Today’s Premieres
Acorn TV: Harry Wild
Netflix: Stranded With My Mother-in-Law
Telemundo: Vuelve a Mi at 9p
VH1: Basketball Wives at 9p; Basketball Wives: Orlando at 10p

Today’s Finales
CW: Son of a Critch at 8p; Run the Burbs at 9:30p

IN THE NEWS

How many ads does it take to break the attention threshold? The answer, according to a study from MAGNA Media Trials in partnership with Roku: It takes a 10-to-15-ad-exposure range to achieve maximum ad recall before brands encounter diminishing returns. Some key discoveries in “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Frequency” include:
· Marketers can reduce costs by 67% by targeting people who are in-market for the advertised product or service, requiring 4 ad exposures to hit purchase intent compared to 15 ad exposures when ads were delivered to a broad audience.
· Impact peaks between 2-to-3 ad exposures for a brand’s existing consumers.
· When reaching potential customers, each exposures brings greater ad recall.
“Some of the most frequently asked questions we receive are to define optimal frequency, as advertisers strive to efficiently create awareness and drive purchase intent,” said Kara Manatt, EVP Intelligence Solutions at MAGNA. “As streaming TV becomes a more significant part of brands’ media investments, we delved into troves of campaign data, and the Media Trials team was able to put a number on frequency, from ideal, overall ad-recall to the idiosyncrasies of reaching audiences along different points of the purchase journey.”

Netflix renewed “Castlevania: Nocturne” for a second season. The animated video game adaptation premiered on September 28.

Season three of “Vikings: Valhalla,” set to air in 2024, will be its last. And that’s how the voyage is supposed to end. “With real historical figures, there are always more aspects of their lives that could be explored, but it made sense story-wise for our Leif, Freydis and Harald’s voyages to end with our third season,” said series creator Jeb Stuart. “We really cannot wait for the fans to see the conclusion of this chapter of history.”

Fox’s “Welcome to Flatch” has been cancelled after two seasons. “While audience response was not as strong as we had hoped, we were thrilled with the creativity of the enormously talented Jenny Bicks and Paul Feig, as well as the outstanding, dedicated cast and crew they assembled,” said the network in a statement. “We look forward to collaborating with them again in the future.” The mockumentary was a remake of British comedy series “This Country.”

X/Twitter is testing three premium subscription tiers: Premium Basic, Premium Standard, and Premium Plus. Basic would come with full ads, Standard would replace the current $7.99 Premium plan with half the ads, and Plus would be ad-free. X CEO Linda Yaccarino discussed the new tiers in a briefing to X debt holders on Thursday. During a briefing last week, the company also said that while about 90% of its top advertisers have returned to the platform, they are bringing smaller budgets.

Rachel Smith is the new host of “Entertainment Tonight Weekend,” now broadcasting from NYC. Smith joined “ET” as a New York-based correspondent in 2019.

Hours after FOX News Channel announced a joint interview scheduled for tonight on Capitol Hill with House Representatives Jim Jordan (R-OH), Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Kevin Hern (R-OK), the would-be guests canceled their appearances. While the plan was for Baier to press the congressmen on who should be the next Speaker of the House and discuss the issues facing Congress and the Republican party, a leak falsely describing the discussion as a “debate,” not a discussion, “scared folks,” said Baier, and the politicians backed out. Baier promised the show at the Capitol will go on, with “some interesting guests.”

A season five contestant on Netflix social experiment “Love Is Blind” is suing production companies Kinetic Content and Delirium TV. Tran Dang says she was sexually assaulted by her former fiancé, Thomas Smith, during filming of the show, and alleges the encounter must have been taped and was ignored by producers. Responded the companies in a joint statement, “We support and stand with victims of sexual assault, but Ms. Dang’s claims against the producers are meritless ….Obviously, we cannot address undisclosed concerns, and throughout the time that Ms. Dang was involved in the production of ‘Love is Blind,’ she never informed the producers of any alleged wrongdoing of any kind. Nor did she choose to end her participation in the experiment. Instead, Ms. Dang continued in the experiment for weeks after the time her lawyers now claim an incident occurred. We deny and will vigorously defend the allegations against us.” Dang and Smith have not been featured on the reality show this season.

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 1 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).

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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Anonymous Content (“True Detective,” “Mr. Robot”) cut about 8% of its staff on Friday. The layoffs affected all divisions at the company of approximately 170 employees. Anonymous Content joins Amazon, Max and more companies in cutting staff amid an economic environment hit by streaming TV shifts and the writers’ and actors’ strikes.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

All three episodes of “Lost Women of Highway 20” debut Sunday, November 5 at 9p on ID, and “Feds” kicks off Tuesday, November 8 at 10p. Both true crime series come from Octavia Spencer.

“Wipeout” is back for season two on TBS on Tuesday, November 7 at 9p. Hosts John Cena (“Fast X,” “Peacemaker”) and Nicole Byer (“Nailed It!”) oversee the extreme sport competition.

Food Network’s holiday season kicks off Thursday, November 2 at 9p with “Christmas Cookie Challenge,” as hosts Ree Drummond and Eddie Jackson put the skills of cookie craftsmen to the test.

COMING UP

“Turn On,” canceled by ABC after one episode in 1969 – before it even had its West Coast airing – is returning tonight at 7p on YouTube. While two of the three episodes that were shot resurfaced online recently, tonight’s presentation will include an introduction from the show’s producer, George Schlatter.

SPORTS ROUNDUP

Disney Advertising reports NHL season is nearly sold out. That includes 26 deals for presenting sponsors, and 120 advertisers in 65 categories on Disney channels.

FOX Sports revealed the starters for coverage of the American League Division Series, American League Championship Series and the 119th World Series. Derek Jeter, David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez flank FOX Sports’ FOX MLB studio desk, anchored by veteran host Kevin Burkhardt. World Series champion Dontrelle Willis, inducted into the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Hall of Fame in September, also joins the team throughout the ALDS. Reporters Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci are set to contribute, in addition to highlighted features from the renowned Tom Rinaldi. Postseason pregame and postgame shows open from the Los Angeles studio for the ALDS before shifting to on-site locations for the ALCS and World Series.

GOING GLOBAL

SimpelZodiak, part of Banijay Benelux, will produce adventure reality “The Life Trail” for Videoland. The eight-part series was developed by SimpelZodiak and RTL Creative Unit, together with Nasrdin Dchar, Walid Benmbarek, and Erik Wegewijs.

Rainmaker Content is launching a string of new titles at MIPCOM, including KarmaFilm’s “Our Big Punjabi Family,” a comedy about a family therapist and her tech-entrepreneur husband, who are forced to move in with her husband’s big, boisterous Punjabi family after they lose their money in a bad investment.

Mauritius Telecom, the telecom operator in Mauritius, and MultiChoice, Africa’s entertainment platform, announced their partnership to bring DStv Stream to Mauritius.

South Korean OTT platform Content Wavve is promoting the launch of its new Wavve Original series “The Perfect Deal” with a roaming hologram truck at the Busan International Film Festival. The truck, created by Proto Korea and Creativemut for Wavve, features two built-in Proto Epic devices showing holograms of the series’ stars Yoo Seung-ho, Kim Dong-hwi, and Yoo Su-bin.

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RATINGS

“The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” was the #1 most-viewed premiere of all time on AMC+ after three weeks of streaming data and is pacing to be the most-viewed season of any show in the history of AMC+. Sunday’s fourth episode of season one 1.1 million viewers on AMC in Nielsen Love+3 ratings and 392,000 A25-54.

Average viewership per NFL game is up 9% to 18.8 million viewers versus last year. Prime Video’s football audience is up 14%, to an average 14.2 million games as of last week. Overall viewership on ABC/ESPN has jumped 30%, to 21 million, with all “Monday Night Football” games on ABC as well as ESPN.

“Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video averaged 11.72 million viewers on Thursday night, an increase of 21% over last year’s comparable “TNF” game. The game also posted an increase of 33% over last year’s “TNF” match-up between the Commanders and Bears on October 13.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Blumhouse Television president Chris McCumber has left his position after three years at the company. Current president of production Jeremy Gold will serve as interim head of Blumhouse TV. “I’m so proud of what we accomplished in growing the business and producing a slate of terrific projects,” McCumber said in a statement. “Even as our industry continues to go through massive change, I truly believe that disruption breeds opportunity and growth – especially when it comes to great storytelling.”

CJ ENM America has appointed Elsie Choi as EVP, Head of Scripted TV. Previously, Choi served as a Non-Writing Executive Producer on the series “Interior Chinatown.”

IN MEMORIAM

Costume designer Shawna Trpcic died suddenly on October 4. She was 56. Trpcic worked on “Star Wars” productions including “The Mandalorian” and “Ahsoka.” “She loved everything about being a part of these stories, including connecting with fans and being a part of that community,” said ‘Ahsoka’ showrunner Dave Filoni. “I feel like she has always been a part of ‘Star Wars.’ Her costumes tell a story, providing the suggestion of a life experience that happened before the cameras rolled. I loved collaborating with Shawna, and I will miss her presence.”

This Day in History
1946 – The first electric blanket was manufactured and sold for $39.50.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What was the fourth series in the “Law & Order” franchise? “Law & Order: Trial by Jury” (2005-06). Kudos to: Ken DuBow-Access Entertainment/LA; Justin Pierce-JP Consulting Group/LA; Ted Linhart-NBCU/NYC; Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC; Andrew Goldman-CampNova TV/NYC; Mark A. Prince-dentsu/NYC; Maggie Takei-Moore Media/LA; Anne Wettig-Fox/LA; Rachel Buchanan-NBCU/NYC

Today’s Trivia Question
When Dean Martin was roasted on “The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast” (1974-84), which comedian served as roast master? (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