

Today’s Finale
TruTV: Fast Foodies at 10:30p, Impractical Joker: After Party at 11p

IN THE NEWS

Veteran television news executive Kimberly Godwin is officially in as President of ABC News. Godwin, who will head to ABC in May, will oversee editorial and business operations for broadcast, digital, streaming and audio news across the organization. She joins the Disney family from CBS, where she was EVP of news directing newsgathering across the global portfolio.

Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Netflix and ViacomCBS are among entertainment and media companies that signed a two-page ad in The Washington Post and The New York Times opposing “any discriminatory legislation or measures” that restrict eligible voters from having “an equal and fair opportunity to cast a ballot.” The ad is a response to restrictive voting legislation in Georgia, Texas and other states. Among recent moves to boycott the legislation, in Georgia, Major League Baseball moved the All Star Game from Atlanta to Denver, and Will Smith and Antoine Fuqua moved production of “Emancipation” from the state.

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Univision has locked in a date and time for its Upfront. The company will present virtually at 1:30p on Tuesday, May 18.

The White House Correspondents’ Assn. canceled its annual dinner for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The organization is planning to hold an in-person event April 30, 2022.

Digital will continue to pave the way for the future of the arts, even as live performances return, according to new research from Marquee TV and consultancy Indigo. Sixty percent of respondents said they have engaged with digital performing arts content since March 2020, with nearly two-thirds reporting they were new to viewing this type of content digitally. With regard to cost, 64 percent expected to pay for it, 75 percent paid more than $14 per activation, and 10 percent paid $42-plus for access. Additionally, 62 percent said they engaged with a new art form digitally that they have never seen live.

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.– DISQO

Nailed it. CBS handed a two-season renewal to its burgeoning competition series “Tough as Nails” just before the reality show’s season 2 finale last night. Created and hosted by “The Amazing Race’s” Phil Keoghan, the series celebrates everyday people who get their workout on the job rather than the gym.

Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actress Jane Seymour will topline and exec-produce streamer Acorn TV’s Irish mystery “Harry Wild.” Seymour (“The Kominsky Method,” “Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman”) will play a recently retired English professor who can’t help but take an active interest in the criminal cases assigned to her police detective son. Series will premiere in 2022.

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Martial arts crime drama “Warrior” will be getting a third season, and a new home. The series, based on the writings of Bruce Lee and set during the Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the late 19th century, is headed from Cinemax to HBO Max.

Filming is underway on new HGTV competition series“Battle on the Beach,” featuring network stars Taniya Nayak (“Restaurant Impossible”), Ty Pennington (“Rock the Block”), and Alison Victoria (“Windy City Rehab”) each mentoring three teams of up-and-coming flippers as they renovate identical beachfront properties.

YouTube personality Mark Fischbach, aka Markiplier, will star in, and exec-produce “The Edge of Sleep,” based on his QCode podcast of the same name. The post-apocalyptic thriller follows a night watchman who finishes his shift to discover every person in the world who went to sleep the previous night has died. New Regency will serve as the studio and independently finance the project.

Ali LeRoi, who co-created “Everybody Hates Chris,” will direct “American Refugee,” the second movie in Blumhouse Television’s recent partnership with Epix. Exec-produced by Jason Blum, Chris McCumber and Jeremy Gold for Blumhouse and Lisa Bruce, “American Refugee” follows a precarious situation when a family seeks shelter in their neighbor’s bunker while the American economy is in collapse and the nation is under martial law.

Netflix bought true crime article “The Poet,” written by Corey Mead and published by digital magazine Truly*Adventurous, to develop for the streamer. It is teaming with production company 21 Laps, with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen, and Pouya Shahbazian set to helm the project based on newly discovered sources around the story of Ruth Finley, who escaped a murderer as a teen only to find herself on the run again decades later as the BTK killer terrorizes her hometown.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Netflix is engaging in some pillow talk with the debut of “Headspace Guide to Sleep,” a seven-ep, short-form series that debuts Wednesday, April 28. The second of three series with Headspace and Vox Media Studios, the new series will address the myths and facts behind getting a good night’s rest.

The fourth season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” heads to Hulu on Wednesday, April 28. This go-round, June (Elisabeth Moss) strikes back against Gilead as a fierce rebel leader, but the risks she takes bring unexpected new challenges.

Anthology series “The Girlfriend Experience” returns to Starz for season 3 on Sunday, May 2. The reimagining of Steven Soderbergh’s 2009 film of the same name explores the relationships between exclusive escorts and their clients, for whom they provide far more than just sex.

“Catfish: The TV Show” is headed back to MTV on Tuesday, May 4 at 9p, following the premiere of “Teen Mom 2.” After a long year of quarantining, the Catfish are coming out of the woodwork and exec producer and host Nev Schulman and co-host Kamie Crawford are back to track down those online impersonators.

TLC is bringing back three seriesthat shine the spotlight on the joys and challenges of raising children. A new season of “Little People, Big World” premieres Tuesday, May 11 at 9p; “7 Little Johnstons” is back Tuesday, May 25 at 8p; and “Doubling Down With the Derricos” returns Tuesday, June 1 at 10p.

The sophomore season of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” drops Friday, May 14 on Disney+. The action again centers on the East High Wildcats, who are preparing to perform “Beauty and the Beast” as their spring musical in a face-off against rival school North High.

COMING UP

Love is in the air again at UPtv, which premieres “Starting Up Love” on Sunday, April 18 at 7p. Sparks fly when a workaholic wom hires a hunky caretaker to help her transform a mountainside cabin she inherited into a winter resort.

“The Big Interview with Dan Rather” features hip-hop trailblazer Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz of the Beastie Boys and his wife Kathleen Hanna, frontwoman of Bikini Kill and the punk rock pioneer who helped give life to the Riot Grrrl Movement, on the episode airing Wednesday, April 21 at 8p.

Noticias Telemundo will honor Earth Day, April 22, with weeklong coverage beginning Monday, April 19. Anchor Vanessa Hauc will lead a series of daily on-air segments across Noticias Telemundo’s news programs exploring environmental issues.

HDNet Movies will unleash six kaiju classics, airing as part of the “Godzilla Galore” block on Saturday, May 1. Titles include “Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla” and “Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah.”

Bravo is revisiting some of the most memorable “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” moments with the A-May-Zing Bravo Party Week promo. Beginning Monday, May 3 at 10p, each of six eps features Cohen serving up surprises, nostalgia and candid conversations with Bravolebrities.

What’s up, Doc? MeTV’s got the answerwith “The Best of Bugs Bunny” week, May 3-7 on the net’s morning show Toon In With Me. The weeklong promo features some of the sassy rabbit’s most classic cartoons plus some special guests, beginning with “Rabbit Tracks,” a themed collection of shorts.

Disney+ dropped the official trailer for upcoming short-films collection “Launchpad.” The collection of six films drops Friday May 28, featuring narratives from a new generation of storytellers all from underrepresented backgrounds. The filmmakers were selected from more than 1,100 US applicants.

Streamer Acorn TV has a slate of new and returning series set for May. Suspense thriller “The Drowning” premieres Thursday, May 6 and “Blinded–Those Who Kill,” the spinoff to the Danish psychological drama “Darkness–Those Who Kill,” drops Monday, May 10, which also the release date for season 3 of “Keeping Faith.” Mystery drama “Whitstable Pearl” debuts Monday, May 24.

Shudder will unleash a new movie every week in May. On tap at the streamer are alien abduction horror romp “Fried Barry,” witch hunt thriller “The Reckoning” and horror comedy “PG: Psycho Goreman.”

Showtime Documentary Films acquired worldwide rights to “Cusp,” the doc feature that premiered at Sundance and earned directors Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt the emerging filmmaker special jury award. Set in a small Texs military town, “Cusp” chases three wild-spirited teenage girls as they live out a fever-dream summer.

ADVERTISING & BRANDS

Seventy-two percent of US digital advertisers believe CTV reaches audiences more effectively than linear TV. This according to a new study from Tremor Video. Among other findings:
* 85 percent of respondents make CTV a key part of their video strategy
* 90 percent plan to increase their 2021 CTV budgets, with an average increase of 53 percent
* 56 percent of media agency respondents and 37 percent of brand advertiser respondents predict more than half of their video budgets will be spent on CTV in 2021

Enterprise software platform Whip Media, which has a worldwide audience panel of 16 million viewers, and Free Turn are teaming to bring consumer viewing and engagement data into the development of brand-funded entertainment. The partnership aims to help brands create, develop, test and produce TV and film content through access to global audience data, entertainment consumption habits and distribution intelligence.

KIDS NEWS

Peacock is digging deeper in the sandbox. The streamer ordered two new kids series—DIY renovation show “Backyard Blowout” and “Create the Escape,” which enables kids to design their own escape rooms. Both shows hail from Departure Films, the production shingle behind Universal Kids’ “Get Out of My Room,” and both include 10 half-hour eps.

“Big Heart World,” a multiplatform campaign rolling out throughout the year on Nickelodeon’s preschool service Noggin, seeks to promote children’s healthy social and emotional development. Content and resources featuring fan-favorite characters and new characters focus on three key learning areas: awareness of self, awareness of others and interpersonal strategies.

Vooks, a streaming platform bringing storybooks to life through animation, launched “Earth Yay!,” an original book honoring Earth Day. “We want to spread joy around the world and also encourage kids to get involved with the world around them,” said Russell Hirtzel, Vooks chief content officer and co-founder. “’Earth Yay!’ does just that—it’s funny, adorable and teaches about the solar system too.”

STREAMING

AVOD service Crackle Plus’ Crackle app has landed on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex. The Crackle library includes studio films, classic TV series and originals.

TrillerNet, parent of social app Triller, acquired FITE, the live-event and PPV, SVOD, AVOD and streaming platform for sports and entertainment. The acquisition enables Triller to expand the reach of its AI-powered lifestyle and entertainment content and distribution ecosystem.

Televisa and Univision executives expanded on their plans to combine their current streaming businesses, which include Prende TV, Vix and Blim. During a press call yesterday, Univision CEO Wade Davis said the programming on the new global OTT service, slated to launch in early 2022, will not overlap with Univision’s linear offerings. Televisa Co-CEO Alfonso de Angoitia said John Malone’s Liberty Global is an investor in the new company, called Televisa-Univison, and will own 17 percent of the venture. Grupo Televisa is the largest stakeholder, with a 45 percent share. Investment firms Searchlight and ForgeLight, founded by Davis, will own 38 percent. Davis noted anticipated cost synergies of $200 million-$300 million should be realized by late 2022 or early 2023 and that the combined company expects to generate free cash flow of $5.5 billion.

CASTING

Oscar winner Common is joining season 2 of Mindy Kaling’s Netflix series “Never Have I Ever,” slated for a summer debut, in a recurring role… Daniel Breaker (“Billions,” “Mozart in the Jungle”) joins the chorus as a cast member of of Tina Fey and Meredith Scardino’s Peacock series “Girls5eva,” debuting May 6… Jasper Polish (“Force of Nature”), Darren Mann (“Fortunate Son”), Kevin Csolak (“Boardwalk Empire”) and Stevie Lynn Jones (“Nancy Drew”) are in for recurring roles in the sixth season of TNT’s “Animal Kingdom.”

Rob Delaney (“Catastrophe”) is in as a series regular opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor and Naomie Harris in “The Man Who Fell To Earth,” the drama that recently hopped from CBS All Access/Paramount+ to Showtime… Anupam Kher, who portrays Dr. Vijay Kapoor on NBC medical drama “New Amsterdam,” is existing the series. He’s been a regular on the show since its debut in 2018.

GOING GLOBAL

MAVTV Motorsports Network is extending its distribution via Samsung TV Plus into India. Content now available to audienices in india includes “Late Model Dirt Series” and “Pro Pulling.”

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Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Tuesday, April 13
Show, P2+ 0000s, (A18-49)
ABC: “Pooch Perfect” 2.44 (0.4), “Big Sky” 3.46 (0.5), “Big Sky” 3.24 (0.4)
CBS: “NCIS” 5.42 (0.4), “FBI” 4.22 (0.5), “FBI: Most Wanted” 3.33 (0.3)
CW: “The Flash” 0.93 (0.3),“Supergirl” 0.58 (0.1)
ION: “NCIS: New Orleans” 0.95 (0.2), “NCIS: New Orleans” 0.96 (0.2), “NCIS: New Orleans” 1.03 (0.2)
FOX: “The Resident” 3.40 (0.5), “Prodigal Son” 1.97 (0.4)
NBC: “Young Rock” 2.79 (0.6), “Kenan” 1.97 (0.4), “This Is Us” 4.62 (0.7), “New Amsterdam” 3.31 (0.4
Telemundo: “Exatlon” 1.05 (0.3), “Suerte de Loli” 1.04 (0.3), “Buscando Frida” 1.15 (0.4)
Univision: “Rosa de Guadelupe” 1.88 (0.6), “Te Acuerdas De Mi” 1.49 (0.4), “Hija Del Embajador” 1.49 (0.4)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Former DataXu and Dentsu Aegis exec Volker Ballueder joined unified targeting company Semasio as head of sales and client development for EMEA.

Production house Ample Entertainment announced three appointments. Anne Hazlett (“Supervillain”) joins as VP of development, Carter Palmer (“Top Chef”) was named casting director and Loi Ameera Almeron will serve as ivestigative producer. Hazlett previously served as director of development at Lightbox. Palmer has a previous relationship with Ample, having cast “9 Months with Courteney Cox” for Facebook Watch.Almeron has worked on more than 35 documentaries and features across diverse topics.

IN MEMORIAM

Adam Perkins, the Vine creator and performer who in 2015 went viral for his three-second video in which he exclaimed “Hi, welcome to Chili’s!,” died April 12 of undisclosed causes. He was 24. Perkins’ Chili’s clip is reported to have amassed more than 20 million views in a year. He posted other popular Vine clips and later graduated from New York University with a degree in musical composition.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What did “Public Morals” (1996), “Lawless” (1997) and “Dot Comedy” (2000) have in common? They only aired one episode. Kudos to: Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NY; Austin Cassidy-Meridian Interactive/Jacksonville, FL; Scott Jenkins-Gracenote/Queensbury, NY; Rev. Mark Wajda/Clermont, FL; Aaron Paquette-Screen Engine/ASI/Fort Worth, TX; Dave Braxton-DaveBVO LLC/Las Vegas, Ken DuBow-Access Entertainment/LA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; David Westberg-SAG*AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
An early iteration of Facebook displayed an image featuring which actor’s face obscured behind binary code? Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.)