Today’s Finales
A&E: Hoarders at 8p, Intervention at 10p

IN THE NEWS

Meredith Corporation is proposing an amendment to its corporate charter that would enable it to split its national media business, publishing, from its local media business, which includes 18 TV stations across 13 states. While it appears the move could be aimed at simplifying a sale, the amendment “is not in response to any specific conversations or events. Instead, the Company believes it is a prudent step to increase the number of options available,” said Meredith, which like many media companies has taken cost-cutting measures of late.

Nielsen is shuttering its place-based measurement service, which launched as a regular syndicated service in 2008 and estimates audience traffic for cinema and place-based networks like bars, airports and office buildings. “This service is different from our currency-grade out-of-home measurement that estimates viewing of content done outside of the home,” said the company. “The decision to close this branch of analytics is aligned to the company’s portfolio optimization strategy, streamlining focus and maximizing efforts against stated strategic priorities.”

Actor Jeremy Tardy will not be returning to the fourth and final season of Netflix’s Dear White People due to what he described as studio Lionsgate’s “practices of discrimination.” Lionsgate made an offer to Tardy, who recurred on the show, to appear on several episodes of the upcoming season, but refused to consider a counteroffer. “This news was disturbing because one of my white colleagues – being a true ally – revealed that they too had received the same initial offer and had successfully negotiated a counter offer,” wrote Tardy in a Facebook post. Responded Lionsgate, “This was a purely financial negotiation regarding deal terms. Lionsgate is committed to equal treatment for all talent.”

YouTube plans to make engaged-view conversions – measuring conversions that take place after someone views 10 second or more of a skippable ad but doesn’t click, then converts within a set amount of days – a standard way to measure conversions for TrueView skippable in-stream ads, Local campaigns and App campaigns by the end of the year. “The default attribution window is tailored based on consumer behavior for each campaign goal and is set to three days for TrueView for action, two days for App campaigns for Install and one day for App campaigns for engagement,” said Nicky Rettke, Director, Producg Manager of YouTube Ads, in a blog post. “But you know your business best, and will be able to set the right attribution window based on your customers’ behavior and campaign goals in the coming year.”

ABC and CBS prime-time scatter prices took a hit without sports. In NBA-less June, ABC’s average prime-time scatter pricing was $56,916, according to SQAD MediaCosts-National, versus $112,334 in June 2019. CBS drew an average $107,308 in April, without the NCAA tournament and PGA Masters event, versus $144,905 in April last year.

Notes from DC FanDome: Explore the Multiverse: In season two of Epix’ Pennyworth, DC character Lucius Fox jumps into the action, and Martha Wayne (future mother of Bruce) is pregnant…HBO Max ordered a third season of Doom Patrol, which will be exclusive to the streamer, rather than shared with DC Universe…The title of season four of Young Justice will be Young Justice: Phantoms…Addressing a crash during Saturday’s event, DC tweeted, “The Riddler strikes! DC FanDome is experiencing a brief pause, but we’ll post an update when we’re back up and running.”

Gordon Ramsay’s production company landed an order from the BBC for Bank Balance, Ramsay’s first game show. The Studio Ramsay series will have contestants compete in a high-stakes quiz to try and build a fortune. “This is going to be truly epic,” said Ramsay. “It is such an intense game with so much jeopardy to win big and lose even bigger, where the difference between failure and success is always in the balance.”

CBS All Access’ first feature-length documentary, Console Wars, premieres Wednesday, September 23. The film from Legendary Television and CBS Television Studios follows the 1990 battle between Sega and Nintendo.

Quibi ordered docusoap On Beat, following the personal relationships and careers of a group of young dancers. Tara Long is executive producing for eOne, which is the studio, along with Mark Ford and Kevin Lopez for Creature Films.

CASTING

Child actress Julia Butters is being replaced on ABC’s American Housewife by Giselle Eisenberg (Life in Pieces). Butters’ star turn in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood led to new career opportunities, and studio ABC Signature granted her request to exit the series to pursue them…Lisseth Chavez is moving from Chicago P.D. to CW’s Legends of Tomorrow.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

The third season of WE tv’s Love After Lockup resumes with six new episodes starting Friday, October 9 at 9p.

British detective series Death in Paradise starts a run on Ovation TV on Thursday, October 1 at 7p. The drama is set on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.

STREAMING SCOOP

Genius Brands International “Genius Brands” announced the launch of Kartoon Classroom!, a stand-alone segment of Kartoon Channel!. Jon Ollwerther has been appointed to oversee the operations of Kartoon Channel! and Kartoon Classroom! as General Manager & EVP of Global Business Development.

Adelphic surveyed Americans who subscribe to at least one streaming channel and found that the number who plan to do their holiday shopping online rose by 62% from past year. Other key findings include:
* More than half of the streamers (57%) surveyed said that COVID-19 has changed their holiday shopping plans.
* Over 70% of those surveyed said they plan to spend the same or less than they did last year.
* Respondents expect to spend an average of $818.57 this holiday shopping season, significantly less than the $1047.83 consumers were expected to spend on holiday shopping in 2019.

AMC and Amazon AVOD IMDb TV are partnering for six channels. First up are The Walking Dead Universal Experience, featuring select episodes of the series as well as Fear the Walking Dead, Ride with Norman Reedus, Friday Night In with the Morgans, behind-the-scenes footage, and cast interviews, and AMC: Presents, offering network series as well as movies and unscripted originals. Coming up are Absolute Reality by WE tv; Rush by AMC; IFC Film Picks and Slightly Off by IFC.

TECH TALK

The Consumer Technology Association has moved the dates for next year’s CES by a few days, from January 2-9 to January 11-14. The trade show’s first virtual event will be open to media only on January 11, and open to all registered attendees the next two days.

COMING UP

Univision will recognize the contributions of the Latino community with a multiplatform Hispanic Heritage Month initiative. “Somos Uno” (We Are One) will include original segments and spots, vignettes on flagship shows, as well as specials on linear, digital, social, sports and music platforms. “We are proud to celebrate our Hispanic Heritage with a multiplatform initiative that showcases the rich diversity, culture and extraordinary contributions of Latinos in the US,” said Jessica Rodriguez, President of Entertainment and CMO, Univision.

The fourth annual Cynopsis Measurement & Data Virtual Event is now this November 17 & 18 from 1:00PM – 4:00PM. Join experts in measurement and data to address the issues of safe data handling, attribution, storytelling with data, and more (view the agenda). Thought leaders will be on-hand from CBS, Comcast, Dentsu, Publicis, OMD, Starcom, USIM & more.

Sponsored by: Gamut – Tubular Labs – Premion – A4

>REGISTER BY 10/27<

NBC’s Thursday’s Sunday Night Football scored 19.3 million viewers, down 12.3% from the 2019 opener. Add in data from NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital, and the total audience number hit 20.3 million.

Discovery’s Alaskan Bush People delivered nearly 1.8 million total viewers and was the #2 unscripted telecast on all of cable television among M25-54 on September 6 at 8p. The episode pushed Discovery Channel into cable’s Top Five in its time period on Sunday across key demos that included P25-54 (#4), W25-54 (#3) M25-54 (#4) and total viewers (#4).

WE tv’s Love After Lockup wrapped the first half of Season 3 as the #1 original series on Friday nights across all of cable among women and adults 18-49 and 25-54 in both Nielsen L+3 and L+7. The mid-season finale of the series, which aired on September 4, delivered season-high viewership among W18-49 and total viewers in Live+3, scoring 1.2 million total viewers for the episode.

EXECUTIVE MOVE

Scott Nathanson has joined Dailymotion as Head of Sales, North America. Nathanson was previously VP of Sales at Brand Networks, LKQD and SpotX.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Which private detective had an assistant who was a part-time pool boy? Dan Tanna, in Vega$ (1978-1981). Kudos to: Charles Lore/NYC, Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA, Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo, CA, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions, LA, David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA, Jon Krongar-Wonderama/NYC

Today’s Trivia Question
Which teen drama included a clique of mean girls called “The Jens”? (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.)