PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Netflix announced it has renewed revival Queer Eye for an eight-episode season three. Production begins in Kansas City, Missouri today.
HBO ordered The Nevers, from Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), to series. Science fiction drama centers on a group of Victorian women with unusual abilities.
Drama Sweetbitter landed a second season on Starz. “Season one gave audiences a taste of the characters and backstory of an upscale New York restaurant, leaving them wanting more – which we will deliver with a second helping,” said Chris Albrecht, president and CEO of Starz.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: July 13-15, 2018
Hotel Transylvania (Sony) $44.1 million, opening weekend
Ant-Man and the Wasp (Buena Vista) $28.8 million (week 2), cume revenue $132.8 million
Skyscraper (Universal) $25.5 million, opening weekend
Incredibles 2 (Buena Vista) $16.2 million (week 5), cume revenue $535.8 million
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Universal) $15.5 million (week 4), cume revenue $363.3 million
The First Purge (Universal) $9.1 million (week 2), cume revenue $49.5 million
Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna) $4.3 million (week 2), cume revenue $5.3 million
Sicario: Day of the Soldado (Sony) $3.9 million (week 3), cume revenue $43.2 million
Uncle Drew (Lionsgate) $3.2 million (week 3), cume revenue $36.7 million
Ocean’s 8 (Warner Bros.) $2.9 million (week 6), cume revenue $132.3 million
Source: comScore
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
In new Animal Planet animated series Celebrity Animal Encounters, storytellers include Kristen Bell, Justin Hartley, Al Roker and Whitney Cummings, starting Friday, July 27 at 10p. A limited run on Facebook Watch drew almost four million viewers.
Horror series Channel Zero debuts on streaming net Shudder on Thursday, August 9. The first three episodes, which have aired on Syfy, earned a score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mad Dog Made, featuring military weapons maker Kevin “Mad Dog” McClung creating state-of-the-art hand-held weapons, launches Friday, August 3 at 10p on Discovery.
Female-focused social news channel NowThis Her ordered a second season of Mane, exploring the importance of hair and how it impacts culture. SheaMoisture is exclusive sponsor.
Sugar, a series inspired by the Maroon 5 music video, premieres Wednesday, August 15 on YouTube Premium. Guest stars include Maroon 5, Blake Shelton, Snoop Dogg, Charlie Puth, Kelly Clarkson, A$AP Ferg, 5th Harmony and Bad Bunny; Maroon 5’s Adam Levine is EP.
DIGITAL
Soccer fans watching the England/Croatia semifinal on YouTube who had their service cut off mid-match got an apology and a free week of service. Accounts will be credited $10 out of a $40/month bill.
Two Twitter accounts named in the Robert Mueller indictment have been removed. Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks join the list of “disinformation” accounts dumped from Twitter.
Amazon closed at a record high of $1813.03 on Friday, up 5% for the week and 52% year-to-date. The e-commerce giant’s new 12-month price target: $2000.
Google’s Search Analytics API in the Search Console is giving advertisers more data – 25,000 rows of data per request, up from 5000 rows. The company also published a guide for marketers with an overview that includes dos and don’ts for the process.
Democratic Senators Ed Markey (Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) are urging FTC chairman Joe Simons to look into the privacy practices of smart TV manufacturers. In a letter to Simons, the senators noted that the 45% of TV households with smart TVs “may not be aware of the extent to which their televisions are collecting sensitive information about their viewing habits.”
COMING UP
New syndicated comedy series The Hustle launches on eight Fox O&O stations, including New York and LA, today. Show featuring user-generated clips and viral videos is slated to run for four weeks.
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birth, The Africa Channel will air an uninterrupted live broadcast via satellite of The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, delivered by former president Barack Obama, Tuesday, July 17 at 8a.
3rd Rock from the Sun joins the Laff lineup starting tonight at 5p. Laff will air two hours of the 1996-2001 comedy Mondays through Fridays.
ADVERTISING & AGENCIES
SapientRazorfish is laying off about 100 employees and reassigning others to new roles. The Publicis Groupe agency said the move is the result of changing market forces and obsolete business models.
GOING GLOBAL
Sky Vision, the production and distribution arm of Sky, has acquired the distribution rights to Series 2 of A User’s Guide to Cheating Death, produced by Peacock Alley.
SHORT FORM VIDEO
Stephen Frears (Philomena) is set to direct ten-part short-form comedy series State of the Union, written by Nick Hornby (Brooklyn) and starring Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids). See-Saw Films starts shooting this summer for SundanceTV.
CASTING
Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll castmates Denis Leary and Elaine Hendrix are reuniting for USA pilot Erase, about a bad cop who reforms his ways….Rich Sommer (Mad Men) will replace Austin Nichols in the role of Dean, on CW midseason drama In the Dark.
