A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM IAB

IAB Brand Disruption Summit, Oct 11-12, NYC

Inflation, a supply chain crisis, and the emergence of Web3 platforms and technology have led to an increasingly complex environment for businesses to navigate. This year’s event is all about “Navigating the Now,” spotlighting best-in-class strategies built by the world’s most innovative brands and agencies. Learn how brands are investing in tech, fostering talent, and shaping strategy for the new world order.

Last Chance: Free for buy-side professionals

Today’s Premieres
AXS TV: The Top Ten Revealed at 8p; The Very VERY Best of the 80s at 8:30p
BritBox: Sherwood
History: Beyond Oak Island at 9p
OWN: Cherish the Day at 9p
PBS: Making Black America: Through the Grapevine at 9p
Vice: Tales from the Territories at 10p

Today’s Finales
CW: Leonardo at 8p; Devils at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Mark Pedowitz has stepped down as Chairman and CEO of The CW, following the October 1 acquisition of 75% of the network by station group Nextstar. Pedowitz is being replaced by Dennis Miller, who had been a member of Nextstar’s board of directors since 2014. “Dennis Miller brings a unique skill set of proven television, media, and technology industry expertise, as well as venture capital experience to the role of president at The CW,” said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook. “His understanding and ability to unlock value from media assets by delivering high-quality, profitable entertainment, will serve the network, its viewers, its partners and CW affiliates around the country extremely well.”

Pedowitz, who had been with The CW since 2011, is reviving his Pine Street Entertainment company, and in a memo to staff said he is looked forward to bringing some of his projects to The CW. Pedowitz also wrote, “Together, we have accomplished so much. This upstart network with its unique blend of programming brought The CW into the forefront of pop culture and social media. We made water cooler TV in a multi-platform world. We embraced what the audience wanted and gave it to them.”

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear challenges to the Section 230 provision of the Communications Decency Act, which protects tech platforms when their algorithms recommend problematic content to users. Google has argued it was protected by Section 230 in a case brought by the family of a woman killed in an ISIS attack in Paris in 2015, claiming Google “aided and abetted” ISIS by allowing terrorist videos on YouTube and including them in recommendations.

NATPE is filing a court petition to restructure its business affairs under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Event cancellations due to Covid forced the organization to operate on its financial reserves, which now require it to reorganize the NATPE business structure, said the organization. NATPE is looking at all possible options to restructure, including raising funds through strategic alliances, and will continue to operate NATPE as a more streamlined operation.

Sunday night saw a truce between Disney and Sling TV, as the two sides locked in an agreement that restored the channels to the streaming service in a “handshake” deal. “All of your Disney & ESPN channels have been restored,” Sling TV stated on its website. “We sincerely apologize for your interruption in programming. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

Natalie Morales, who jumped to CBS last year as co-host of “The Talk” after 22 years at NBC, is expanding her role at the network. Morales will serve as a correspondent for CBS News, including contributing to “48 Hours.” “Natalie is a high-profile reporter with a familiar voice that viewers trust,” said the true crime shows EP, Judy Tygard. “She’s also known for her exclusive, unsparing interviews of notorious criminals including Clark Rockefeller and Drew Peterson.”

It’s lights out for Netflix’s “Firefly Lane” after season two. The 16-episode sophomore season will be released in two parts, with the first nine eps dropping December 2.The series charts the course of the lifelong friendship of characters played by Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke.

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro has been accused in court documents filed by voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems of spreading “verifiably false but devastating lies against Dominion,” related to the 2020 election. The documents, part of the pre-trial discovery phase of litigation, point to a segment in which Pirro allowed Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell to make “nonsense” claims that were soon discredited. Pirro is not named as a defendant in Dominion’s suit against Fox Corp. and others.

Call for Submissions: Cynopsis is producing our annual Holiday Programming Guide, which comes out on November 2 and will be sent to all Cynopsis subscribers. If your network has holiday programming airing from November 3 through January 1, please send your listing to [email protected] and [email protected] no later October 15 with the subject line: Holiday Guide. To be included, programs must be listed by date, title of program, and start times, in the following format: “Thursday, November 19: Network Name: My One Christmas Wish at 9a, Paper Angels at 11a, 12 Days of Giving at 1p”. Holiday-related programs only! A confirmation email will be sent following each submission (if you don’t receive a confirmation email, please resubmit).

2022 Tempest Awards

Get your tickets now!

It’s hard to believe that Tempest Awards is less than one month away, and the day can’t come fast enough! Held in conjunction with Esports Business Summit, this celebration shines a spotlight on the innovation driving the competitive gaming industry. Whether you’re in production, marketing, talent, or technology, come join your peers at the world’s only program that recognizes excellence in esports!

LEARN MORE NOW

PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Simon Cowell has signed a massive $125 million transatlantic securitization deal for the “Got Talent” franchise. The assets to the franchise and its spin-offs have been pooled, including “production margins and fees, digital income, franchise and original content sales and sponsorship income.” Cowell’s Syco Entertainment was advised by entertainment investment bank ACF. “ACF’s certainly got talent,” said Ian Rosenblatt, director of Syco. “Their team, led by the ever-tenacious Thomas Dey, delivered on their promises and introduced the perfect partners to achieve our goals.”

HGTV has renewed “Rock the Block” for a new season, set to premiere in March 2023. Last time around, the renovation competition attracted over 14 million viewers.

Studiocanal and Zentropa announced that principal photography has commenced on “Families Like Ours,” the first TV drama series by Thomas Vinterberg (“The Hunt”), shooting on location in Copenhagen, Sweden, The Czech Republic, France and Romania.

Anders Holm (“Inventing Anna”) has joined the cast of Apple TV+s untitled Godzilla and the Titans series in a recurring role.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Season four of Nat Geo WILD’s “Critter Fixers: Country Vets” debuts Saturday, October 8 at 9p. Prepare for a ferret with a fractured pelvis, and a goat with arthritis.

Sesame Street’s 53rd season, premiering Thursday, November 3 on Cartoonito on HBO Max, is chock full of celebs. Pre-schoolers can look for Mickey Guyton (Thursday, November 3), Amber Ruffin (Thursday, November 3 and Thursday, March 9), Zazie Beetz (Thursday, December 1), First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (Thursday, December 1), Samuel L. Jackson (Thursday, December 15), Brett Goldstein (Thursday, January 12), Ava Duvernay (Thursday, February 16), and HAIM (Thursday, May 11).

Fox Business Network will debut the third season of its primetime programming slate, FBN Prime, on Monday, October 17, as the network celebrates its 15th anniversary. The evening kicks off with “How America Works” at 8p, followed by “American Built” at 9p and 9:30p. Kelsey Grammer leads Tuesdays at 8p with “Historic Battles for America: Crucial Conflicts,” followed by “American Dynasty” at 9p. Wednesdays brings “Mansion Global” at 8p and “American Dream Home” at 9p, while “Duck Family Treasure” makes its debut Thursday at 8p, followed by the season two debut of “American Gold: The Legend of Bear Gulch.”

A&E’s “The First 48” returns Thursday, November 3 at 8p. The series follows real-life homicide detectives during the first 48 hours of murder investigations. At 10p comes the return of true crime series “Interrogation Raw.”

STREAMING

Fan platform Fandom has acquired a portfolio of digital assets from Red Ventures: GameSpot, Metacritic, TV Guide, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, Cord Cutters News and Comic Vine. The deal combines Fandom’s 300M MAU’s, 250K Wiki communities and 40M pages of content with the newly-acquired brands reaching 46M MAU’s.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow is launching another podcast with the news net, her first since cutting back her hosting duties to one day a week to focus on new projects. “Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra,” telling the story of Americans who plotted to overthrow the government during World War II, debuts Monday, October 10 with two episodes. “We are not the first generation of Americans to have contended with a clear and present threat to our democracy. The history of this particular fight is less well known today, but it’s a fascinating example of how the criminal law can’t be counted on to do it all,” said Maddow, who’s also an executive producer on the series. “Protecting democracy from its enemies takes all kinds of Americans working in all kinds of ways.”

Magna and anime producer VIZ Media named Disney+ and Hulu as the streaming platforms for fantasy adventure “Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War,” created by mangaka legend Tite Kubo. VIZ Media has acquired worldwide rights (excluding Asia and Arabic-Speaking Africa/Middle East) to launch the series with the debut episode premiering October 10. “Bleach” will be available on Disney+ internationally, Hulu in the US, and select markets will sunrise the series beginning on October 10.

SiriusXM has added Law&Crime to its streaming channel lineup. The simulcast of the TV network features daily live trial coverage, legal analysis, and original true-crime stories.

TECH TALK

Blue Ant Media has acquired Canadian CTV marketplace Canada Media Pulse. Both companies are partners of Column6, an ad platform built for a CTV publishers across the Americas. Media Pulse’s CTV exchange is powered entirely by Column6, and Blue Ant Media uses Column6 for CTV ad serving and ad break management for some of its FAST channel inventory. Under the Column6 umbrella, Blue Ant Media and Media Pulse came together to make this acquisition possible.

FuboTV announced a significant improvement on advertising campaigns transacted using Unified ID 2.0 (UID 2.0) through The Trade Desk’s platform. The first CTV partner to adopt the open-source, interoperable identity initiative, FuboTV has since seen a spend growth rate 112.8% faster than the increase in available impressions.

COMING UP

The first crossover event between CBS procedurals “NCIS,” “NCIS: Los Angeles” and ”NCIS: Hawai’i” is slated to take place in January. The stunt involves a “mysterious and highly trained hitman” who has NCIS agents in his sights.

“Blue’s Big City Adventure,” a feature film featuring original “Blue’s Clues” host Steve Burns, lands Friday, November 18 on Paramount+. The movie is “a sing and dance-along musical spectacular for the whole family, featuring all-new songs and choreography with the show’s beloved hosts and fan-favorite animated characters,” says the streamer.

SPORTS

The NHL announced the debut of Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards, described as “an advanced approach to dynamic dasherboard advertising that will launch for the 2022-23 season.” The DED system allows for the digital replacement of camera-visible arena dasherboards within local, national, and international NHL game broadcasts for the League, its Clubs and their media and corporate partners. The NHL has partnered with Supponor to develop the DED technology solution which uses remote, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based keying technology to program dasherboard advertising during game broadcasts by placing dynamic graphics over the camera-visible arena dasherboards.

ESPN reports multi-year viewership highs across “Sunday NFL Countdown,” “NFL Live” and “NFL Rewind” in September. “Sunday NFL Countdown” is averaging 1.4 million viewers per show, up 15% from 2021. “NFL Live” earned its highest September viewership since 2016, averaging 428,000 viewers per edition with “NFL Rewind” averaging 411,000 viewers per episode, the show’s best September mark since it was branded “NFL Rewind” during the 2019 season.

Speaking of ESPN, the company announced its newest college football brand spot, “The Cougar Who Wouldn’t Quit.” The promotion is part of “The Greatest Story Ever Played” creative campaign that launched at the beginning of the 2022 college football season. Teaming with Arts & Letters, “The Cougar Who Wouldn’t Quit” opens with Washington State alum Tom Pounds (Class of 1981) reminiscing about his first trip with the Washington State Cougars flag to the College GameDay set in Austin, Texas, back in 2003.

CBS Sports locked in its college football Saturday showcase for October 15 at 3:30p, tapping Alabama/Tennessee. Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and reporter Jenny Dell will call the action from Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.

Combate Global announced a world championship Mixed Martial Arts event, headlined by a bantamweight title fight between reigning world champion David “The Black Spartan” Martinez (8-1) and challenger Axel Osuna (5-1), live at 12a on Univision on Friday, October 7.

Fox Deportes is launching its first NFT collection as part of its 25th anniversary and National Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. The collection includes three NFTs designed by Los Angeles-based visual artist and Mexico City native Jiovanny Lopez Alvarez.

GOING GLOBAL

Banijay is headed to MIPCOM with formats “Love Triangle,” “Blow Up,” “Le Plus Grand Karaoké de France,” and “MasterChef: Young Talent,” “Starstruck,” and Banijay Rights’ scripted titles “Rogue Heroes,” ”Marie Antoinette,” “Bali 2002,” and “Serial Lover, “and third-party titles “Stonehouse” and “Riches.”

Fotini Paraskakis is partnering with Japanese media executive Shigeko (Cindy) Chino and former Discovery APAC and EMEA president, Arthur Bastings. The venture aims to bring Asian inspired stories, in both scripted and non-scripted, to the international stage.

Gary Lico, founder and proprietor of Garylico.TV, has announced a series of renewals and new licenses for “Forensic Files.” Renewals and new telecasters include FilmRise worldwide; RTL in Germany and Netherlands; CBS Reality UK; Antenna 3, Spain; SBS, Belgium; Foxtel, Australia; ETV, South Africa; Mediawan in France; TV4 Sweden and MTV Finland. Garylico.

Trilogy Animation Group is heading to MIPJunior and MIPCOM this month to showcase a slate of five new series for children and families, including the reboot of “Jay, Jay The Jet Plane “– now “The New Adventures of Jay Jay The Jet Plane” – and “Tutenstein,” both previously from Porchlight Entertainment.

Seven broadcasters across four countries have boarded new animated series “Audrey’s Shelter” from French production company Watch Next Media. France Televisions (France), TVO Kids, Radio-Canada, TFO and Knowledge (Canada) have jointly commissioned the series with public-service broadcasters ZDF (Germany) and RTVE (Spain) on board as co-producing broadcast partners. The series will air on both ZDF and KiKa in Germany and on Clan TV in Spain.

2022 Best of the Best

Enter before it’s too late!

We’re thrilled to announce the Best of the Best site has officially launched! Best of the Best recognizes outstanding achievement and excellence in national TV programming, marketing campaigns, people, tech, and more. The first entry deadline is October 31st, with categories including “Best News Program” “Best Social Media Campaign,” and “Best AVOD Services.” Enter now for the chance at well-deserved recognition and extra bragging rights!

ENTER NOW

RATINGS

Last Thursday night’s broadcast of Telemundo’s “2022 Billboard Latin Music Awards” delivered 600,000 A18-49 and nearly 1.6 million total viewers. Among A18-34, Telemundo ranked as the #1 network across all broadcast and cable networks. The show reached a cumulative audience of 3 million total viewers and 1.2 million A18-49 on linear and generated 34 million total engagements across television, digital and social platforms.

Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” averaged 13.4 million viewers across all platforms and 11.7 million viewers in Nielsen National TV ratings for Thursday’s game, up +6% from Week 3’s Steelers-Browns match-up.

After seven days of multiplatform viewing, the season two premiere of “Abbott Elementary” rose to a series-high 2.38 rating among A18-49, four times over its initial Live+SD rating (+318% – 0.57 rating). The comedy also picked up an additional +4.1 million Total Viewers over its Live+SD average (2.9 million) to hit 7.0 million viewers after seven days of multiplatform viewing.

The series premiere episodes of Bounce original series “Finding Happy” were seen by 2.6 million viewers 2+ in their debut telecasts. The episodes premiered back-to-back on Saturday, September 24 from, and their initial airing burst within 24 hours included a special presentation on Bounce’s sister network ION on Sunday night.

During the night of Hurricane Ian’s landfall on September 28 in Florida, Fox Weather’s simulcast on Fox News Channel from 1-4a averaged 552,000 viewers.

Top 10 Streaming Shows for the week of September 26
Show, Platform, Actions, Posts, Actions per Post, Audience
Cobra Kai (Netflix), 1.7m, 34, 49,223, 4.1m
House of the Dragon (HBO Max), 1.6m, 34, 48,008, 2.4m
The Chosen (Prime Video), 1.5m, 26, 57,375, 1.1m
Game of Thrones (HBO Max), 1.4m, 19, 73,644, 39.1m
Euphoria (HBO Max), 1.3m, 2, 673,568, 9.2m
Fate: The Winx Saga (Netflix), 1.2m, 13, 96,061, 812k
Dancing with the Stars (Disney+), 683k, 151, 4,523, 9.1m
Get Organized with the Home Edit (Netflix), 615k, 28, 21,960, 6.9m
Bridgerton (Netflix), 412k, 5, 82,322, 3.8m
Spy x Family (Hulu), 386k, 15, 25,720, 137k
Source: Comscore Social Powered by Shareablee

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Friday, September 30
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: Shark Tank 3.18 (0.4), 20/20 2.64 (0.3)
CBS: The Price Is Right 3.70 (0.3), S.W.A.T 2.40 (0.2), Blue Bloods 3.00 (0.2)
CW: Penn & Teller: Foo7 (0.1)
FOX: WWE Friday Night Smackdown 2.21 (0.5)
NBC: Capital One College Bowl 1.79 (0.3), Dateline 2.95 (0.3)
Telemundo: Billboard VIP 0.65 (0.2), El Fuego del Destino 0.74 (0.2), Infiel: Historia de un Engaño 0.83 (0.2)
Univision: La Herencia 1.37 (0.4), Los Ricos También Lloran 1.20 (0.4)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Anna Marsh has been promoted to Deputy CEO of Canal+ Group. Marsh was previously CEO of subsidiary Studiocanal.

Also moving up is Derek Barbanti, who has been elevated to Creative Director at Northern Lights.

Alice Rao has been named SVP of Publicity at Hallmark Media. Rao has worked as a communications and publicity consultant with Netflix, HBO Max, Turner Networks and MRC Media.

Rob Doherty is joining Omens Studios, consulting as SVP of Business Development, while Matteo Ceccotti will be joining the company’s “123 Number Squad!” project.

Abacus Media Rights has appointed Anne Corsak as Sales Director for North America. Corsak joins the company from Flame Media, where she held the position of SVP of Content Sales, responsible for North America and Global Digital Strategy.

Banijay has named Ce?dric Brignon as Chief Financial Officer, effective November 1. Brignon most recently served as Vice President Studio Finance for EMEA at Netflix.

Beyond Productions (“MythBusters”) has appointed Joe Rivadeneira as SVP Development, Factual at its Los Angeles-based production operation.

Daniel Jurow has joined DNEG as Chief Operating Officer. Jurow was previousy COO at Technicolor’s Film and Episodic VFX division.

This Day in History
1880 – The University of California was founded, in LA.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Which roommate in “New Girl” (2011-2018) has her/his own “Douchebag Jar”? Schmidt. Kudos to: Megan Hallson-Warner Bros. Discovery/NYC; Rick Dascher-WarnerMedia Studios/Atlanta; Benjamin Zander-NBC News Daily/NYC; Rick Ramage-UTA/NYC; Aaron Paquette-AccelerateSG/Fort Worth, TX; Sean Douaire-Warner Bros. Discovery/Chicago; John Kukla-KDFW/Fox 4/Dallas; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; Anne Wettig-Fox S&P/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
Who was the first actress to play “The Honeymooners” (1955-56) character, Trixie? (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