PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Laurie Arent (NCIS: New Orleans) will write and exec-producer Kelly Ripa’s Freeform project based on the Jasmin Rosemberg book How The Other Half Hamptons, from Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Ripa and Mark Consuelos’ Milojo Productions. Project probes the sharehouse scenario in which young Manhattan-based fun seekers take part every summer.
Writer/producer Jason Richman signed a new multiyear overall contract with ABC Studios, extending his relationship that includes working on his current studio projects and developing new ones for broadcast, cable and streaming. Stumptown, among ABC’s new drama pilots, is the brainchild of Richman, who created, wrote and show-runs the series. He also is co-writing and co-show-running The Rainmaker and Rogue Lawyer, the first two series in Hulu’s proposed John Grisham Universe franchise.
Fulwell 73, production house behind The Late Late Show With James Corden, brought in Tracie Fiss as a head of talent, and notched an eight-part series for Quibi. Fiss is a 20-year veteran of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, was a co-producer on Leno’s talk show, and most recently served as head of talent for Lip Sync Battle.
Michael Gilvary, a longtime writer/producer on NBC’s Chicago Fire who became an exec producer for season 6, inked a new overall deal with Universal Television, the studio behind the series.
Three time’s a charm for both Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian and Very Cavallari. The series each got a season 3 pickup at E!, which also renewed Dating #NoFilter for a second season with new eps coming later this year.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: May 3-5
Avengers End Game (BV) $145.8 million (week 2), cume revenue $619.7 million
The Intruder (SGem) $11 million, opening weekend
Long Shot (LG/S) $10.0 million, opening weekend
Ugly Dolls (STX) $8.5 million, opening weekend
Captain Marvel (Buena Vista) $4.3 million (week 9), cume revenue $420.8 million
Breakthrough (Fox) $3.9 million (week 3), cume revenue $33.2 million
The Curse of La Llorona (Warner Bros.) $3.5 million (week 3), cume revenue $48.1 milion
Shazam! (WB) $2.5 million (week 5), cume revenue $135.2 million
Little (Universal) $1.5 million (week 4), cume revenue $38.6 million
Dumbo (Buena Vista) $1.4 million (week 6), cume revenue $109.6 million
Source: Comscore
NEWFRONT SEASON
YouTube has 2 billion monthly unique users globally, CEO Susan Wojcicki shared last Thursday at its Brandcast event in NY. The number is up 5 percent from the 1.9 billion monthly users YT announced last summer. She said watch time of YouTube on TV screens was more than 250 million hours per day as of March 2019, a rise of 39 percent in less than a year and one that excludes viewing on internet pay TV service YouTube TV – a figure based on self-reported data. Allan Thygesen, Google president of the Americas, said across all platforms, YT reaches more A18-49 in an average week than all cable TV networks combined,
In other toplines:
* YT is going to make all original scripted and unscripted programming – including series Cobra Kai and Liza On Demand – available for free, ad-supported viewing starting later this year in post-SVOD windows.
* YouTube TV’s 70 broadcast and cable channels are now available as a standalone option in Google Preferred (before, YouTube TV inventory was available only as part of a larger Google Preferred buy).
* The company will update the Google Preferred proprietary algorithm (P-score) to include more content frequently watched on TV screens and “content that exhibits higher production value.”
* In programming, Wojcicki teased a “top-secret” project with Justin Bieber slated for 2020, docs on Paris Hilton and Latin artist Maluma and the renewal of Kevin Hart’s unscripted What the Fit. Alicia Keys was on sight to tout a new talk show, Unwind, coming to her channel. Tiffany Haddish announced she’s launching a channel through which she’ll stage interventions for celebrity hoarders.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Living by Design with Jake and Jazz launched this weekend (May 4) on Cleo TV, featuring brother-sister duo Jake and Jazz Smollett. For the series the sibs team up to transform the living, work, and play spaces of millennial families and create simple solutions to everyday home design dilemmas.
One mansion, two deaths and countless questions. Oxygen Media will dive into another tragic case in new limited series Death At The Mansion: Rebecca Zahau, premiering Saturday, June 1 at 6p.
The new trailer for Netflix comedy It’s Bruno, from rapper/filmmaker Salvan “Slick” Naim, landed Friday to whet appetites for the show that follows the dog lover and his best canine friend on adventures in their Brooklyn neighborhood. The eight-ep series premieres May 17.
CBS will bow Blood & Treasure, starring Matt Barr and Sofia Pernas as a brilliant antiquities expert and a cunning art thief who team up to catch a terrorist who funds his attacks through stolen treasure, on Tuesday, May 21 at 9p with a two-hour series premiere.
In need of a feel good moment? Go check out the incredible winners and honorable mentions for our Social Good Awards, spotlighting the companies, programming, campaigns and people that are using media in innovative ways to help make the world a better place. Take a look at the projects, partnerships and people who utilized their position to make real change happen.
The poster and a new trailer for upcoming Showtime drama series City on a Hill hit on Friday. The series, set in the early ‘90s in a corrupt and crime-ridden Boston, premieres Sunday, June 16 at 9p.
COMING UP
ABC News will probe the little-known story of Mary Jo Kopechne, the passenger who died after Sen. Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge near Martha’s Vineyard, escaped from the submerged car and failed to immediately report the accident. “The Girl in the Car” special episode airs Tuesday, May 7 at 10p.
NBC’s fifth Red Nose Day Special, airing Thursday, May 23 at 8p, will bring together television, film and musical talent including Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Kate McKinnon and Lilly Singh to raise money for children in need. Viewers will also catch a mini-sequel of the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, titled One Red Nose Day and a Wedding. The film catches up with the characters played by Hugh Grant, Andie McDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rowan Atkinson and more from the original cast, reuniting 25 years after the original release. Also featured will be a short film of Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us) traveling to Kenya to see firsthand how Red Nose Day funds are changing lives.
DIGITAL DATA
AMC Networks Friday shut off public access to its database for its Sundance Now and Shudder subscription-streaming services after it inadvertently exposed the database on the open internet. The database includes 1.62 million total records including names, emails, and subscription plan details used internally by the company.
Popular YouTube singer Austin Jones, 26, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for soliciting sexually explicit videos from his female teenage fans. Jones was arrested in 2017 and charged with two counts of production of child pornography, to which he pleaded guilty this February.
TECH TALK
Vice Media, which has undergone layoffs and consolidation of late, raised $250 million in debt from investors including George Soros, Fortress Investment Group, 23 Capital and Monroe Capital, money that will be used to bolster the media company.
Mercedes-Benz has become the first automotive brand to offer an Instagram augmented reality filter in a campaign that launches its new CLA Coupe. The filter dovetails with a #PlayByYourRules short film the company created and is part of a larger social media campaign.
Facebook’s upcoming Oculus Quest headset will not be supported by Viveport Infinity, HTC’s VR subscription service that has a similar model to Netflix.
CASTING
Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) will recur opposite John Cusack, Sasha Lane and Rainn Wilson in Utopia, Amazon’s straight-to-series adaptation of the like-named British drama… Chris Greene (The Birth of a Nation) and Sofia Lama (NCIS: Los Angeles) nabbed recurring roles in the upcoming fourth season of USA Network‘s Queen of the South.
