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Monday October 18, 2021

Today’s Finale
Food Network: Chocolate Meltdown: Hershey’s After Dark at 10p

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The IATSE and AMPTP reached an eleventh hour agreement for a new, three-year TV and film contract that will – if ratified by union members – avert a strike. The deal includes improved wages and working conditions for streaming, 10-hour turnaround times between shifts, DEI initiatives, increased funding of the health and pension plans and a 3% rate increase every year, among other improvements.

Comedian Hannah Gadsby didn’t take kindly to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos referencing her in an internal memo defending Dave Chappelle’s controversial special, “Closer.” Sarandos named Gadsby as an example of the diversity of Netflix’s content, along with Chappelle. “Just a quick note to let you know that I would prefer if you didn’t drag my name into your mess,” wrote Gadsby. “Now I have to deal with even more of the hate and anger that Dave Chappelle’s fans like to unleash on me every time Dave gets 20 million dollars to process his emotionally stunted partial world view.”

During a company meeting on Friday, Sarandos fielded questions from employees concerned about Chappelle’s special. Afterwards, Netflix issued a statement saying an employee had been fired “for sharing confidential, commercially sensitive information outside the company. We understand this employee may have been motivated by disappointment and hurt with Netflix, but maintaining a culture of trust and transparency is core to our company.” The leaked documents included financial information about Chappelle’s specials.

“Pennyworth,” which ran for two seasons on Epix, has been renewed for season three – on HBO Max. The new season is set to debut in 2022, with the first two installments also available on the platform. The news about the Warner Bros. TV origin series broke at the DC Fandome event. HBO Max also renewed “Titans” and “Doom Patrol” for fourth seasons.

In more news from DC’s Fandome, Superman has a new slogan. “Truth, Justice and the American Way” has been replaced by “Truth, Justice and A Better Tomorrow.” Said a statement from DC, “Superman has long been a symbol of hope who inspires people, and it is that optimism and hope that powers him forward with this new mission statement.”

Congratulations to all these incredible teams leading the industry forward… innovating in online video content, advertising, ad tech and more. See all the 2021 Cynopsis Digital Model D finalists and It List honorees and join them in person at the Cynopsis Digital Model D & It List Awards Breakfast November 9th in NYC. Reserve a table for your company today!

Animal Planet is collaborating with Burger King in effort to inspire young animal lovers as well as reduce the kids’ meal plastic footprint with limited edition paper premiums in kids’ meals at approximately 14,000 restaurant locations worldwide. The initiative runs through December 6 while supplies last.

The submission website for 2022 Golden Globes TV and movie entries opens today, October 18, with a deadline of November 15, announced the beleaguered Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The presentation of the awards will take place Sunday, January 9, though not on NBC, which canceled plans to air the show over concerns about lack of diversity at the HFPA and ethical lapses.

The January 9 date for the Globes did not go over well with Joey Berlin, President of the Critics Choice Awards. “This is a petty and vindictive move. It is actually an insult to the industry,” said Berlin. “We had announced the date of January 9 for the Critics Choice Awards some time ago. The studios are all planning on it and have set afterparties at the Fairmont Century Plaza. The Golden Globes were on record as not taking place, and NBC canceled the telecast for this year in hopes they would get their house in order again to be revisited for 2023. We have been moving forward with a very big show with national telecast that will kick off the awards season in style.” The Critics Choice Awards will air on The CW.

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AGC Television and Lionsgate are producing spy thriller “Gray,” from writer John McLaughlin (P”oint Pleasant”), and director Ruba Nadda (“Manifest”). Patricia Clarkson (“Six Feet Under”) and Nathalie Emmanuel (“Game of Thrones”) star in the series, based on an original concept by novelist David Baldacci (Absolute Power).

Joining the cast of Starz series “Gaslit,” the untold story of Martha Mitchell’s role in exposing Watergate, are Patton Oswalt ( “A.P. Bio”); Nat Faxon (“The Descendants”); Erinn Hayes (“Childrens Hospital”); Patrick Walker (“Power”); Carlos Valdes (“The Flash”); Raphael Sbarge (“Once Upon a Time”); Chris Conner (“American Crime Story”); Anne Dudek (“House”); Brian Geraghty (“The Hurt Locker”); Nelson Franklin (“Veep”); Reed Diamond (“Designated Survivor”); Johnny Berchtold (“The Wilds”); Adam Ray (“The Heat”); and Billy Smith (“Sully”). Julia Roberts and Sean Penn star in the series, created and executive produced by Robbie Pickering (“Mr. Robot”).

More casting notes: Jennifer Coolidge will return for another stay on HBO’s “The White Lotus.” Season two of the series will be set at a different hotel property, with a mostly new cast of vacationers….Michael O’Neill (“Council of Dads”) and Celia Weston (“Modern Family”) landed the leads opposite Michelle Monoghan in Netflix psychological thriller “Echoes,” centered on identical twins with a dangerous secret.

Future plc announced that Barcroft Studios, the factual content business it acquired in December 2019, has rebranded as Future Studios. Al Brown will serve as Vice President of Future Studios, and Ellie Winstanley has been promoted to Junior Executive Producer.

More time to get work done. Less time researching. The Cynopsis Resource Center puts all the technology, streaming, network offerings, and more tools in one place, so you can focus on what you do best.

Great Wolf Resorts’ newly launched entertainment umbrella, Great Wolf Entertainment, completed an extensive transformation of its woodland characters. The newly updated characters are part of a content strategy that includes Great Wolf’s first-ever animated project, a feature called “The Great Wolf Pack” which is due out summer of 2022. Great Wolf Entertainment is working on a variety of other vehicles for the characters including additional animated content.

ADVERTISING

US digital advertising spend is expected to grow by 8% in 2022, predicts the IAB, reaching $165.5 billion next year. An increase of 11.8% is expected in 2023, and a total of $200.3 billion is expected by 2025. But there’s a caveat. “Today’s modern consumer is fleeing bad ad-supported media experiences,” notes the report. “For both buy-and-sell-side marketers, the consumer migration to ad-light and ad-free content offerings indicates an expectation that advertising delivers a useful and contextually relevant experience, and providing ways to easily and quickly engage (i.e., explore/transact) is demanded.”

Ad executives have bumped up a spot in the latest Ipsos Global Trustworthiness Index, going from the least-trusted profession to the second-least-trusted – after politicians. Doctors are the world’s most trusted profession, followed by scientists and teachers.

NEW SERIES

Knives out: Cooking competition “Holiday Food Fight” launches on OWN Tuesday, November 16 at 9p, with home cooks whipping up their favorite family recipes.

Family comedy “Overlord and the Underwoods,” from Anthony Q. Farrell (“The Office”) and co-creator Ryan Wiesbrock (“Holly Hobbie”), arrives on Canada’s CBC Gem with the the first ten episodes beginning Friday, October 29. The remaining episodes premiere in winter 2022.

HBO Max’s “Peacemaker” makes its debut Thursday, January 13 on HBO Max. The series stars John Cena, who first portrayed the title character in the 2021 film, “Suicide Squad.”

Jessica Rodriguez joined Univision as a graduate intern twenty years ago and worked her way up through the ranks to her current role as Chief Brand and Impact Officer. She sat down with SeeHer recently to talk about the industry’s progress in fostering an inclusive and representative media world. “I hope at this inflection point for our industry, brands and creators alike can see the impact they can have in communicating with, reflecting, and celebrating the 31 million Hispanic women in this country,” she said – see more in Cynsiders.

STREAMING

Frndly TV and GAC Media announced a deal that makes GAC Family and GAC Living available to all Frndly TV subscribers. The nets will debut on Frndly TV tomorrow, October 19, increasing the service’s offering to 23 channels, with nine channels in total having been added since February 2021. “After GAC Media acquired Great American Country and Ride TV, we immediately began discussions about adding these channels to our lineup,” said Michael McKenna, Chief Programming Officer of Frndly TV. “They shared with us their vision of the two channels moving forward. With that vision in mind, we felt the newly branded GAC Family and GAC Living would be a nice fit to our offering.”

UP Faith & Family has launched on YouTube TV as an optional add-on for $5.99 per month. The service will Canadian series “Hudson & Rex” on Friday, November 5.

South Korean series “Squid Game” has become a surprise sensation on Netflix. Diesel Labs offered some data about the audience: 68% of the Squid Game engaged audience is under 24 years old and driving much of the buzz. Comparing premiere weeks across Netflix titles, “Squid Game” has brought in the biggest net new audience (engaged audience lift of 1.4%), versus a 1.1% lift for “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” 0.6% for “The Kissing Booth” and 0.5% for “Bridgerton.” The audience skews female (56%), and over-indexes in engagement with gaming (+20%) versus the average audience.

Adele set a Spotify single-day record for her new single “Easy On Me,” with 24 million listens in its first 24 hours. That tops the record of 11 million streams held by BTS for their 2021 song, “Butter.” Adele’s album, 30, comes out November 19.

Redbox inked a deal with Curiosity Inc. that calls for Redbox to promote Curiosity’s SVOD, Curiosity Stream, and include select content from Curiosity on Redbox’s AVOD and FAST services. The companies have also agreed to offer Curiosity Stream as a premium subscription offering when Redbox launches SVOD Channels in its streaming app in 2022.

COMING UP

Altogether ooky: FETV will celebrate Halloween with an Addams Family marathon on Sunday, October 31 from 9a-2p with an encore presentation from 10p-3a. Episodes will include the likes of “Halloween with the Addams Family”, “Lurch Learns to Dance”, and “My Fair Cousin Itt”.

AXS TV’s National Country Music Month lineup is headlined by “At Home And Social With Lady A – An AXS TV Special Event,” premiering Saturday, October 23 at 8p. The special is hosted by AXS TV’s Katie Daryl (“The Top Ten Revealed”).

Law&Crime will provide gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial of three men accused of murdering jogger Ahmaud Arbery. Live coverage begins with jury selection today, October 18.

Nickelodeon’s animated series “The Loud House” is getting real with “A Loud House Christmas,” a live-action holiday TV movie based on the series. The feature-length TV movie premieres Friday, Nov. 26, at 7p on Nick and will stream on Paramount+ the same day.

The Cynopsis Top Women in Media honorees are getting ready to celebrate. See the full list of honorees and Distinguished Companies and join us in person for the special Awards Gala October 27 in NYC.

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Streaming Nielsen Top 10 for the week of September 13
Show, # episodes, minutes (millions)
Lucifer (Netflix), 93 1588
Clickbait (Netflix), 8, 732
Manifest (Netflix), 42, 712
CoComelon (Netflix), 12, 703
Criminal Minds (Netflix), 316, 687
Sex Education (Netflix) 24, 595
NCIS (Netflix), 353, 567
Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix), 376, 564
Heartland (Netflix), 215, 456
The Circle (Netflix), 33, 444
Source: Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings (Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix), Nielsen National TV Panel, U.S. Viewing through Television.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Thursday, October 14, 2021
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: Station 19 4.29 (0.6), Grey’s Anatomy 4.05 (0.6)
CBS: Young Sheldon 6.54 (0.7), United States of Al 4.54 (0.5), Ghosts 5.27 (0.6), B Positive 3.97 (0.5), Bull 3.83 (0.3)
CW: Coroner 0.59 (0.1), The Outpost 0.33 (0.1)
ION: Chicago PD 0.92 (0.1), Chicago PD 1.08 (0.2), Chicago PD 1.03 (0.1)
FOX: NFL Football 14.41(4.09)
NBC: Law & Order: SVU 2.43 (0.4), Law & Order: SVU 3.96 (0.7), Law & Order: Organized Crime 3.32 (0.6)
Telemundo: La Casa de los Famosos 1.19 (0.4), Hercai: Amor y Venganza, 1.30 (0.4), Malverde: el Santo Patron 0.95 (0.3)
Univision: Disenando Tu Amor 1.53 (0.4), Vencer el Pasado 1.42 (0.4), La Desalmada 1.49 (0.3)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

NBCUniversal has promoted Margaret Walker to SVP, Audience Acquisition and Growth for Entertainment and Sports. Walker was previously SVP, Digital Product & Distribution Marketing.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What character did Jason Priestley guest star as on “My Name Is Earl” (2005-2009)? Cousin Blake. Kudos to: David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Charles Lore/NYC; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
Which series featured a segment, “Love of Chair,” that parodied soap operas? (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.)