Today’s Premieres
AXS TV: The Very Very Best of the 80s at 8p
Discovery: Bering Sea Gold at 9p
History: The UnXplained at 9p; The Proof Is Out There at 10p
Hulu: Undead Unluck
Max: Deane’s Dynasty
Oxygen: The Real Murders of Los Angeles at 9p
Prime Video: Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe

Saturday’s Premieres
ID: Deadly Honeymoons at 10p
Nat Geo Wild: Heartland Docs, DVM at 9p
NBC: Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild at 10a
Netflix: Strong Nam-soon
PBS: Austin City Limits at 8

Saturday’s Finales
Bounce: Johnson at 8p
CW: The Great Chocolate Showdown at 8p

Sunday’s Premieres
Ovation: Murder at My Door with Kym Marsh at 9p
Showtime: The Circus at 7p
Smithsonian Channel: Ice Airport Alaska at 8p
TLC: 90 Day Fiancé at 8p; 90 Day Fiancé: Pillow Talk at 11p

Sunday’s Finales
Cooking: Carnival Eats at 9
PBS: Unforgotten on Masterpiece at 9p; Van der Valk on Masterpiece at 10p

IN THE NEWS

Talks between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers will continue today, “with the parties working internally over the weekend, resuming Monday, October 9,” said the groups. Attending meetings at SAG-AFTRA headquarters have been WBD’s David Zaslav, Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and NBCU’s Donna Langley.

Media outlets including ABC News, CBS News, CNN and C-SPAN filed a motion on Thursday to allow video access to the courtroom during Donald Trump’s trial on election conspiracy charges next year. “The prosecution of a former President, now a presidential contender, on charges of subverting the electoral process, presents the strongest possible circumstances for continuous public oversight of the justice system,” reads the filing. “That oversight, rooted in decades of First Amendment precedent and sound judicial policy, will be functionally illusory without audiovisual access to these proceedings. Through counsel, Trump has repeatedly spoken out about the importance of cameras in the courtroom in this case. For his benefit, and that of the Court and the public, real-time audiovisual coverage will be a critical step in stemming false conspiracy theories across the entire spectrum of public opinion, regardless of the trial’s outcome.”

TV ad sales revenue was down 10%, to $14.4 billion from May to August versus the same period in strike-free 2022. That’s according an estimate from MediaRadar. Hardest hit was late night (down 15%). Primetime TV dipped 11%, and talk shows were down 6%. Soap operas were up 21%.

Small to mid-sized cable networks could come under threat in future carriage negotiations, warns a report from S&P Global Market. In the wake of Disney’s carriage deal with Charter last month, which shed Disney Junior, FXX and Nat Geo Wild, among other smaller networks, “We predict the next few quarters will be transformative for the cable industry as streaming services become available to traditional linear subscribers and niche cable networks start being phased out,” wrote S&P senior research analyst Scott Robson. “We expect companies to come to creative agreements that push the industry forward in the transition to streaming.”

AT&T is exploring its options for its 70% stake in DirecTV, including selling the satellite TV provider, according to Bloomberg. Facing a deadline under which it can legally sell its stake in DirecTV, AT&T’s options include a dividend recapitalization, adding a new investor, or selling the stake as early as August 2024, reports Bloomberg. The outlet adds it is possible the current ownership structure with co-owner TPG Inc. could continue.

Comedy “Sort Of,” focused on a gender-fluid millennial, will end with its upcoming season three on Max. No hard feelings from co-creators Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo, who announced the news on Instagram saying it was their decision to end the show’s run. “We set out to tell a story about a kind of transition in Sabi’s life, and how those around them also change — and we feel in this coming season that story came to an end in a way that felt right for us,” they wrote, adding, “Our hope is that this series can continue to affirm lives and spark conversations well after the final season drops.”

Roy Wood Jr. is saying goodbye to Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” where he said he was “able to pursue my comedic and political curiosities with some of the best writers, producers, crew and correspondents anyone could hope for.” Wood added he is looking forward to finding new ways to collaborate with the network he worked for for eight years. “Until then, I am excited to nurture new ideas and see what the future holds for me in the shifting sands of late night television, scripted comedy, and whatever else the comedy gods may have in store for me in 2024 and beyond,” he said. “The Daily Show” returns on Monday, October 16, with guest hosts manning the desk until a replacement for Trevor Noah is named.

Amazon is laying off employees in the communications divisions of Amazon Studios, Prime Video and Music. “We regularly review the structure of our teams and make adjustments based on the needs of the business and, following a recent review, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles on our communications team,” said Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser. “We’re grateful to these employees for their contributions, and we’re focused on supporting them in their next steps.”

Staffing isn’t the only thing taking a hit as Amazon reviews expenses – the company also shuttered live audio service Amp. Launched in March 2022 back when Clubhouse was buzzy, the service struggled to meet internal goals, according to Insider. “We’ve made the difficult decision to close Amp,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “We learned a lot about how live music communities interact in the process, which we are bringing to bear as we build new fan experiences at scale in Amazon Music.”

2023 Esports & Gaming Business Summit

LESS THAN THREE WEEKS AWAY

The Esports & Gaming Business Summit will take place on Oct. 22-24 at the MGM Grand In Las Vegas. Featuring NICKMERCS, GuhRL, Forbes’ Matt Craig, this event is one like no other! Be there to share the fun and facts at this year’s EBS!

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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

MagellanTV and non-fiction production company ZED have expanded their content partnership with a new, multi-year production output deal that includes MagellanTV making feature film “Amazon Women Warriors” available, including to non-subscribers, through Thursday, October 12. “Our platform caters to those looking for content that goes beyond the surface and dives deep into different subjects; ZED specializes in producing high-quality documentaries that do just that,” said MagellanTV Managing Director Greg Diefenbach.

“The Drew Barrymore Show” is returning Monday, October 16, without its three co-head writers, Chelsea White, Cristina Kinon and Liz Coe. The WGA writers received job offers for the new season but declined, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Call for Submissions: Cynopsis is producing our annual Holiday Programming Guide, which comes out on November 1 and will be sent to all Cynopsis subscribers. If your network has holiday programming airing from November 2 through January 1, please send your listing to [email protected] and [email protected] no later October 16 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).

TV rights to bestseller Bright Young Women have been acquired by Made Up Stories, Picturestart and Fifth Season. Author Jessica Knowles will write the adaptation of the book, telling the story of women whose lives were changed by Ted Bundy’s murder spree. Knowles will also executive produce.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Apple TV+ limited series “Masters of the Air” from Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman premieres globally Friday, January 26, 2024. “’Masters of the Air’ is a salute to the brave men of the 8th Air Force, who, through their courage and brotherhood, helped defeat Nazi Germany in World War II,” said executive producer Gary Goetzman. “Tom and Steven have always wanted to visualize cinematically what our author Don Miller has called, this ‘singular event in the history of warfare.’”

EarthxTV has renewed four of its original series. “House of What?!”, “Bike to Bites,” “Charlie Bee Company,” and “Kill Your Lawn” are all set to return in 2024.

Season 10 of “Married to Medicine” launches Sunday, November 5 at 9:15 on Bravo.

“Kennedy,” chronicling the life of President John F. Kennedy, kicks off Saturday, November 18 at 8p with three back-to-back episodes narrated by Peter Coyote.

British historian Lucy Worsley travels in Agatha Christie’s footsteps in “Agatha Christie: Lucy Worsley on the Mystery Queen,” premiering Sunday, December 3 at 8p on PBS (check local listings).

COMING UP

CBS’ “60 Minutes” will run for 90 minutes this Sunday, after football. Subjects include Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI”; General Mark Milley; founder of Klutch Sports Group Rich Paul; and 3D printing.

ABC Owned Television Stations in partnership with ABC News is presenting one-hour special “Our America: Unforgettable” which examines the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease across Hispanic and Latino families. The special will make its linear debut Sunday, October 7 and stream across ABC Owned Television Stations’ platforms and Hulu.

FOX Nation will debut “Fright Night: America’s Scariest Hotels” with travel and lifestyle host Abby Hornacek on Friday, October 13. Hornacek will explore the most haunted hotels across the country, investigating the dark truth behind these dark places.

The 2024 CMT Music Awards return live from Austin ‘s Moody Center on Sunday, April 7 at 8p on CBS. This year’s awards show broadcast reached 6.18 million viewers.

TV5Monde celebrates Édith Piaf’s career, tied to the 60th anniversary of the French singer’s untimely death, with the film “Étoile sans lumière,” airing Tuesday, October 10 at 8:30p.

TECH TALK

The IAB Tech Lab released an “Identity Solutions Guidance” document for public comment. IAB Tech Lab’s Rearc Addressability Working developed the guide for advertisers, publishers, media agencies, data collaborators, and ad tech vendors to “demystify the landscape, better understand the scope and scale of ID solutions and the technology, so that they can evaluate different ID Solution partners.” Industry executives have until November 4 to make a comment before the lab moves to ratify it as a digital ad industry technical standard.

Cineverse Corp. has partnered with Vionlabs, provider of AI video metadata solutions. The partnership allows Cineverse to leverage Vionlabs’ AI technology to enable next-generation search capabilities on the company’s Cineverse streaming platform and to serve as a metadata provider for an upcoming advanced search product.

Sandbox Group has launched PlayKids+, an app that adapts its UI and featured content based on the child’s age. The app combines Sandbox’s existing children’s learning platforms including Hopster, Kidomi and Curious World.

STREAMING

Watch out, Roku: Comcast Corp and Charter Communications are offering a new streaming set-top device, Xumo Stream Box, for $60. The device can access most major subscription streaming apps, and allows access to legacy pay TV companies’ streaming branded services. Comcast bought Xumo in 2020, and in 2022 contributed Xumo to a joint venture with Charter.

BroadwayHD inked a deal with NBCUniversal for US streaming rights to their “Live!” musical productions. Subscribers will have access to productions such as “Hairspray Live!,” “The Sound of Music Live!”, and “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert.” The on-demand digital streaming media company, which records and distributes live theatrical productions through its platform, will also make the app available on Smart TVs from Samsung, LG, and those operating Google’s Android TV System.

TMB’s FAST channel At Home with Family Handyman is now available on Samsung TV Plus. The channel is adding two new series to the DIY brand’s programming slate, “Pet Palaces” and “Workshop It,” set to premiere today, October 6 and Wednesday, November 1, respectively.

SPORTS ROUNDUP

The NFL is shaking off criticism that it’s going overboard on coverage of Taylor Swift’s attendance at Kansas City Chiefs games, featuring her maybe-beau Travis Kelce. “The Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce news has been a pop cultural moment we’ve leaned into in real time, as it’s an intersection of sport and entertainment, and we’ve seen an incredible amount of positivity around the sport,” said the NFL in a statement. “The vast majority of our content has remained focused on the game, our players and variety of other initiatives.”

Taking it to the Max: The Bleacher Report Sports Add-On tier is now streaming on Max. The B/R Sports Add-On, which features more than 300 live US and international sports events throughout the year alongside Bleacher Report live video content, is available to Max subscribers for a promotional period through February 29 and $9.99 per month thereafter.

The Arizona Coyotes and Scripps Sports have formed a multi-year agreement to televise all locally broadcast Coyotes games over the air to residents of Arizona and surrounding states within the team’s broadcast territory. The Coyotes and Diamond Sports Net Arizona on Wednesday agreed to end the Coyotes telecast rights agreement.

Enterprise, the National Hockey League Players’ Association and the National Hockey League announced a multiyear extension of their North American partnership. “Our longstanding partnership with the NHL and NHLPA has created an incredible platform for us to reach new mobility audiences across North America,” said Kyle Sanborn, VP of Global Brand Strategy & Marketing Activation at Enterprise Holdings. “We’ve built a strong relationship with NHL fans, and we are eager to continue to grow that connection.”

SVOD FITE+ is adding more pro wrestling to its programming. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Impact Wrestling, two archival events will be added to FITE+ each Thursday through November. On October 21, Impact Wrestling “Bound for Glory 2023” will be live on FITE as a PPV. FITE+ is also adding live and archival events from Warrior Wrestling, which is returning to FITE.

Ealing Fields, winners of the inaugural New York Jets and Chicago Bears NFL Girls Flag League that launched in West London in March, face German team Stadtteilschule am Heidberg in the flag football game taking place the NFL field at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday, October 9.

The Professional Pickleball Association Tour World Championship Series is back for its third of four events this season with the Guaranteed Rate PPA Championships presented by Thorlo, on Prime Video through Sunday, October 8, from 1-9p.

GOING GLOBAL

At the Loeries Creative Week 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa, UniWorld Group President and CEO Gregory Edwards announced a strategic partnership with Johannesburg headquartered Two Tone Global to transform media and advertising services across Africa as UWG Africa. The partnership brings together the skills and experience of the two Black-owned agencies to provide deep insights into each other’s diverse cultural landscapes and reshape the way clients reach and engage with their audiences.

Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana announced two new distribution partners for its new 3D animated original series “Millie Magnificent”: Canal+ in France and Treehouse in Canada.

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RATINGS

For the fifth consecutive year, NBC topped broadcast networks in viewership for premiere week with 6.8 million average total viewers September 25-October 1, up 13%. In a season launch hampered by the writers’ and actors’ strikes, ABC counted 4.6 million (up 1%), CBS delivered 2.9 million (down 25%) and Fox drew 2.5 million (down 36%). Among a18-49, it was 1.26 for NBC (up 15%), 0.9 for ABC (down 5%), 0.61 for Fox (down 32%) and 0.28 for CBS (down 35%).

Its first day after streaming, the season three finale of “Only Murders in the Building” was the most-viewed finale of the year on Hulu (a view is defined as total stream divided by runtime).

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Jason T. Reed has been named head of Skydance Sports. Reed spent 18 years at The Walt Disney Company.

Françoise Guyonnet has been appointed CEO Copyrights Group and EVP Kids’ Brands. Guyonnet has held the position of Director of TV Series at Studiocanal since 2017.

Video creation and distribution platform VideoVerse announced the appointment of Sabya Das as its President and Chief Operating Officer. Das was a Partner and founding member of Moneta Ventures.

New media production company Partners in Kind has named Dorothy Toran (“Race in America: A Movement Not a Moment”), an executive producer, showrunner and director, as president.

This Day in History
1866 – In the first train robbery in the US, the Reno brothers stole $13,000.

Friday Fact
2010 was the first year since 1974 that Christopher Walken didn’t appear in a movie.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What brought “CSI” characters Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle out of retirement when “CSI: Vegas” premiered in 2021? An attack on Jim Brass. Kudos to: Marni C. Gold/Hawthorne, NJ; Ted Linhart-NBCU/NYC; Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC; David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo, CA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
What was the fourth series in the “Law & Order” franchise? (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