IN THE NEWS

Tamron Hall was renewed for season three by Walt Disney Television, which has cleared the syndicated talker for 2021-22 on ABC Owned Television Stations Group. “Tamron and our team aggressively came out of the starting block for a fantastic first month of our new season,” said William Burton, SVP, Syndication, Daytime & Sports, ABC Entertainment. Season two of the show is averaging 1.2 million viewers, up 9% versus the same period in 2019.

The E.W. Scripps Company is launching an initiative to arm voters with information ranging from local digital voter guides and precinct-by-precinct coverage to in-depth national coverage. In 42 markets, Scripps’ local TV stations have built dedicated voter resource pages where their audiences can find out how to vote in their hometowns, including registration deadlines, polling locations and what they’ll need to submit a mail-in ballot or vote in person.

President Trump is ready to rumble again. On Tuesday, the day after being released from Walter Reed Military Medical Center, where he was treated for COVID-19, Trump tweeted, “I am looking forward to the debate on the evening of Thursday, October 15th in Miami. It will be great!”. This time around, the debate will have a town hall format.

POTUS isn’t just looking for a challenge on the debate stage. After Facebook deleted a post from Trump saying that the flu is more deadly than COVID-19, and Twitter flagged the post with a misinformation warning, the president renewed his call for a repeal of a 1996 regulation granting liability protection to Internet companies for content that appears on their platforms. “REPEAL SECTION 230!!!” tweeted Trump.

Group Nine Media announced that NowThis, The Dodo, POPSUGAR, Thrillist and Seeker have joined Google as alpha partners to support Google’s launch of its new Web Stories product. “We have been working with Google to ramp up their new Web Stories ecosystem, and to date, have created over 200 Web Stories from our five brands and are seeing promising engagement,” said Group Nine Chief Insights Officer, Ashish Patel. Group Nine joins other publishers who will be featured in Google’s new dedicated Web Story carousel with Discover, which launched yesterday in the US, Brazil and India to start.

Call for Submissions: Cynopsis is producing its annual Holiday Programming Guide, which comes out on October 28 and will be sent to all Cynopsis subscribers. If your network has holiday programming airing from October 28 through January 1, please send your listing to [email protected] and [email protected] no later than Monday, October 19 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,12 Days of Giving at 1p, A Christmas Kiss at 3p, A Very Country Christmas at 5p, Christmas on the Coast at 7p, A Christmas Cruise at 9p”. Holiday-related programs only! A confirmation email will be sent following each submission (if you don’t receive a confirmation email, please resubmit).

NBC Sports and Twitter extended their content deal to cover both the Tokyo Olympics, now set for summer 2021, and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022. All content will live on the @NBCOlympics handle on Twitter, available to users in the US. NBC Sports will oversee sales for content, sold as Twitter in-stream sponsorships, with Twitter providing sales support.

Spectrum Networks’ format for hyperlocal news, politics, weather and original local content will launch to Spectrum customers across Texas starting October 16. With the expansion, Spectrum News 1 will serve Dallas-Fort Worth/Wichita Falls and the Southern and Western regions in Texas, in addition to its existing coverage of Austin and San Antonio.

With more than a dozen categories, these companies reign supreme: Adobe, Amobee, Bell Media, Concert, Cuebiq, Dell, Disney, Dotdash, Discovery Engage, Gamut Total, GroundTruth, IBM, Imagine Communication, Jaguar Land Rover, ListenFirst, MagicLinks, NewsON, Nielsen, New York Interconnect, Premion, Publica, Realeyes, Roku, Simpli.fi, Spectrum Reach, Tap Native, The AI Exchange, TVSquared, Giant, Viamedia, Vistar Media, WarnerMedia, and Xandr.

Save the date for our virtual awards event on Dec. 1st to see who wins!

Lifetime greenlit Girl in the Basement for its Ripped from the Headlines slate. Inspired by the true story of a young woman imprisoned in her family home, the movie stars Stefanie Scott (Insidious: The Last Key), Judd Nelson (St. Elmo’s Fire), and Joely Fisher (9-1-1). Under the Broader Focus initiative, Lifetime reunites with Elisabeth Röhm, who is making her directorial debut, and executive producer Manu Boyer, who directed Röhm in last year’s Family Pictures movie. Produced by Big Dreams Entertainment and Swirl for Lifetime, Girl in the Basement will debut in 2021.

Temple Hill Entertainment (The Outsider, Mr. Mercedes) struck a first-look, multi-year deal with Lionsgate for television. The studio has worked with Temple Hill on films including the Twilight franchise. “Temple Hill has been part of the Lionsgate family for years, and we’re incredibly excited to expand our relationship into the world of television,” said Lionsgate EVP of Television and Head of Development Scott Herbst.

Hulu landed an untitled documentary chronicling the rise and fall of WeWork and its founder, Adam Neumann, based on Forbes’ reporting. Campfire will produce.

Aaron Guzikowski, creator of HBO Max’s Raised by Wolves, has signed an overall with the streamer. Wolves was renewed for season two last month.

Snapchat announced new Snap Originals docu-series set to debut in 2021. Among them: Honestly Loren, from Siren’s Media, focused on social media influencer Loren Gray; Life’s a Trip (Trooper Entertainment), following Trippie Redd on a journey to experience the country’s most pressing issues; and Swae Meets World (Big Fish Entertainment), tracking Swae Lee as he prepares to launch his first solo album.

Apple TV+ ordered The Supermodels from Imagine Documentaries. The series, which comes from Imagine Documentaries’ first-look agreement with Apple, will feature interviews with Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangalista and Christy Turlington, who will also exec produce.

Comedian Paula Pell (A.P. Bio) has been added to the cast of Peacock comedy Girls5eva, joining Sara Bareilles, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Busy Philipps as members of disbanded 90s girl group who get another shot at fame.

Cartoon Network’s Baby Bears return in We Baby Bears, an original comedy arriving in spring 2021. The series tracks baby Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear. We Bare Bears director Manny Hernandez returns as executive producer.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Netflix’s Selena: The Series will premiere Friday, December 4. The biographical drama centers on Tejano music legend Selena Quintanilla, who was shot and killed at age 23 in 1995.

Nat Geo’s Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, originally set for a January 1, 2021, debut, will arrive early – on Wednesday, December 2 at 9p. Each investigation in the eight-part series embeds with Peabody Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller as she explores the inner workings of a black market smuggling network.

Season two of Travel Channel’s The Holzer Files premieres with a special Halloween week launch, on Thursday, October 29 at 11p. The paranormal team revisits Hans Holzer’s most haunting cases.

HGTV competition series has lined up starpower for season two of Rock the Block. Ready to renovate are Mike Holmes (Holmes on Homes), Alison Victoria (Windy City Rehab), Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent (Nate and Jeremiah: Save My House), David Bromstad (My Lottery Dream Home), Tiffany Brooks (50K Three Ways), and Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt (100 Day Dream Home).

Save Me Too, the second season of Sky thriller Save Me, debuts on Peacock on Thursday, November 5. In the continuation, Nelly is torn between protecting Grace, the woman he found in a caravan park, and his mission to find his daughter.

Season two of Search and Explore is now available on Tubi Kids. Based on the book series, the animated show is aimed at kids 2 to 8.

STREAMING

Haystack News announced the successful launch of the second generation of its personalized news ticker, Newsline. The interactive news ticker has been upgraded and is now available on all smart TV platforms including LG, Samsung, Sony, TCL and Vizio, and Android TV, Fire TV and Roku devices including smart TVs, streaming devices and more. “Haystack News is surging with millions of new users, tallying 145% user growth year over year thanks to the introduction of innovative new features, such as Newsline,” said Haystack TV President and Co-Founder Ish Harshawat.

ADVERTISING & AGENCIES

Marketing campaigns have not completely rebounded from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the results of a survey by the World Federation of Advertisers are promising. “We are starting to see some green shoots of recovery with more than half our members no longer holding their campaigns back as a result of the pandemic,” said WFA CEO Stephan Loerke. He added, however, that there is still a lot of uncertainty and “it’s unlikely we’ll be moving to ‘business as usual’ anytime soon.” Loerke also noted an acceleration of the shift to digital channels, “but it remains to be seen if this will be permanent.”

The effects of the pandemic on the careers of marketing professionals varies depending on where they work and their seniority, according to research from 99designs and Corus. Forty-four percent of account managers and brand managers believe their productivity has improved, but only 25% of senior leaders working remotely felt the same way. Fifty-six percent of external agency employees said they would prefer to work at the office full-time, versus 38% of in-house agency employees. While 30% of marketing professionals said they found creative work and collaboration on creative projects more difficult working from home, 31% said they found it easier. Forty-two percent of managers said communication with their teams actually improved while working remotely.

Ampersand announced a limited Beta release of a new self-serve functionality of The AND Platform, its multiscreen TV planning, buying and measurement platform launched at the beginning of 2020. The AND Platform provides marketers with reach across 85 million households, 120+ cable networks and more than 60% of all U.S. addressable households, and is the first advanced buy-side TV platform to centralize campaign planning and measurement within a single interface, supporting both local and national TV investment strategies. Local TV advertisers can define their target audiences by leveraging their own first party data or choosing from thousands of audience segments built with data from third-party data providers, together with the aggregated set-top box insights at a DMA level. For national TV advertisers, The AND Platform now offers access to audience-based campaign viewership insights to identify un/underexposed audiences. The Beta is expected to run through the end of 2020 with general availability in 1Q21.

COMING UP

Crackle Plus doc Lennox Lewis: The Untold Story premieres Thursday, October 15. Narrated by Dr. Dre, the film about the heavyweight champ includes footage from Lewis’ personal archives, as well as interviews with him and rivals Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and George Foreman.

The HISTORY channel will premiere two-hour documentary special The Campaigns that Made History on Tuesday, October 27 at 9p. Hosted by Carlos Watson, OZY co-founder, CEO and host of The Carlos Watson Show on YouTube, the special dives into the unexpected twists and turns of presidential politics and campaigns over the last half-century.

Two marathons of Supernatural will run on CW’s WarnerMedia sib TNT. From October 6-8, TNT will air the first 13 episodes of Season 15. On November 19 from 5a to 8p, TNT will host a 15-hour Supernatural marathon as a countdown to the two-hour series finale event, airing later that evening on The CW. The “best of” marathon will include one episode from each season along with interstitials featuring behind-the-scenes clips and anecdotes from the cast.

Faith and family film The Farmer and the Belle: Saving Santaland debuts on VOD, cable and DVD platforms and retailers on November 17, with a story about finding the meaning of beauty, true love and the real power of faith. The film “is perfect for these times,” says Lise Romanoff, CEO and Managing Director of distributor Vision Films. “The empowering message for girls and women that beauty radiates from inside is a message we never tire of enforcing.”

Fox News Channel’s special live programming surrounding the 2020 vice presidential debate tonight, October 7, will be available across all of Fox News Media’s platforms. From 9-11p, chief political anchor Bret Baier and The Story’s Martha MacCallum will co-anchor coverage from Salt Lake City.

Circle Network is offering up a new three-hour Faith Block. Each week through December, inspirational programming will air from 8-11p on Tuesdays and 2-5p on Sundays, on various formats.

TECH TALK

Uberall, provider of “Near Me” Brand Experience marketing solutions, announced a partnership with Nextdoor, the neighborhood app for trusted connections, to boost local business visibility and engagement with consumers. “The growth of ‘Near Me’ online searches is a development that companies need to take into account when interacting with their local consumers,” said Florian Hübner, CEO and founder of Uberall. “The partnership between Uberall and Nextdoor will enable many companies to get closer to their local customers by providing them with accurate and up-to-date information in their search for products and services nearby.”

GOING GLOBAL

BBC4 has ordered a second season of Raiders of the Lost Past with Dr. Janina Ramirez. The series will continue to be distributed internationally as Lost Worlds and Hidden Treasures by eOne Entertainment.

ITV Studios and Something Special, the new Korean content, development, production and distribution company, have agreed a work together to create and develop new formats to take to the international market. Something Special will represent the shows in Asia, while ITV Studios represents international rights.

WildBrain Spark has inked a deal with India- and Singapore-based animation studio, Cosmos-Maya, to grow the comedy series Eena Meena Deeka on YouTube and other AVOD platforms. Under the agreement, WildBrain Spark and Cosmos-Maya will co-finance season three of the 2D animated kids’ series, to be produced by Cosmos-Maya.

EQ Media Group and Abacus Media Rights announced two new factual series set to premiere on SBS Australia, and the A+E Networks UK channels, Sky HISTORY in the UK and HISTORY in Sweden, Poland and Benelux in 2020: Hitler’s Secret Sex Life, and How the Nazis Lost the War.

Streamer Starzplay will premiere the historical crime drama series Godfather of Harlem in France and the UK on Sunday, November 1, with new episodes from the first season airing weekly. The show premiered on Epix in 2019.

Blend Media announced the launch of Blend Market, a marketplace dedicated to connecting clients with creators and solution-providers with relevant skills across the Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, 3D and Mixed Reality spectrum. The platform’s mission: make immersive content, creators and solutions more accessible.

Join Cynopsis for the inspirational, Top Women in Media (Virtual) Awards Ceremony taking place October 13-October 16.

GET INSPIRED

Sponsored by: Turnkey Search
Supported by: Allen Media Group, Crown Media & Sinclair Broadcast Group

Comedy Central’s South Park: The Pandemic Special delivered 2.3 million total viewers and a 2.1 rating among A18-49 in Live+SD, growing to 3.23 million viewers and 2.89 in the demo with three days of playback. Add in numbers from ViacomCBS sibs MTV and MTV2, where the special was simulcast, as well as two Comedy Central encores, and Live+3 viewership swells to 5.3 million.

The season 18 opener of syndicated talker Ellen DeGeneres (1.2 Live+SD national Nielsen rating, up 50% from the week before) recovered from a series low and landed in third place among the talk shows for the week ending September 27. However, the program lost 29% and from the same week one year ago. The second season premiere of Kelly Clarkson (11-week high 1.0, up 25%) surged despite numerous preemptions for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s funeral services and breaking news in the Breonna Taylor case.

Hallmark Channel original movie premiere Country at Heart was the highest-rated and most-watched entertainment cable program of the day on Saturday, boosting the network to be the #1-rated and most-watched entertainment cable network during Saturday Total Day and Weekend Primetime among Households and W18+. The premiere averaged a 2.3 Household rating, 2.2 million total viewers, and 305,000 W25-54.

TV Time’s Binge Report for the Week of September 28
Emily in Paris (Netflix) – 4.92%
Modern Family (ABC) – 2.12%
Lucifer (Netflix) – 2.05%
How to Get Away with Murder (ABC) – 1.82%
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) – 1.74%
The Office (NBC) – 1.61%
Ratched (Netflix) – 1.58%
Friends (NBC) – 1.43%
The 100 (The CW) – 1.42%
The Boys (Amazon) 1.31%
The weekly Binge Report ranks shows with the most binge sessions. A binge session is when four or more episodes of a show are watched and tracked in the TV Time app within a given day.

Top 11 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of September 21 ranked in order by HH Rtg
Judge Judy (CTD) 5.8 AA
Family Feud (CTD) 5.2 AA
Jeopardy (CTD) 5.1 AA
Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 5.0 AA
The Big Bang Theory (WB) 2.8 AA
Inside Edition (CTD) 2.3 AA
Entertainment Tonight (CTD) 2.2 AA
Dr. Phil (CTD) 1.9 AA
Last Man Standing (DAD) 1.8 AA
Live With Kelly and Ryan (DAD) 1.7 AA
Hot Bench (CTD) 1.7AA

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Monday, October 5
Show, P2+ 0000s, (A18-49)
ABC: Dancing With the Stars 5.84 (0.9), Emergency Call 2.96 (0.5)
CBS: CBS NFL 146 (4.0), Big Brother 3.39 (0.9)
CW: Whose Line Is It Anyway 0.79 (0.2), Whose Line Is It Anyway 0.72 (0.1), Penn & Teller: Fool Us 0.78 (0.1)
FOX: L.A.’s Finest 1.81 (0.3), Filthy Rich 1.63 (0.3)
NBC: 2020 Biden Town Hall 6.69 (0.9), American Ninja Warrior 2.22 (0.4)
Telemundo: Exatlon Estados Unidos 1.18, Todo Por Mi Hija 1.27, Falsa Identidad 0.78
Source: Nielsen, live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Nickelodeon has named Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson as Vice President of News Programming, as well as Executive Producer of the recently rebooted Nick News series. Laguerre-Wilkinson was previously a producer at 60 Minutes.

The Out of Home Advertising Association of America announced that Christina Radigan is being appointed Chief Marketing Officer. Radigan joins from Outdoor Media Group, where she was Managing Director of Marketing and Communications.

Soumya Sriraman is stepping down as President and CEO for BritBox US and Canada, a position she has held since February 2017, at the end of the month. “I have enjoyed writing every minute of the BritBox story – from imagining it six years ago to building and growing it,” said Sriraman. “I am so proud of my team who has worked tirelessly to exceed all expectations.”

Fonda Snyder will serve as EVP, Battat Entertainment, a new division of the toy company. Snyder was previously President of Alchemy Ink.

IN MEMORIAM

Producer Edward S. Feldman died October 2. He was 91. In addition to substantial film work, Feldman’s TV credits include Emmy-nominated 21 Hours at Munich and King, as well as Charles & Diana: A Royal Love Story, among others.

Actor, director and producer Clark Middleton died October 4 from West Nile Virus. He was 63. Middleton was best known to TV audiences for roles in The Blacklist and Twin Peaks.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who did Lois leave at the altar in season one of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-97)? Lex Luthor. Kudos to: Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC, Charles Lore/NYC, Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station, TX, Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank, Anthony Salerno-Horizon Media/NYC, Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton, FL, Dan Whitford-WTTW/Chicago, Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo, CA, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank, Susan Nessanbum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
Who was drunk Abbi’s alter ego on Broad City (2014-19)? (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.)