04/19/17: Disney Channel all smiles as Andi Mack debuts strong

Good morning. It’s Wednesday April 19, 2017, and this is your your first early morning Kids briefing!

NEWS OF THE WEEK

Star Wars Rebels will exit the galaxy after the series’ upcoming season 4 on Disney XD. News of the final season broke during the show’s panel at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando last weekend that featured voice talents Taylor Gray, Vanessa Marshall, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Sabine Wren. The 15 episodes in season 4 will integrate plot lines from last year’s feature film Rogue One – Forest Whitaker again will reprise his Rogue One role of Saw Gerrera – and A New Hope.

Disney Channel‘s new live-action series Andi Mack debuted Friday, April 7 with a one-hour premiere that attracted 14.4 million views, including 9 million Total Viewers on linear TV and since its release on digital platforms March 10, an 5.4 million views across digital platforms including YouTube (2.8 million), Disney Channel Video-on-Demand (1.2 million) and the Disney Channel App (1 million).

Stars of upcoming Disney Channel Original Movie Descendants 2 – Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Cameron Boyce and Booboo Stewart – debuted “Ways to Be Wicked,” the first track from the movie’s soundtrack, on Radio Disney. Full album will be available this summer from Walt Disney Records and via select digital and streaming services.

AWARDS SHOW WATCH

Nick News with Linda Ellerbee (Nickelodeon in association with Lucky Duck Productions) will be honored with a Grand Award for a family series at the 42^nd annual Gracie Awards, June 6 in LA.

More artists have joined the chorus for the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards. Artist/actress Sabrina Carpenter, hitmakers Fitz and The Tantrums and singer/songwriter Erin Bowman are on board for the event, which will air Sunday, April 30 at 7p on Disney Channel. Previously announced performers include Kelsea Ballerini, Alessia Cara, Noah Cyrus and Hailee Steinfeld.

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COMING UP

A new Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood one-hour special, “Tiger Family Trip,” is slated to premiere Monday, May 8, on PBS Kids. As families prepare to travel during the spring and summer, Daniel and his family embark on a first and memorable road trip, helping preschoolers learn skills and strategies as they experience their first trips. The ep will repeat throughout the week of May 8 on PBS Kids and PBS Kids 24/7 channel and live stream. It also will be available for free on pbskids.org and the PBS Kids Video App. New episodes of the series also will debut throughout the week of May 8.

The adventures of Ash and friends continue in the Alola region with the debut of the new season of Pokemon the Series: Sun & Moon on Friday, May 12 on Disney XD, with two episodes to air starting at 9p. The third ep in the season will air at 9a the next morning on Disney XD, its regular time slot.

Disney and Lucasfilm pulled back the curtain on Star Wars Forces of Destiny, a new initiative celebrating the stories of iconic heroes from across the Star Wars universe. Launching in July on Disney’s YouTube Channel ahead of its two-part TV special featuring eight additional shorts on Disney Channel in fall 2017, the animated shorts are 2-3 minutes in length and will explore new adventures of key characters. Daisy Ridley (Rey), Felicity Jones (Jyn), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano) and Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata, as narrator) reprise their roles via voice talent for their animated characters. Additionally, each animated story will be supported with a line of toys from Hasbro.

DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION

Netflix knows where in the world Carmen Sandiego is. The streaming service gave a greenlight to an animated series based on the kids brand, set to bow in 2019 with Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) voicing the title character. The 20-episode series is produced by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and will feature new international capers and delve into Carmen’s past to reveal who she is and why she became a super thief. Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) will voice Player, Carmen’s chief accomplice and friend. Duane Capizzi (The Batman) is co-executive producer and showrunner with CJ Kettler (The Tick), and Caroline Fraser is executive in charge of production.

AROUND THE INDUSTRY

The Broadway version of Disney’s Frozen is casting up. Caissie Levy, who played Fantine in the 2014 revival of Les Miserables and Elphaba in Wicked, will play Elsa, and Patti Murin (Lysistrata Jones, Xanadu and currently in NBC’s Chicago Med) will play Anna. The adaptation has a planned spring 2018 Broadway bow, after a tryout August 17-October 1 at the Buell Theatre in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The principal cast also includes Jelani Alladin as Kristoff, Greg Hildreth as Olaf, John Riddle as Hans and Robert Creighton as Duke of Weselton. The 2013 film took home the Best Animated Feature Oscar and grossed $1.28 billion worldwide.

Nickelodeon will air coverage of the PGA Tour’s Players Championship as part of NickSports Presents Golf Rocks Weekend, featuring the cast of School of Rock, May 12-14 on Nicktoons. Additionally, Nick will bring new, family-friendly tournament activities to the McKenzie Noelle Wilson Foundation Kid Zone at the tournament, which runs May 9-14. The onsite Kid Zone will have an enclosed, air-conditioned area featuring a themed interactive experience with activities featuring some of the Nick characters.

Safe Kids Day is acknowledged this year on Sunday, April 23, and once again Hollywood talent is gathering at the signature LA event to mark the day and support the programs of Safe Kids Worldwide. Confirmed to appear at Smashbox Studios are Drew Barrymore, Aedin Minks, Allen Maldonado and Tom Arnold, among others.

AROUND THE GLOBE

Family Channel’s sixth annual Big Ticket Concert returns Sunday, August 27 to the Budweiser Stage in Toronto. Headlined by British pop-rockers The Vamps, this year’s lineup also includes Sabrina Carpenter, Josh Bogert, Mckenzie Small and Aviva. Hosted by The Next Step personalities Victoria Baldesarra (Michelle) and Alexandra Beaton (Emily), the live show is going international this year, with a UK date, talent and partners to be announced soon.

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TECH TALK

Amazon’s Fire Tablets added a parental control dashboard to its FreeTime Unlimited subscription service that provides daily activity reports for each child. Through one feature, the Parent Dashboard enables parents to gain additional insight on how many minutes children are using a tablet and what portion of that time was spent reading books, watching videos, playing in an app, or browsing online. FreeTime Unlimited offers curated sets of books, apps and games for specific age groups; cost starts at $3 per month.

Children’s magazine publisher Cricket Media and the Parents’ Choice Foundation are launching the Keeping Tech in Check campaign. With the tagline, “a balance, not a ban,” the campaign offers families tools, tips and resources to help them find the right balance between technology and real-life experiences. Among features found at KeepingTechinCheck.com are:

* The American Academy of Pediatrics Media Use Planner and Media Calculator
* Advice from experts and peers, including a regularly updated blog written by Cricket Media editors, parents and other experts.

* Mini printable books aimed at a variety of age levels

Toca Boca released the latest in its Toca Life series, Toca Life: Hospital. Features include the ability to virtually use tool found in a real-life hospital such as gurneys, bandages, crutches and wheelchairs, and check surgery patients’ vitals on the medical monitor, plus an array of music selections kids can choose from to set the tone of their own hospital stories. App is available for $2.99 on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon.

Roblox’s most current egg hunt game cleaned up around the Easter holiday. Within six days of release, Egg Hunt 2017: The Lost Eggs was played by more than 3.4 million unique players, who spent more than 2.6 million hours searching for hidden eggs across the virtual holiday world. Additionally, the game received more than 35 million visits.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Bento Box Entertainment appointed Ben Jones as its new creative director. Effective immediately, he will oversee the newly unified department that combines the company’s creative development and special projects division. Jones most recently served as the creative director, showrunner and producer at FoxADHD where he created the animated series Stone Quackers for FXX.

Cheers,

Cathy Applefeld Olson
Roberta Caploe Publisher @robertacaploe	Diane K Schwartz Senior Vice President Media Communications Group	Cynopsis Ad Sales Mike Farina \| 203-218-6480 VP, Sales	Cynopsis Job Listings Sales Trish Pihonak \| 203-899-8459 Director of Operations

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