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IN THE NEWS

ViacomCBS is fortifying its AVOD service, Pluto TV, with a mass injection of 40 library titles from CBS and Comedy Central. The slate, including the first 10 Seasons of South Park, Survivor, The Amazing Race, CSI: Miami and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Beverly Hills 90210, layer more than 100,000 hours of unique content onto the service.

Streaming on aisle five? Walmart is eyeing an entry into the subscription service business, with a model that would cost subscribers $98 a year and include benefits such as same-day grocery delivery and discounted gas. Although the retail goliath didn’t share details, the service rings similar to Amazon Prime in that it also reportedly would include video elements under a Walmart+ banner. The company today kicks off its “Camp by Walmart” initiative, which converts its parking lots into drive-in movie spaces in collaboration with Tribeca Enterprises and includes video offerings tied to celebrities. Drew Barrymore, Neil Patrick Harris, LeBron James, Idina Menzel and Todd Oldham are each delivering 50 virtual summer camp experiences.

Nielsen will lay off nearly 3,500 of its more than 45,000 employees as part of a restructuring plan it says will cut costs and create operational efficiencies. The company anticipates the move will generate $250 million annually in savings after it takes a 2020 pre-tax restructuring charge of $150 million-$170 million. Nielsen said the plan will see it exiting select businesses and markets, but didn’t specify which those might be.

Showrunner Peter Lenkov, who helmed MacGyver and Magnum P.I., is abruptly out at CBS Television Studios. A studio spokesperson released a statement noting that Monica Macer will show-run MacGyver, and Eric Guggenheim will run Magnum P.I.; both are currently exec producers on the respective series. According to Deadline, the decision resulted from an investigation of a complaint about a toxic environment on MacGyver. “Our Studio is committed to ensuring safe and respectful production environments,” the statement reads in part. “When evidence is clear that policies were violated and values not upheld, we take decisive action.”

Warner Bros. Television Group announced the 12 emerging directors selected to participate in the 2020 edition of the Warner Bros. Television Directors’ Workshop, and unveiled plans for a virtual instructional program due to the Covid-19 production shutdown. Established in 2013, the Workshop aims to discover new and innovative talent, to prepare directors from other creative fields for the transition to television, and to spur equity and inclusion.

MGM is seeking to dismiss almost all of Starz’s allegations that MGM’s television division violated exclusivity provisions on 300-plus movies and TV titles in a new motion filed Monday in US District Court. The studio’s lawyers said Starz’s claims, with the exception of one title—Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure—are time-barred by the statute of limitations.

UCP is at work on another true crime project, with Elisabeth Moss attached to star and exec produce. Candy (working title), a limited series based on the true story of Texas killer Candy Montgomery and her victim, Betty Gore, is from The Act co-creator Nick Antosca and writer Robin Veith (Mad Men, The Act). Series will be shopped to premium and streaming platforms.

Free Will, a family drama from writer Kirk A. Moore (American Crime, 13 Reasons Why) and Will Packer Media, is in development at Fox. Quinton Peeples (11.22.63, Runaways) will serve as showrunner for the project, which is housed at Fox Entertainment. Story centers on a prominent black family who run a psychic business in New Orleans.

FX is developing a series from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner that’s being kept tightly under wraps. Word is project is a half-hour comedic drama with a mystery element that Weiner would write, direct and exec produce, with FX Productions producing.

The Loudest Voice showrunner Alex Metcalf signed an exclusive overall deal for television and film with Blumhouse, the studio behind his Showtime limited series about Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Metcalf will write, develop and produce film and TV projects for the indie studio.

Damian Lewis (Billions) and Dominic West (The Affair) are negotiating to topline and exec produce a limited series based on Cold War spy thriller A Spy Among Friends for Spectrum Originals and BritBox. Based on Ben Macintyre’s book, the series hails from former Homeland exec producer Alexander Cary, Sony Pictures Television and ITV Studios; it’s scheduled to premiere in fall 2021.

John Mulaney is returning to Comedy Central. The Emmy-winning comedian will headline and exec produce two original Sack Lunch Bunch specials, including a holiday-themed special that will reunite the cast from the original Sack Lunch, which debuted on Netflix in December. Mulaney last did a special on Comedy Central in 2012. The net also is planning a new weekly talk show fronted by radio show The Breakfast Club host Charlamagne Tha God, aka Larry McKelvey. Show is slated to debut later this year ahead of the Presidential election.

Nickelodeon inked a multiplatform deal with James Corden and Ben Winston, and their production company Fulwell 73, to produce an animated movie and TV series based on recently released children’s book Real Pigeons Fight Crime. Both projects, based on the latest Real Pigeons book penned by Andrew McDonald and illustrated by Ben Wood, are being developed to air on all Nickelodeon platforms. Real Pigeons Fight Crime reveals the secret life of crime-busting pigeons who set out to keep a town safe.

Showtime Documentary Films landed a Martin Scorsese-helmed doc that reveals the many sides of David Johansen, the celebrated frontman of the New York Dolls. David Tedeschi will co-direct with Scorsese, and Scorsese and Sikelia Productions will exec produce with Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Imagine Documentaries.

HBO Max ordered a 12-ep season of animated series Young Love, based on the characters introduced in Oscar-winning short film Hair Love. From Matthew A. Cherry, who will show-run with Carl Jones (The Boondocks, Black Dynamite), series will be exec produced by Blue Key Entertainment’s Monica A. Young (producer of Hair Love) along with Lion Forge Animation’s David Steward II and Carl Reed. It expands the father-daughter hair escapades to encompass a young family.

The Long Distance Relationship Project (working title) is in the works at Quibi. From real-life Oscar-winning filmmaking couple Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman (Skin) and Stampede Ventures, scripted series will be based on their own tumultuous long-distance relationship from LA to Tel Aviv.

The Last Kingdom will be back for a fifth season on Netflix. The adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories novels hails from Downton Abbey producer Carnival Films. Season 5 will be based on Cornwell’s ninth and tenth novels, the last in the published series.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

The fourth season of sports reality competition Exatlon Estados Unidos hits the screen Monday, July 13 at 7p on Telemundo. The new era of Exatlon, hosted by sports commentator Erasmo Provenza, features 15 athletes returning to the competition to vie for the $200,000 grand prize.

New seasons of Impossible Engineering and Super Factories premiere on Science Channel Wednesday, July 15 at 9p and 10p, respectively. Both probe innovations and revelations in the midst of our modern-day industrial revolution.

A deeply personal interview with Valerie Bertinelli kicks off Reelz’s In My Own Words series on Sunday, July 19 at 9p. Episode also features interviews with family members, co-stars, and One Day at a Time creator Norman Lear.

Six-ep Street Food Latin America, rolling out on Netflix Tuesday, July 21, shines a light on local culinary legends in countries across Latin America with Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Bolivia in the spotlight.

Also on Netflix, doc series Love on the Spectrum, which follows young adults on the autism spectrum as they explore love, dating and relationships, debuts Wednesday, July 22…. Wizards, DreamWorks Animation’s third and final chapter in Guillermo del Toro’s Emmy-winning Tales of Arcadia trilogy, drops August 7. Newest installment brings together the three disparate worlds of trolls, aliens and wizards. Returning cast members include Colin O’Donoghue, Emile Hirsch, Lexi Medrano, Mark Hamill and Kelsey Grammer; newcomers include Alfred Molina and Stephanie Beatriz… Hilary Swank-starring drama series Away, about an astronaut who has to reconcile her decision to leave behind her husband and daughter to lead a mission to Mars, bows Friday, September 4.

Eight-ep series We Are Who We Are, featuring the cinematic style of Luca Guadagnino on television for the first time, is slated to bow on HBO in September. Series follows two American kids who live on a US military base in Italy and explores friendship, first-love, identity and teen angst. Cast includes Chloe Sevigny, Jack Dylan Grazer, Alice Braga and Jordan Kristine Seamon.

COMING UP

Awesomeness kicks off its new five-part series YouTube and IGTV series What It’s Like, which addresses through a Gen Z lens timely topics leading up to this year’s Presidential election, Saturday, July 11, at 5p. First episode, What It’s Like to Be a Black Teen in America, will explore issues of race revolving around the Black Lives Matter movement. Additional eps will premiere monthly through November. First ep will feature a musical performance from R&B/soul artist Tiana Major9 and appearance from music artist H.E.R. to speak about her new song I Can’t Breathe.

Claudia Kishi, a protagonist in the Baby-Sitters Club books, represented for some Asian American women the first time they saw themselves in popular media. Documentary short Kishi Club, which delves into her pop culture rise, will bow on Netflix on Friday, July 10.

The PBS Short Film Festival returns for a ninth year July 13-24 on all PBS and station digital platforms. The fest, part of a multiplatform initiative to increase the reach and visibility of independent filmmakers, features 25 short-form indie films presented in the categories of culture, environment, family, humanity and race.

TV One is temporarily fast-forwarding the calendar with a Christmas in July marathon of original movies airing noon to midnight Sunday, July 12. Included in the mix are Miss Me This Christmas, You Can’t Fight Christmas and Merry Wishmas.

NBA Countdown presented by Mountain Dew: NBA Restart, led by host Maria Taylor, will air live Saturday July 25 at 8p on ABC. ESPN-produced special will feature analysts Paul Pierce, Jalen Rose, Jay Williams and Adrian Wojnarowski alongside guest interviews and live reports from the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, FL, home of the NBA season.

HBO doc Stockton on My Mind touches down Tuesday, July 28 at 9p, and delves into the story of millennial mayor Michael Tubbs, whose experience growing up amid poverty and violence inspired him to create change in his beleaguered hometown of Stockton, CA.

And the quarantine-filmed projects keep coming. Streaming platform Shudder will debut horror feature Host on Thursday, July 30. Directed by Rob Savage (Dawn of the Deaf), Host follows six friends who hire a medium to hold a Zoom seance but quickly end up in way over their heads. Film was shot remotely in actors’ homes and promises inventive ways to deliver scares and surprises.

STREAMING SCOOP

Amazon Prime Video customers now have the ability to create up to six viewer profiles on one account. Hulu and Netflix are among the competing services that have long offered this feature, which lets members create additional profiles where each individual profile will have access to separate recommendations and tracking based on their activity.

Documentary streaming service CuriosityStream is live in Sweden for the first time. Subscribers to Swedish TV operator Com Hem can access original series and specials through its linear service, with subscription VOD and Comhem Play+ streaming on the way soon.

TECH TALK

Social platform TikTok is saying bye to Hong Kong after China introduced a new national security law in the semi-autonomous territory. The platform, now run by former Disney exec Kevin Mayer, was founded in Beijing and still owned by developer ByteDance.

Closer to home, the Trump administration is mulling a ban on TikTok and other Chinese apps over security concerns. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in an interview with Fox News, said the government is “looking at” prohibiting the use of Chinese social-media apps in the US. TikTok refuted the necessity of the measure in a statement noting the company “has never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked… We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our users.”

Top tech CEOs including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai are slated to appear before a US House of Representatives panel July 27. On the agenda: Defending their companies’ massive market share.

ADVERTISING & BRANDS

E-commerce platform TVPage launched its previously exclusive virtual selling app to the public via the iOS app store and GooglePlay. Storefront by TVPage allows online content creators to be brand ambassadors and virtual sales associates for participating brands while earning a commission on sales. Existing customers include Macy’s and Verizon. Each ambassador is able to create a personalized virtual storefront and upload shoppable videos where customers can click to purchase.

Local ad management company Viamedia renewed and expanded its ad sales representation with MetroNet. Viamedia will continue to manage MetroNet markets in Terre Haute, IN; Louisville, KY; Lafayette, IN; Ft. Wayne, IN and Indianapolis, IN and add representation in Lexington, KY.

PODCAST POSTS

Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes on Monday, July 20 are launching Smartless, described as a “three-headed beast” of a podcast centered around the element of surprise. Eps air Mondays and begin with one of the hosts revealing his mystery guest to the other two and the audience. Guests will include Will Ferrell, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seth Rogen, Awkwafina, Dax Shepard and Melissa McCarthy.

CNN Audio is expanding its podcast portfolio with weekly series Great Big Story, which shines a light on “delightful, surprising and jaw-droppingly awesome” stories from around the world. Host Drew Beebe takes listeners to unexpected places including a trip to the moon, CIA HQ and a secret man-made island.

Spotify is marking the 15th anniversary of The Office with a limited-series podcast hosted by cast member Brian Baumgartner, who played accountant Kevin Malone. Baumgartner also will exec produce An Oral History of The Office, which chronicles the show’s journey from the UK to the US from behind the scenes.

SiriusXM bought Stitcher from EW Scripps in a deal valued close to $300 million, a figure that makes it among the biggest podcast acquisitions to date.

GOING GLOBAL

Sky acquired the nearly 30 percent stake in Love Productions that it didn’t previously hold. The move gives the Comcast company full control of the producer behind Channel 4 hit The Great British Bake Off.

Keshet International’s music quiz show The Hit List will be produced locally in the Netherlands. Public service broadcaster NPO commissioned Vincent TV to produce the format; Vincent TV also has optioned the show in Belgium from Keshet for the Flemish-speaking market.

SynProNize co-founders Nitin Michael and Hasnaa Descuns are launching a content production and distribution agency in Dubai that will partner with digital platforms and linear broadcasters in APAC, Africa and the Middle East. Raju Venkataraman, former Disney APAC senior exec, is joining as a Board adviser.

UK’s Channel 5 will expand its preschool programming block, Milkshake! The broadcaster re-upped Milkshake! Monkey’s Amazing Adventures, Milkshake! Bop-Box and acquired the series Fireman Sam.

TV Time’s Binge Report for the Week of June 29
Dark (Netflix) – 6.51%
Modern Family (ABC) – 2.54%
Cable Girls (Netflix) – 1.59%
Friends (NBC) – 1.63%
13 Reasons Why (Netflix) – 1.59%
The Office (NBC) – 1.50%
The Order (Netflix) – 1.42%
Dynasty (The CW) – 1.28%
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC) -1.24%
The 100 (The CW) – 1.22%
*The weekly Binge Report ranks shows with the most binge sessions. A binge session is when four or more episodes of a show are watched and tracked in our TV Time app within a given day.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Monday, July 6
Show, P2+ 0000s, (A18-49)
ABC: The Bachelor Presents: Greatest Seasons Ever 2.35 (0.4), The Bachelor Presents: Greatest Seasons Ever 1.98 (0.3), The Bachelor Presents: Greatest Seasons Ever 1.81 (0.3)
CBS: The Neighborhood 4.25 (0.5), Bob Hearts Abishola 3.74 (0.5), All Rise 2.96 (0.3), Bull 3.36 (0.4)
CW: Whose Line Is it Anyway? 1.09 (0.2), Whose Line Is it Anyway? 0.94 (0.2), Penn & Teller: Fool Us 0.91 (0.2)
FOX: 9-1-1 2.31 (0.4), 9-1-1: Lonestar 2.49 (0.4)
NBC: The Titan Games 3.83 (0.7), The Wall 3.31 (0.6), Dateline NBC 3.24 (0.5)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

A big shakeup at the US division of Gaumont, the production company behind Netflix’s Narcos and Apple TV+’s Stillwater among series. Head of US television Gene Stein is exiting the company, and Nicolas Atlan taking over as president of Gaumont US and Latin America. He was formerly president of Gaumont Animation and Family. Additionally, Terry Kalagian has been upped to EVP, creative content, reporting to Atlan.

WWE appointed Kristina Salen as CFO. Salen served as the first CFO of Etsy, and has held CFO/COO roles with Moda Operandi and Translation Enterprises/United Masters.

Premiere Networks promoted Michael Kindhart to VP of operations, affiliate Sales. Kindhart joined the company in 2006 and most recently served as senior director of operations, affiliate sales.

IN MEMORIAM

Bettina Gilois, Emmy-nominated writer on Queen Latifah-starring HBO biopic Bessie, died at age 58 after battling cancer. Gilois, who also worked on films including McFarland, USA; Glory Road and Fire Birds, more recently worked on Muscle Shoals, the Johnny Depp-produced series about the famed Alabama recording studio. She is survived by son Caliber and daughter Shiloh.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who played Ginger Grant in the unaired Gilligan’s Island pilot? Kit Smythe. Kudos to: Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NY; Charles Lore/NY; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton, FL; Rev. Mark Wajda/Lakeland, FL; Andre Bomanis-Sky by Night Productions/LA; Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank; David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA; Greg Stewart/LA; David Westberg-SAG•AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
Which two characters from the Six Million Dollar Man appeared as regulars on spinoff The Bionic Woman (1976-78)? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four.)