PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
ITV commissioned six-part crime drama Wild Bill, starring Rob Lowe as a US cop appointed Chief Constable of the East Lincolnshire Police Force. The drama is the first time 42 (Traitors), Anonymous Content (13 Reasons Why) and ITV Studios label Shiver have collaborated to produce a drama series for the channel.
Disney Channel ordered a pilot for The A Girl, a comedy about a teenage girl on the autism spectrum, from Brenda Hampton (7th Heaven).
A one-hour drama centered on a female basketball coach, Trailblazer, is in development at ABC. Project comes from Joe Webb (Quantico), Maniac Productions and ABC Studios.
New Dominion Pictures has started production on season 10 of paranormal series A Haunting, headed for Travel Channel in 2019.
Fox gave a script commitment plus penalty to medical drama Remedy, from Katie Lovejoy (Dracula), Sheldon Turner and Jennifer Klein’s Vendetta Productions and 20thCentury Fox TV.
Americanized, inspired by Sara Saedi’s memoir, “Americanized: Rebel with a Green Card”, is in development at ABC. Comedy comes from Hello Sunshine.
Also in the works at ABC is Food & Familia, a comedy starring DannyTrejo (From Dusk Till Dawn) and inspired by his life. Project comes from Peter Murrieta, Will Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment and ABC Studios.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: October 12-14, 2018
Venom (Sony) $35.7 million (week 2), cume revenue $142.9 million
A Star Is Born (Warner Bros.) $28.0 million (week 2), cume revenue $94.2 million
First Man (Universal) $16.5 million, opening weekend
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, opening weekend
Smallfoot (Warner Bros.) $9.3 million (week 3), cume revenue $57.6 million
Night School (Universal) $8.0 million (week 3), cume revenue $59.8 million
Bad Times at the El Royale (Fox) $7.2 million, opening weekend
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (Universal) $4.0 million (week 4), cume revenue $62.3 million
The Hate U Give (Fox) $1.8 million (week 2), cume revenue $2.5 million
A Simple Favor (Lionsgate) $1.4 million (week 5), cume revenue $52.0 million
Source: comScore
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Season two of Discovery’s Street Outlaws: Memphis arrives Monday, October 22 at 9p, but a “pre-premiere” episode airs tonight at 9p, focused on Memphis Outlaws crew leader JJ Da Boss. “I think this episode will show many viewers a side of JJ they haven’t seen before,” Sam Korkis, Pilgrim Media Group exec producer, tells Cynopsis. “Fans of the show know that street racing is in his blood, but this is the first time we’re actually peeling back the curtain on what made JJ who he is today – including some serious rough patches that ultimately saved his life and taught him the value of family. This upcoming season, JJ and his crew go head to head with some of the nation’s top racers, and ‘The History of JJ’ offers a deeper understanding of the man looking to lead the Memphis Outlaws to victory.”
Superstar Renovation premiered Saturday afternoon on CBS (with Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins finding jack hammering is not as easy as his day job). “We continue to find that the intersection of sports and entertainment provides a deep vault for creating rich program content. Superstar Renovationproved once again that it is much easier to book celebrities and professional athletes where there is a real interest in the show’s subject matter and the participation is genuine,” Robert Horowitz, president of JUMA Entertainment, tells Cynopsis. “This new format has stars return to their hometown to give back to those who have helped them on their path to success. Their thank you is a surprise home renovation.”
Sundance Now starts streaming four-part The Cry in the U.S. and Canada on Thursday, November 8. Psychological drama stars Jenna Coleman (Victoria) and Ewen Leslie (Top of the Lake: China Girl).
Guy Fieri and friends return to Food Network for a new season of Guy’s Ranch Kitchen starting Saturday, November 17 at 12:30p.
MEASUREMENT & DATA
In a new agreement with Nielsen, Standard Media Index will leverage Nielsen Ad Intel’s occurrence level data as the underlying source of spots for SMI’s flagship national television product, AccuTV. The enhancement means the number of networks that SMI measures will increase by nearly two-thirds to more than 130 channels, and the new agreement will allow SMI to provide deeper insights around new and emerging ad types.
COMING UP
Jonah Hill (Maniac) will host NBC’s Saturday Night Live for the fourth time on November 3. Musical guest is Maggie Rogers.
Cartoon Network and Black Women Animate host the production company’s first- Boot Camp Training Day on Saturday, October 20 at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank. The day offers an opportunity to develop and enhance animation skills through a series of master classes and panels with industry leaders, and kicks off with a conversation featuring the team behind Craig of the Creek, celebrated for its attention to inclusion and positive representation of minorities.
The sixth and final episode of Oxygen’s Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers airs Saturday, October 20 at 7p. The installment was added to focus on the case’s second mistrial, which was declared October 1, in the case of the teenager burned to death four years ago.
Tyra Banks will reprise her role as Eve in Freeform film Life-Size 2, premiering Sunday, December 2 at 9p. The original will air throughout the net’s “Kickoff the Christmas” event in November.
CASTING
Sienna Miller (Layer Cake), Seth MacFarLane (Family Guy), Simon McBurney (The Theory of Everything) and Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders) have joined the cast of Showtime’s upcoming limited series about Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Miller will play Ailes’ widow, Beth; MacFarlane takes on the role of Ailes confidante and Fox News PR head, Brian Lewis; McBurney will channel Rupert Murdoch; and Wallis will play Fox News exec Laurie Luhn.
Kirk Acevedo was promoted to series regular in season seven of CW’s Arrow….Dylan McDermott (LA to Vegas) has boarded the cast of Ryan Murphy political satire The Politician on Netflix, reports TheWrap….Damon Wayans (Lethal Weapon) will guest as the father of Damon Wayans Jr. on the October 29 episode of CBS’s Happy Together….Anya Taylor-Joy has joined the season five cast of BBC One drama Peaky Blinders….Tate Donovan (Damages) and Emily Skeggs (Salem) will play father and daughter on Lifetime film Love You to Death, reports Deadline….Tamara Taylor(Bones) and J.C. MacKenzie (Molly’s Game) will lead the cast of Netflix sci-fi series October Faction.
DIGITAL
Facebook said it is working with the FBI, the FCC and the Irish Data Protection Commission, among others, to identify those responsible for the data breach that affected 30 million users (down from the 50 million originally estimated) in September. Guy Rosen, VP of product management, said hackers started the attack from 400,000 accounts they controlled, then used an automated process to steal access to friends’ accounts, and then friends of friends. 15 million Facebook users had their names and contact info stolen; another 14 million had details like gender, address, birth date, education and more taken. The rest of the victims had their “access tokens” compromised, but not personal data.
Following deep dives Wednesday and Thursday, tech stocks recovered somewhat on Friday. Snap was up +7%, shares of Netflix rose +5%, Twitter saw a +3.6% lift, Apple was up +4%, Alphabet gained +2.8% and Facebook rose +1.7%. Analysts tied the week’s drop to concerns about rising interest rates and tightened fiscal policy by the Federal Reserve.
Netflix’s non-game mobile app revenue hit $243.7 million in 3Q18, up 90% year-over-year, according to Sensor Tower. Facebook was first when it came of number of downloads, with four of the top five apps for the quarter: Top three WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook, and number five Instagram. TikTok, merged with Musical.ly, was number four.
Social content creator IMGN Media launched 6 new Gen Z-focused Publisher Stories on Snapchat’s Discover page, including TryHard (esports), Hannabelle (Horror), MateoSays (Hispanic comedy), LuxuryHomes, SarcasmTherapy (female comedy),and TheSavagePosts (pop culture themes).
Crown Media Family Networks is launching the Countdown to Christmas Movie Checklist App, a viewing guide for the 37 holiday-themed original movie premieres across Hallmark and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. The app will give users the ability to create reminders, watch trailers, and stay in tune with new content.
FuboTV will stream the fight for the National League pennant on FOX and FS1 in 4K beta, as well as English Premier League soccer on NBC and NBCSN.
The Boomerang streaming app is celebrating October with its second annual “Scoobtober” event, including over 400 episodes of spooky-themed programming from Scooby-Doo series including The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Be Cool, Scooby-Doo and more.
Foursquare raised $33 million in Series F funding, from investors including Simon Ventures, Naver Corp and Union Square Ventures. While Foursquare started as a consumer-facing platform, CEO Jeff Glueck told TechCrunch that over 90% of the company’s revenue now comes from the enterprise platform side of the business.
ADVERTISING & BRANDS
Fox Networks Group’s branded content Fox Blocks and two-ad, content adjacent (“Just A and Z”) JAZ pods were introduced on Sunday, and will continue on October 21 and November 11. Hulu and Verizon were sponsors of the first night of five-and-a-half-minute Fox Blocks in a lineup that delivers a 50% reduction of traditional commercial time per night. “FOX transformed the TV landscape when it became the fourth broadcast network, and now we’re transforming the broadcast clock with the introduction of these ad formats that give viewers better and more immersive watching experiences while telling longer form brand stories in our unique Sunday Night real estate,” said Suzanne Sullivan, EVP of ad sales for Fox Networks Group. “We believe in the unmatched power and impact of broadcast television, but we also recognize the need to evolve to meet the expectations of today’s viewers.”
State Farm, a new sponsor to Crown Media Family Networks this Upfront season, has signed on as the key sponsor for Crown Media’s second annual “Countdown to Christmas Fantasy Game.” The interactive experience includes ten rounds of weekly voting, during which players can earn bonus points by participating in Hallmark holiday movie trivia speed challenges.
GOING GLOBAL
DRG inked a deal for The Oslo Killing, a six-hour true crime series to be co-produced between Discovery Networks Norway and Sundance Now, in association with Norway’s Monster. The show will premiere in 2019 in North America, UK, Ireland, and German-speaking Europe on Sundance Now.
Independent factual production company Barcroft Media and TCB Media Rights announced a co-production deal that sees the leading factual distributor acquire the worldwide rights to sell a long form TV series based on Barcroft digital series brand Shake My Beauty.
France Mon Amour, the first French television channel in China, will be available on China’s VIVA platform (180 million subscribers including 40 million active subscribers each month) starting December 18.
AMC Networks is expanding its direct-to-consumer premium streaming services, Shudder and Sundance Now. Both services will launch in Australia and New Zealand later this year.
New Dominion Pictures is looking for homes with international broadcasters for A Haunting, coming up on season ten on Travel Channel.
Montreal-based TV production and distribution company Media Ranch announced the launch of Horsepower, the first ever French-Canadian format incubator program, in partnership with Quebecor Content. The joint-venture initiative will help select talent from Quebec develop an original unscripted TV format with strong domestic and international appeal.
Banijay Rights has partnered with Marlowfilm Productions and secured distribution on epic historical drama We, The Drowned, an eight-part series from Mikael Salomon (Band of Brothers, The Abyss).
Drive secured international broadcaster acquisitions for Queen of the World, a docu-series about the Queen’s role as a figure on the global stage. RTL in The Netherlands, NRK in Norway and TVNZ in New Zealand picked up the series, along with YLE in Finland and ITV Choice in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Epic Story Media inked co-production agreements for two new animated series making their international debuts at MIPCOM: Dolph-N-Fince, with Canadian independent Neptoon Studios, and Haley & The Hero Heart, with Mower Meta-Story.
About Premium Content has signed broadcast deals for its BBC hit, Keeping Faith, with Amazon Prime Video in France along with Israel (Yes DBS), Portugal (RTP), Nordic Countries (TV4 + C More) and Poland (CANAL+ and Ale Kino+), among others.
Endemol Shine China is teaming with Hunan TV to co-produce two original formats, “building on the opportunities presented by the vibrant Chinese content creation market, and in line with the Chinese government’s call for further content innovation and content export,” said William Tan, managing director of Endemol Shine China.
Beauty World Search struck a co-production and distribution agreement with Electus. The deal will see Electus produce and distribute the second season of the reality show through the company’s sales arm, Electus International. Electus International has also acquired the global distribution rights to the first season, hosted by Brooke Hogan.
Fremantle is inking global deals for upcoming drama My Brilliant Friend, based on Elena Ferrante’s bestseller. Series has sold to 56 territories including CANAL+ (France and French-speaking Africa), Sky Atlantic (UK), HBO Europe (Scandinavia, Spain and CEE), Quebecor Content (French-speaking Canada), VRT (Belgium), COSMOTE TV (Greece), RUV (Iceland), HOT (Israel), Cellcom tv (Israel), Manoto TV (MENA), SVT (Sweden), Digiturk (Turkey), Foxtel (Australia) and TVNZ (New Zealand).
BBC Two and flagship PBS station WNET have jointly commissioned Hippos; A Life Aquatic, a revealing the underwater secrets of the world’s third largest land mammal, from Icon Films and Natural History Film Unit Botswana.
When Heroes Fly has been picked up by Netflix following its recent acquisition from Keshet International. Global deal will see all ten episodes of the original Hebrew-language drama made available with subtitles to Netflix’s subscribers around the world in early 2019.
KIDS CORNER
Future Today partnered with Outfit7 Limited to make Talking Tom and Friends video content available on numerous OTT platforms, including Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Apple TV. The show is already broadcast in over 170 territories.
CAKE’s digital arm, Popcorn Digital, has been appointed by Ferly (Angry Birds) as their partner to develop and launch the company’s new content on YouTube, including new series Momolu Minis. Popcorn Digital will lead Ferly’s digital strategy, creating original animated content based on Ferly’s IP’s as well as launching and managing the company’s channels on YouTube.
Pocket.watch announced pocket.watch Challenge Squad, an original premium series based on the YouTube short-form challenge format, produced at the company’s Culver City studio and featuring the same cast as the YouTube channel. Pocket.watch also announced the creation and launch of mishmashes, a new clip show format featuring viral hits and “best of” clips pulled from pocket.watch’s library.
Silvergate Media appointed Wanda Kidsland as the animated TV series Peter Rabbit’s representative in China, expanding the footprint of Silvergate Media in the Chinese market following the success of Octonauts.
Look Mom! Productions and Brazil’s Boutique Films will co-produce animated series The Great Hotel Rudini of Illusionism, to be written by Look Mom! In Canada, and animation through Boutique and animation studio Birdo. Delivery is slated for 2020.
A new Mister Roger’s Neighborhood website features episodes and music from the classic series, a behind-the-scenes look at show sets and interviews with guest stars.
