Tonight’s Finale
BET: American Soul at 10p

NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock launches wide today with a free tier of 13,000 hours of programming. Peacock Premium will also be available for $4.99 per month; viewers can upgrade Peacock Premium to an ad-free tier for an additional $5.00 per month. “This is a historic moment for our company as we proudly introduce Peacock to consumers nationwide – a groundbreaking vision that was brought to life by an incredible team of people from across Comcast, NBCUniversal and Sky,” said Matt Strauss, Chairman of Peacock. “From current, classic and original movies and shows, to live news, sports, curated channels and trending content from around the world, Peacock is the only free, premium ad-supported streaming service that brings together everything consumers love about television and streaming – all in one place.” Peacock is available on Apple devices, Google platforms, Xbox One, VIZEO SmartCast TVs and LG Smart TV, and on PlayStation 4 systems starting the week of July 20. Eligible Xfinity X1 and Flex customers and Cox Contour customers have Peacock Premium included with their service.

Cinedigm and TwentyOne14 Media announced plans to launch an urban multi-cultural entertainment and lifestyle network in the first quarter of 2021. The yet-to-be-named net will be available in the US for linear and AVOD platforms on connected TVs, digital set-top boxes, media-streaming devices, and web-based and online OTT services. “I’m excited to join forces with Cinedigm to create a network where diverse voices are supported and filmmakers of color are encouraged to continue telling stories that offer a rich and more complete portrayal of the world around us,” said TwentyOne14 Media CEO Quincy Newell. “My ultimate mission is to create a network rooted in authenticity and inclusiveness, where we can move culture forward and create a cross-cultural connection.” Cinedigm currently distributes its channels to more than 670 million devices globally.

Score one for Quibi – a federal judge denied Eko’s request for a preliminary injunction of the mobile-first streamer’s technology feature, Turnstyle, which lets viewers toggle between portrait and landscape formats. “We are extremely pleased the Court ruled today that Eko has not presented a credible case for a preliminary injunction,” Quibi said in a statement. “Eko has no case against Quibi – this is a frivolous lawsuit brought by a company and CEO looking for a payday. We will continue to aggressively defend ourselves.” Eko alleges Quibi stole trade secrets for the technology for Turnstyle. Eko’s attorney said the company “look[s] forward to presenting the merits of the case at trial, including our request for substantial damages.”

Original host Tom Bergeron has been cut from ABC’s Dancing With the Stars after 15 years, along with co-host Erin Andrews, who joined the series in 2014. “As we embark on a new creative direction, [Bergeron] departs the show with our sincerest thanks and gratitude for his trademark wit and charm that helped make this show a success,” said ABC and producers BBC Studios in a statement. “Erin will also not be returning, and we appreciate all that she brought to the ballroom. Fans have been rooting for her since she originally competed as a contestant back in 2010.”

A George Stephanopoulos interview with President Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, author of Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, will air on ABC’s Good Morning America and other news shows today. The tell-all was released on Tuesday.

Univision Communications announced the return of Vota Conmigo (Vote With Me), the non-partisan multi-platform campaign aimed at motivating Hispanic citizens to register and cast their vote. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vota Conmigo will focus on digital voter registration tools and regional vote-by-mail options.

Charter Communications became the first cable operator to apply for funds in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction. The FCC program will spend up to $20.4 billion over the next 10 years to achieve faster broadband speeds in unserved rural areas.

Jai Rodriguez (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) will host the livestream Daytime Emmys ceremony for Digital Dramas on Sunday, July 19 and Loni Love (The Real) will take on the job for the Children’s, Lifestyle & Animation celebration on Sunday, July 26.

HBO Max gave a six-episode order for Untitled Michael Che Project (wt), an original sketch comedy series starring SNL’s Michael Che. Each episode follows a theme or incident, (police brutality, unemployment, falling in love, etc.), and uses sketches and vignettes to illustrate what it feels like to experience this from a Black vantage point. Universal TV, and Broadway Video are producing, with Che, Lorne Michaels, and Erin Doyle serving as executive producers.

USA Network has scrapped plans for Evel, a limited series about daredevil Evel Knievel starring Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us). Production, which was to take place during Ventimiglia’s This Is Us hiatus, was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and rescheduling became complicated. The project comes from Wonderland Sound & Vision, Atlas Entertainment and UCP.

Back Roads Entertainment has entered into a co-production partnership with The Mediapro Studio, the global production company of MEDIAPRO Group focused on creation, development of fiction and non-fiction content and distribution. Under the deal, Back Roads will work with The Mediapro Studio to develop and produce original formats for the US market. The companies are already working on their first project together, competition format The Magnificent Six.

The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah will compete against gamers as host of Quibi’s Player vs. Player with Trevor Noah, from Comedy Central Studios and Noah’s Day Zero Productions. Noah and Haroon Saleem are exec producing for Day Zero alongside Norman Aladjem, Derek Van Pelt and Sanaz Yamin for Mainstay Entertainment and Bob Bain for Bob Bain Productions.

The Moving Picture Institute in association with BET announced production of a feature-length film inspired by the work of criminal justice reform advocate Kemba Smith, focused on themes including institutional racism, racial inequality, and the strong need for criminal justice and prison reform. The film will have its television premiere on BET with additional launch and distribution plans to be announced at a later date. Principal photography is slated to begin in 2021.

Fintech firm Crush Capital announced a 10-week original series, Going Public, which follows the stories of five entrepreneurs working to raise capital and take their companies public – and gives viewers a chance to profit (or not), too. “Entrepreneurs at every stage of business will get a valuable look into the journey of listing on an exchange through the lens of the founders featured on the show. To top it off, Going Public’s groundbreaking format deepens the experience by giving viewers a chance to support entrepreneurial businesses like theirs by investing in their Regulation A+ IPOs,” said Ryan Shea, CEO of Entrepreneur Media. Season one will premiere on Entrepreneur.com.

HGTV ordered sophomore seasons of Unsellable Houses and 100 Day Dream Home. “Every day we keep the HGTV team focused on finding and cultivating expert personalities so that we can create shows that have a fresh twist,” said Jane Latman, president, HGTV. “Unsellable Houses and 100 Day Dream Home attracted a significant number of viewers after just one season and that is a big win for the HGTV pipeline.”

AMC Networks streamer Shudder picked up season three of The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs, to air in 2021. A special “summer sleepover” double feature pre-taped prior to quarantine will feature a visit to the trailer park from horror filmmaker Adam Green on Friday, August 14, at 9p.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Jack Osbourne attempts to make paranormal believers of his parents, Ozzy and Sharon, in Travel Channel’s The Osbournes Want to Believe, premiering Sunday, August 2 at 10p.

New ID series Hometown Homicide: Local Mysteries uses local news footage to bring small-town murder investigations to life, starting Monday, July 20 at 9p.

Preschool series Santiago of the Seas, following an 8-year-old pirate, sets sail Friday, October 9 at 12:30p. The animated Nickelodeon show is infused with a Spanish-language and Latino-Caribbean culture curriculum.

TLC’s Doubling Down With the Derricos, focused on a family with 14 children including quintuplets, triplets and two sets of twins, debuts Tuesday, August 11 at 10p.

Peacock nabbed rights to Canadian thriller Departure, starring Archie Punjabi (The Good Wife) and Christopher Plummer (Knives Out). The six-parter will debut on Peacock Thursday, September 17. In more debut news, all eight episodes of season three of former NBC comedy A.P. Bio will drop on the streaming service Thursday, September 3.

Amazon AVOD IMDb TV landed US rights to teen spy series Alex Rider, which is headed for a November 13 debut. The show will air as an Amazon Prime Video original in Latin America, Germany and Austria.

Andy Cohen voices and executive produces Quibi series The Andy Cohen Diaries, an animated look at the TV host’s most embarrassing celebrity stories. The six-parter kicks off Monday, July 20.

The Arena presented by Tractor Supply launches Monday, July 20, at 8p on TNT. The NBA storytelling franchise features conversations about the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter, systemic racial injustices and the changing landscape of society since the NBA postponed play through the point of view of players, NBA teams, their fans and communities.

STREAMING SCOOP

Sports entertainment company WAVE.tv announced a strategic partnership with IMG that will see WAVE.tv’s portfolio of digital media brands distribute content from IMG owned and represented sports properties including Euroleague Basketball, Edge Sport and World’s Strongest Man, across Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube. In addition to distributing IMG sports content, WAVE.tv will take ownership of direct and programmatic sales related to the deal.

OAN Encore and AWE Encore have launched on free streaming service DistroTV. OAN Encore is in the news and opinion category, while AWE Encore is housed in lifestyle.

TECH TALK

Discovery, Inc. announced the launch of OneGraph, a new ad product. When combined with Discovery Engage, the company’s advanced advertising solution, OneGraph will offer marketers a single platform to reach and analyze viewers across all platforms, including linear data-driven and addressable linear advertising and TV Everywhere. “As the industry moves away from age and gender and embraces audience-based buying, we have heard from many of our clients that they want the ability to activate a unified audience target across all screens combined with the ability to analyze on the back end,” said Sam Garfield, VP Data Strategy and Analytics, Discovery, Inc. Powered by LiveRamp, OneGraph utilizes Discovery’s proprietary digital data through a new cross-platform device graph to connect identities across linear viewing, VOD, streaming, desktop, mobile and connected devices.

The Advertising Research Foundation announced a collaborative research initiative designed to establish methods for applying randomized control testing to cross-platform advertising impact analysis. The proof-of-concept study, named RCT21, will apply experimentation methods to measure incremental ROI of large ad campaigns run across multiple media channels at once, including addressable linear TV and multiple major digital media platforms. “The digital platforms have championed the value of random control tests and have made them a cornerstone of their success,” said Scott McDonald, CEO of the ARF. “ARF has highlighted the scientific progress that has been made on ‘incrementality,’ but we needed to take it farther to have more extensive impact on existing marketing practice.” The ARF is conducting the research in collaboration with 605, Central Control and Bill Harvey Consulting. A select number of national advertisers are also being recruited to join in the project.

FOX Sports is working with Google Cloud to automate logging, discovering and storing video assets. The system will utilize Google Cloud’s video search and advanced machine-learning capabilities to help the network unlock the value of its sports content archive in a more effective way. “We’re excited to team with Google on this project that will allow FOX Sports to take the next step toward the most state-of-the-art workflow for accessing all of our media,” said Brad Zager, Executive Producer, EVP/Head of Production & Operations at FOX Sports, who oversees all live event production, pre- and post-game shows, operations and creative services.

ADVERTISING

Personalization is a key to success in advertising – now more than ever, according to Innovid’s new study, “2020 Consumer Attitudes on Personalized Advertising.” When asked if personalization matters, 43% of respondents said it was important that the online ads they see are personalized, incorporating geography, interests and behaviors. Twenty-nine percent said they would be more likely to buy something if an ad was personalized, and 31% said they tend to be more loyal to brands that embrace personalized ads. “Advertisers aren’t doing enough to personalize across channels, despite strong demand among consumers,” said Stephanie Geno, SVP of Marketing, Innovid. “COVID-19 is also accelerating the need to be more personalized as a one-size-fits-all approach in this environment can turn off customers, hurt your reputation and undercut revenue.”

Speaking of personalization, Clinch, a provider of cross-channel dynamic creative optimization technology to advertisers, announced the launch of a video rendering engine, Clinch Xenon, to provide customization and control for video editing that makes it easier and more cost-efficient to produce assets required for omni-channel personalization. “Clinch Xenon is purpose-built to personalize video at scale today and into the future,” said Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch. “Clients and partners are now able to enjoy much greater control over their video parameters, without any creative or production limitations.”

DPAA announced that its Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board, launched in June, has taken action on two projects, with the IRTS Foundation and Media for All, to help build pathways to minority representation in the OOH industry. The Board will provide the OOH industry’s first involvement with IRTS’ many diversity initiatives, including its Summer Fellowship Program, Multicultural Career Workshop, Faculty Seminars and Future Media Leader Accelerator Series. The Board will also partner with the UK-based Media for All to bring its mentoring program to Canada and get DPAA members in other parts of Europe involved.

GOING GLOBAL

Keshet in Israel has commissioned a new production of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? from July August Productions. The show is slated to premiere Thursday July 16, on Channel 12-KESHET.

Blue Ant International has entered into a multi-year deal with Rockhead Entertainment for 140+ hours of content across 11 seasons of celebrity chef David Rocco’s Dolce Vita franchise.

Univision ranked #1 on all of television in primetime the week of July 6, out-delivering ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW and all cable networks with 565,000 among A18-49 and 243,000 A18-34. The network started this week off with a bang, with the finale of Turkish series Amor Eterno delivering an average 2.3 million total viewers, 847,000 A18-49 and 344,000 A18-34, making it the most-watched program in the 9p hour on Monday in the demos.

The week of July 6, UniMás reported primetime audience growth week-over-week among Total Viewers (+5% to 404,000), A18-49 (+12% to 204,000) and A18-34 (+19% to 81,000).

Broadcast Evening News Programs for the Week of July 6
ABC World News Tonight 8.965 million total viewers, 1.4/9 A25-54
NBC Nightly News 7.595 million total viewers, 1.2/8 A25-54
CBS Evening News 5.421 million total viewers, 0.8 A25-54

Basic Cable Top 5 Ratings for the Week of July 6
Primetime (P2+)
Fox News (3,292,000)
MSNBC (2,183,000)
CNN (1,469,000)
TLC (1,302,000)
HGTV (1,247,000)
Total Day (P2+)
Fox News (1,653,000)
MSNBC (1,242,000)
CNN (999,000)
HGTV (680,000)
Hallmark Channel (529,000)

Late Night Average Broadcast Ratings for the Week of July 6
CBS: Late Show 1.67 viewers, 0.19/2 A18-49
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live! 1.58 million viewers, 0.25/2 A18-49
NBC: Tonight 1.28 million viewers, 0.20/2 A18-49

TV Time’s Shows on the Rise for the Week of July 6
Deca-Dence (AT-X) – 99.5%
Close Enough (HBO Max) – 99%
To All the Guys Who Loved Me (KBS TV2) – 98.9%
Stateless (ABC AU) – 95.8%
Conan (TBS) – 92.2%
Squeezie (YouTube) – 91.3%
Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) – 87.8%
The Protector (Netflix) – 87.8%
Breathe (Amazon) – 87.7%
Drake and Josh (Nickelodeon) – 85.7%
Methodology: Every week, millions of viewers around the world us TV Time to track their favorite series. “Shows on the Rise” is calculated by determining the week-over-week growth in episodes watched for a given program.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Monday, July 13
Show, P2+ 0000s, (A18-49)
ABC: CMA Best of Fest 3.50 (0.5)
CBS: The Neighborhood 3.65 (0.4), Bob Hearts Abishola 3.26 (0.4), All Rise 2.56 (0.3), Bull 3.17 (0.3)
CW: Whose Line Is it Anyway? 0.92 (0.1), Whose Line Is it Anyway? 0.84 (0.2), Penn & Teller: Fool Us 0.94 (0.2)
FOX: 9-1-1 2.25 (0.3), 9-1-1: Lone Star 2.28 (0.4)
NBC: The Titan Games 3.75 (0.7), The Wall 2.95 (0.5), Dateline NBC 2.72 (0.4)
Telemundo: Cennet 1.20 (0.3), 100 Dias Enamorarnos 0.76 (0.3), Enemigo Intimo 0.76 (0.3)
Univision: Te Doy la Vida 1.92 (0.6), Amor Eterno 2.28 (0.7), Como Tu No Hay 1.69 (0.5)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

James Kozack has joined Broadbeam Media as VP of Sales. Kozack was previously SVP, Partnership Sales with Combate Americas.

Kristy Chan has been named VP, Publicity, TNT, TBS and truTV. Chan comes to the Turner Networks from Netflix, where she served as Director, Original Series Publicity.

IN MEMORIAM

Former MythBusters host Grant Imahara died July 13 following a brain aneurysm. He was 49. “Grant was a truly brilliant engineer, artist and performer, but also just such a generous, easygoing, and gentle PERSON,” tweeted Imahara’s former co-host, Adam Savage. “Working with Grant was so much fun.”

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who was the only main Sweathogs member in Welcome Back, Kotter (1974-1979) to be promoted out of the remedial class? Arnold Horshack. Kudos to: John Ferlazzo/London, Ed Horwitz-The Talk/Studio City, CA, Michael Ritz-Lenox Advisors/NYC, Douglas Hochstadt-Disney/NYC, David Hauptman/Denver, Larry Kahn-Golf Channel/Orlando, FL, Anthony Salerno-Horizon Media/NYC, Eric Litt-Nexstar/Chicago, David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA, Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
Which sitcom focused on a US President’s daughter, who marries a veterinarian? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four.)