Tonight’s Finale
Food Network: Big Time Bake at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Nielsen changes its tune. Bowing to pressure from television networks after it announced it would not include out-of-home viewership in its overall TV ratings beginning this fall, Nielsen reversed course and said it would again include those metrics. In a letter to clients, Nielsen said it had “misunderstood the extent to which upfront deals have already been agreed to using out-of-home metrics” and did not wish to cause further industry disruption.

HBO is bringing Run to a halt. The series followed a woman who attempts to reinvent her humdrum existence by answering a text inviting her to fulfill a youthful pact, promising true love and self-reinvention, by traveling across the US with her old flame. From creator/exec producer/showrunner Vicky Jones, the show concluded its seven-ep first season in May.

Carina Adly MacKenzie, co-showrunner of Roswell, New Mexico, is exiting the series ahead of its third season. MacKenzie announced Friday via social media the move is “due to fundamental differences,” noting, “I do not take this decision lightly, but ultimately…. I must depart and entrust Roswell, New Mexico to capable hands. I am so proud of what we built over the last two years, and I believe in the heart and soul of the show: asking tough questions, striving to make the world better, amplifying marginalized voices, and fighting the good fight.”

Blake Neff, a top writer for Fox News host Tucker Carlson, resigned after an online forum in which he reportedly used a pseudonym to make racist, sexist and sundry offensive remarks came to light. The Tucker Carlson Tonight writer recently had been posting on the forum and using racial stereotypes, among other offensive language. Fox News Media execs condemned the remarks.

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ESPN suspended without pay NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski after Wojnarowski sent a message to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that included profane language. Wojnarowski, who will not be headed to Orlando to cover the NBA restart of its pandemic-shortened season, tweeted at the Senator: “I was disrespectful and I made a regrettable mistake.” Sen. Hawley’s office had criticized the NBA for its policy on political speech about China.

Another one bites the dust. Netflix canceled its inaugural Netflix is a Joke multiday comedy fest for 2020. Originally slated to be held in the spring around venues in LA, the event initially was postponed and now canceled for the rest of the year. The lineup had included Amy Schumer, David Letterman, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, Ken Jeong, Iliza Shlesinger, Martin Lawrence, and Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

Program Supporters include: Showtime, NBCSports, SiriusXM, BlokSports and WWE
VIEW FINALISTS

Lo Lifes: Stealing The American Dream, a scripted series about the ‘80s Brooklyn street gang, is in development from Content Cartel, Village Roadshow Television, Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions and Blowback. Real-life The Lo Lifes formed in 1988 between two shoplifting crews—Ralphie’s Kids from Crown Heights, and Polo USA. from Brownsville.Co-founded by Victor “Thirstin Howl The 3rd” DeJesus, the crew gained popularity and helped spark the urban fashion phenom.

The Moodys will return for a second season on Fox. Starring Denis Leary and Elizabeth Perkins, the series—which is based on Aussie show A Moody Christmas and initially aired as a limited holiday comedy show—will now expand both in terns of number of episodes and topic.

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Apple Studios won the bid for thriller Snow Blind, an adaptation of the Ollie Masters-Tyler Jenkins graphic novel. Jake Gyllenhaal is attached to star, Gustav Moller (The Guilty) will direct and Patrick Ness will write the script. Gyllenhaal and his Nine Stories partner Riva Marker are producing with Ross Richie and Stephen Christy of BOOM! Studios, home of the graphic novel.

HBO Max gave a series commitment to a DC drama set in the Gotham City police department. The project, from The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves, Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter, The Batman producer Dylan Clark, and Warner Bros. Television, is set in the world Reeves is creating for The Batman feature film and will complement the movie’s lens on corruption in Gotham City. The series marks the first TV project for Reeves under his overall deal with the Warner Bros. Television Group.

Showtime is developing one-hour psych thriller dramedy La Bravura, from Tad Quill (A Moody Christmas), S.W.A.T. co-creator Shawn Ryan and his MiddKid Productions, and Sony Pictures Television. Penned by Quill, the series centers on the strain that infiltrates a marriage after a husband films a behind-the-scenes documentary of his wife’s elaborate heist at the Getty Museum.

Get Real, a docuseries that puts the 30-year history of reality TV under a microscope, is headed to Quibi. Created by Brian Graden Media and Scout Productions, the series will explore the impact of reality television on real life and vice versa.

Children’s entertainment execs Steve Couture and Ken Faier are teaming to launch Quebec-based indie kids shingle Epic Storyworlds. First up, he company will produce for Radio Canada animated comedy-action series Dex and the Humanimals, which will air on its on-demand platform Tou.TV.

In an interview with Deadline, Bill McGoldrick, president of original content at NBCU Entertainment Networks and Direct-to-Consumer, said he’s in active conversations with Dick Wolf that would see the producer creating an original project for the streaming service, which launches nationwide on July 15.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Univision on Tuesday, July 14 will unleash new medical drama Medicos, Linea de Vida. The project hails from producer Jose Alberto “El Guero” Castro, whose past projects include Pasion y Poder, and Teresa.

Accuweather.com and AccuWeather Network are launching AccuWeather Explores: Weather Wonders on Monday, August 10 during the 8a and 8p shows. Series takes viewers around the globe to spots including the “chilling” Gates of the Arctic in Alaska and a fiery crater known as the “Gates of Hell” in Turkmenistan, and other weather-wonder locales.

Starz has got the Power. The network dropped art and an early video teaser for new original series Power Book II: Ghost, and set the global premiere in September on Starz and Starzplay. The new series picks up shortly after the dramatic concluding events of precursor Power.

COMING UP

Documentary We Are the Radical Monarchs will bow as the opening film in the 33rd season of PBS series POV on Monday, July 20. The doc, which will be followed by the kick-off of season 3 of POV Shorts, is set in Oakland, CA, and follows the two trailblazing, queer women of color who created The Radical Monarchs, a more diverse and inclusive alternative to the scout movement.

STREAMING SCOOP

Distributor Shout! Factory inked a deal with Alliance Entertainment/Mill Creek Entertainment that will bring Japanese show Ultraman to Shout! Factory TV with exclusive SVOD and AVOD digital rights in the US and Canada. The pact includes rights to creator Tsuburaya’s catalog of Ultraman properties comprising more than 1,100 episodes and 20 movies.

TECH TALK

Facebook is mulling an end to political ads across its platforms. According to reports over the weekend, the house of Zuckerberg is considering a reversal on its long-standing hands-off approach to political ads and political speech. Twitter last year said it would ban political advertising, though the platform still allows select issue-based ads.

Pandora unveiled its Most-Thumbed Movie Songs Playlist, based on the streaming platform’s listeners’ thumbs-up activity. A total of 102 of the most popular movie songs were rounded up, among them Earned It by the Weeknd from Fifty Shades of Grey, See You Again by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth from Furious 7, My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion from Titanic and I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston from The Bodyguard.

Apps on Apple’s iOS operating system including Spotify crashed Friday morning with outages that turned out to be caused by errors in Facebook’s Software Development Kit, which many apps use to manage their logins. The social network got on the case quickly, and issued an apology to users.

An internal staff email sent Friday instructing employees to delete TikTok from their phones because of potential “security risks” was sent by mistake, an Amazon spokesperson told Variety. The memo had warned workers that TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, should not be used on any device that can access Amazon’s email system.

GOING GLOBAL

The BBC dropped the first trailer for political series A Suitable Boy, from director Mira Nair. Six-part series premieres on BBC One on July 26 at 9p.

The UK version of NBC’s Game Night has a new home. The series is moving from Channel 5 to Comedy Central with NBCU International Studios-backed Monkey Kingdom creating the 10-part series Comedy Game Night for Comedy Central going forward. Season 1 was titled Celebrity Game Night on Channel 5.

Sister net HGTV continued to claim the top spot for Total Day among W25-54 and was the top non-news network among Households, P2+, P18+, and W18+. And on Food Network, Sunday’s Worst Cooks in America premiere was the series’ highest-rated in more than a year.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Friday, July 10
Show, P2+ 0000s, (A18-49)
ABC: Shark Tank 2.90 (0.4), Truth and Lies: Jeffrey Epstein 2.84 (0.4), Truth and Lies: Jeffrey Epstein 3.10 (0.4),
CBS: MacGyver 3.53 (0.3), Magnum P.I. 3.75 (0.3), Blue Bloods 3.69 (0.3)
CW: Masters of Illusion 0.74 (0.2) Masters of Illusion 0.56 (0.1), Masters of Illusion 0.57 (0.1)
FOX: WWE Friday Night Smackdown 1.93 (0.5), WWE Friday Night Smackdown 1.88 (0.5)
NBC: The Wall 2.60 (0.4), Dateline NBC 2.71 (0.4), Dateline NBC 3.07 (0.5)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Executive shuffle at Ubisoft, which over the weekend announced the departure of three high-level executives amid vows to change its workplace culture. Chief creative officer Serge Hascoet, managing director of Ubisoft’s Canadian studio Yannis Mallat and global head of HR Cecile Cornet all are resigning, effective immediately, following an internal investigation in response to allegations of sexual misconduct and toxic culture. Hascoet wll be replaced in interim by Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft CEO and co-founder. In a statement Guillemot noted “Ubisoft has fallen short in its obligation to guarantee a safe and inclusive workplace environment for its employees.”

IN MEMORIAM

Brandis Kemp (aka Sally Blankfield), best known for her TV work in ABC’s late night variety show Fridays, died July 4 after a struggle with brain cancer and complications from Covid-19. She was 76. Kemp appeared on Fridays along with Larry David, Michael Richards Rich Hall and her then-husband Mark Blankfield. She also had a role in AfterMASH, and performed in El Grande de Coca Cola and Bullshot Crummond for HBO.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Which awards ceremony was broadcast for the first time in March 1967? The Tony Awards. Kudos to: Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NY; Kevin Moran-Blarney Productions/Pasadena; Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank; Ken DuBow-Bob’s Your Uncle????/LA; Charles Lore/consultant/NY; Sally J. Maisel-Wienermania/Van Nuys, CA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; Bob Ramsey/Palm Springs, CA; David Westberg-SAG*AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank; Mark Selby-Melbar Entertainment Group/Toronto

Today’s Trivia Question
Who was the only voice actor to be in every episode of The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991-96)? ((Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four.)