PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
WarnerMedia has ordered Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, a 10-episode, half-hour prequel to original 1984 Gremlins movie, produced by Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Animation. The series will be written by Tze Chun and executive produced by Darryl Frank (The Americans), Justin Falvey (The Americans) and Sam Register (Teen Titans Go!) with Chun and Brendan Hay (Robot Chicken) serving as co-EPs. Dan Krall (Coraline) will serve as supervising producer.
Lifetime greenlit NXIVM Cult: A Mother’s Nightmare (wt), centering on the true story of Catherine Oxenberg (Dynasty) and her fight to save her daughter India from a sex cult. Andrea Roth (Rescue Me) takes on the role of Oxenberg while Peter Facinelli (Twilight) stars as Keith Raniere, the secret organization leader.
Starz picked up a second season of Wrong Man, “A format unique to the true crime genre that is both compelling for viewers and has had real life implications for the wrongfully accused individuals involved in these cases,” said Jeffrey Hirsch, Starz COO. “With a second season, we look forward to deploying our team of experts on three new cases, to continue to explore whether justice was in fact served.” The order came the same week the Supreme Court struck down the conviction of death row inmate Curtis Flowers, whose story was told in season one.
Netflix ordered a second horror series from Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy (The Haunting of Hill House), reports Deadline. Midnight Mass follows events on an isolated island after the arrival of a mysterious young priest. Netflix has a multi-year deal with Flanagan, Macy and their Intrepid Pictures.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: June 28-30
Toy Story 4 (Buena Vista) $57.9 million (week 2), cume revenue $236.9 million
Annabelle Comes Home $20.4 million, opening weekend
Yesterday (Universal) $17.0 million, opening weekend
Aladdin (Buena Vista) $9.3 million (week 6), cume revenue $305.9 million
The Secret Life of Pets (Universal) $7.1 million (week 4), cume revenue $131.2 million
Men In Black International (Sony) $6.6 million (week 3), cume revenue $65.0 million
Avengers: End Game (Buena Vista) $5.5 million (week 10), cume revenue $841.3 million
Child’s Play (United Artists) $4.3 million (week 2), cume revenue $23.4 million
Rocketman (Paramount) $3.9 million (week 5), cume revenue $84.2 million
John Wicke – Chapter 3: Parabellum (LG/S) $3.2 million (week 7), cume revenue $161.3 million
Source: Comscore
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
OWN’s Black Love is back for season three on Saturday, August 10 at 9p. Docu-series celebrating love stories from the Black community was number one in its time slot among African American W25-54 and W18-49.
Real estate mavens and moms think big in HGTV’s Montana-set Mountain Mamas, premiering Saturday, August 10 at 11p and 11:30p.
Custom car-builder Aaron Kaufman (Fast N Loud) takes a spin in a different direction in new Discovery Channel series, Aaron Needs a Job. Kaufman explores new motor-driven industries starting Monday, July 15 at 10p.
Women score higher than men in most leadership skills, according to a recently released research study by Harvard Business Review. Based on thousands of 360-degree reviews, women outscored men on 17 of the 19 capabilities including excelling in taking initiative, acting with resilience, practicing self-development, driving for results, and displaying high integrity and honesty. Speaking of women leaders, celebrate the Cynopsis Top Women in Media at the Awards Gala September 9th. See the full list of honorees and register today.
E! unscripted comedy series Dating #NoFilter is back for a second season with back-to-back premiere episodes on Tuesday, August 6 at 11p and 11:30p Series offers a canded take on the modern dating scene for the right-swiping generation.
VH1 launches new real estate docu-series, Love & Listings, on Wednesday, July 31 at 9p. Eight episodes open the doors to the glamorous and scandalous lives of Southern California’s young, ambitious real estate agents and their celebrity clientele.
The fourth and final season of AMC’s Preacher premieres Sunday, August 4 at 9p, as God’s endgame for the universe begins to click into place.
Zoologist and former Steve Irwin apprentice Jack Randall tracks deadly and exotic animals in Nat Geo WILD’s Out There with Jack Randall, making its debut Sunday, July at 10p.
Food Network is serving up new series next month, starting with the premiere of BBQ Brawl: Flay V. Symon on Thursday, August 1 at 9p, followed by Supermarket Stakeout’s debut Tuesday, August 13 at 10p; Family Restaurant Rivals’ launch on Monday, August 19 at 10p and The Flay List on Thursday, August 22 at 10:30p
TECH TALK
Amazon Fire TV is making it easier to find live content. “We have created a single destination on your Fire TV on the ‘Live’ tab, which brings together your live sports, news, and channels from select OTT services, streaming apps (e.g. PlayStation Vue), paid subscriptions, and over-the-air antennas into one consolidated view,” said Erika Takeuchi, Head of Global Integrated Marketing, in a blog post. The “Live” tab is next to “Home” in the main navigation menu, and available across all Fire TV devices and Fire TV Edition smart TVs.
Video platform Kaltura announced the launch of an advanced analytics platform. Designed for its enterprise and educational users, Kaltura Analytics for Admins will allow for user-level reports, with access to time-period comparisons to help admins identify trends, and real-time analytics for live events.
Spotify is shuttering its beta program that lets independent artists upload their music directly. “The best way for us to serve artists and labels is to focus our resources on developing tools in areas where Spotify can uniquely benefit them – like Spotify for Artists (which more than 300,000 creators use to gain new insight into their audience) and our playlist submission tool (which more than 36,000 artists have used to get playlisted for the very first time since it launched a year ago),” said the company. “We have a lot more planned here in the coming months. We’re working with our distribution partners to help make this transition as simple as possible for the artists who uploaded music through the beta.”
2018 election reconciliations won’t be done until July, yet stations/agencies are still doing them manually. Premium Media 360’s Joan Fitzgerald, SVP, Advanced TV Partnerships, explains how her company aims to relieve buyers and sellers of the burden of manual tasks, in Tech Update.
Google is rolling out a location history auto-delete feature that erases data tied to the places users have been, websites they’ve visited and search terms they’ve explored. People will have the option to auto-delete data in three- or 18-month intervals. “You should always be able to manage your data in a way that works best for you – and we’re committed to giving you the best controls to make that happen,” wrote David Monsees and Marlo McGriff, product managers of Google Search and Google Maps respectively, in a blog post that first announced the feature in May.
STREAMING
Nielsen released its latest Total Audience Report, taking a look at what streaming users do when they don’t know what to watch. Fifty-eight percent of respondents at a loss for where to go said they’d be more likely to return to their favorite traditional channels; just one-third of adult respondents bother to browse their SVOD content menus for more content. “Options are great for consumers when it comes to deciding what to watch,” said Nielsen SVP of audience insights Peter Katsingris in the report, “but they’re also decidedly complicated for an industry that continues to fragment and search for unique ways to influence their behavior and perhaps steer eyeballs toward their network, program, service or brand.”
Free streaming TV service Pluto TV has launched Pluto TV Latino, delivering eleven curated Spanish and Portuguese-language channels that target US Hispanic audiences. “We have always envisioned Pluto TV as a destination with global appeal, where diverse audiences can find and stream the entertainment they love, for free,” said Tom Ryan, CEO and Co-Founder, Pluto TV. “Pluto TV Latino was designed to bring premium streaming programming to an underserved OTT audience with cross-generational appeal.”
Netflix commands the greatest share of streamed TV viewing among Latinx millennials (22-37 year-olds), according to the latest FOCUS Latino: The Media Landscape 2019 report published by Horowitz Research. Latinx millennials spend 34% of their streamed TV time with the service, versus about 10% each for while Amazon Prime Video and Hulu each enjoy about 10% share of viewing. The remaining 46% of streamed TV viewing is spent using services including YouTube, network sites and apps, TV provider sites and apps, and others. Netflix’s share of streamed TV viewing among non-Hispanic millennials is 28%.
Global AVOD revenues will more than double between 2018 and 2024 to reach $56 billion, according to Digital TV Research, thanks in large part to AVOD growth in the Asia Pacific region. AVOD revenues for the region totaled $10.73 billion in 2018, or 49% of the global total, and are projected to reach $25.14 billion by 2024. North American AVOD revenue totaled $6.1 billion last year and will grow to $7.7 billion this year. By 2024, North American AVOD revenues will reach $20.3 billion.
BroadwayHD, the streaming platform for live theater, will debut on July 15 a filmed edition of Kinky Boots.
The USA’s 2-1 victory win vs. host nation France last Friday in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 quarterfinals delivered 6,335,000 viewers to FOX and FOX streaming sources, peaking at 8,239,000 viewers in the 4:30 quarterhour, according to Nielsen fast national numbers. That marks the most-watched FIFA Women’s World Cup quarterfinal on record in the U.S. and the most-watched soccer match on English-language U.S. television since last summer’s FIFA World Cup final. On FOX, the contest posted a 7% increase over the United States’ 2015 quarterfinal win over China, which aired in prime time. On FOX streaming sources, the match drew an average minute audience of 211,000, making USA-France the most-streamed FIFA Women’s World Cup match ever. The U.S. WNT is next in action today against England in the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 semifinals. Coverage begins at 2p on FOX.
Meanwhile, NBCSN will now carry both FIFA Women’s World Cup semifinal matches in Spanish this week, joining sister channel Telemundo for USA/England at 2:30p and Sweden/Netherlands tomorrow at 2:30p. Copan Alvarez calls both matches this week on Telemundo and NBCSN, joined by Viviana Vila.
Speaking of NBC Sports, in partnership with The R&A, NBC Sports Group announced its all- coverage plans for The 148th Open, running July 18-21 at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. NBC Sports will dedicate 410 total hours surrounding The Open, the most ever, with 200 hours of linear programming coupled with 210 complementary hours of streaming coverage, including featured holes and marquee groups. Paul Azinger, Nick Faldo and Mike Tirico will contribute their extensive familiarity in calling golf’s original championship. NBC Sports’ “Playing Through” split-screen commercial format returns for The Open. Meanwhile, GOLF Channel will premiere new episodes of Chronicles of a Champion Golfer on Tuesday nights at 9p.
Liverpool Football Club tied up a new partnership with Turner Sports that kicks in on July 19 at 8p to offer preseason action on B/R Live, Turner Sports’ premium streaming service, with the July 19 and 24 matches also available on TNT. B/R Football will provide studio coverage, along with original content across its social channels to highlight all three matches. As part of this partnership, Turner Sports will be a sponsorships and activations partner for Liverpool FC’s US pre-season tour and its three stops, Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Notre Dame. Turner Sports and its full-service marketing solutions team Turner Ignite Sports will work closely with LFC and Fenway Sports Group to elevate marketing partner brands during the tour.
Major League Soccer will host a new MLS All-Star Skills Challenge presented by Target at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports on July 30 at 8p. The first-time event takes place during MLS All-Star, allowing fans to watch on MLSsoccer.com and the MLS App and streamed live in English, Spanish and French across the digital platforms of all five MLS domestic media partners – ESPN, FOX, and Univision in the U.S., TSN and TVA Sports in Canada – as well as in more than 170 countries around the world through Major League Soccer’s international media partners. Points in each of the competitive skills will be earned based on accuracy, as well as style and include: Touch and Volley; Shooting; and Passing.
Count another two teams for the upcoming franchised-based Call of Duty World League with the additions of Los Angeles and Minnesota to the list of cities who will be represented. The LA franchise will be operated by Immortals Gaming Club while the Minnesota team will be operated by the Wilf family-led WISE Ventures. The additions bring the team tally up to seven. WISE Ventures is led by an ownership group with deep sports and entertainment and real estate experience. The Wilf family operates the Minnesota Vikings franchise in the National Football League. Immortals Gaming Club will operate the Call of Duty esports team in Los Angeles, represented by their newly acquired OpTic Gaming. Immortals Gaming Club now operates two franchised esports teams in Los Angeles under the Activision Blizzard banner – including the Los Angeles Valiant in the Overwatch League.
Black Ridge Acquisition Corp. entered into a letter agreement for Simon Equity Development to become a shareholder of Allied Esports through an equity investment in Black Ridge Acquisition Corp. Highlights from the letter agreement include: Simon acquiring $5 million in shares of Black Ridge Acquisition Corp.; Simon and Allied Esports creating dedicated esports venues and experiences at select Simon locations throughout the United States; and Simon and Allied Esports launching a new competition tour called The Simon Cup. Simon and Allied Esports will also collaborate to create a new product offering focused on delivering esports experiences through integrated gaming venues and production facilities in select Simon destinations around the country.
Capcom locked in its dates and details for the North American Regional Finals and Capcom Cup 2019 with this year’s NA Regional Finals running November 16-17 out of HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas. The event will feature the open tournament, where players from all regions can compete for one last shot at Global Leaderboard Points in order to qualify for Capcom Cup 2019, where 8 of the top players from the North America region will battle for one of the final Capcom Cup 2019 qualifying spots in the Regional Finals. Capcom Cup 2019 then returns to Southern California for three days of competition from Dec. 13-15. The Last Chance Qualifier returns to determine the final qualifying spot for Capcom Cup. From there, 32 of the top SFV:AE players in the world will battle it out in Los Angeles to be crowned the 2019 Capcom Cup Champions.
Nike selected Brazilian esports team FURIA as its first squad to represent the brand, according to a team announcement. The partnership between the two companies will come via a multi-year deal that will include the debut of the new uniform will be at ESL One Cologne in Germany this week.
COMING UP
National Geographic feature documentary Apollo: Missions to the Moon premieres Sunday, July 7 at 9p on Nat Geo, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon. Executive produced and directed by filmmaker Tom Jennings (Challenger Disaster: Lost Tapes), the account captures the history of NASA’s Apollo Space Program from the ill-fated Apollo 1 mission that claimed the lives of three astronauts to the final expedition that brought the program to a successful close.
Two-part HBO doc Behind Closed Doors examines the mystery behind the double murder of a 13-year-old girl and her family’s servant in their home in Noida, India, which sparked a media frenzy and has haunted the nation for more than a decade. Part one debuts Tuesday, July 16 at 8p, followed by part two the following night.
In another true crime offering, Oxygen presents Uncovered: The McMartin Family Trials on Saturday, July 2 at p. Two-hour special explores a 1983 allegation of child molestation that turned into a media frenzy, and a $15 million trial that yielded no convictions.
For crime of the scripted variety, TV One original film Sins of the Father premieres Sunday, July 7 at 8p. Inspired by the net’s true crime programming, the film follows two detectives as they investigate the vicious murder of the beloved wife of a pastor. “In a culture where #ChurchHurt has been the trending topic, this film will give the viewer insight on how wolves in sheep’s clothing operate,” said gospel artist and film star Haddon. “Buckle your seatbelt because it’s about to get real!”
Bill Burr Presents IanTalk: Ideas Not Worth Spreading, the second of three All Things Comedy produced specials by Comedy Central, premieres July 12 at midnight. In it, Ian Edwards gives his own edgy twist on a traditional TedTalk.
Baha Mar, in The Bahamas, will host The Voice Summer Series from July 4 through August 3. Past winners and audience favorites of the competition will perform live, with outdoor shows featuring acoustic performances.
Aziz Ansari Right Now landed a Tuesday, July 9 launch date on Netflix. Comedy special is based on Ansari’s comedy tour, Road to Nowhere.
CASTING
Henry Ian Cusick (The Passage) landed a series regular role on season 4 of CBS’s MacGyver.
PODCAST POSTS
Alternative comedy podcast producer Forever Dog named Gary Reisman as CEO, and Reisman tapped Karen Bressner to serve as the media company’s Chief Revenue Officer. Reisman was previously founder and CEO of LEAP Media Investments, while Bressner led ad sales for Z Living. The news follows the company’s recent announcement of 11 new shows that are joining its network of original weekly podcasts.
Bizzabo launched a new podcast Series, In-Person, exploring the origins, perspectives and best practices of leaders of in-person marketing. Each episode will feature an in-depth conversation between host, Brandon Rafalson, and leaders from companies such as Forbes, Sprint, InVision and more.
GOING GLOBAL
Endemol Shine Group announced that a second season of All Together Now has been commissioned in Brazil. Endemol Shine Brazil will produce 11 new episodes of the singing contest for Record TV.
French animation production and distribution company Dandelooo has been commissioned to develop and produce a new serialized children’s animation series The Upside Down River for Canal+, France.
