IT’S TIME TO RECONNECT THIS OCTOBER
NAB Show heads to Las Vegas for the first time in over 30 months

Take conversations from 2D to 3D and discover new tech, new tools and new experiences.
NAB Show Past Attendee Sentiment Survey: 86% say in-person events are irreplaceable.

Where Content Comes to Life
Join brands like ABC, CBS, Dreamworks, Disney, Fox, iHeartMedia, MGM Studios, NBC, Paramount Studios, SK Films, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers Studio.
For more, visit NABShow.com.

Wednesday August 4, 2021

IN THE NEWS

Discovery, Inc. reported financial results for second quarter that topped Wall Street estimates, including total revenues of $3,062 million, up 21% compared to the prior year quarter. US advertising revenues and distribution both increased by 12%, and international advertising revenues grew 88%. The company ended the quarter with 17 million direct-to-consumer subscribers. “Discovery delivered very strong results this quarter as we executed well amidst a recovering global advertising market,” said David Zaslav, President and CEO. “We continue to fire on all cylinders, and I am very pleased with our momentum as we work to complete our transformational WarnerMedia transaction.”

Speaking of Discovery’s $43 billion merger with WarnerMedia, Zaslav told analysts the target date of mid-2022 for approval is still on track. “Right now, it feels to us on every level, we’re seeing green lights, we’re not seeing any yellow lights or red lights,” the exec said during a conference call.

Legal analyst Andrew Napolitano is out at Fox News following accusations of misconduct by a Fox Business Network associate producer, John Fawcett. “Fox News Media immediately investigated the claims and addressed the matter with both parties,” said FNC. “The network and Judge Napolitano have since parted ways.” Fawcett also claims he heard host Larry Kudlow use racial slurs and make sexually inappropriate remarks, allegations Fox News said it had investigated and determined were “a desperate attempt at a payday.”

The New York attorney general issued a report concluding that CNN host Chris Cuomo advised his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, on how to respond to allegations of sexual harassment. The report said the behavior was “consistent with the Executive Chamber’s overall approach that, when faced with allegations of sexual harassment brought against the Governor, the inner circle of confidantes brought in to control and direct the response included a number of individuals with no official role in the Executive Chamber.” Chris Cuomo apologized on CNN when his participation was first brought to light.

Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristow, who are hosting season 17 of ABC’s “The Bachelorette,” have been enlisted for season 18, premiering October 19. The former Bachelorettes replace long-time host Chris Harrison, whose controversial comments about race led to his departure.

How can you help talent on your network lean into the culture and present themselves in a way that resonates with your consumers’ values? Join Discovery and Cynopsis at the Diversity and Inclusion Virtual Event on September 13 from 1:00-3:30 PM ET to learn how to create culturally relevant content. Registration is free: save your spot now!

NBC has pulled competition series “Slip ‘N Slide” from a plum, post-Olympics, August 8 premiere, after production on the show was halted due to a parasitic infection outbreak. The shut-down started June 2, with 65% of the show’s staff infected by an intestinal infection related to contamination on the site.

The only event connecting the entire esports ecosystem is back and bringing together executives from all sectors of the esports ecosystem for three days of networking, education and inspiration.

REGISTER NOW

An HBO film based on Elena Ferrante novel The Days of Abandonment lived up to its name after star Natalie Portman left the project “for unforeseen personal reasons.” “Unfortunately, the production will not move forward. We are very sorry we won’t be able to bring this beautiful story to the screen with our talented writer/director and cast,” said HBO. The film had been in pre-production.

Martha Stewart sits at the head of HGTV’s greenlit “Table Wars,” as designers compete to create show-stopping tabletops. Stewart will be joined by judges Tamera Mowry-Housley and luxury event planner Chris Hessney.

“Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission To Space,” the first Netflix docuseries to cover an event in near real-time, will premiere in five parts leading up to and following the SpaceX Dragon mission. TIME Studios, Known, Words & Pictures, along with executive producer Jason Hehir (“The Last Dance”) will offer exclusive access to the mission, premiering in five parts leading up to an including the event, starting September 6.

Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic gold medal winner in figure skating, will produce Netflix film “Take the Ice,” about a 15-year-old Black girl from Brooklyn who dreams of becoming an ice skater. “Years ago Brian Boitano and I were discussing the lack of ice skaters of color,” said Charles Randolph-Wright (“Greenleaf”), who is set to direct. “We decided to create a film that would give inspiration and permission to take the ice to young athletes of color. My dream is that years from now we will be watching television and hear from an Olympian that this film opened the door that they never imagined they could enter.”

Audio Up podcast “Ever After with Jaleel White,” starring the actor who played “Family Matters” nerd Steve Urkel, has gotten a TV pilot order from streaming service Topic. The talk show, a continuation of the podcast, looks back at White’s 90’s fame.

Amazon Studios nabbed “Ex-husbands,” a comedy from Billy Eichner and Paul Rudnick. Eichner is attached to star, as well as produce with Berlanti/Schechter Films.

The voice cast for “LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales” includes Tony Hale (“Veep”) and Christian Slater (“Dirty John”). The animated special premieres Friday, October 1 as part of Disney+’s Hallowstream celebration.

Production for the final chapter of TV One’s Coins film trilogy is underway in Atlanta. Returning to the Coins franchise are Essence Atkins (“Ambitions”), Stephen Bishop (“Imposters), TC Carson (“Living Single”) and Kendrick Cross (“Ambitions”), along with new cast members Golden Brooks (“Girlfriends”) and Demetria McKinney (“Tyler Perry’s House of Payne”).

Synchronicity Films (“The Cry”) is co-producing YA scripted series “One Word Kill” with Erik Barmack’s Wild Sheep. Holly Phillips will adapt the trilogy of books of the same name, written by fantasy writer Mark Lawrence.

Hulu gave a straight-to-series order for “Tell Me Lies,” a project from Emma Roberts, who will executive produce. Grace Van Patten (“Nine Perfect Strangers”) will star.

Chris Collins has stepped down as showrunner for “Bel-Air,” Peacock’s “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” reboot. T.J. Brady and Rasheed Newson (“The Chi”) will serve as co-showrunners of the drama.

Ashton Kutcher will star in Netflix film “Your Place or Mine” with Reese Witherspoon. The rom-com marks the feature directorial debut of Aline Brosh McKenna (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), who wrote the original script.

More Casting Notes: Add Eileen Davidson to the current and past “Days of Our Lives” cast members joining Peacock’s spinoff of the NBC soap, “Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem.” Davidson joins former “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” castmate Lisa Rinna in the limited series…Matthew Willig has been elevated from recurring to series regular on NBC’s “Young Rock.” Willig plays wrestling great Andre the Giant…Poppy Liu (“Hacks”) landed a series regular role in Amazon’s “Dead Ringers.”

Kerry Washington will star in and produce a film for Netflix based the Diane Cardwell memoir, Rockaway: Surfing Headlong Into a New Life. The adaptation is a co-production with 3dot Productions, Simpson Street and Aevitas Entertainment.

Crunchyroll is developing “Dark Star Squadron,” an animated space opera, in partnership with Zoe Saldana’s Cinestar Pictures. Todd Ludy (“Voltron: Legendary Defender”) is onboard to write with Zoe Saldana, Cisely Saldana, and Mariel Saldana of Cinestar Pictures serving as executive Producers. Sonia A. Gambaro and Maytal Gilboa from Pollinate Entertainment are also producing. More big news for the anime streamer: it’s crossed the 5 million subscriber line, with 120 million registered users.

Digital superstars deserve to be recognized. There’s still time to submit your entries for the Cynopsis Model D + It List Awards. That includes online video content, creative marketing campaigns, ad tech, and outstanding teams. Don’t want to choose? Submit in multiple categories and save. What are you waiting for? Enter now>>

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Season 20 of “American Idol” – and the fifth on ABC – returns in spring 2022 with judging crew Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie, as well as host Ryan Seacrest, intact. “’American Idol’ is still the original music show that genuinely creates superstars and continues to evolve to allow true artists to succeed in this unique business,” said executive producer and showrunner Megan Wolflick. “The chemistry and passion Katy, Luke, Lionel and Ryan bring is second to none.”

“The Bradshaw Bunch” is back for season two starting Wednesday, October 6 at 9p on E!. The sophomore run gets teed up with a “Kickoff Special” featuring legendary quarterback Terry Bradshaw and his family Wednesday, August11 at 9p.

Disney+ original series “Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.” starts streaming September 8, with new episodes premiering every Wednesday. The coming-of-age dramedy was inspired by the 1989-93 medical series, “Doogie Howser, M.D.”

OWN’s “Queen Sugar” is back for season six on Tuesday, September 7 at 8p. As in every season, there will be an entirely female directing team for the Ava DuVernay drama.

COMING UP

MTV will air the premiere of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s new video “I Get A Kick Out Of You” on Friday, August 6 at 12p, on MTV, MTV Live, MTVU, across MTV’s network of channels in 180+ regions and the ViacomCBS Times Square Billboard. “I Get A Kick Out Of You” is from Love for Sale, the new collaborative album set for release on October 1.

Reelz special “Jim Morrison: Rider on the Storm” premieres Saturday, August 14 at 8p, with The Doors road manager Vince Treaner offering insights on the brilliant but self-destructive rock star.

Lifetime has acquired the feature film “List of a Lifetime” as part of the network’s annual “Stop Breast Cancer for Life” public affairs initiative. The movie, starring Kelly Hu (“Finding Ohana”), Sylvia Kwan (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Patricia Velasquez (“Arrested Development”), Jane Sibbett (“Friends”) and Shannen Doherty (“Beverly Hills, 90210) debuts October 9 at 8p.

TECH TALK

Microsoft is adding a Target Impression Share option to support automatic bidding. “You set your budget, where you want your ads to appear, and your Target Impression Share, and Microsoft Advertising automatically sets your bids,” explained Kevin Salat, Microsoft Advertising Product Marketing Manager, in a post.

In more Microsoft news, the tech giant is requiring that workers and visitors to its offices be vaccinated. The new policy takes effect next month, ahead of a new return-to-office date of October 4.

A class-action complaint accusing YouTube and other companies of violating children’s privacy was dismissed on Monday. Last month, a US District Court Judge tossed out claims brought on behalf of children under 13, but said the lawyers could re-file the complaint on behalf of minors between age 13-16. Told the attorneys didn’t plan to amend their complaint, she dismissed the case.

STREAMING

Niche streaming services have grown significantly faster than premium players, according to Antenna’s Q2 2021 Growth Report. Netflix and Hulu now make up 48% of category subscriptions, versus 75% in mid-2019, and have accounted for only 9% of category growth in the past two years, said Antenna. While that’s partly due to the success of new services like Disney+, Peacock and discovery+ and the growth of other existing services, specialty SVOD services tracked had a two-year annual growth rate of 74%, versus 30%f for premium services. Leading in subscriber growth were Sundance Now (83%), Paramount+ (81%), Epix (74%), HBO Max (72%), and BET+ (71%).

Fandango is uniting its two movie and TV streaming services, Vudu and FandangoNOW. Vudu will replace FandangoNOW as the official movie and TV store on Roku. Vudu, which was acquired by Fandango in 2020, is available in more than 75 million US TV-connected device households.

Vizio has launched its reimagined free streaming service, WatchFree+, for SmartCast users. BET+ is available now, with discovery+ arriving in a few weeks.

Attention shoppers: Streaming service Curiosity Stream is now available to Sam’s Club members. With special pricing, Sam’s Clubbers can purchase an HD annual subscription to Curiosity Stream on SamsClub.com.

GOING GLOBAL

Banijay Rights announced the sale of new drama “RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service” to Channel 4 for More 4 in the UK, PBS in the US, TV4 in Sweden, SBS in Belgium, Talpa in the Netherlands and TVNZ in New Zealand.

GoQuest Media has concluded a deal with Australian national pubcaster SBS that sees SBS acquire the exclusive AVOD rights for crime thriller “RATS,” about the Czech drug trade, produced by Heaven’s Gate.

ODMedia, Source 1 Media, and Premiere TV announced the debut of FEAR, a horror-themed subscription service channel available on Amazon Prime Video, exclusively in the Netherlands. Amazon Prime members in the Netherlands can subscribe to the channel for ?3,99 per month.

The Co-Production Company has partnered with Israel-based Ananey Studios to co-produce live-action teen series “Thalath.” The Co-Production Company will seek to secure financing and global distribution for territories outside of Israel, where the series has been commissioned to air on Nickelodeon Israel for Hot Cable Network.

Pantaya, Starzplay and Spiral International announced the kick-off of production on the Mexican crime-thriller “Toda la Sangre.” Produced by Fremantle Mexico, “Toda la Sangre” stars Aaron Diaz and Ana Brenda Contreras.

How can local TV stations remain vital in a streaming world? How should they capitalize on opportunities? On Sept. 21, we’ll look at the smartest ways stations can invest in the future with leaders from NY Interconnect, BIA Advisory Services, Allen Media Broadcasting, & the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.

REGISTER

“Entertainment Tonight” (2.0 Live+SD national Nielsen rating, up 5% from the week before) was the only magazine and only top tier first-run syndication show scoring a week to week increase in the week ending July 25. The Tokyo Olympics caused major preemptions on NBC affiliates, and programming on most networks did not air for more than an hour on July 20 due to coverage of the launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

Spectrum Networks recorded 8% month-over-month and year-over-year increases in household ratings in July, while Spectrum News averaged more than 2.8 million daily viewing households in July for an increase of 4% month-over-month across all linear and digital platforms.

Broadcast Nielsen Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of July 19 ranked in order by HH Rtg
Family Feud (CMV) 5.5 AA
Judge Judy (CMV) 4.7 AA
Jeopardy (CMV) 4.7 AA
Wheel of Fortune (CMV) 4.5 AA
The Big Bang Theory (WB) 2.2 AA
Inside Edition (CMV) 2.1 AA
Entertainment Tonight (CMV) 2.0 AA
Live With Kelly and Ryan (DAD) 1.7 AA
The Dr. Phil Show (CMV) 1.5 AA
Hot Bench (CMV) 1.5 AA
Last Man Standing (DAD) 1.5 AA

TV Time Binge Report for the week of July 26
Outer Banks (Netflix) – 5.29%
Never Have I Ever (Netflix) – 2.97%
How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast) (Netflix) – 2.05%
Atypical (Netflix) – 2.02%
One Piece (Fuji TV) – 1.86%
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC US) – 1.52%
Modern Family (ABC US) – 1.52%
Elite (Netflix) – 1.31%
Sky Rojo (Netflix) – 1.27%
The Good Doctor (ABC US) – 1.19%
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 the TV Time app within a given day.

Basic Cable P+ Rankings for the week of July 26
PrimeTime
Fox News 1,986,000
USA 1,702,000
MSNBC 1,127,000
HGTV 975,000
TLC 894,000
Total Day
Fox News 1,129,000
USA 778,000
MSNBC 751,000
HGTV 577,000
CNN 558,000
Source: Nielsen Live+SD

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Monday, August 2
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: The Bachelorette 3.47 (0.9), The Celebrity Dating Game 1.74 (0.4)
CBS: The Neighborhood 2.57 (0.3), Bob Hearts Abishola 2.36 (0.2), Young Sheldon 2.07 (0.2), United States of Al 1.71 (0.2), NCIS: Los Angeles 1.448 (0.2)
CW: Roswell, New Mexico 0.64 (0.1), The Republic of Sarah 0.35 (0.0),
FOX: Hell’s Kitchen 1.25 (0.3), HouseBroken 0.60 (0.2), Duncanville 0.49 (0.2)
ION: NCIS: LA 1.15 (0.2), NCIS: LA 1.22 (0.2), NCIS: LA 0.95 (0.2)
NBC: Tokyo Summer Olympics 12.76 (2.8)
Telemundo: Exatlon Estados Unidos 0.96 (0.3), Hercal: Amor e Venganza 1.22 (0.3), Café con Aroma de Mujer 0.88 (0.3)
Source: Nielsen, live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Silvergate Media has promoted Shelli Rottman to the dual executive position of Chief Diversity Officer and EVP of Business and Legal Affairs. Rottman joined Silvergate Media in 2011.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises has promoted Nicole Gates to Senior Corporate Counsel. In her new role, Gates will continue to lead and oversee matters relating to Dr. Seuss’ global portfolio and manage legal concerns.

Quartz has appointed Alison Leuthold as VP of Revenue Strategy and Ad Operations. Leuthold joins Quartz from McClatchy, where she served as the Head of Strategic Planning & Revenue Operations.

Irish television production company ShinAwiL has hired Chuck LaBella, former Talent Producer for “Politically Incorrect,” as Executive Producer.

Charter Communications has promoted Jodi Robinson to EVP, Digital Platforms and Jake Perlman to EVP, Software Development & IT.

NEP Group announced the launch of a new virtual production business segment, NEPVirtual Studios, with the acquisition of Prysm Collective, Lux Machina and Halon Entertainment. As part of this new venture, NEP welcomes Cliff Plumer to lead the new segment, Jeff Ruggels as SVP of Finance and Operations, Phil Galler and Zach Alexander as co-Presidents of the Lux Machina NEP Business Unit, and Daniel Gregoire and Chris Ferriter as Executive Creative Director and President, respectively, of the Halon NEP Business Unit.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Which late-‘70s series spinoff aired for seven years, three more than the show from which it originated? “Benson” (1979-1986). Kudos to: Pete Hazell-Discovery/London; Eric Dunefsky-Crossmedia/NYC; Rick Dascher-WarnerMedia Studios/Atlanta; Andrew Goldman-Groovee/NYC; James Maxim-Disney Ad Sales/NYC; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo, CA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
What was HGTV’s first TV show? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four.)