Today’s Premieres
CBS: Secret Celebrity Renovation at 9p
HBO: How To with John Wilson at 11p
Hulu: The Fool
Netflix: Captain Fall; A Perfect Story; How to Become a Cult Leader
Prime Video: Novela; Good Omens
Starz: Heels at 10p

Saturday’s Premiere
Nat Geo Wild: Farm Dreams at 10p

Saturday’s Finales
Bounce TV: Act Your Age at 8p
CW: Greatest Geek Year Ever: 1982 at 8p
Lifetime: V.C. Andrews’ Dawn at 8p

Sunday’s Premieres
AMC: Dark Winds at 9p; Black Snow at 10p
Discovery: Naked and Afraid: Castaways at 8p; Survive the Raft at 9p
Hallmark Channel: When Calls the Heart at 9p

Sunday’s Finales
CBS: Tough as Nails at 8p
Food Network: The Great Food Truck Race at 8p; Beachside Brawl at 9p
Paramount+: Joe Pickett

IN THE NEWS

Comcast’s 2Q23 results topped analysts’ estimates, with earnings of $4.25 billion, versus $3.4 billion last year. The company lost 19,000 domestic broadband subscribers in the quarter, versus a projected 70,000. Cable TV customers dropped by 543,000, leaving the company with less than 15 million total domestic cable TV customers. The number of Peacock subscribers nearly doubled versus the same period last year, to 24 million, but losses from the streamer were $651 million, up from $467 last year. “I think we feel good about our upfronts. Despite those headwinds our total cash and pricing levels were roughly in line with last year — and really strong related to Peacock in particular,” said Comcast President Mike Cavanagh. “A lot of that comes from the strength of our portfolio.”

Former CNN chief Jeff Zucker has asked for a retraction for a Variety report that claimed he has been talking to billionaires in an effort to fund the purchase of CNN. “Any allegation or insinuation that Jeff has made any effort to purchase CNN is unequivocally false,” said a spokesperson for Zucker. “He has never had any meeting or conversation about buying CNN with anyone.”

In happier CNN news, the network led the pack of nominees for News & Documentary Emmy Awards, with 45 nods. Vice landed 30, followed by ABC and PBS with 26 apiece. Nominees for Live News Program include “ABC News Tonight with David Muir,” “Anderson Cooper 360” (CNN), CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” “CBS Morning” and “Nightly News with Lester Holt” (NBC).

CBS reported closing its upfront season up “low-to-mid single digits,” with results across its EyeQ, Vantage and Sports verticals boasting double-digit growth on a combined basis.

A potential class action suit accuses Google of inflating metrics for its “TrueView” ad program, in which advertisers pay for actual views rather than impressions. Instead, the suit claims, TrueView ads were served as autoplaying or scroll-to-play videos. “This means that rather than requiring a consumer to actually click on a video to see the advertisement, the video would effectively play on its own,” reads the complaint. “This has the material effect of downgrading the value of each ‘view,’ as some of these views would not be a view at all, and certainly not an intentional view.”

About 10% of the “Entertainment Tonight” staff has been laid off, reports Deadline. CBS Media Ventures’ syndicated newsmagazine last underwent layoffs in 2019 which, like this round, stemmed from cuts in digital operations.

Looking to get involved in this year’s Top Women in Media awards? We’re scouting for professionals in the media and entertainment industry to join our judge’s panel. Email Carley Ashley by July 31st with a short blurb on why you would be a great judge. Know someone who fits the bill? Nominate them by visiting our website.

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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

HBO has renewed “The Righteous Gemstones” for a fourth season. Season three of the comedy, which wraps July 30, is averaging 4.9 million viewers.

Nickelodeon and Spin Master Entertainment greenlit an eleventh season of “PAW Patrol” and a second for spin-off “Rubble & Crew.” A crossover event between the two shows airs Monday, July 31 at 11a.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Magnolia Network released its lineup of August premieres. First up is a new season of “Big Sky Kitchen with Eduardo Garcia,” Sunday, August 6 at 2p. A new season of “In With the Old” launches Wednesday, August 30 at 8p, followed at 9p by the series debut of “Design Down Under.”

“The Kardashians” returns to Hulu for season four on Thursday, September 28.

Season three of HGTV’s “Bargain Block” launches Wednesday, August 23 at 9p. The series follows home renovation experts restoring homes in Detroit neighborhoods.

COMING UP

“The Victoria’s Secret World Tour” fashion show special will stream on Prime Video on September 26. The reimagined special will include behind-the-scenes footage and feature the stories of 20 creatives who will conceive four fashion creations.

Story Television Network uncovers the facts behind mysterious creatures in “Monster Month,” a programming event featuring documentaries that examine Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster, Swamp Monsters and Water Monsters.

SPORTS UPDATE

Comcast President Mike Cavanagh dismissed the suggestion that Comcast could team with Disney on ESPN as “very improbable.” During the company’s 2Q earning call, Cavanagh said a deal with rival Disney would be too complicated. The chatter about a hook-up started when Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC that Disney was keeping an open mind as it considered possible strategic partners for the sports net.

Eighty-four percent of Canadian viewers like enhanced ads, and 52% will engage with them, according to a new study from LG Ad Solutions. Enhanced ads with sports-related dynamic content are the most likely to improve brand favorability and purchase intent, with one in three viewers reporting a positive impact; 69% are likely to engage with enhanced ads that show real-time sports scores or a countdown to games/events and team match-ups. “The results of this study reinforce the desire among consumers to have a more personalized advertising experience, receiving information that is timely and relevant to them,” said Jason Randall, Country Manager, Vice President of Sales, Canada, LG Ad Solutions. “Unlike traditional television, Connected TV provides brands a way to give viewers the experience they’re looking for and help drive better brand engagement through more interactive and compelling advertising content.”

FITE and BIG3 announced the expansion of territories for live games live as part of the FITE+ subscription to France, the Middle East and North Africa. BIG3 games are already available via FITE+ in the rest of Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Each Sunday, the pre-game show starts at 12:30p ET with games starting at 1p.

DAZN has partnered with Xtadium, the VR App by YBVR, to stream the live fight between MMA star Nate Diaz and social media star Jake Paul, in VR inside the DAZN room. The face-off takes place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX.

TECH TALK

The House Judiciary Committee is sticking a pin its planned vote to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress. Facebook had been charged with failing to comply with a subpoena for documents for the subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which has been investigating whether the Biden administration abused its power to coerce Facebook into censuring Americans. Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted (Xed?), “Only after the Committee announced its intention to hold Mark Zuckerberg in contempt did Facebook produce ANY internal documents to the Committee, including these documents, which PROVE that government pressure was directly responsible for censorship on Facebook.”

Roku posted quarterly revenue of $847 million, up 11% from last year. Device revenue jumped to $103 million from $95 million, and The Roku Channel accounted for a record 1.1% of total US TV viewing in May. “We delivered solid results in Q2, growing scale, engagement, and monetization,” said the company in a letter to stockholders. “The operating environment remains largely unchanged from Q1, with strong consumer demand for Roku TV models while TV advertising remains muted industry-wide. We have begun to see some ad verticals improve, which resulted in modest YoY Platform revenue growth in Q2, and we are well positioned to re-accelerate growth as the ad market recovers.”

DoubleVerify has expanded its quality solutions with Google’s Ads Data Hub for Measurement Partners, enabling media measurement and helping maximize advertiser performance on YouTube Shorts, Masthead and In-feed Video formats. The release leverages DV’s technology to help advertisers on YouTube Shorts ensure their video ads are viewable, by a human being and are safe from Fraud/Invalid Traffic.

Destination Vancouver has named Havas Media Network and Noise Digital as its media agency partner. The partnership is aimed at bringing a new focus on data and analytics and media performance.

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RATINGS

“Suits,” which ran on USA from 2011-19, broke the streaming record for an acquired series in one measurement week. During the week of June 26, the drama topped the Nielsen streaming chart with 3.1 billion viewing minutes across Netflix and Peacock. FX’s “The Bear” on Hulu jumped from #5 to #3, and Netflix’s “The Witcher” was #2.

Food Network ranks as a Top 5 non-news/sports cable network across Total Day for both P25-54 and W25-54 this summer. Average weekly Time Spent Viewing in Prime is up +4% year-over-year among P25-54 and up +6% among P2+. More than 50.6 million P2+ viewers have tuned in to Food Network programming across Food Network/Max/discovery+.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Leslie Wood has joined iSpot as Chief Research Officer. Wood joins after a partnership at Media Trust and Leslie Wood Research.

Lauren Tempest has been appointed General Manager of Hulu. Tempest was previously SVP of Content Partnerships, Acquisitions and Scheduling.

Trevor Heaton has been promoted to President of Political Strategy for the Katz Television Group. In addition, Jared Salles has been elevated to Senior Vice President of Political Sales, and Brad Phillips has been elevated to Vice President, General Sales Manager.

24i has appointed Sebastian Braun as SVP Products. Most recently, Braun was the Head of Streaming Video Business & Product Management at Verimatrix.

IN MEMORIAM

Writer Jerome Coopersmith died July 21. He was 97. In addition to Tony-nominated work as a playwright, Coopersmith wrote for television, most notably 30 episodes of “Hawaii Five-O” from 1968-76.

This Day in History
1943 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the end of coffee rationing.

Friday Fun Fact
Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other people’s opinions.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who was the second-oldest brother on “The Waltons” (1972-81)? Jason. Kudos to: Lisa Fikeys-Nissan United/Chicago; Tom Boyd-WG/Chicago; Kathryn Tesoriero-GroupM/NYC; Jeannette Sarpola-CBS/NYC; Emily Calamita-CineCal Productions/NYC; Phyllis McQuillan-MSG Networks/NYC; David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
In which series did Holland Taylor and Linda Hunt have recurring roles as judges? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.)

Cynopsis Team