Today’s Finales
Bravo: Vanderpump Rules at 9p
NBC: The Voice at 9p
TLC: Little People, Big World at 9p

IN THE NEWS

FX and Sky picked up season two of Breeders. The parental comedy starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard made its FX debut on March 2.

Loni Love (The Real) is the new voice of WE tv’s Bridezillas, on the way back this fall for season 13. The reality show ran from 2004-2013, and returned for a reboot in 2018.

Kevin Mayer, Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer and International for Walt Disney Co., is leaving to take on the job of COO of tech giant Bytedance, where he’ll serve as CEO of TikTok. Rebecca Campbell, most recently President of Disneyland Resort, was named as his replacement. “Kevin has had an extraordinary impact on our company over the years,” said Bob Chapek, who in February was named Disney CEO, a job some speculated Mayer would get. “He has done a masterful job of overseeing and growing our portfolio of streaming services, while bringing together the creative and technological assets required to launch the hugely successful Disney+ globally. Having worked alongside Kevin for many years on the senior management team, I am enormously grateful to him for his support and friendship and wish him tremendous success going forward.”

Discovery launched a new campaign, with a new spin on its classic “The World Is Awesome” ad from 12 years ago. The new spot reflects the current world, and network talent. “The essence of ‘The World Is Awesome’ is core to our brand and what Discovery was founded upon. It just seemed the right time to remind all of us that even during challenges, we will do our best to find beauty in the things around us and our mission remains focused,” said Josh Kovolenko, SVP of marketing, Discovery, Animal Planet and Science Channel.

Charter Communications is providing one month of free service to any new customer signing up for Spectrum Business as their connectivity provider. “Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy and will be leading America’s economic recovery in the weeks and months ahead,” said Jonathan Hargis, EVP and CMO, Charter. “Just as small businesses serve their local communities, we are proud to play a role in supporting their connectivity needs.”

Nickelodeon, TIME and TIME for Kids announced that submissions have opened for the first Kid of the Year honor, a multiplatform initiative recognizing extraordinary young leaders. Five honorees will be featured in a TV special hosted by Daily Show host Trevor Noah and simulcast on Nick and CBS in December.

Law&Crime has launched on Verizon FiOS, beginning a planned expansion on cable. The live trial network is already available on OTT platforms including Sling, fuboTV, Philo, Vidgo, Comcast Xfinity, XUMO and TV Plus as well as select basic cable providers. The net plans to create and acquire more original programming as part of its daily lineup and unscripted series portfolio, as well as continue producing original documentary-style programs on high profile trials for other cable networks through its production arm, Law&Crime Productions. “Our growth from digital to OTT to cable is a tribute to the viewer appetite for the true crime genre but the key for us has been in becoming the dominant player in the live trial space,” said founder/CEO Dan Abrams. “Verizon Fios and Cincinatti Bell are two key launches for the network in the cable space with many more to come.”

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ADVERTISING

ViacomCBS’s two-day virtual upfront started Monday with the message, “Simply stronger.” An animated Stephen Colbert kicked off the lively, space-themed, star-studded (from home) event covering innovation (integrations, first to market products), and its cable brands. Talent popped up to talk about everything from activations and experiences to the 2020 election and sports (James Corden jumped into a chat about an NFL game airing on both CBS and Nickelodeon: “How is this going to work, exactly? Is Sponge Bob going to be announcing?”). For ad execs at home with children, kid stars had the task of explaining stats on audience reach and scale, while LL Cool J explained his mission: “We’ve got to tell a group of ad executives about the combined creative capabilities of ViacomCBS before any of them get bored.” Corden wrapped things up with the message that TV “is the thing that can give us the collective experience that we have all been so sorely missing.”

The level of audience engagement for ESPN’s The Last Dance “surpassed all expectations,” said Kevin Krim, CEO of research company EDO. “Engagement has been off the charts.” EDO, which measures the increase in search activity for a brand in the minutes immediately following a TV commercial airing, found that ads during the docu-series about Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls hit 500, a level similar to the Super Bowl. One ad unit was the equivalent to over 43 units during primetime, found EDO. “Clearly, positive factors include ESPN’s creativity with sponsoring brands and a lighter-than-normal ad load,” Krim said. “Overall, it’s very exciting, and goes to show how much people are engaged with this type of content in a world without live sports.”

Diversity programs have made significant inroads in marketing organizations, according to a new ANA report, “The Power of Supplier Diversity.” The top segments targeted were women-owned (98%), ethnic/minority-owned (95%), veteran-owned (90%), LGBTQ-owned (88%), and disability-owned (80%). The ANA noted that while 75% of its members have some kind of supplier diversity initiative, only 40% specifically involved marketing/advertising services. .

Advertising sales at news networks may not have taken as big a hit as they have in other categories during the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean it’s been business as usual. Jeff Collins, EVP, Advertising Sales at Fox News Media, explains how the strategy of his sales team has shifted – and why Upfront week, despite its flaws, is still relevant – in Cynsiders.

STREAMING SCOOP

US OTT revenue is projected to grow from $35 billion in 2019 to $68 billion by 2025, reported Digital TV Research. Estimates have SVOD doubling from $48.2 billion to $97.5 billion, with its share of total revenue remaining at 58%, while AVOD grows by 120%, from $24.3 billion to $53.5 billion, for 32% of total revenue. As for this year, “SVOD has boomed during the lockdown, and thanks to the rollout of Disney+,” said Simon Murray, principal analyst for Digital TV Research. “However, advertising confidence has been hit. We expect lower growth for AVOD in 2020 – but recovery thereafter.”

WWE boasts the company’s official YouTube channel surpassed 60 million subscribers, ranking it as the #1 Sports channel on YouTube, ahead of the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, ESPN and NASCAR. It is also the fifth most-viewed channel in the world, with 43 billion video views, behind T-Series, Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes, SET India and Zee TV.

CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive announced the launch of CBSN Dallas-Fort Worth, the 10th of ViacomCBS’ 13 local direct-to-consumer streaming news services in major markets across the country. The latest entry features anchored programming and coverage of live breaking news events in the region produced by KTVT-TV (CBS 11).

TECH TALK

With browser companies killing off cookies – and no cookies in OTT – Lotame announced the launch of Lotame Panorama, a suite of data enrichment solutions that use first-, second- and third-party data to create and analyze addressable audiences across the cookie-challenged web (Safari, Firefox, and Chrome), mobile app, and OTT environments. “First-party data is a valuable asset, but unfortunately it doesn’t provide the scale marketers need,” said Jason Downie, CRO at Lotame. “Bridging together customers’ online and offline lives has been a persistent industry dilemma that was made even more complicated with recent browser changes. To solve for this, we developed Panorama which enables a fuller view of activity that is actionable across a connected ecosystem, even in cookie-challenged or first-party-cookie-only environments.”

Facebook said it has sold about $100 million in Quest VR content over the past year. Twenty titles drew at least $1 million each, with 10 of those surpassing $2 million in sales. During 1Q20, “other” revenue, driven mainly by Oculus products, was up 80% year-over-year to $297 million.

The Cynopsis Adtech Awards
Enter By May 28th

During a time when in-person events have been cancelled, the adtech community is stepping up. They’re helping to guarantee marketers upfront inventory and preserve revenue for media owners by using breakthrough approaches and solutions. Adtech providers are a group that lives on the cutting edge of innovation, which is why we are celebrating their platforms, campaigns, and strategies in more than 20 categories. View them all

here.

Producer Ben Salter (Road Rules, The Simple Life, Khloe and Lamar) has partnered with Asylum Entertainment Group’s Founder and CEO, Steve Michaels, to launch production company 72 Steps Media in a joint venture with The Content Group, Asylum’s flagship content collective. Salter will work closely alongside Michaels as well as Jodi Flynn, President of The Content Group. “After meeting Steve and Jodi, it was clear The Content Group is the perfect environment for creating and collaboration – their infrastructure and open partnership truly provides an invaluable resource for content creation.” The Content Group’s business model allows creative partners to earn profits as if they had equity in the company.

MTV International ordered self-shot online series Served! With Jade Thirlwall, as part of ViacomCBS’s celebration for Global Pride. In the 100 Productions six-parter, singer Thirlwall will compete with celebrity drag queens to cook a themed dinner from a package of mystery ingredients.

TVT Productions is producing a documentary exploring the role of the iconic RAF Dambusters bomber squadron on D-Day, to be shown on Smithsonian Channel in the UK and US to mark the anniversary of the Allied landings in June. In D-Day and the Dambusters, historian and former RAF navigator John Nichol reveals how 617 Squadron fooled Hitler and the German high command into believing the Allies were invading Calais, instead of Normandy, by creating the impression of a fake fleet with their Lancaster bombers.

Adam Sandler will star in Netflix film Hustle, focused on a basketball scout unjustly fired after discovering a once-in-a-lifetime player abroad. Sandler’s Happy Madison is producing alongside LeBron James’ SpringHill Entertainment and Roth/Kirschenbaum Films. The project is part of Sandler’s movie deal with Netflix.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

New series Dead Reckoning makes its debut on ID on Thursday, June 4 at 9p, followed by A Time to Kill, another true crime show following investigators piecing together homicide mysteries, at 10p.

House Hunters: Comedians on Couches (fka House Hunters: LOL) runs Tuesday, June 2 through Friday, June 5 at 10p. HGTV’s special event has Dan Levy (Indebted) and Natasha Leggero (Neighbors) joined by their comedian friends Whitney Cummings (Whitney), Eliot Glazer (Liza on Demand), John Mulaney (SNL), Chris Redd (SNL) and J.B. Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm) offering color commentary on classic episodes of much-loved, much-maligned series House Hunters.

Season two of Ryan Murphy’s dark comedy The Politician drops Friday, June 19 on Netflix. Judith Light is back as a senator with Bette Midler playing her chief of staff, characters introduced in the season one final episode. Seven season two episodes had been completed before the coronavirus production shutdown.

Also back for a sophomore run is Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, returning July 31. Season one, which dropped in February 2019, was the streamer’s third most popular release of the year.

Acorn TV will be the US home of Studio Lambert’s thriller The Nest, starring Martin Compston (Line of Duty) and Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders), starting July 13.The five-part drama, which debuted on UK’s BBC One in March, is also heading to Asia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

COMING UP

This Is Us stars Mandy Moore and Justin Hartley will co-host NBC’s Red Nose Day special on Thursday, May 21 at 9p. Also hopping aboard the two-hour event to raise money for children in need are Julia Roberts, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Paul Rudd, 5 Seconds of Summer, Elizabeth Banks, Jennifer Garner, Ricky Gervais, Joel McHale, Stephen Merchant, Sarah Silverman and Susan Kelechi-Watson.

Al Roker Entertainment has joined with Northwell Health to produce this year’s Side By Side: A Celebration of Service, airing Monday, May 25 at 7p on WNBC Channel 4. “We were working with Northwell Health before this pandemic hit and were ahead of the curve by highlighting these inspirational healthcare workers and it wasn’t by design,” said Roker. “It hits home for me because my sister is a nurse practitioner and my baby brother Chris is the CEO of New York City Health + Hospitals and he works seven days a week and it gives you a certain amount of pride working on something that will make a difference.”

WE tv celebrates Criminal Minds with summer-long marathon events starting May 23 of Memorial Day Weekend. Back-to-back episodes air every Saturday from 10a-1a and Mondays from 4p-1a.

A virtual ceremony for the 40th College Television Awards, honoring excellence in student-produced programs, will livestream on Saturday, May 30 at 8p at TelevisionAcademy.com/CTA.

GOING GLOBAL

The International Broadcasting Convention, scheduled for September 11-14 in Amsterdam, has been canceled due to concerns over the coronavirus. “Despite the best work of the IBC team and our Dutch colleagues, there are still many unknowns,” said IBC CEO Michael Crimp. “Therefore, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to deliver a safe and valuable event to the quality expected of IBC.”

Animation company Omens Studios has secured a commission from MediaCorp Singapore for 60 new episodes of preschool animated series Counting With Paula, bringing the total number of episodes available to 300.

Keshet 12 announced that production will begin on gameshow Deal With It! this week. Originally re-commissioned by the Israeli channel in January after a hiatus of six years, production of the third season was put on hold when Israel went into lockdown in March. United Studios of Israel will again produce the series, which will now also feature some additional adaptations to the primetime format in order to ensure the safety of its contributors and crew.

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Fox’s NASCAR Cup coverage on Sunday delivered 6.23 million viewers and a 3.7 rating among A18-49, according to Nielsen, up 30% from the net’s last NASCAR race, on March 8.

The premiere of Snowpiercer on TNT and TBS drew 3.3 million total viewers and 607,000 among A18-49.

TV Time’s Shows on the Rise for the Week of May 11
White Lines (Netflix) – 99.9%
Magic for Humans (Netflix) – 94.7%
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix) – 94%
Skam Italia (Timvision) – 92.6%
Bordertown (YLE) 77.3%
The Prince (MBC 1) – 75%
Valeria (Netflix) – 57.7%
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) – 49.3%
Gotham (FOX) 47.62%
Parasyte: the maxim (NTV) – 37.5%
Methodology: Every week, millions of viewers around the world use TV Time track their favorite series. “Shows on the Rise” is calculated by determining the week-over-week growth in episodes watched for a given program.

Shareablee Top 10 TV Shows for the week of May 11
Program, Network, Total Actions, Total Content, Actions per Content, Fans & Followers
E! News (E!) 11.4M, 808, 14,170, 37.3M
The Ellen DeGeneres Show (WB/syndicated) 5.5M, 88, 62,548, 201.9M
The Daily Show (Comedy Central) 2.7M, 133, 20,489, 23.5M
Hannity (Fox News) 2.6M, 270, 9,486, 9.1M
Today Show (NBC) 2M, 888, 2,229, 13.7M
The Flash (The CW) 1.5M, 50, 30,727, 12.2M
Entertainment Tonight (WB/syndicated) 1.5M, 602, 2,500, 8.9M
Rick and Morty (Adult Swim) 1.5M, 29, 51,000, 10.9M
Good Morning America (ABC) 1.5M, 938, 1,572, 13.8M
American Idol (ABC) 1.3M, 333, 3,945, 17.6M

Shareablee Top 10 Streaming Shows for the week of May 11
Program, Platform, Total Actions, Total Content, Actions per Content, Fans & Followers
13 Reasons Why (Netflix) 4M, 21, 189,252, 9.6M
Never Have I Ever (Netflix) 1M, 44, 22,924, 395K
Netflix is A Joke (YouTube) 626K, 74, 8,462, 1.8M
Hollywood (Netflix) 376K, 21, 17,887, 123K
Queer Eye (Netflix) 329K, 3, 109,592, 2.7M
The Society (Netflix) 279K, 1, 278,694, 930K
Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj (Netflix) 193K, 25, 7,720, 528K
Fuller House (Netflix) 192K, 9, 21,344, 2.1M
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix) 171K, 36, 4,747, 171K
Trailer Park Boys (Netflix) 156K, 23, 6,765, 2.9M

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Friday, May 15
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: Shark Tank 4.55 (0.7), 20/20 3.67 (0.6)
CBS: Greatest #StayAtHome Videos 4.42 (0.5), Bravery & Hope 2.37 (0.3), Blue Bloods 342 (0.3)
CW: Masters of Illusion 0.76 (0.1), Master of Illusion 0.58 (0.1), Masters of Illusion 0.67 (0.1)
FOX: WWE Friday Night Smackdown 2.04 (0.5)
NBC: The Blacklist 4.13 (0.5), Dateline 3.48 (0.5)
UNIVISION: Te Doy la Vida 1.61 (0.5), Amor Eterno 1.95 (0.6), Como tu no hay 1.60 (0.6)
TELEMUNDO: Cennet 1.15 (0.3), 100 Dias Enamorarnos 0.81 (0.3), La Reina del Sur 0.62 (0.2)
Source: Nielsen, live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

ViacomCBS Networks International promoted Ezequiel “Quelo” Fonseca Zas, formerly SVP of Emerging Business for VCNI Americas, to General Manager of Streaming and Mobile for International.

VIZIO named John R. Burbank to its board of directors. In addition to serving as the President of Nielsen, Burbank was a former CMO at AT&T.

George Nazi has joined Google Cloud as VP, Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment Industry Solutions. Most recently, George was the senior managing director at Accenture.

IN MEMORIAM

Ken Osmond died May 18. He was 76. Best known for his memorable portrayal of Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver, Osmond left acting and joined the LA Police Department in 1970.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who played Sam Malone’s fiancée on Frasier (1993-2004)? Téa Leoni. Kudos to: John Ferlazzo/London, An Cheng-Telepictures/Burbank, Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank, Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo, CA, Anne Wettig-Fox/LA, Carl Mayer-Active International/Pearl River, NY, Kelly Sapp-Discovery/NYC, Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton, FL, Anthony Salerno-Horizon Media/NYC

Today’s Trivia Question
The title character in which detective series had a pet ocelot? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four per time zone.)