Today’s Premieres
AXS TV: Music’s Greatest Mysteries at 8p
Cleo TV: Living by Design with Jake & Jazz at 9p
Disney+: Fearless: The Inside Story of the AFLW
FX: Welcome to Wrexham at 10p
FXX: Archer at 10p
HGTV: Farmhouse Fixer at 9p
ID: In Pursuit with John Walsh at 9p
Magnolia: In with the Old at 8p
Netflix: Mo; Lost Ollie; Selling the OC; Queer Eye: Brazil; Under Fire
TLC: Bad Hair Day at 10p
Vice: QAnon: The Search for Q at 10p
ViX+: Combate Global Exclusivo ViX+

Today’s Finales
CW: Mysteries Decoded at 8p
Vice: Betraying the Badge at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Prime Video and DirecTV inked a deal that puts “Thursday Night Football” in over 300,000 out-of-home venues. “The sports media landscape continues to evolve rapidly, and the focus on delivering a great experience to our entire range of customers must remain at the center of that evolution,” said DirecTV Chief Content Officer Rob Thun. “This agreement between Amazon and DirecTV for Business comes at an important time when more streaming companies are obtaining exclusive rights to marquee sports programming and fans want to cheer on their teams at home and while out at bars, restaurants and other businesses with friends, family and coworkers.” Amazon paid $1 billion a year for an 11-year deal for the NFL games.

A revised and expanded version of the bipartisan Journalism Competition and Preservation Act has been released, addressing dominant online platforms’ power over news organizations. The bill, which removes legal obstacles to news organizations’ ability to negotiate collectively and secure fair terms from platforms that regularly access news content without paying for its value, comes from Representative David Cicilline (D-RI); Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Senator John Kennedy (R-LA); Representative Ken Buck (R-CO); and Senate and House Judiciary Committee Chairs Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).

“Our democracy is strongest when a free and diverse press can inform citizens and hold power to account,” said Cicilline. “But today, the free press is in economic freefall—especially local news—thanks to the free-riding of dominant online platforms, who seize news content to enrich their platforms but never pay for the labor and investment required to report the news. We would never expect a platform to stream movies without paying a film’s creators. But because Google and Facebook simply take news content for free and have monopolized the digital advertising market, newsrooms today are in dire economic peril—with regional and local news publishers downsizing or shuttering at alarming pace. The moment is urgent.”

HBO has renewed “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” starring Larry David, for season 12. “Playing the role of Larry David has been the greatest honor of my life,” said David. “In researching this multi-faceted, multi-talented man, I discovered that there’s more to him than I ever could have imagined: He speaks six languages, brines his own pickles, and spearheads a national movement to install a bidet in every home. I’ve also been told from numerous sources that he is the most generous of lovers. I am so excited to once again transform into this force of nature. I only pray that I can do him justice.”

Cable TV networks were down 19% in total day A18-49 viewership in July versus the same month in 2021, according to MoffattNathaonson. Over two years, cable is down 32%, versus an 18% decline for broadcast. “These significant linear cable network ratings challenges should put further pressure on the ad dollars each media company relies on,” wrote senior research analyst Michael Nathanson. “Add in a potentially deteriorating macro environment and it becomes hard to find cause for optimism for many legacy cable network owners.”

NeNe Leakes, one of the original cast members of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” has dismissed a lawsuit she filed against the network, show, and EP Andy Cohen in April. Leakes had alleged she worked in a hostile work environment.

2022 Model D + IT List Awards

We see your name in the stars!

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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

“Batman: Caped Crusader” joins the animated series that will not be moving forward at HBO Max, ahead of the streamer’s upcoming merger with discovery+. The series produced by Warner Bros. Animation, Bad Robot Productions and 6th & Idaho had been given a straight-to-series order in May 2021.

Disney Branded Television announced the second season renewal of Disney Channel comedy “The Villains of Valley View,” which follows a family of supervillains forced to hide their powers in suburbia. Production on season two will begin this fall in Los Angeles.

The Workshop Studios has entered into a partnership with Chef Amanda Freitag, author and TV personality, to co-produce a new competition cooking series, “Chef Swap at the Beach.” Keystone Pictures is also a production partner for the series, slated to premiere October 1 at 7p on Cooking Channel.

Casting notes: Paul Rudd, who made a surprise appearance on the season two finale of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” will return for season three….Add Scott Foley (“Scandal”) to the cast of HBO Max’s upcoming political dramedy “The Girls on the Bus,” as a small-town mayor running for president….Toni Collette (“The Staircase”) and Josh Charles (“The Good Wife”) have joined Prime Video thriller “The Power” in recasts. They step in for Leslie Mann and Tim Robbins, who left in May….Mireille Enos (“The Killing”) landed the female lead opposite Bob Odenkirk in AMC dramedy “Straight Man.”…Evan Williams (“Awkward”) has joined the cast of Hallmark Channel series “The Way Home.”

NEW SERIES

Bering Sea veteran Captain Sig Hansen sets his sights on a promising new fishing ground in his ancestral home of Norway when spinoff series “Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns” premieres Tuesday, September 13 at 9p on Discovery.

“The Murdochs: Empire of Influence” premieres with two episodes on Sunday, September 25. The original series, focused on the media dynasty, was initially intended to air on now-shuttered CNN+.

“Dr. Jackie,” centered on a psychotherapist who uses primal scream therapy, ink-blot tests and puppets to help her patients, premieres Monday, September 19 on OUTtv. Also debuting that day is “X-Rated City: NYC,” following adventures in the city that never sleeps.

E! offers a look behind the curtain at the rise to fame in “Raising a F***ing Star,” premiering Wednesday, September 7 at 9:30p. The docuseries follows four budding stars and their stage parents.

TelevisaUnivision and Combate Global are launching a new MMA competition reality series for TelevisaUnivision’s recently launched streaming platform, ViX+ for the US and Mexico. Starting today, viewers can watch the first of the six episodes on ViX+.

COMING UP

“Halloween Ends,” the final installment of the movie franchise, debuts as Peacock’s movie event Friday, October 14, day-and-date with its theatrical release. The action takes place four years after the events of last year’s “Halloween Kills.”

CNN’s “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over” premieres January 1 at 9p with limited commercial interruption. “Ms. Warwick’s own velvet-toned voice largely tells the story of her music and life for the film, underscoring her creative and cultural legacies during six decades of an extraordinary career,” said a release from CNN Films.

“M*A*S*H: When Television Changed Forever” celebrates the 50th anniversary of the comedy drama that premiered on September 17, 1972 and ran for 11 seasons. The Reelz special premieres Tuesday, September 13 at 9p with cast members Jamie Farr, Mike Farrell and Jeff Maxwell.

Maryland Public Television will celebrate historically Black colleges and universities in September during its third annual HBCU Week, with a slate of programs sharing stories about HBCUs and the people who attend, graduate, administrate, and advocate for them. During the week of September 5-11, MPT will deliver more than 22 hours of content exploring the past, present, and future of HBCUs in the statewide public TV network’s viewing area and throughout the US.

SPORTS

Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Mike McCarley are opening the doors to TMRW Sports, a company “focused on building technology-focused ventures that feature progressive approaches to sports, media, and entertainment.” Dick Ebersol is an initial investor. Additional partners and investors, as well as early projects in the TMRW Sports pipeline, will be announced soon.

The NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship game will be coming live to ABC for the first time next year. The game will take place on April 2 at 3p out of Dallas. The 2023 Women’s Final Four semifinal matchups will air on ESPN at 7 and 9:30p on March 31. “It’s a benchmark announcement for women’s basketball in being able to showcase the national championship game in Dallas for an expanded audience on ABC for the first time in 2023,” said Beth Goetz, chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee and director of athletics at Ball State. “We are grateful to ABC/ESPN for the partnership in the continued growth of the game and championship.”

Meanwhile, the National Women’s Soccer League, Ally Financial and CBS Sports are bringing the 2022 Ally Financial NWSL Championship to the CBS Television Network (with stream on Paramount+) on October 29 in its first-ever prime-time spot live. Match coverage will begin at 8p on CBS, Paramount+ and internationally on Twitch, with pre-match coverage beginning at 7p exclusively on Paramount+.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment, owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and the NHL’s Washington Capitals, is taking full control of RSN NBC Sports Washington. Monumental owned 33% of the networks since 2016. As part of the transaction, NBCU will continue to help run the network, providing corporate and shared services such as distribution, technical resources and production facilities for up to 18 months.

CBS Sports released its game announcers and studio lineup for CBS Sports Network’s 2022 college football season. Game coverage will be led by Rich Waltz, Aaron Taylor and Sherree Burruss, and the roster includes four additions this season: Tom Herman, Robert Turbin Meghan McPeak and Christian Fauria.

All Sports Television Network inked a deal with The United Battle League. Under the agreement, ALL SPORTS will premiere the league’s opening competition on American broadcast television.

TECH TALK

AI video generation company Hour One has launched a “News” feature that turns text into immersive video-based news. Virtual human avatars make it possible to create personalized 3D videos by typing the script into a text box. Users can choose from a variety of newsroom shots like closeups and pan shots. “News and media companies around the world understand the value of creating more video content, but filming live news anchors in a studio environment requires a lot of time and investment,” said Hour One Head of Strategy Natalie Monbiot. “For news stations and media publishers, access to virtual anchors and studios removes these obstacles, and unlocks endless new possibilities, including localization of news content and 24-hour newscasting.”

OpenX has been named a preferred supply-side platform for programmatic advertising bought by Havas Media Group on behalf of its clients across North America. “HMG is committed to buying through supply-side partners who bring insight, operating excellence and transparency to our supply chain and who align with our vision of responsible and sustainable advertising,” said Andrew Goode, EVP, Managing Director, Investment for HMG North America. “OpenX has demonstrated innovation and sophistication in helping brands find and engage audiences at scale.”

Facebook has agreed to pay $37.5 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of collecting users’ IP addresses. If the agreement is approved, people who used Facebook between January 30, 2015 and April 18, 2018 and who turned off location services on Android or Apple devices will be eligible for a slice of the settlement.

STREAMING

Music video network Vevo and and TelevisaUnivision have teamed up to launch live, linear Latin-genre music video channels on streaming service, ViX. Channels Vevo Latino and Vevo Reggaeton & Trap will launch on ViX this fall. “Through ViX, we are expanding our distribution and delivering these beloved music videos to millions of Hispanic American homes,” said JP Evangelista, SVP, Content, Programming & Marketing, Vevo. “The diversity of our music video library reflects the many heritages within the U.S. Hispanic community.”

GOING GLOBAL

Moonbug Entertainment struck its first distribution deal with The Walt Disney Company in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, expanding Moonbug’s partnership with Disney in multiple territories.

2022 THAT BIG TV CONFERENCE

Big Names for Big TV

At That Big TV Conference, we like to keep things BIG! New speakers from big companies are still being booked. We’re excited to announce NBCUniversal, Revolt, Xumo, and Paramount will be joining us this year. Will you be there?

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RATINGS

HGTV’s “Ugliest House in America: Ugly in Paradise” averaged a .59 Live+3 rating among P25-54 and a .77 among W25-54, ratings gains of 90 percent and 103 percent respectively over the prior six weeks.

YES’ Mets-Yankees Subway Series telecast on Monday averaged 617,000 total viewers in the New York DMA, making it the network’s second-most viewed Subway Series telecast ever. The game was also YES’ most viewed game overall since September 25, 2014.

While most syndicated shows were flat to down in the summer session ending August 14, “Entertainment Tonight” (9-week high 2.0 Live+SD national Nielsen, up 11% from the week before) hit its biggest rating in more than two months. That was the week’s largest increase of any strip in prime access despite the program being preempted by preseason football in several key markets, including New York, on August 12. Among W25-54, the show (0.7 demo rating, up 17%) led all magazines.

The final episode of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” delivered 769,000 viewers and 105,000 A25-54, making it the most-watched show on CNN on Sunday. Fox News’ “MediaBuzz” was tops in the time slot with 1.39 million viewers and 220,000 in the demo.

Nielsen Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of August 8 ranked in order by HH Rtg
Family Feud (CMV) 5.0 AA
Jeopardy! (CMV) 4.4 AA
Judge Judy (CMV) 4.2 AA
Wheel of Fortune (CMV) 4.1 AA
Inside Edition (CMV) 2.1 AA
Entertainment Tonight (CMV) 2.0 AA
The Big Bang Theory (WB) 1.8 AA
Live With Kelly and Ryan (DAD) 1.4 AA
Dr. Phil (CMV) 1.3 AA
Hot Bench (AT) 1.2 AA

Basic Cable Top 10 Nielsen Ratings for the week of August 15
Network, P2+ AA (000)
Prime Time
Fox News 2341
MSNBC 1360
ESPN 887
HGTV 872
Hallmark Channel 870
TLC 870
CNN 750
INSP 720
NFL Network 709
TBS 673
Total Day
Fox News 1484
MSNBC 822
CNN 564
HGTV 479
Hallmark Channel 470
ESPN 414
USA 396
INSP 392
TV Land 385
Food Network 383

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Monday, August 22
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: The Bachelorette 3.31 (0.8), Claim to Fame 1.71 (0.3)
CBS: The Neighborhood 3.05 (0.3), Bob Hearts Abishola 2.61 (0.3), NCIS 2.94 (0.3), NCIS: Hawai’i 2.49 (0.2)
CW: Roswell: New Mexico 0.36 (0.0), In the Dark 0.25 (0.0)
FOX: TMZ Investigates 2.35 (0.3), Beat Shazam 1.73 (0.3)
NBC: American Ninja Warrior 2.89 (0.4), Weakest Link 2.16 (0.3)
Telemundo: Top Chef VIP 1.06 (0.3), Amor Valiente 0.74 (0.2), Infiel: Historia de un Engano 0.75 (0.2)
Univision: La Mexicana Y El Guero 0.98 (0.3), Herencia Legado Amor 1.19 (0.3), Mujer de Nadie 1.00 (0.3)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

This Day in History
2008 – The Summer Olympics in Beijing became the most-watched event ever on TV, with nearly 5 billion viewers.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who played Abby’s mother on “ER” (1994-2009)? Sally Field. Kudos to: Shelly Schaffer-UBS/Ossining, NY; Mike Wexler-Tombras/Atlanta; Claire Hambrick-A+E Networks/NYC; Jeff Erdel-Erdel Public Relations/Island Park, NY; Sandy Spiegel/Chicago; Eric Litt-Nextstar/Chicago; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank

Today’s Trivia Question
Who played the ex-wife of Henry Winkler’s character in “Out of Practice” 2005-06)? (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