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Today’s Premieres
CNBC: Jay Leno’s Garage at 10p
E!: Growing Up Chrisley at 9p; Raising a F***ing Star at 9:30p
Facebook: Red Table Talk
HBO Max: Saving the King
Hulu: Tell Me Lies; Grid
ID: Disappeared at 10p
Netflix: Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer; Chef’s Table: Pizza
Paramount+: Ink Master
Shudder: 101 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time

IN THE NEWS

Chris Wallace is back. After a five-month hiatus that began when his CNN+ show was yanked after the shuttering of the streamer, Wallace will return later this month on the much larger streaming platform HBO Max. The new season of The CNN anchor’s interview show “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” will debut its first three episodes on Friday, September 23. Highlights from the eps will then comprise a one-hour TV show to air on CNN Sunday, September 25.

Netflix settled a $5 million lawsuit over “The Queen’s Gambit.” Soviet chess champ Nona Gaprindashvili complained of sexism and historical inaccuracy in the series, over a line that said she had never faced men in competition. “The allegation that Gaprindashvili ‘has never faced men’ is manifestly false, as well as being grossly sexist and belittling,” said the complaint from September 2021. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The 2022 ESPYS Week initiative raised $2.87 million in support of the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Overall, individual giving was up 909 percent, according to ESPN, with an increase of individual donors up 694 percent compared to last year.

Ahead of Thursday night’s NFL season kickoff, Hulu + Live TV is offering a discount for three months of service for new and select returning subscribers. The discount runs through just before midnight Wednesday, October 5 and gives subscribers $20 off for three months on their bill.

2022 Tempest Awards

What are you doing November 2nd?
Are you, or someone you know, looking to elevate your portfolio within the Esports industry? Find your place on the Esports Watch List. The Watch List shines the spotlight on 12 up and coming professionals who are changing the dollars and fostering innovation across the esports industry. Recognized at the Tempest Awards, you’ll be front and center with the industries top companies, executives, and brands. Nominate those most deserving today! Entries close September 16th.”

ENTER NOW

PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Norman Lear is going strong at 100. Amazon Freevee gave a series greenlight to his latest comedy, “Clean Slate,” which centers on an outspoken, old-school car wash owner (George Wallace), who’s thrilled his estranged child is finally coming home to Alabama after 17 years but has some soul-searching to do when that child returns not as a son but rather a proud trans woman (Laverne Cox). Dan Ewan, who wrote the pilot and conceived the story with Cox and Wallace, will serve as the showrunner for the series, which hails from Lear’s Act III Productions and Sony Pictures Television.

R.O. Kwon’s novel “The Incendiaries” is being developed as a limited series by FilmNation Entertainment TV. Lisa Randolph (“Jessica Jones”) will pen the series, and Kogonada (“Pachinko”) is slated to direct the love story set at a prestigious university that delves into themes including intimacy and fanaticism.

“The Vince Staples Show,” a scripted comedy starring the rapper, actor and creator from Kenya Barris and his Khalabo Ink Society, got a series order from Netflix. Loosely inspired by Staples’ life and taking place in Long Beach, CA, show is exec-produced by Staples, who also serves as a co-showrunner with Ian Edelman.

Kiernan Shipka (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) will star alongside Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in Prime Video’s holiday film “Red One,” from director Jake Kasdan. The project is being touted as a globe-trotting action comedy set in a new holiday universe. Amazon Studios developed the treatment from an original story by Seven Bucks Productions’ president of production Hiram Garcia.

Tim Long (“The Simpsons”) has been tapped to co-write and serve as showrunner on “Bloom County,” an animated series based on Berkeley Breathed’s ‘80s comic strip that’s in development at Fox. Long will co-write the TV adaptation.

Asylum Entertainment Group is expanding. The production house acquired Texas Crew Productions, the Austin-based producer of Travel Channel’s recent “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” reboot and Oxygen’s “Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins.” Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cineflix Productions inked a development deal with documentary filmmaker and producer Nancy Buirski (“The Loving Story”) through which Cineflix will finance the development of original content and provide production support to projects from Buirski. Cineflix and Buirski previously teamed on the feature documentary “Desperate Souls, Dark City & the Legend of Midnight Cowboy,” which world-premiered last week at the Venice International Film Festival last week.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

CBS News chief political analyst and senior national correspondent John Dickerson is getting his own nightly show on the net’s streaming channel. CBS News Prime Time with John Dickerson will stream Monday-Thursday at 7p beginning this week.

“Marea Alta” (High Tide), the first ViX+ original young adult thriller, will premiere Friday, September 9 with new eps dropping every Friday. The action centers around the disappearance of Mia, a young cyber activist dedicated to denouncing the injustices around her, that shakes the uneventful city of Ensenada to its foundation.

“Fixing Us,” a health and wellness series that documents individuals’ journeys to help inspire others, debuts Saturday, September 10 on NBC-owned stations, COZI TV and LX News.

Wheel of Fortune will commence its 40th season Monday, September 12 on ABC with hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White in the house. To celebrate its milestone season, White will be working at a new LED screen puzzleboard and an “XL Week” of shows will kick off the season with more prize money at stake than ever before. Season 40 marks the first with exec producer Bellamie Blackstone, at the helm.

“The Great British Baking Show” returns to Netflix Friday, September 16, with a new batch of contestants and new eps airing every Friday.

“Open House” returns for a 15th season on NBC Sunday, September 18. The real estate, design and lifestyle program features real estate agent Sara Gore taking audiences inside one-of-a-kind properties on and off the market.

MSNBC’s “Model America” premieres Sunday, September 18 at 10p. From Anchor Entertainment, Psycho Films and NBC News Studios Production, the four-part series dissects America’s complicated relationship with race through the lens of the people of Teaneck, NJ, a “racial utopia” turned unlikely ground zero for the modern Black Lives Matter Movement.

OG housewife Charisse Jackson Jordan will be along as a friend of the cast when “The Real Housewives of Potomac” return for season 7 on Bravo. The October 9, 8p premiere will be a 75-minute episode also featuring Gizelle Bryant, Karen Huger, Ashley Darby, Robyn Dixon, Candiace Dillard Bassett, Dr. Wendy Osefo and Mia Thornton, plus new friend Jacqueline Blake.

COMING UP

Documentary short “Stranger at the Gate,” a prize winner at this year’s Tribeca Festival, will be published by The New Yorker as part of its New Yorker Documentary series and will début on newyorker.com and on The New Yorker’s YouTube channel on Wednesday, September 14.

Pitbull will open the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Festival on Friday, September 23 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Artists including Avril Lavigne, Black Eyed Peas, Halsey, Lionel Richie, LL Cool J, Luke Combs, Maren Morris and Megan Thee Stallion are confirmed for the two-day event, which The CW will air in October.

Recording artist, actor and media personality Fat Joe will host the 2022 “BET Hip Hop Awards” 2022, which will be taped in Atlanta on Friday, September 30 and broadcast Tuesday, October 4 at 9p on BET.

Comedy special “Hasan Minhaj: The King’s Jester” will premiere globally Tuesday, October 4 on Netflix, marking the return to the streamer for the Peabody Award-winning comedian following “Homecoming King and Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj.”

Drama thriller “Luckiest Girl Alive” debuts Friday, October 7 on Netflix. Based on the book by Jessica Knoll, film centers on Ani FaNelli, a New Yorker who appears to have it all: a sought-after position at a glossy magazine, a killer wardrobe and a Nantucket wedding on the horizon. But when the director of a crime documentary invites her to tell her side of a shocking incident that took place when she was a teenager, she’s forced to confront a dark truth.

Paramount+ will debut thriller “Significant Other” on Friday, October 7, after the film has its world premiere at New York Comic Con. Starring Jake Lacy (“The White Lotus”) and Maika Monroe (“It Follows”), the film follows a young couple who take a backpacking trip through the Pacific Northwest that turns dark when they realize they may not be alone.

Gripping war story “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Germany’s official contender for the 2023 Academy Awards in the best international feature film category, will premiere on Netflix on Friday, October 28. The feature is adapted from the Erich Maria Remarque classic novel about a young German soldier on the Western Front of WWI.

Also at Netflix, “Wendell & Wild,” an animated tale of scheming demon brothers portrayed by Keegan-Michael Key and film co-creator Jordan Peele, debuts Friday, October 28.

Boxer Jake Paul will face UFC champ Anderson Silva in the ring for a global matchup Showtime PPV will air live Saturday, October 29 from Gila River Arena in Phoenix.

TECH TALK

Meta was hit with a $402 million fine from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission after the regulator completed a two-year investigation into the ways Instagram handled teenagers’ data. The investigation focused on users ages 13-17 who were allowed to operate business accounts, which facilitated the publication of their phone numbers and/or email address. It also covered Instagram’s default policy of making all new accounts, including those of teens, to be publicly viewable.

Hellebore, led by Zappos founder and Golden State Warriors co-owner Nick Swinmurn, launched NFT-powered play-and-earn sports prediction game Play Hellebore. Players can predict the outcomes of games in the NFL, NCAA, MLB and international soccer to increase the value of their in-game NFTs, earn physical and digital rewards, and compete against friends and family in the style of traditional fantasy sports leagues.

Imagine Communications is extending its GamePlan yield optimizer to offer a turnkey, cloud-based service for linear TV advertising optimization. Designed to extract maximum profitability of ad placement in linear channels, GamePlan Optimization-as-a-Service (OaaS) enables media companies to control costs and achieve revenue-driving benefits of optimization without adding specialized expertise or resources.

SPORTS NEWS

The final match for Serena Williams at the US Open on ESPN scored as the most-watched tennis telecast ever in ESPN’s 43-year history. An average of 4.6 million viewers tuned in for the telecast to top the previous record of 3.9 million was for the 2012 Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Championship. Overall, the Primetime telecast on ESPN was the best ESPN tennis telecast on record and was the most viewed telecast of the day for broadcast and cable networks in total viewers and all key male and person demos. Serena’s match alone averaged 4.8 million viewers from 7:15- 10:30p and peaked with 6.9 million viewers in the 10:15 quarter-hour.

Most Valuable Promotions and Showtime Sport firmed up plans for Jake “The Problem Child” Paul to face Anderson “The Spider” Silva at Gila River Arena in Phoenix on October 29 live on SHOWTIME PPV. “Jake Paul continues to take on challenges that other professional fighters at his experience level and popularity never have,” said Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder MVP. “Jake appreciates the platform that he has and always aims to provide fans with a compelling product that drives engagement. Anderson Silva is unequivocally the most exciting striker in UFC history. Those abilities have translated into his professional boxing career, and he most certainly has the ability to end Jake’s unbeaten streak. It’s an honor for Most Valuable Promotions to have one of the GOATs of combat sports headline our event. He is already a Hall of Famer in our books.”

Lots of talent news. Telemundo Deportes, the Spanish-language home of Sunday Night Football, announced coverage plans for the 2022 NFL season, beginning with the NFL Kickoff Game between the Rams and Bills on Thursday. Telemundo Deportes will provide exclusive Spanish-language coverage of the entire NBC Sunday Night Football package with 20 regular season games, led by a new Sunday Night Football announce team that includes host Miguel Gurwitz and Rolando Cantu calling the games this 2022 season with Ariana Figuera and Jorge Andres serving as analysts and supporting the pre- and post-game studio coverage.

ESPN re-signed sports betting analyst Joe Fortenbaugh to a new, multi-year contract to remain with the company. Fortenbaugh will continue to be a regular on ESPN’s sports betting news and information program Daily Wager, as well as in other programs and segments on television, radio and digital platforms. In addition, ESPN’s NFL reporters Jeff Darlington, Dan Graziano, Kimberley A. Martin and Ed Werder were all re-signed to new deals.

Prime Video announced “TNF with Storm & Kremer”—featuring Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer—will be among its featured alternate streams during the upcoming season of Thursday Night Football. Their 2022 alternate stream will differ from the duo’s previous work on Prime Video, as they will “delve deeper into storytelling and take viewers inside the matchup and league from a whole new perspective.”

Former All-Pro NFL players Thomas Davis and Kyle Long have been added as studio commentators on CBS Sports Network’s That Other Pregame Show (TOPS). Veteran NFL correspondent Aditi Kinkhabwala has joined as an on-site reporter.

NASCAR announced the return of its Champion’s Week celebration to Nashville on November 30 and December 1. The NASCAR Awards will be held on December 1 at the Music City Center to formally crown this season’s NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champions.

The WTA is landing in Fort Worth, TX, to host the 2022 season-ending WTA Finals from October 31 – November 7. The year-end finale, featuring the top 8 singles players and doubles teams in the Race to the WTA Finals, will be held at the state-of-the-art Dickies Arena, with the event thereafter due to return to Shenzhen, China in cooperation with long-term partner Gemdale.

CASTING CALL

Paramount+ series “Lioness” added three cast members for season 1: Dave Annable (“Yellowstone”), LaMonica Garrett (“1883”) and James Jordan (“Yellowstone”).

GOING GLOBAL

Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment acquired UK distribution rights for “Pennywise: The Story of IT,” which delves into the1990 miniseries based on the Stephen King novel.

2022 THAT BIG TV CONFERENCE

iSpot.tv to sponsor BIG TV!

iSpot.tv is joining this year’s BIG TV sponsor line-up, hosting, “Modernizing TV Currency for the Cross-Screen Era,” with moderator Sean Muller, CEO & Founder of iSpot.tv and Andrea Zapata, EVP, Head of Ad Sales Research, Measurement and Insights at Warner Bros. Discovery. Mark your calendars now for September 29th-30th!

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RATINGS

“House of the Dragon” is busting records in the UK, becoming Sky’s biggest US drama launch and biggest Sky Atlantic series premiere in its 11-year-history, watched by more than 4 million viewers so far. Last month the first ep of the “Game of Thrones” prequel became HBO’s biggest European launch.

The freshman premiere of “Guy’s Ultimate Game Night” on Food Network cooked up a 0.5 A25-54/0.7 W25-54 L3 rating, up 23 percent from prior six-week benchmarks and ranking as the No. 4 non-news/sports cable program in its timeslot.

Shareablee Powered by Comcscore Top 10 TV Shows for the week of August 29
Entertainment Tonight (CBSMV/Syndicated), 3.3m, 774, 4,277, 10.8m
Rick and Morty (Adult Swim), 2.4m, 62, 39,200, 12.5m
Today Show(NBC), 2.3m, 978, 2,331, 14.7m
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC), 1.7m, 61, 27,365, 29.7m
The Late Late Show with James Corden (CBS), 1.4m, 77, 17,757, 8.9m
Good Morning America (ABC), 991k, 667, 1,486, 15.0m
The Daily Show (Comedy Central), 960k, 51, 18,816, 28.8m
CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell (CBS), 795k, 434, 1,832, 1.7m
Hannity (Fox News), 736k, 240, 3,065, 12.2m
The Walking Dead (AMC), 479k, 57, 8,395, 46.5m

Shareablee Powered by Comcscore Top 10 Streaming Shows for the week of August 29
Stranger Things (Netflix), 1.6m, 5, 318,939, 36.1m
House of the Dragon (HBO Max), 1.2m, 24, 49,154, 2.0m
Game of Thrones (HBO Max), 1.2m, 21, 56,170, 39.0m
Bridgerton (Netflix), 776k, 2, 388,213, 3.8m
Cobra Kai (Netflix), 696k , 15, 46,389, 3.9m
Never Have I Ever (Netflix), 629k, 26, 24,200, 1.1m
She Hulk (Disney+), 548k, 35, 15,671, 188k
Get Organized With The Home Edit (Netflix), 478k, 27, 17,700, 6.9m
The Boys (Prime Video), 445k, 8, 55,605, 3.0m
The Sandman (Netflix), 294k, 18, 16,329, 359k

EXECUTIVE MOVES

FreeWheel appointed Soo Jin Oh as its first chief strategy officer. Oh most recently was president of Gamut.

Several executive moves at Disney Branded Television. Amee Dolleman and Charles Pugliese have been promoted to VP, Original Movies, and Mahita Penke and Jennifer Dubin have been promoted to Executive Director, Original Movies.

Zerlina Maxwell will depart MSNBC after her Peacock streaming series ends on September 15. MSNBC last month announced it was canceling streaming shows from Maxwell and Ayman Mohyeldin, and at the time said it hoped Maxwell would continue to serve as an analyst.

Naimah Holmes joined production house Hot Snakes Media as President. Holmes most recently served as VP of factual content for Discovery Networks.

Canela Media appointed Oswald Mendez to the newly created position of CMO. Mendez was EVP, marketing at BBC America.

Cyrus Farrokh joined Studio Ramsay Global as SVP, Strategy. Cyrus previously was president of distribution at Propagate Content.

Nicely Entertainment appointed Rachel Siegenthaler to VP of International Sales, based in Paris. Siegenthaler has held roles as executive director of distribution in French-Speaking EMEA for Sony Pictures Television, and head of programs & acquisitions at Turner, overseeing acquisitions for Turner Kids channels in France.

Karol Beck, Senior Commercial Director at A+E Networks, will take on an additional role of Country Manager for Romania.

Imax Corp. tapped Jennifer Horsley as SVP of Investor Relations. She joins from adtech firm Taboola.

This Day in History
1979 – ESPN debuted.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who came in second in parody show “Reality Bites Back” (2008)? Amy Schumer. Kudos to: Rev. Mark Wajda/Clermont, FL; Louis Lewow-FITE/Atlanta; Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC; Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station, TX; Tom Moore-Kalt Productios/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank; Lorrie Shilliong/El Segundo, CA

Today’s Trivia Question
On which pop culture trivia show was Lizzo a contestant? (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