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Today’s Premieres
BET: Sistas at 9p; Ms. Pat Settles It at 10p
Discovery: Ghost Adventures: Screaming Room at 11p
Hulu: Living for the Dead; Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story
Lifetime: Married at First Sight at 8p
Netflix: Kaala Paani
PBS: Nature at 8p

Today’s Finale
HBO: Navajo Police: Class 57 at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Broadcast viewership in September increased for the second consecutive month, with viewing volume up by nearly 13% overall, and by more than 30% in both the 18-49 and 25-54 demographics, according to Nielsen’s September 2023 The Gauge report. The jump in volume led to an additional 2.5 share points for the category, to finish at 23.0% of total TV usage. The broadcast sports genre grew a massive +360% amid the start of NFL and college football seasons; cable also benefited from sports viewership, up 25.5% in the sports genre in September. Meanwhile, streaming viewership declined for the second consecutive month (-1.7%), and the category lost more than half a share point to represent 37.5% of total TV usage in September.

Women accounted for half of the contestants on reality shows and game shows, but only 43%of characters on comedy and drama series during the 2022-23 season, according to the latest Boxed In report from San Diego State’s Dr. Martha Lauzen. “The percentage of female characters hasn’t changed substantially on broadcast TV in over a decade,” said Lauzen. “In 2007-08, females comprised 43 percent of all characters. In 2022-23, females accounted for 44 percent of all characters.” The story’s pretty much the same for streamers – females accounted for 44 percent of characters in 2016-17 and 45 percent in 2022-23.” Age makes things worse – the number of major female characters on broadcast dropped from 47%in their 30s to 14%in their 40s, and from 38%to 17% on streamers.

Netflix is rolling out new ad offerings, including title sponsorships like the one Lay’s Smartfood has signed on for the upcoming season of “Love is Blind.” Smartfood will serve as title sponsor. “We know that brands want to align with specific shows that are contextually and culturally relevant to their marketing objectives,” said VP of Global Advertising Sales Peter Naylor during an Advertising Week New York keynote. Also in the pipeline: a new format that lets viewers watch a new episode of a series ad-free, courtesy of a brand, after bingeing a few episodes in a row and watching a marketing message.

With political candidates and groups expected to spend over $1 billion on digital platforms in the 2023-24 election cycle, X is “aggressively pitching political advertisers,” reports The Wall Street Journal. This comes after Elon Musk reversed a ban on political ads that had been implemented in 2019, and as the social media platform struggles to recover from the defection of major advertisers after Musk took over the company. X has begun cold-calling politically ad firms and top spenders, according to WSJ.

While the writers’ and actors’ strikes helped studios’ cash flow, the idea that the situation saved Paramount Global is “wildly overstated,” said CEO Bob Bakish, accepting the Mipcon Cannes Personality of the Year Award. “We’re the playing the hand we were dealt,” he said before shifting focus to the content ecosystem. “This is a business that has significant strategic and financial value for Paramount, a business that we’ve always been committed to,” said Bakish. “While our peers were pulling back content, and putting up walled gardens, we never left.”

NBC renewed “That’s My Jam” for season three. The musical variety show hosted by Jimmy Fallon sprung from Fallon’s “Tonight Show” segments.

Talks will resume – soon – between SAG-AFTRA and the video game industry. Negotiations for a new Interactive Media Agreement will “continue with new dates to be released as soon as they are determined,” said the union, whose membership has authorized a strike against 10 of the major video companies if a deal can’t be reached.

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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

HGTV is turning to some familiar faces to help frustrated homeowners. The net greenlit “Don’t Hate Your House with the Property Brothers” (w/t), starring home renovation and real estate experts Drew and Jonathan Scott. The series is co-produced by Scott Brothers Entertainment and Corus Entertainment, and slated to premiere in 2024 on HGTV Canada and StackTV.

National Geographic ordered four new unscripted series. The “Inside the FBI” (w/t) franchise begins with “The ‘70s,” exposing the organization’s untapped archive from the most notorious cases of that decade. From executive producer Idris Elba, “The Color of Victory: Heroes of WW2” (w/t) reveals the true stories of soldiers of color who were integral to four of the greatest battles of World War II. “Waking the Dead” (w/t) follows investigative organization The DNA Doe Project as it uses cutting-edge techniques to discover the identities of those whose bodies lie unclaimed and forgotten around the nation, and “No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski” follows the “Queer Eye” star on a food journey.

Producer Niels Juul (“The Irishman”) and AD Legacy (the company set up by the grandchildren of adidas founder Adi Dassler) have entered into a partnership to develop a fictional limited series about the life of Adi Dassler and adidas, the brand he created from his small German village. No Fat Ego and their associate producers in the US, UK and Germany will be working with historians at adidas, along with the team at AD Legacy, to develop the likely 12-episode international limited series.

Season three of the Sky and AMC+ drama “Gangs of London” has launched production with two creative talents new to the team: Lead Director and EP, Kim Hong Sun (“Project Wolf Hunting”) and Lead Writer and EP, Peter McKenna (“Kin”).

Raj Kapoor has been named as executive producer and showrunner, Katy Mullan as executive producer, and Hamish Hamilton as director of the 96th Oscars. It will be Kapoor and Mullan’s first time to executive produce and Hamilton’s fourth time directing the event, airing Sunday, March 10 on ABC.

Kate del Castillo (“La Reina del Sur”) will star in Vix comedy feature “Es Por Tu Bien,” from 3Pas Studios. The film follows three women working to get rid of their daughters-in-law.

COMING UP

Apple TV+’s “Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas” premieres Wednesday, November 22. In the musical holiday special, the “Ted Lasso” star hosts an extravaganza at the London Coliseum.

For more holiday cheer, viewers can find “EXmas” on Amazon Freevee starting Friday November 17. The romcom stars Leighton Meester (“Gossip Girl”) and Robbie Amell (“Upload”).

Comedian Nate Bargatze will take his first turn as host of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” on October 28. He’ll be joined by Foo Fighters, making their ninth appearance as musical guest.

Acorn TV’s Irish-Belgian conspiracy thriller “Hidden Assets” is back for season two on Monday, November 13.

Drama series “Börje – The Journey of a Legend” premieres in Canada on November 19 with all six episodes on Viaplay.

OWN introduces three new “OWN Spotlight” specials on consecutive Saturdays starting October 28 at 10p. Conversations feature Kerry Washington, Nicole Avant, Courtney B. Vance and Dr. Robin as they discuss their recent memoirs with Oprah Winfrey.

World of Wonder announced that “Drag Race France,” “Drag Race Philippines” and “Drag Race Thailand” will each return for a third season. WoW broke the news at MIPCOM.

SPORTS ROUNDUP

NBC Sports Next announced the launch of SportsEngine Play, a subscription streaming service for capturing and viewing live and on-demand video of youth and amateur sporting events. On deck: NBC Sports Next plans to launch a SportsEngine Play connected TV streaming app in 2024, providing athletes and their families with an additional way to view content at home.

Stars of two Netflix sports series will face off in “The Netflix Cup,” Netflix’s first-ever live sports event featuring athletes from “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” and “Full Swing.” The drivers and golfers will pair up to compete in a match play tournament at Wynn Golf Club at Wynn Las Vegas, to kick off the week of the inaugural Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix. The Netflix Cup is set to stream live on Netflix beginning at 6p on Tuesday, November 14.

Tennis Channel’s FAST channel T2 is now available to Amazon Freevee viewers, and on Fubo’s base Pro channel plan. T2 carries live, different matches from almost all tournaments that appear on Tennis Channel.

Molten will continue their partnership as official ball supplier of the Men’s and Women’s British Basketball League. Molten’s BG4500 National Elite basketball will be used across both Leagues’ major competitions. Molten’s branding will also feature at all arenas throughout the season, and they will also continue to sponsor the British Basketball League Player and Coach of the Year awards.

TECH TALK

GroupM is collaborating with Amazon Ads to introduce creator-led shoppable content to the Amazon advertising suite of services available to its clients. Key features of the ad formats, developed by The Goat Agency, include:
* Off-site DSP amplification: The Goat Agency’s proprietary creator ad format will be enabled across the Amazon DSP in every market where it’s available.
* Sponsored Brands integration: Sponsored Brands, an “above the fold” Amazon.com ad placement, will now feature creator content developed by The Goat Agency, exclusive to clients of GroupM and Goat. This integration will allow creator content and Amazon sponsored ads capabilities to be paired, connecting content and advertising capabilities in retail media.
* Advanced programmatic creative optimization: Insights from campaigns run with Amazon Ads will be used to cyclically inform The Goat Agency’s custom creative and sharpen audience targeting.
* Product Pages & Brand Store Enhancement: Creator content can be uploaded onto Product Pages and Brand Stores, increasing conversion rates and helping to turn Brand Pages on Amazon into “inspiration hubs” for consumers.“The development of this new capability is an important step we’re taking to better connect the creativity and engagement of creator marketing with the scale and sophistication of GroupM Nexus’s commerce capabilities,” said Samantha Bukowski, Global Head of Commerce, GroupM Nexus.

Canoe Ventures has partnered with DIRECTV Advertising and DISH Media to expand its addressable advertising footprint onto satellite. AMC Networks and Warner Bros. Discovery are the launch partners for addressable enablement. AMC Networks is currently selling addressable spots in every hour of its live linear programming and VOD inventory across AMC, WE tv and BBC America.

Redbox has teamed with Illinois-based grocery retailer Jewel-Osco to offer consumers “Pizza and a Movie Night.” Buyers of a Signature Select pizza will receive a code at checkout that can be redeemed for a free movie rental at Redbox kiosks or digitally through the Redbox app.

Fifty-five percent of consumers recall seeing a shoppable ad, and out of those, half have interacted with such an ad, according to data from Samsung Ads and KERV. Other findings include:
· Of the respondents who recall seeing a Shoppable Ad, 54% say they remember seeing the ad on TV and 55% say they recall seeing a Shoppable Ad on their smartphone
· 79% of consumers either scanned the QR code or looked up the product online to find out more information
· 45% either scanned to purchase or bought the product at a later date either in person or on another device from where they saw the ad.

GOING GLOBAL

Electric Entertainment and Turkish SVOD service BluTV have entered into an agreement to license five of Electric’s franchised series: Syfy’s “The Ark,” Amazon Freevee’s “Leverage: Redemption,” crime series, “Almost Paradise,” and fantasy adventures, “The Librarians,” and “The Outpost.”

Japan’s Nippon TV has licensed to Turkey’s Medyapim the Arabic language adaptation rights to scripted formats to “Mother and Woman – My Life for My Children,” to be produced for MBC.

Banijay Rights announced that the BBC has pre-bought the second season of historical drama “Marie Antoinette.”

London-based BossaNova Media has sold a string of nonfiction shows to five UK broadcasters: Sky, Channel 4, A+E, CBS and UKTV.

Off The Fence wrapped sales with broadcasters and platforms globally for its history-based catalogue, including the new OTF Studios co-production with Go Button Media, “Cursed Histories.”

Israeli-based global studio Sipur and Ukraine’s Heroes Formats, a division of production company United Heroes Group, have united for the new cooking competition series, “SUPERmarketCHEF.”

FilmRise has entered into an exclusive worldwide distribution deal with “The Wiggles,” the children’s entertainment group.

Rock Entertainment announced “Brother V,” a co-production with Lucky Devil Films Production. The project is the third under the Rock Original’s banner.

Palisades Park Pictures has signed an agreement with VIP Medienfonds for all available media rights to titles from the Media 8 film library. The slate is a mix of worldwide and foreign sales rights to 14 films released between 2002-2013.

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RATINGS

Game 1 of the ALCS was a winner for Fox, averaging 7.024 million viewers on the network, the best Game 1 of the series since 2010 and up 28% from the comparable game last year. Across Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox Sports streaming services, 7.266 million viewers watched the Texas Rangers defeat the Houston Astros.

Need more proof sports are charging ratings? The New York Jets/Philadelphia Eagles scored 26.1 million viewers for Fox Sports. The game was the most-watched NFL telecast on any network this season, and ranks as the most-watched telecast of any kind since Super Bowl LVII.

Meanwhile, ABC’s Oregon vs. Washington pair-up was the most-watched college football game of the week, with over 7 million viewers. It’s the eleventh college game this season so far to hit 7 million viewers, a feat achieved by only ten games all of last season.

The season 49 premiere of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” delivered 4.8 million viewers, up a healthy 19% versus the season 48 opener. Among A18-49 the show grabbed a 0.96 rating, up 31%.

Also scoring solid numbers for its season premiere, in this case its eleventh, was VH1’s “Basketball Wives: Los Angeles.” The reality show was up 41% in Live+3 Nielsens, to 0.52 vs. 0.37 in Live+SD.

“The Jennifer Hudson Show” averaged a .5 national HH rating, 759,000 total viewers and a .2 in A5-54 in its first week back in national syndication. The talker was up 80% with W18-34 and 60% in A18-34 and held its A25-54 audience compared to the same week last year, according to Nielsen.

Basic Cable Top 10 Ratings for the week of October 9
P2+ AA (000)
Primetime
Fox News 2245
ESPN 2027
TBS 1916
MSNBC 1101
Hallmark Channel 829
CNN 810
HGTV 797
Fox Sports 1 584
INSP 583
TLC 562
Total Day
Fox News 1587
ESPN 795
MSNBC 775
CNN 688
TBS 627
HGTV 447
Hallmark Channel 440
INSP 332
USA 318
TV Land 315
Source: Nielsen

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Publicis New York has appointed Tony Lederer as EVP, Head of Strategy. Lederer was previously Chief Strategy Officer at The&Partnership.

Jordan Sheehan has been named EVP of Television Development at MRC. Sheehan was most recently Co-President of Scott Free Television; with Sheehan’s departure, Clayton Kreuger has been elevated to President at SFT.

Chris Laplaca is retiring as SVP Corporate Communications of ESPN after 43 years at the company. “Feels like last week I walked into an office trailer at a little-known TV network called ESPN and used a folding table for my desk,” he said in a memo. “I have a kaleidoscope of memories hurtling through my mind ….but what resonates the most are the exceptional people of this place.”

Efrain Miron has joined SISTER entertainment group as President, Strategy and Business Affairs. Miron most recently served as Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs at Netflix.

Bernie Sham has been named Product Marketing Director at Impact+. Previously, Sham helped establish the product marketing function for IPONWEB, before its acquisition by Criteo.

Greg Bobolo has been appointed Chief Revenue Officer of Tradable bits. Bobolo most recently served as SVP of Strategy & Partnerships at Wave Sports + Entertainment.

Battery has named Pete Breton as President and Executive Creative Director of Battery Canada. Breton joins from Anomaly Toronto.

Family Entertainment Television has named Katie Lombardi to the position of VP, Advertising Sales. Lombardi joins from Paramount, where she served as Director, Advertising. Matt Yox, a 16+ year veteran of Warner Bros. Discovery, will also join FETV as VP, Advertising Sales.

This Day in History
1988 – ABC’s “Roseanne” premiered.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
“Here’s Looking at You” was a fictional show on which sitcom? “Going Places” (1990-91). Kudos to: Louis Lewow-FITE/Atlanta; Justin Pierce-JP Consulting Group/LA; Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC; Dan Whitford-WTTW/Chicago; Maggie Takei-Moore Media/LA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank; David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA

Today’s Trivia Question
What was the name of Roseanne and Dan’s fourth child on “Roseanne” (1988-1997)? (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