PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
TNT tapped Frank Pugliese (House of Cards) to serve as showrunner for new limited series The Angel of Darkness, based on the sequel to Caleb Carr bestseller – and top 10 cable drama – The Alienist. Angel is a co-production of Paramount Television and Turner’s Studio T with Eric Roth, Anonymous Content‘s Steve Golin and Rosalie Swedlin, with Cary Joji Fukunaga serving as executive producers.
Fox gave a 13-episode straight-to-series pickup to animated comedy Bless the Harts, from Emily Spivey, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Seth Cohen. Voice cast includes SNLers Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Jillian Bell.
Pop TV’s Florida Girls starts production in early October. Scripted comedy was inspired by series creator Laura Chinn’s (The Mick) life growing up on the West Coast of the Sunshine State. Laci Mosley (The Wedding Year), Melanie Field (Heathers) and Patty Guggenheim (Splitting Up Together) will star with Chinn in the series from Chinn, Lionsgate TV, Jax Media and 3 Arts Entertainment.
Patty’s Auto, inspired by a Pennsylvania auto repair shop with all female mechanics, has been put in development at Fox. Comedy hails from Darlene Hunt (The Big C), Brownstone Productions and Warner Bros. Television.
Gaumont animated comedy Bionic Max, centered on a bionic guinea pig and his goldfish pal, has been greenlit by France’s Gulli.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
A four-part special Ghost Adventures event exploring a treacherous nautical region on the Pacific Northwest, “Graveyard of the Pacific”, launches on Travel Channel Saturday, October 13 at 9p. Three days later at 10p the net offers hour-long special Lost Amazon: Project Z, looking for a lost civilization buried under a tropical rain forest.
Among the celebrity kids onboard ABC’s upcoming Dancing With the Stars: Juniors are Alana Thompson (Here Comes Honey Boo Boo); Tripp Palin, grandson of Sarah; skateboarding/surfing phenom Sky Brown; daughter-of-NBA-star-Scottie Sophia Pippen, and Miles Brown (black-ish). Battle for the mirrorball starts Sunday, October 7 at 8p.
How Far Is Tattoo Far?, hosted by Nico Tortorella (Younger) and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi (Jersey Shore Family Vacation), starts making its mark on MTV Thursday, October 11 at 9p. Reality show based on the MTV International format Just Tattoo of Us has pairs of friends and family members design tattoos for each other that won’t be revealed until they’re permanently inked.
The new season of Doctor Who hits BBC America timed to the UK premiere broadcast on Sunday, October 7th at 1:45p. Fans at New York Comic Con will watch the debut live, followed by a panel with star Jodie Whittaker, showrunner Chris Chibnall and executive producer Matt Strevens at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden.
After a cycling accident that took him away from the stage, Larry Hernandez returns to Universo for the season seven premiere of celeb-reality series Larrymania, this Sunday, September 30 at 9p. The season will chronicle the recovery and reinvention of the Mexican regional artist.
HITN original production Mundo Salvaje con Ron Magill, raising awareness among Hispanic families of the importance of species conservation with footage of exotic animals, premieres Monday, October 1 at 9p. Wildlife expert Ron Magill (Sabado Gigante) hosts.
Cinedigm acquired seasons one through ten of family-friendly Canadian drama Heartland, from Kew Media Distribution, to debut on its Dove Channel in October.
A D.C. designer and her husband – parents of five – create spaces for families in Best House on the Block, premiering on DIY Wednesday, October 10 at 10p.
The Steve Harvey Show joins the “First Families of Funny” and “Funny Side Up” lineups of getTV starting Monday, October 1, at 8a and 11p. Sitcom ran on The WB from 1996-2002.
Syndicated country music series Nashville Insider joins AXS TV’s Thursday night lineup on October 4 at 7p.
Season six of Bounce original series Family Time launches Monday, October 1 at 9p. Episodes will also be available on SVOD service Brown Sugar on Tuesdays, along with seasons one through five.
Aspire TV lifestyle culinary series Butter + Brown is back for a second season starting Tuesday, October 2 at 8p.
Sundance Now’s first scripted podcast, six-part crime thriller Exeter, premieres Thursday, October 25. Season two has been greenlit will arrive in early 2019.
Four-part Bravo docu-series Welcome to Waverly pairs a diverse group of professionals from major metropolitan areas with their counterparts in Waverly, Kansas – population 563. New episodes premiere every night from Monday, October 22-Thursday, October 25 at 10p.
ADVERTISING
WPP is uniting creative agency Y&R and digital unit VML. “VML and Y&R have distinct and complementary strengths spanning creative, technology and data services that make them a perfect match,” said Mark Read, named WPP CEO earlier this month after the sudden exit in April of founder Martin Sorrell. “This is an important step as we build a new, simpler WPP that provides clients with a fully integrated offering.” VMLY&R will employ 7000 people worldwide, headed by global CEO Jon Cook, currently global CEO of VML. Former global CEO of Y&R David Sable will continue as non-executive chairman as he transitions to a new role at the company. The new agency is expected to be fully operational by early next year.
Advertising data automation company PremiumMedia360 announced it has onboarded nearly 320 TV stations to its Guidance Intelligent Assistant Cloud platform, its intelligent, open-source transactional data management platform for linear TV advertising, with stations using the TV Interface Practices initiative. GIA Cloud reformats, automates and synchronizes the data flow between TV stations and ad agency partners. “We believe this is just the first step towards realizing the still untapped potential in broadcast television, a critical ad channel,” said John Bowser, CEO, PremiumMedia360.
A new report from ad tech company Viant, “TV Viewability in the Age of the Distracted Viewer,” found that 86% of marketers believe it’s getting harder to grab a consumer’s attention with TV advertising alone; 82% said they think TV viewers’ second screens and/or advertising clutter are limiting the success of their TV ad campaigns. 57% said their 2018 spend on traditional TV would be the same or less than in 2017.
COMING UP
Oxygen’s Kemper on Kemper: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer explores the story of Edmund Kemper, “The Co-Ed Killer,” whose 1969-1973 murder spree culminated with the killing of his own mother. Special premieres Saturday, October 20 at 7p.
Cardi B has been added to the roster of performers at the American Music Awards. The rapper/songwriter will be joined by Latin singers Bad Bunny and J Balvin. Show airs Tuesday, October 9 at 8p on ABC.
Conan O’Brien begins his 18-city “Team Coco Presents Conan & Friends: An Evening of Stand-Up and Investment Tips” tour in D.C. on Friday, November 2. O’Brien will be joined by different groups of handpicked comics each night of the tour. Said O’Brien, “The idea that I hit the road for seven weeks was pitched by my wife, with the full backing of my children.”
Hallmark Channel original Saturday movie premieres next month include Falling For You on October 6 at 9p, Under the Autumn Moon on October 13 at 9p, and Love, of Course on October 20 at 8p. Good Witch: Tale of Two Hearts makes its debut Sunday, October 21 at 8p.
Turner Classic Movies has lined up a month of programming celebrating performances from comediennes including Lucille Ball, Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn and more, hosted by Carol Burnett and Illeana Douglas. “Funny Ladies” launches October 4, continuing every Thursday.
Paul McCartney appears in his first 60 Minutes profile on the season 51 premiere of the CBS newsmag Sunday, September 30 at 7:30p. Sharyn Alfonsi interviews the 76-year-old music legend, who admits that while he gave bandmate John Lennon credit for his songwriting, it wasn’t easy. “You’d normally have to be a little bit drunk,” says McCartney. “It helped.”
Cozi TV is airing a 20-episode marathon of “Will & Grace Fabulous Firsts,” highlighting first-time events and character debuts from the original eight seasons, on Saturday, October 6 from 9a-7p. That’s two days after the new W&G season launches on NBC Thursday, October 4 at 9p.
DIGITAL
AT&T relaunched its advertising and analytics unit under a new name, Xandr, a nod to the company’s founder, Alexander Graham Bell. The goal: to create a premium marketplace for targeted TV and online advertising. “The modern media company is everything to do with the combination of content, distribution, data and technology,” said CEO Brian Lesser at a press briefing. “AT&T alone has the components to solve this problem.” Altice USA and Frontier Communications have already struck deals to aggregate and sell their addressable TV inventory.
Digital media company College Humor announced the public beta launch of ad-free, $5.99/month mixed media subscription service Dropout. Subscribers will have access to a mix of content including premium video, digital comics and chat stories.
Fox Nation, the streaming service slated to launch in 4Q18, has a slogan: “Opinion Done Right.” A promo for the service, to feature exclusive content from Fox News anchors like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson, will air tonight during Thursday Night Football.
Nonprofit digital news startup The City, focused on NYC, is about to start staffing up, armed with $8.5 million in seed funding and a distribution agreement with New York magazine. The project, aimed at providing nonpartisan coverage of issues like transportation, housing, climate change, immigrant New Yorkers and criminal justice, will be headed by editor-in-chief Jere Hester, former city editor of the Daily News.
Oculus unveiled its new, $399 VR headset, the Oculus Quest, set to launch in spring 2019. The new all-in-one gaming system uses motion controllers similar to Oculus Touch, and four wide-angle cameras that let people walk through virtual space.
Video company Jellysmack has secured a $14 million Series A financing round led by growth equity investor Highland Europe, with participation from Interplay Ventures and Seed Round Investors Partech and OneragTime. The newly-rebranded Jellysmack (formerly known as Keli Network) has more than 170 million engaged monthly users, with over 70% in the 18-24 demo, and each of its five current verticals rank among the overall top viewed channels in their respective categories across social media.
MEASUREMENT AND DATA
Responding to advertiser demands for greater transparency and verification, Google gained accreditation from the Media Rating Council for clicks, served impressions, invalid traffic detection and filtration for Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform and Google Ad Manager. The company also introduced a tool that lets marketers segment reports to help them optimize campaigns. “Advertisers need to trust the metrics and be able to compare across the different media they have,” said Babak Pahlavan, senior director of product management for Google’s analytics and measurement solutions.
Nielsen announced an expansion of its Total Audience capability for local measurement of ads. The custom solution leverages key Nielsen Total Audience solutions including Digital Ad Ratings, Total Ad Ratings and Digital Content Ratings, to measure reach, frequency, and GRP performance for ads and content across digital and TV at the local market level. “By enabling our clients to demonstrate the total reach they can deliver to advertisers at the local market level, local television can access the same key metrics as national television to know how their media is working,” said Kelly Abcarian, SVP Product Leadership, Nielsen. “This helps to better inform their sales strategy and enables effective decision-making about where and when to engage audiences with content and advertising on a local level.”
To give your team members a better understanding of the complex world of media measurement, register for a half-day of training at the Cynopsis Measurement & Data Boot Camp, November 7 in NYC. Details on sessions about how digital media is bought, sold and measured, as well as assessments of advertising solutions, can be found here.
CASTING
Eve Hewson (The Knick) and Eva Green (Penny Dreadful) have joined the cast of six-part BBC Two drama, The Luminaries….Evan Handler (Californication) landed a season six series regular role on Starz drama Power, while Mike Dopud and Monique Gabriela Curnen have been upped from recurring to series regulars….Kevin Harrison Jr. (It Comes at Night) and Lucy Fry (Bright) have boarded Epix crime drama Godfather of Harlem.
GOING GLOBAL
MGM WorldwideTelevision Distribution is launching sales of new scripted series Four Weddings and a Funeral, based on the 1994 film, and upcoming Epix thriller, Our Lady LTD, at MIPCOM 2018.
BBC Studios’ five-part wildlife series, Dynasties, from Sir David Attenborough, has been sold to 13 countries ahead of its premiere.
Entertainment One acquired the international television rights for legal drama Diggstown, and will handle distribution for the series outside of English-speaking Canada.
