Today’s Premieres
Food Network: Big Bad Budget Battle at 10p
HBO: Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Detroit Lions at 10p
NBC: Password at 10p
Netflix: I Just Killed My Dad
TLC: My Big Fat Fabulous Life at 10p

Today’s Finales
PBS: America Outdoors With Baratunde Thurston at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Mike Tyson accused Hulu of stealing his life story for an upcoming miniseries. The fighting champion does not support the production of “Mike,” an eight-episoder that explores the highs and lows of his boxing career and personal life. “Hulu is the streaming version of the slave master,” Tyson wrote on Instagram. “Mike” debuts August 25 on Hulu.

Axios has agreed to be purchased by Cox Enterprises for $525 million. Axios launched in 2017 and has quickly grown as a digital media startup covering politics, technology, and media. Starting in 2020, it launched Axios Local across the US and now covers 24 cities, with another to launch soon. The sale is the latest large media buyout of a digital startup since Alex Springer bought Politico for around $1 billion last year.

Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort Productions closed a deal with FuboTV. As part of the exclusive multi-year first-look agreement, the company will launch Maximum Effort Network, a linear channel on FuboTV, and will have a scripted deal with the streaming platform.

Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi signed a multi-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, where they have been based for the last two years. The Emmy-nominated writing-producing duo will continue to serve as showrunners and executive producers on Apple TV+ drama series “For All Mankind,” as well as develop scripted drama series across network, cable, and streaming.

Nickelodeon launched a Content Accelerator Program for underrepresented creatives. In collaboration with Rise Up Animation and Ghetto Film School, the early career program is designed to reach BIPOC and emerging professionals to pitch new kid-focused content ideas for Nick’s platforms across big kids animation, preschool and live action.

2022 THAT BIG TV CONFERENCE

TV One joins BIG TV!

TV One will be joining BIG TV as a proud sponsor of this year’s conference, with a noteworthy session focused on diversity: “Investing in Minority-Owned Media: Where Are We Now?” moderated by Leonard Burnett, Jr. of Uptown Magazine, and co-panelists Fernando Romero, Fuse Media and Royal Jackson of Impact Network. Join us for this 2-day program in NYC!

Register Now

PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes scored a pilot order at HBO. “The Franchise” will take a comedic look at franchise superhero movie-making through the eyes of a hopeful film crew.

ABC picked up the drama series “Will Trent” (working title) for a midseason launch. Starring Ramón Rodríguez, the series is one of four 2022 ABC drama pilots whose production was pushed to off-cycle and is the first to land a series order.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

“Music’s Greatest Mysteries” will return on August 24 at 8p on AXS TV. New episodes of the investigative series will examine whether or not President Trump’s secret service investigated Eminem, “American Idol” rigging allegations, Pat Benatar’s rock ‘n’ roll love story, Quiet Riot’s possible self-sabotage, the true story of ‘Achy Breaky Heart’, and more.

Bravo series “Real Girlfriends in Paris” will premiere September 5 at 9:15p. The series follows six young women living abroad in Paris – navigating careers, romantic rendezvous, and conflicts. The remaining nine episodes will air Mondays at 9p on Bravo and will be available to stream next-day on Peacock.

The seventh season of “Jay Leno’s Garage” will return on September 7 at 10p. Eight all-new episodes will take a look at the future of cars, with an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of SpaceX with Elon Musk. The comedian will bring viewers into the world of electric vehicles and alternative fuel sources as well, alongside a roster of fellow celebrities including Brie Larson, Post Malone and Gaten Matarazzo.

“Sister Wives” will return for its 17th season on September 11 at 10p. For the past twelve years, fans have followed the relationship between Kody Brown and his four wives as they’ve expanded their family. This season, the show will take a turn when one of the wives, Christine, leaves Kody and changes the dynamic of the polygamist family.

COMING UP

Nicki Minaj will receive the Video Vanguard Award and perform live at the VMAs. This will be Minaj’s first performance at the MTV VMAs since 2018, which will air live on August 28 at 8p. Minaj has been nominated 17 times and is a five-time VMAs winner. She took home her first Moon Person for Best Hip Hop Video in 2011 and is nominated this year in the same category.

SPORTS

Joey Levy and Jake Paul announced the creation of Betr, described as “the first direct-to-consumer micro-betting focusing sports betting company.” Wagers will be focused on actions such as pitches and at-bats of baseball games or plays and drives of football games. Betr will be leveraging Simplebet’s technology and is releasing its app in the coming weeks, initially as a free-to-play experience available in all 50 states, with a state-by-state rollout of its licensed real money betting experiences to follow later this year.

ESPN unlocked a multi-year extension with the Royal Spanish Football Federation for exclusive US media rights to Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España, Spain’s top two soccer cup competitions. The agreement brings all 65 Copa del Rey matches each season exclusively to ESPN+, in both English and Spanish. The Supercopa de España semifinals and final will be carried live in English and Spanish on ESPN networks (ESPN / ESPN2 / ESPN Deportes) and ESPN+.

FOX Sports firmed up its NFL game broadcaster roster, anchored by play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, who will call FOX’s top regular and postseason games, culminating with Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12, 2023, with Erin Andrews on the sideline as well as Tom Rinaldi. Joe Davis, the new voice of FOX MLB, will call his first full season of NFL games alongside Daryl “Moose” Johnston, with Pam Oliver handling reporting duties for the team. Other pairings include Adam Amin/Mark Schlereth/Kristina Pink; Kenny Albert/Jonathan Vilma/Shannon Spake; Kevin Kugler/Mark Sanchez/Laura Okmin; and Chris Myers/Robert Smith/Jen Hale.

ESPN serves up the 2022 MLS All-Star Game. Presented by Target on Wednesday, pitting the stars of Major League Soccer against the best LIGA MX players beginning at 8:30p on ESPN. Jon Champion, analyst Taylor Twellman and reporters Cristina Alexander and Jillian Sakovits will call the game.

The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) and FloSports inked a record-setting media rights partnership establishing the deal as the largest NCAA Division II rights deal to date. FloSports will become the exclusive streaming platform for the GLIAC and will broadcast more than 900 games annually across 21 conference sports including football, basketball, softball, lacrosse, volleyball, and more.

This will be Dennis Eckersley’s final season in the Red Sox booth. A former 6-time All-Star pitcher in the major leagues, Eckersley began his broadcasting career with NESN in 2003 as a studio analyst and later joined the broadcast booth in 2009. In 2021, Eckersley was awarded a New England Emmy Award for his role as commentator on the NESN Red Sox broadcast team.

NFL Thursday Night Football will be on Amazon Prime Video this season and no longer on a broadcast TV or cable network.

TECH TALK

The Starz app is now available on Smart TVs from Vizio. The smart TV already has apps for many other streaming services available, including Apple TV+, HBO Max and Netflix, among others.

VAB found that 85% of TV networks use a new measurement currency, in relation to its recent upfront deals with advertising. The research shows that between 25% and 49% of upfront advertisers are actively using or testing a measurement option other than Nielsen. Earlier this year, VAB said significant undercounting by Nielsen resulted in a $700 million loss in advertising revenue.

Less than 1% of Netflix’s subscribers are playing its mobile games, according to a report by Apptopia. The streaming giant recently lost nearly one million subscribers, which is why it has been investing more in games. The streamer intends to double its catalogue by the end of the year, with more than 50 game releases.

CASTING

Joe Keery, Lamorne Morris and Richa Moorjani joined the cast of “Fargo.” The upcoming fifth installment of the Emmy, AFI, Peabody and TCA Award-winning limited series will be set in 2019 and ask: When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping?

Kaley Cuoco will star in “Based on a True Story” dark comedic thriller series. The two-time Emmy nominee has a two-season deal for the series about a realtor, a plumber and a former tennis star whose lives collide. Series is written by Craig Rosenberg and executive produced by Jason Bateman.

Paramount set the lead cast for upcoming series “Sexy Beast.” The prequel to the 2000 cult British gangster movie will star John McArdle, Emun Elliott, Sarah Greene, Stephen Moyer, and Tamsin Greig in leading roles.

Margaret Cho, Joey Lauren Adams, Joanna Cassidy and Kehlani will guest star in “The L Word: Generation Q.” Previous guest stars Rosie O’Donnell and Laurel Holloman will return in their recurring roles as Carrie and Tina, and Jamie Clayton was upped to series regular playing Tess. Season three will premiere on November 18 on Showtime.

GOING GLOBAL

Jason Isaacs will portray Cary Grant in a new four-part biopic from ITV and BritBox International. “Philomena” and “Stan & Ollie” writer Jeff Pope will write and executive produce “Archie,” so called for Grant’s given name, Archibald Alexander Leach. The drama will premiere on ITV’s new streaming service ITVX – launching later this year.

Abacus Media Rights sold South African thriller “Pulse” to BET+ in the US. The Amcomri Entertainment sci-fi survival series was filmed in Mauritius and produced in the UK and South Africa by the Oscar-winning team behind “Harry Potter” and “Fargo.”

Beyond Rights signed a deal with OTTera to collaborate on their developing FAST strategy. Together, there will be a suite of both branded and IP-lead FAST channels launched around the globe in the coming months.

US TV leads the surge in global media costs, according to WAC Media’s latest Global Ad Trends report. Globally, TV CPMs are up 9.9% on average year-over-year and up 31.2% since 2019, the steepest increase in more than two decades. The average CPM in the US is forecast for $73.14 this year – up nearly 40% versus 2019 pre-COVID levels.

TelevisaUnivision announced that three new series and one documentary film are in production. Each of the four original productions will be exclusively available on ViX+, the premium Spanish-language subscription streaming service. The original TV titles include “Colapso,” “Isla Brava” and “Senda Prohibida,” with the documentary film “Absoluta.”

Top Women in Media

Tables are filling up!

What better way to spend an evening in NYC than celebrating leading women of the media industry at Top Women in Media Awards? This gala celebrates dozens of innovative women in the categories of entertainment, tech, and sports, and with this event nearly two months away, we encourage you to get your registrations in as tables are quickly filling up! You won’t want to miss this magical evening!

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RATINGS

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Friday, August 5
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: Fatal Flaw 2.83 (0.3), 20/20 3.00 (0.3)
CBS: Secret Celebrity Renovation 2.31 (0.2), Blue Bloods 9p 2.25 (0.2), Blue Bloods 2.67 (0.2)
CW: Killer Camp 0.24 (0.0), Dynasty 0.24 (0.0)
FOX: WWE Friday Night Smackdown 2.09 (0.5)
NBC: American Ninja Warrior 1.54 (0.2), Dateline 1.59 (0.2)
Telemundo: La Casa de los Famosos 1.18 (0.3), Amor Valiente 0.82 (0.2), Infiel: Historia de un Engaño 0.85 (0.2)
Univision: La Rosa de Guadalupe 0.95 (0.3), La Mexicana y el Güero 0.94 (0.3), La Herencia, Un Legado de Amor 1.25 (0.4), Mujer de Nadie 1.06 (0.3)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

IN MEMORIAM

Olivia Newton-John passed away after a battle with metastatic breast cancer for more than 30 years. Husband John Easterling said she died peacefully at her ranch in Southern California on Monday morning, surrounded by family and friends. The hitmaking “Physical” singer and “Grease” actress was 73.

“Street Outlaws: Fastest in America” actor Ryan Fellows died while filming early Sunday morning. Fellows was racing another driver when he lost control of the vehicle near the finish line, rolled over, and caught fire. “The Street Outlaws family is heartbroken by the accident that led to the tragic death of Ryan Fellows,” a Discovery spokesperson said. Fellows was 41.

Consummate Hollywood lawyer Bert Fields died at 93. The showbiz lawyer for Tom Cruise, the Weinsteins, George Lucas, Michael Jackson, the Beatles and many others passed away Sunday at his home in Malibu.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning historian David McCullough has died at 89. Two of McCullough’s most famous works – presidential biographies of Harry Truman in 1992 and John Adams in 2001 – not only won Pulitzer Prizes but were also turned into TV miniseries. McCullough was also the narrator of documentaries like Ken Burns’ “Civil War.”

This Day in History
1930 – The character Betty Boop debuted in Max Fleischer’s cartoon “Dizzy Dishes.”

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What is Chandler’s middle name on “Friends” (1994-2004)? Muriel. Kudos to: Melissa Friedman/LA, Heather Allen-WWE Corporation/Stamford, CT, Sandy Spiegel/Chicago, Roger Furman-Sports Marketing Communications/Greentown, PA, Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank, CA, Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc., New York, Natasha Manners Floy-Disney Media Entertainment/NYC, Deborah Allen-Jupiter Entertainment, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA, David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA, Squirrel Rippley-Dark Horse Media/Tucson, AZ,

Today’s Trivia Question
What is Malcolm’s last name on “Malcolm in the Middle” (2000-2006)? (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