PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
truTV ordered an additional 16 episodes of Paid Off with Michael Torpey, the comedic game show that raises awareness of the issue of student debt – each episode’s winner takes home the amount of their student debt in cash. “I am so thrilled/horrified that the national embarrassment that is the need for this ridiculous game show will continue for another 16 episodes,” said Torpey, co-creator as well as host for the series. “I truly hope the show won’t have to exist for long.”
CBS has put in development detective drama MIA, from Shepard Boucher (Upload) and CBS Television Studios. Michael Weatherly (Bull) and former NCIS castmate Cote de Pablo are exec producing.
Our Lady, LTD, a 10-episode drama starring Sir Ben Kingsley as a pastor more dangerous than the grafter out to prey on him suspects, was greenlit at Epix. Steve Conrad and Bruce Terris (Patriot) serve as executive producers and showrunners; joining Conrad and Terris as executive producers are Escape Artists’ Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch. Series will be produced by MGM Television and internationally distributed by MGM.
Hulu gave a two-season order for animated comedy Solar Opposites, from Rick and Morty co-creator/EP Justin Roiland and EP Mike McMahan. Studio is 20th Century Fox Television.
Story House Productions inked a deal with Nichole Bardin of Rock.Paper.Shoot. Media. Bardin will help develop programming in all genres, as well as work with Story House management on launching virtual reality formats.
Raycom Media has invested in independent urban film production company Swirl Films (Uncensored). Citing “high-quality and incredibly entertaining content with a very creative budget strategy,” Pat LaPlatney, president and CEO of Raycom Media, said, “Swirl Films and their content is a perfect match for our multi-platform consumer base.”
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Season nine of Discovery’s top-rated show, Gold Rush, launches Friday, October 12 at 9p. Premiere is preceded by pre-show The Dirt at 8p.
Telemundo’s El Recluso (The Inmate) launches Tuesday, September 25 at 10p. The 13-episode prison thriller is the net’s first short-format scripted series under Telemundo International Studios.
Weigel Broadcasting announces the H&I Television Network debut of three TV series as part of its fall 2018 schedule: House, Monk and Numb3rs join returning H&I series Nash Bridges and JAG weekdays, with a different series airing each day Monday through Friday, beginning on Monday, September 3 at 11a.
The nine-minute first act of Manifest, an NBC drama launching Monday, September 24 at 10p, is available now across NBCUniversal’s Cross Company Partners (which means YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram TV, the NBC App on Amazon Fire, Roku, Apple TV, DirecTV, Xfinity, MVPDs, E!, Bravo, Telemundo, Fandango, hotel rooms, theme parks and more). Mystery thriller focuses on passengers of a flight that disappeared who return years later.
New Travel Channel series Scariest Night of My Life, offering firsthand accounts of paranormal encounters, premieres Sunday, September 9 at 10p.
Cooking Channel’s Food: Fact or Fiction returns Monday, October 1 at 10p, with actor/writer/musician Michael McKean unmasking the mythology of everyday dishes.
New episodes of season three of Sony Crackle’s SuperMansion will debut on Thursday, October 4, with an early exclusive starting Monday, September 24 on Playstations #3 and 4 through the Sony Crackle app.
Social media star Judge Frank Caprio presides over real courtroom cases in Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury and Citylife Productions’ Caught in Providence, debuting in national syndication Monday, September 24.
COMING UP
IFC is counter-programming the Emmys on September 17 with An Emmy for Megan, the TV premiere of Megan Amram’s web series. “I hope you enjoy my web series on IFC. Since the internet is hard to access unless you have a smart phone or a laptop or a tablet or a desktop computer or an eBook reader or an iPod touch or a Smart TV or an Apple Watch, we’ve put it on cable television where it’s easy to find!” said Amram, who is nominated in the Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series.
As part of its co-production partnership with the BBC, PBS is airing three-part live event Autumnwatch: New England, on Wednesday-Thursday, October 17-18 at 8p and and Friday, October 19 at 8:30p. Travel journalist Samantha Brown, BBC presenter Chris Packham and wildlife cinematographer Bob Poole host the multi-platform television experience from New Hampshire. Series will include a mix of live feeds and pre-taped footage from across New England.
One-hour special The Paley Center Salutes This Is Us will air on NBC Tuesday, September 18 at 10p, featuring clips, interviews with the stars and creators, and a behind-the-scenes look at how the series comes together each week. The highlights of the first two seasons bring new viewers up to speed, and cast members, writers and explain why they made certain crucial choices with the characters and plot. Season three of This Is Us debuts one week later, on Tuesday, September 25.
The 10th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival takes place April 11-14, 2019, with the theme “Follow Your Heart: Love at the Movies.” The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel will serve as the official hotel and central gathering place for pass holders.
Winners of juried Primetime Emmy Awards include Fox’s The Simpsons, Comedy Central’s Broad City, Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time and Steven Universe, Nickelodeon’s Hey Arnold, HBO’s The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm, Disney Channel’s The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular, and Starz’ Wasted! The Story of Food Waste!. Their trophies will be awarded at the Creative Arts Emmys September 8 and 9.
FX Networks is partnering with Trejo’s Tacos and Postmates to celebrate the series premiere of drama series Mayans M.C., the next chapter in Kurt Sutter’s Sons of Anarchy saga launching Tuesday, September 4 at 10p on FX. The LA-area chain founded by Anarchy alum Danny Trejo is offering “Trejo’s Mayans M.C. Taco”, and Trejo’s Coffee & Donuts in Hollywood will be offering a custom “Trejo’s Mayans M.C. Donut.” The promotional partnership ends Monday, September 10.
Cinelatino acquired the U.S. television premiere of Mexican box office hit Ladrones (Thieves), which will debut on the network on Sunday, September 2, 11p and re-run on Monday, September 3.
Among the outlets covering Aretha Franklin’s memorial service on Friday, August 31 is Bounce network, teaming with streaming service Brown Sugar. Bounce and Brown Sugar will partner with Bounce’s local Detroit affiliate, WXYZ-TV, for the event, airing and streaming WXYZ’s hometown coverage and commentary nationwide.
MARATHON MENTIONS
Antenna TV is running an “Original Murphy Brown Mini Marathon” beginning at 7p on Wednesday, September 26, the day before the premiere of CBS’s revival. Antenna TV will also air a full-day Murphy Brown marathon on November 14, marking the 30th anniversary of the workplace comedy classic.
Comedy Central’s King of the Hill will have its first marathon this Labor Day. King of the Hill’s Grillstravaganza, featuring the animated comedy’s best grill-themed episodes, begins at 9a on September 3 and continues until 11p that evening.
To mark the 25th anniversary of The X-Files, BBC America will air a 5-day marathon of the drama Monday, September 19 at 6a-Friday, September 14. Marathon includes episodes of seasons one through nine, as well as feature films The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) and The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008).
ADVERTISING
Wednesday is the best night of the week for ROI in advertising, according to analysis from attribution analytics company C3 Metrics. TV ad inventory is priced a bit lower versus Sunday night, providing a base line for a better return, and consumer attention is at a “sweet spot,” according to the study, coming between early week activities and leisure time. Thursday comes a close second, reports C3, and is the best night for major movie studio advertising ROI.
Google has added an “ad strength” metric to help marketers measure the relevance, quality and diversity of ad copy, designed to improve ad effectiveness. Details are due in September, with support for responsive display ads to follow.
Digital marketing technology company Amobee, a subsidiary of Singtel, completed the acquisition of assets from Videology, software provider for advanced TV and video advertising that had gone into bankruptcy protection. The addition of Videology combines TV, social and digital in a single platform. Said Samba Natarajan, CEO of Singtel’s Group Digital Life, the deal “accelerates the build out of our digital marketing business and expansion of its footprint across Asia Pacific. This creates further differentiation for Amobee’s digital marketing platform and enhances Amobee’s competitiveness in the rapidly converging market of TV and digital video advertising.”
CASTING
Corin Nemec (Parker Lewis Can’t Lose) and David Faustino (Married with Children) have been cast in animated series Hollywould, following the exploits of two washed-up screenwriters as they work towards their long overdue comeback…..Adam Brody (The O.C.) landed a role on Sky drama Curfew….Eric Lange (Narcos) is keeping it digital with recurring roles on both Amazon drama The Man in the High Castle and Netflix’s upcoming limited series Unbelievable.
Tyler Hoechlin (Teen Wolf), Justin Chatwin (Shameless), Samuel Anderson (Loaded) and Elizabeth Faith Ludlow (The Walking Dead) have boarded Netflix sci-fi drama Another Life….Emma Kenney, Ames McNamara and Jayden Rey, who played Dan and Roseanne Conner’s grandchildren on the Roseanne reboot, will be back as series regulars for Roseanne-less spin-off The Conners.
DIGITAL
69% of all U.S. households have and SVOD service from Netflix, Amazon Prime and/or Hulu, according to a Leichtman Research study, “Emerging Video Services XII,” up from 52% in 2015. And among those with and SVOD service, 63% have more than one, up from 38% in 2015.
Fandom-focused video platform VRV is the premiere launch partner for NickSplat, offering 300 episodes of Nickelodeon content at a given time. “VRV, with a sophisticated user base that loves the best in animation, is the perfect platform to launch our NickSplat channel,” said Sam Cooper, Viacom EVP of distribution and business development partnerships. “Viacom’s content – including our deep library of genre-defining television – is highly in demand, and our audiences are always looking for new and innovative ways to enjoy our programming.”
President Trump accused “Google & others” on Twitter yesterday of suppressing conservative voices and “hiding information and news that is good.” Google search results for Trump News “shows only the viewing/reporting of the Fake News Media,” said the president, adding the situation “will be addressed!”. Later in the morning, Trump’s economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, confirmed, “We’re taking a look at it.”
Google responded to Trump’s accusation, saying, “Search is not used to set a political agenda and we don’t bias our results toward any political ideology.”
Insight TV, the UHD broadcaster and producer of native UHD HDR content covering action sports, entertainment, and lifestyle, has created and launched a Smart TV app in partnership with TV manufacturer TCL. The app launches globally for Android 5 and higher TCL sets. Insight’s app will also be available on LG’s webOS-based TVs starting in September.
Smithsonian Channel is partnering with DISH for a free preview that will run from August 30-October 2. The Channel will be available across DISH’s entire footprint.
MEASUREMENT & DATA
Parrot Analytics, the big data TV analytics firm specializing in audience demand measurement, has partnered with Guinness World Records to identify the most in-demand TV series and digital original series in the world. Named “Officially Amazing” for series in 2017 were HBO’s Game of Thrones (most in-demand show in the world), and Netflix’s paranormal thriller Stranger Things (most in-demand digital original series in the world). The two series are included in the Guinness World Records 2019 edition.
Telestream, provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, announced that its IBC booth it will showcase what it claims to be the world’s first fully-virtualized end-to-end adaptive bit rate video monitoring & analytics solution. “Our virtualized video monitoring solution’s unique advantage is end to end correlated video service monitoring from ingest to viewer with all software virtualized, automated and orchestrated solutions with open API’s, deep data collection and actionable KPI’s,” said Joel Daly, VP Product Management – Video Quality Monitoring and Analytics, Telestream.
GOING GLOBAL
Sky Vision inked an exclusive life-of-series distribution deal for Britannia with French broadcaster and platform, Altice. The agreement brings global sales of the Sky Atlantic drama by Sky Vision to more than 209 countries.
Entertainment One preschool superhero property PJ Masks is headed to free-to-air channel EBS in Korea.
