PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
ABC ordered comedy reality series Videos After Dark from the producers of America’s Funniest Home Videos. Bob Saget, original host of AFV, will host and exec produce the show, featuring videos suited to an older audience. ABC also ordered two more seasons of AVF, now in season 29, its most-watched in six years.
Independent content company Joker Productions, part of the Splendid Medien group, is rebranding and relaunching as Splendid Studios. With a new focus on the international marketplace, the studio plans to ramp up originals and development across both fiction and non-fiction.
Boxer Mike Tyson is shopping a scripted comedy, Rolling with the Punches, in which he would star, based on his life as a marijuana grower. “It’s basically me acting like me,” Tyson told Page Six. Tyson’s business partner, Rob Hickman, said he expects the show to make it to the small screen in five months.
44 Blue Productions (Lockup, Nightwatch) has partnered with activist Topeka K. Sam to develop scripted and unscripted series inspired by her campaign to change the culture of degradation and unfair sentencing around female incarceration. “I knew they’d be the perfect fit to help tell the story of my work,” said Topeka K. Sam, who will also serve as EP on the series. “It’s crucial to choose the right team when telling stories as important as these, ones that literally mean the difference between life, death and freedom.”
Shondaland vet Chris Van Dusen is heading to Netflix, with an overall deal to create new series and other projects. First up is a straight-to-series Shondaland project based on the novels by Julia Quinn.
CBS All Access ordered a second season of Strange Angel. First season of the period drama ended last month.
Netflix ordered miniseries Ottoman Rising from STXtv and Karga Seven Pictures, chronicling the story of Mehmed the Conquerer.
Casey Johnson and David Windsor (The Real O’Neals) have boarded Freeform’s upcoming comedy Besties as co-creators, writers, exec producers and showrunners, reports Deadline. They join original co-creator/EP Ranada Shepard through ABC Signature.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Maine Cabin Masters is back for a new season on DIY starting Monday, December 3 at 10p. This time around, projects include a pet play space for a family that rescues animals, and lobster trap chairs for a converted seafood shack.
Season three of Netflix’s Beat Bugs launches Friday, November 9, with new characters and an additional 26 reimagined Beatles classics.
Sony Crackle’s Startup returns for season three on Thursday, November 1. Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite) guest stars as an NSA agent.
Nickelodeon’s Butterbean’s Cafe opens Monday, November 12 at 1p. The same night at 7p, Nick airs a special Thanksgiving episode of The Loud House.
CNBC’s The Profit is back for season six on Tuesday, December 4 at 10p. The premiere is preceded by an “Inside Look” at a past episode at 9p.
Fox announced premiere dates, including a special debut date for The Orville on Sunday, December 20 at 8p; winter premieres for The Gifted on Tuesday, January 1 at 8p, followed by Lethal Weapon at 9p; the season launch of Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back on Wednesday, January 2 at 8p, followed at 9p by the series debut of The Masked Singer. The final season of Gotham launches Thursday, January 3 at 8p; The Resident has its winter premiere Monday January 14 at 8p, ahead of the series debut of The Passage. Proven Innocent makes its first bow Friday, February 15 at 9p.
COMING UP
Ovation and Reelz will broadcast the 2018 National Christmas Tree Lighting on Sunday, December 2 at 10p. The ceremony, co-presented by the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation, includes live musical performances and the official lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse in President’s Park.
Social news publisher NowThis will premiere its first feature length documentary film, Virginia 12th, on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at 5p on its Facebook and YouTube channels. Doc follows the story of Chris Hurst, a millennial journalist rocked by gun violence, who pivoted his career towards elected office by running and defeating an NRA-backed incumbent State House representative.
Fox News Channel is offering special live coverage of the 2018 midterm elections on Tuesday, November 6, beginning at 6p. Special Report’s Bret Baier and The Story’s Martha MacCallum will anchor America’s Election HQ: 2018 Midterms. On sister net Fox Business, Neil Cavuto will anchor a five-hour edition of Cavuto: Coast to Coast starting at 8p.
The ninth annual CMA Country Christmas airs Monday, December 10 at 8p on ABC, hosted by Reba McEntire. Tony Bennett, Martina McBride and Diana Krall are among the performers.
Bill Burr Presents Paul Virzi: I’ll Say This, the first of three specials airing under a deal between Comedy Central and the Bill Burr/Al Madrigal-led All Things Comedy production banner, premieres November 2 at 12:30a.
Call for Submissions: Cynopsis is producing its annual Holiday Programming Guide, which comes out on November 15 and will be sent to all Cynopsis subscribers. If your network has * holiday-themed * programming airing from November 15 through January 1, please send your listing to [email protected] and [email protected] no later than Monday, November 6 with the subject line: Holiday Guide. To be included programs must be listed by date, title of program, and the start and end times each program will air on that date. A confirmation email will be sent following each submission (if you don’t receive a confirmation email, please resubmit).
DIGITAL
In what the companies call the “most significant tech acquisition of 2018,” IBM is acquiring cloud-based tech solutions company Red Hat, the biggest distributor of the open-source Linux operating system, for $34 billion. “The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer,” said IBM chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty. “It changes everything about the cloud market.” The deal means IBM will provide technology to some of its biggest rivals, like Microsoft and Google, as it continues partnerships forged by Red Hat.
It’s about to get more expensive for big digital tech companies to do business in the UK. Chancellor Philip Hammond revealed plans for a UK Digital Services Tax, slated to start by April 2020. But small companies need not fret. “It will be carefully designed to ensure that it is established digital tech giants ratter than our tech start-ups that shoulder the burden,” he said. “We will consult on the detail to ensure that we get it right to ensure that the UK remains the best place to start and scale up a tech business.”
A perfect match? Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 bought online dating service eHarmony via its NuCom group. “By bringing together our well-known, like-minded companies, we have the resources and shared knowledge to compete and achieve growth together in the online matchmaking market,” said eHarmony CEO Grant Langston.
Verizon and AT&T will start selling RED’s Hydrogen One smartphone on Friday, November 2, for $1295 (a $100 bump up from last summer’s pre-order price). Selling points for the pricey device include its “holographic” screen, as well as an ability to record in a 3D format. The phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chipset.
California is pushing pause on its new net neutrality law, SB 822, until courts rule on the FCC’s decision to repeal Obama-era open internet rules. No sooner had Governor Jerry Brown signed the law last month prohibiting broadband providers from blocking or throttling traffic or charging higher fees for faster service, than the Department of Justice sued to block it.
Just two months after joining Snap, WarnerMedia alum Kristen O’Hara has left her job as CMO of global media. According to Bloomberg, the decision came after she was upped to chief business officer, only to have the promotion rescinded two days later.
MEASUREMENT & DATA
IAB released an Advanced TV guide, “Proving It: Demystifying Attribution Within Advanced TV,” on Monday. The guide is designed to provide buyers with an overall understanding of what attribution is, how it works across Advanced TV, and the best practices that can be leveraged to ensure a smooth process from beginning to end. “For years buyers have operated on faith (and some good modeling) to understand how ad spend in television contributes to advertiser goals,” Eric John, deputy director, IAB Digital Video Center of Excellence, tells Cynopsis. “Now with the advent of advanced TV and the ability to serve specific ads to specific households, advertisers – especially direct brands – can begin to understand how their OTT and addressable campaign contributed to the marketer’s outcome. This guide provides buyers with the step-by-step process for measuring the results from exposure to conversion.”
LinkedIn announced via blog post a measurement integration with Google Campaign Manager, part of Google Marketing Platform, that allows B2B marketers to see LinkedIn ad performance alongside the rest of their ad spend, and get attribution for LinkedIn ads across all impressions and interactions, measured in a cross-device and cross-platform manner. In the works: more metrics, like social actions, and more seamless tracking.
ADVERTISING
Video advertising and monetization platform SpotX inked a deal with Syncbak, creator of the technology that powers live OTT, to increase revenue for local broadcasters. “When we evaluate potential partnership opportunities at SpotX, we look for collaborations that will take what we currently offer to the next level, and this deal is a perfect example of that approach,” Benjamin Abbatiello, VP, audience and distribution management at SpotX, tells Cynopsis. “This new integration allows media buyers working with SpotX to access Syncbak’s unique local, live, and on-demand video inventory and target specific audiences across both linear TV and OTT. Plus, Syncbak’s community of content owners and creators can dramatically increase their own revenue by tapping into this pool of hungry advertisers.”
“As brands we have a choice: We can either embrace all of this evolving customer dynamic, or we can fight against it,” said Jill Estorino, SVP of marketing strategy for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, at the ANA’s Masters of Marketing event. “The brands that stand out in the future are going to be the brands that respond to it and pivot.” Exhibit one: Estorino explained how Disney guests can now customize and plan their experiences on their app, even turning waiting in line into “play time.”
Also at ANA, Alicia Hatch, Deloitte Digital CMO, announced the ANA Marketing University. “It will help re-skill our entire industry,” said Hatch, with 200 CMOs signed up to be adjunct professors. One major challenge to address: Data. “We haven’t connected data and technology with the way we market,” she said. “We talked to so many of our peers and they said they were expending an enormous amount of time on data and technology. It’s the area that scares CMOs the most.”
GOING GLOBAL
MTV International introduced personalized linear music channel MyMTV Music, allowing users to curate their own video channel. The customized MTV experience went live today in Spain for Vodafone TV customers, following a successful 2015 pilot in France. Next up: the Nordics, with additional territories rolling out into 2019.
CASTING
Fox revealed the cast of upcoming live musical Rent, airing Sunday, January 27 at 7p: Kiersey Clemons (Transparent), Brandon Victor Dixon (Hamilton), Jordan Fisher (Teen Wolf), Vanessa Hudgens (Grease: Live), Brennin Hunt (Walking With Herb), singer/songwriter Mario, singer Tinashe (“2 On”), Valentina (RuPaul’s Drag Race) and Keala Settle (Waitress).
Raphael Acloque (24: Legacy) landed a lead in CBS drama pilot Surveillance, opposite Sophia Bush.
Audio programming company Premiere Networks announced the launch of a new iHeartRadio original podcast, Red Pilled America, beginning November 1 on the iHeartRadio Podcast Network. Each weekly episode will explore questions like, Why is the middle class shrinking? What is causing the homeless crisis in Los Angeles? And, is “fake news” really a new phenomenon?
CBC announced the launch of CBC News: Front Burner, an original daily news podcast. The joint project between CBC News and CBC Podcasts will be available to download daily Monday to Friday at 6a.
SOCIAL GOOD
Ovation is featuring local Bronx and Brooklyn artists in public service announcements on all its platforms as part its Stand For The Arts mission to raise awareness, protect access, and encourage action on behalf of the arts and culture.
