A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY

DURING THE NBA PLAYOFFS,
TNT WON THE NIGHT 20 TIMES ACROSS ALL OF
BROADCAST AND CABLE AMONG A18-49

WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY
OUR STORY STARTS WITH YOU

Today’s Premieres
Disney+: Family Reboot
Hulu/Disney+: Love, Victor
Freeform: Dear Pony: Keep This Between Us at 10p
Netflix: God’s Favorite Idiot; Maldivas; Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend; Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies and the Internet

Today’s Finale
CW: Kung Fu at 9p

IN THE NEWS

It’s a wrap for syndicated talker “The Wendy Williams Show.” The final episode airs Friday, June 17 with a video tribute to the host, who has been absent for its 13th and final season due to health issues.

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol has postponed the hearing scheduled for today for technical reasons. “Putting together the video and exhibits is an exhausting exercise for our very small video staff,” explained Committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren. “We were going to have 1-2-3 in one week and it’s just it’s too much to put it all together. So we’re trying to give them a little room to do their technical work.” The hearing, focused on then-President Trump’s intention to replace AG Jeffrey Rosen, will be moved to another day. Tomorrow’s will still center on Trump’s attempts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the 2020 election results.

Much of the content young children consume on YouTube is either devoid of characters of color or includes biased and stereotypical representations, according to a new report released today from Common Sense Media. According to the report, “Who Is the ‘You’ in YouTube?”, 62% of YouTube videos watched by kids 8 and under featured no Black, Indigenous, and people of color characters. Another 10% included only shallow or stereotyped portrayals of BIPOC characters. “Young children and teens are like sponges, soaking up every image and message they consume,” said Déjà Rollins, who co-authored the report. “And because they lack the media literacy skills we often develop in adulthood, the hours of stereotypical and racially disproportionate YouTube content they consume can play a critical role in their overall identity formation and understanding of the world they live in.”

With upfront sales moving to completion, Paramount and NBCUniversal execs are looking at increases in the high single digits, reported company CEOs Bob Bakish and Jeff Shell. Fox Corp. expects a 9%-12% lift, said CFO Steve Tomsic at a CSFB investor conference. “We are seeing some categories that are affected by things like supply chain and inflation, but we are also seeing some categories that are doing well – travel, movies, sports,” noted Bakish. “And politics will be a huge plus in the second half of the year.”

Netflix has renewed “The Lincoln Lawyer” for season two. Joining the series as executive producer and co-showrunner is Dailyn Rodriguez (“Queen of the South”). Ted Humphrey, who developed series with creator David E. Kelley, will also return as co-showrunner and exec producer.

How is Netflix responding to its precipitous drop in valuation? “We’re not merging departments or having a big transitional phase or anything like that,” said Netflix Head of Global TV Bela Bajaria during a keynote at Banff World Media Festival. “The way I look at it, this is a noisy period and is all about getting back to basics. We are meeting writers, producers, directors, questioning whether we are going local and taking chances.”

One thing Netflix is betting on is an offshoot of its monster hit. In “Squid Game: The Challenge,” 456 real players will enter the game for a chance to win $4.56 million. “As they compete through a series of games inspired by the original show – plus surprising new additions – their strategies, alliances, and character will be put to the test while competitors are eliminated around them,” said a show description. “The stakes are high, but in this game the worst fate is going home empty-handed.” The 10-episode competition series is a co-production between Studio Lambert and The Garden.

NewFest announced the recipients of the first New Voices Filmmaker Grant, an initiative in partnership with Netflix to support emerging LGBTQ+ filmmakers. Four filmmakers will each receive a $25,000 grant to support professional development and create new work, and will have access to industry events and a mentorship track. Netflix has pledged support for the program for two years.

Pinterest and Tastemade have struck a global strategic partnership aimed at scaling creators, content series, and live streaming on Pinterest. Initial programming will launch later this year in the US LATAM, Europe, and APAC, including 50 new shows.

LAST DAY TO ENTER
THE TOP WOMEN IN MEDIA AWARDS

Today is the last day to ender for this year’s Top Women in Media Awards.

Check out the site to see all the amazing categories, from DEI Dynamos to Marketing Trailblazers.

ENTER NOW

PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Warner Bros. Television Group has signed a new first-look deal with writer/producer Bill Prady and Chris Sanagustin’s Pine Tree Entertainment. Prady co-created (with Chuck Lorre) WBTV’s comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” while Sanagustin’s first Hollywood gig was as a production assistant on a WBTV series. Under the terms of the deal, Pine Tree Entertainment will develop new scripted programming including dramas, multi- and single-camera comedies, genre series, and more for all platforms.

ITV has agreed to acquire a majority interest of 79.5% in factual producer Plimsoll Productions (“Hostile Planet,” “Night on Earth,” “Animal”). Following the transaction Grant Mansfield, together with his senior management and creatives, will continue to manage the business. ITV Studios already has a relationship with Plimsoll Productions as the distributor for “A Year on Planet Earth.”

Roku renewed animated comedy “Doomlands” for a second season. The streamer also ordered competition series “Survival from Above,” featuring contestants suspended 100 feet off the ground in a South American rainforest, and “Lincoln Log Project” (wt), with builders creating cabins using life-sized Lincoln logs.

NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises has opened a new production unit in Mexico City operating as Telemundo Global Studios Mexico. Under the umbrella of Miami-based Telemundo Global Studios, the new production arm will increase the company’s on-the-ground production capabilities of scripted and unscripted content, and is currently in pre-production of its first project for the network, the eighth season of “El Senor de los Cielos.”

HBO Documentary Films is in production on a feature documentary exploring the life and career of Donyale Luna, one of the first Black supermodels, directed by Nailah Jefferson (“Vanishing Pearls: The Oystermen of Pointe a la Hache”), with Lightbox (“Tina”) and Jeff Friday Media (“Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn”).

Holy guacamole! HBO Max Latin America has ordered a feature-length animated film, “Batman Azteca: Choque de Imperios” (“Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires”), from Warner Bros. Animation in partnership with Anima and Chatrone, that takes Batman to Mexico. Set during the time of the Aztec Empire, the film follows a young boy out to avenge his father’s death.

Simon Fuller (“So You Think You Can Dance”) has partnered with OP3N and the Culture Catalyst, aimed at fostering arts and entertainment projects on the Avalanche blockchain, to develop and produce a musical film with global pop group Now United. “The Musical” will be available to the NFT pass holders on the recently launched OP3N app. The mission of the project is to inspire schools to create their own versions of performances from the musical and compete for honors within the OP3N platform through community voting.

Casting notes: Forest Whitaker, Thomasin McKenzie, Vera Farmiga, Richard E. Grant, Wilmer Valderrama, and Alanna Masterson are lending their voices to the BRON
Digital animated movie-series, “Gossamer.”…Mehcad Brooks (“A Fall From Grace”) has joined the season 22 cast of NBC’s “Law & Order.”

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

“Bugs Bunny Builders” premieres Monday, July 25 at 8a on Cartoonito on Cartoon Network and Tuesday, July 26 on Cartoonito on HBO Max. The series is the first Looney Tunes preschool show in over 20 years.

Season two of HBO Max reality dating series “FBoy Island” debuts Thursday, July 14 with three episodes, and three new women navigating the dating pool on a tropical island.

COMING UP

TruTV’s Impractical Jokers will take a bite out of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week this summer with a shark education special. The 34th installment of Shark Week kicks off Sunday, July 24.

The effects of growing up in the family of a serial killer is explored in “Sins of the Father: The Green River Killer,” a true crime doc premiering on Tubi today, June 15.

Former boxing champ and current mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko will be honored with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYs, airing Wednesday, July 20 on ABC. The award honors a member of the sporting world “who makes a difference far beyond the world of play.”

“Downton Abbey: A New Era,” from Focus Features and director Simon Curtis, begins streaming exclusively on Peacock on Friday, June 24. Fans can catch the period drama’s six seasons and 2019 film “Downton Abbey,” along with 2016 special “The Manners of Downton Abbey,” on Peacock now.

Shudder landed rights to documentary “This is GWAR,” offering insight into the 30-plus year career of the heavy metal band.

FilmRise has acquired all rights to the sixth and upcoming seventh seasons of Woodcut Media’s true crime docuseries “World’s Most Evil Killers.” The deal gives FilmRise exclusive digital SVOD, AVOD and FAST rights domestically.

STREAMING

In what he described as a “preliminary analysis,” analyst Michael Nathanson predicted that with AVOD streaming tiers, Disney+ will generate $1.8 billion in US ad revenue by 2025, and Netflix will draw $1.2 billion. But success is no sure thing, notes Nathanson: “While we are excited by the opportunity that advertising creates at these two streaming giants, the devil will be in the details of how each company prices these new offerings and how much of the available content impressions will be available and suitable for advertising.”

After Viacom18 acquired five-year streaming rights to the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, besting Disney with a $2.6 billion bid (Disney will retain broadcast rights), the Mumbai-based joint venture between Paramount Global and TV18 snapped up international rights for Australia, South Africa and the UK for another $420 million.

Meanwhile, Apple TV scored every Major League Soccer match for 10 years starting in 2023, giving fans access to all MLS, Leagues Cup and select MLS NEXT Pro and MLS NEXT matches through a new streaming service available exclusively via the Apple TV app. “It’s a dream come true for MLS fans, soccer fans, and anyone who loves sports,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Services. “No fragmentation, no frustration.” The new service, available to Apple TV+ customers at no extra cost, will also include, replays, highlights and analysis.

In addition to soccer, Apple TV+ is looking to reel in new subscribers by offering season one of “For All Mankind” for free for a limited time. Season three of the buzzy sci-fi series, which debuted in 2019, launched June 10.

XUMO announced the launch of Family Adventure Month, including eight new limited run, family-friendly movies. The company will also roll out a dedicated Barney & Friends channel, featuring eight seasons of the kids’ TV series. “XUMO’s Family Adventure Month places an emphasis on entertainment that everyone in the family can stream together, and is ideally timed for the start of summer break,” said Fern Feistel, SVP marketing and content operations at XUMO.

Tubi has entered an exclusive multi-year slate deal with Lionsgate to become the AVOD home to 30 new feature films. The partnership also includes more than 200 Lionsgate titles that will be added to Tubi’s library.

Star Media’s Russian-language streaming service, LAVA, is now available on VIZIO TVs, offering 24/7 access to movies and TV series. Most of the productions are available dubbed and subtitled in six or more languages (including English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese). The service operates using a combined AVOD and SVOD business model.

TECH TALK

Comscore has launched Total Digital, integrating Comscore’s digital and social measurement solutions into a unified dashboard to provide marketers, agencies, and publishers with a holistic, cross-platform view of how consumers are engaging with content and advertising. Total Digital combines Comscore’s digital measurement with social media insights and intelligence, as well as a new user experience, combining unduplicated, person-level data across a total of 193M desktops, 240M mobile phones, 140M OTT devices, and 670K panelists with social analytics from 20M brands, publishers and creators from over seventy countries.

IAB, the IAB Tech Lab and the Media Rating Council released of their Intrinsic In-Game Measurement Guidelines to establish updated measurement guidelines for ads that appear within gameplay. The release is open for public comment until July 15. The updated IIG measurement standards re-examines the 10-second cumulative exposure duration for counting a valid impression including “sight, sound, and motion,” as well as 3D and virtual environments; incorporates new advertising formats beyond two-dimensional and video as it relates to viewability within in-game environments; and defines in-game measurement terms to align with broader cross-channel measurement efforts.

Spotify has formed a council to help it address harmful content on the platform. The Safety Advisory Council is aimed at helping the company “evolve its policies and products in a safe way while making sure we respect creator expression.”

Actor and advocate Jessica Alba (“L.A.’s Finest”) has joined the board of directors of Yahoo. Other new appointments include Aryeh Bourkoff, Founder and CEO of Lion Tree; Fouad ElNaggar, Co-Founder and CEO of Array; Michael Kives, Founder and CEO of K5 Global; Cynthia Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks; and Katie Stanton, Founder and General Partner of Moxxie Ventures. “As we enter into a new era of Yahoo, establishing a powerful board of directors with strategic knowledge of diverse industries will drive greater growth, innovation, and scale,” said CEO Jim Lanzone.

GOING GLOBAL

WildBrain has partnered with Jungle Beat Animation Limited to manage worldwide distribution rights for kids’ property, Jungle Beat. The deal will include YouTube channel management and ad sales on its premium kids’ and family AVOD network, as well as linear broadcast in Canada on its Family Channel.

UK’s Content Kings and Silverlining Rights have landed pre-sales for “Diana The Ultimate Truth,” an investigation into the death of Princess Diana, to platforms including REELZ (US), Paramount+ (UK), Foxtel’s Fox Docos (Australia), TV2 (Denmark), RTL Deutschland (Germany), Movistar (Spain), Talpa Networks (Netherlands), CBC Gem (Canada), DPG (Belgium), W9 (France), HSCC’s Channel Hot8 (Israel), and PCCW’s Now TV (Hong Kong), ahead of its launch this summer.

ComediHa! Distribution and Zone3 announced the sale of the adapted format of “In Lieu of Flowers” to Italian production company Stand By Me. Produced by Zone3, the variety show has celebrity guests attend their own improvised funeral services.

Swedish label Yellow Bird, a Banijay company, has partnered with director/ screenwriter Måns Mårlind, and animation company Brokendoll to develop “Before They Were Gods,” a new animation series for the international market.

Sky Kids has picked up digital Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS rights for the UK and Ireland. Sky Kids has also renewed two existing Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime series for another season.

MEASUREMENT & DATA CONFERENCE

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RATINGS

The first half of this season of HGTV’s “Celebrity IOU” has averaged a .72 Live+3 rating among P25-54 and a .95 rating among W25-54. As of the mid-season finale on Monday, June 6, the ratings reflected increases of 84 percent among P25-54 and 89 percent among W25-54 versus year-ago benchmarks.

In syndication the week of May 30, the winner of the magazine race, with more than 3.0 million daily viewers, was “Entertainment Tonight” (2.0 Live+SD national Nielsen rating, steady), which was the only program in the group moving up from last year (up 5%). “Inside Edition” (1.9, down 5% from the week before) placed second.

“Stranger Things 4” volume 1 hit 781.04 million hours viewed in 17 days, boosting it to the top of Netflix’s list of most popular English-language series. Season two of “Bridgerton” is now in second place. “Squid Games” is #1 overall, with 1.65 billion hours viewed in its first 28 days.

Nielsen Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of May 30 ranked in order by HH Rtg
Family Feud (CMV) 4.9 AA
Jeopardy (CMV) 4.8 AA
Wheel of Fortune (CMV) 4.4 AA
Judge Judy (CMV) 4.2 AA
Entertainment Tonight (CMV) 2.0 AA
Inside Edition (CMV) 1.9 AA
The Big Bang Theory (WB) 1.9 AA
Live With Kelly and Ryan (DAD) 1.5 AA
The Dr. Phil Show (CMV) 1.4 AA
Hot Bench (CMV) 1.3 AA

Nielsen Top 10 Basic Cable Ranking for the week of June 6
Network, P2+ AA (000)
Primetime
Fox News 2.27
ESPN 1.74
MSNBC 1.44
HGTV 1.0
INSP 0.91
CNN 0.85
TNT 0.79
Discovery 0.79
Hallmark Channel 0.75
TLC 0.74
Total Day
Fox News 1.45
MSNBC 0.75
ESPN 0.57
HGTV 0.53
CNN 0.50
INSP 0.46
Hallmark Channel 0.45
Food Network 0.43
TV Land 0.43
ID 0.42

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Monday, June 13
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live! 3.17 (0.6), NBA Countdown 3.89 (0.9), NBA Finals 13.03 (4.0)
CBS: The Neighborhood 3.26 (0.3), Bob Hearts Abishola 2.96 (0.3), NCIS 3.38 (0.2), NCIS: Hawai’i 2.73 (0.2)
CW: Roswell New Mexico 0.47 (0.1), In the Dark 0.28 (0.0)
FOX: Don’t Forget the Lyrics 1.76 (0.3), Beat Shazam 1.65 (0.3)
NBC: American Ninja Warrior 2.72 (0.3), Weakest Link 2.37 (0.3)
Telemundo: La Casa do los Famosos 1.36 (0.4), Infiel: Historia de un Engano 1.07 (0.3)
Univision: La Mexicana y el Guero 1.20 (0.3), Mi Fortuna es Amarte 1.56 (0.4)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Nickelodeon’s Shauna Phelan and Zack Olin have been elevated to Executive Vice Presidents and Co-Heads, Nickelodeon and Awesomeness Live-Action Series and Film. They were formerly Co-Heads of Live-Action for Nickelodeon and Awesomeness.

Beck Media & Marketing has acquired Bronagh Hanley’s San Francisco-based Big Noise PR, and Amber Williams-Wright’s Nashville-based Beaucoup Media. The combined firms will operate under the BECK Media & Marketing banner. Hanley will serve in an advisory role during the transition, while Williams-Wright has joined Beck Media as Vice President, based in Nashville.

This Day in History
1965 – Bob Dylan recorded “Like a Rolling Stone.”

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Which A-lister guested as himself on episodes of “The Bernie Mac Show,” “Entourage” and “Arthur”? Matt Damon. Kudos to: Louis Lewow-FITE/Atlanta; Charles Lore/NYC; Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
Who was the only cast member of “Knots Landing” to appear in every episode of its 14-year (1979-83) run? (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.)

Cynopsis Team