Today’s Premieres
Apple TV+: Slumberkins
Disney+: Marvel Studios Legends
NBC: Lopez vs. Lopez at 8p; Young Rock at 8:30p
Netflix: Buying Beverly Hills; The Fabulous; Lookism; Manifest
Prime Video: El Presidente
ViX+: Mujeres Asesinas

Today’s Finale
Showtime: The Lincoln Project at 8p

Saturday’s Premieres
TCM: Musical Matinee at 12p
Travel Channel: Jack Osbourne’s Haunted Homecoming at 9p
The Weather Channel: Uncharted Adventure at 9p

Saturday’s Finale
HGTV: Help! I Wrecked My House at 9p

Sunday’s Premieres
BBC America: Mood at 8p
Bravo: Family Karma at 9p
Food Network: Christmas Cookie Challenge at 8p
Oxygen: Sleeping With Death at 7p
Showtime: Spector at 9p
Smithsonian: Fever Pitch: The Rise of the Premier League
Starz: Dangerous Liaisons at 9p

IN THE NEWS

ABC, CBS and NBC are preempting their primetime schedules on Tuesday, November 8 to cover the midterm elections. Fox will air “The Resident” and “Monarch” as regularly scheduled, with election updates from local stations, and The CW will air repeats.

CNBC has canceled “The News with Shepard Smith.” “The quality journalism Shep and his team delivered each weeknight was exemplary and not lost on us or our 7 p.m. audience,” wrote CNBC President KC Sullivan in a memo to employees, explaining that the networks needs to “prioritize and focus on our core strengths of business news and personal finance.” A new evening hour devoted to business news is expected in 2023. Shepard, who made the high-profile jump from Fox News to CNBC in 2020, will exit the network with the final episode later this month.

Global CTV ad fraud reached 19% in the second quarter, up from 14% in 2Q21, according to Pixalate’s Q2 2022 Invalid Traffic Benchmarks Report Other findings incude:
· 2x more ad fraud in Q2 2022 on Roku apps without app-ads.txt vs. with app-ads.txt.
· 28% mobile in-app ad fraud rate in Q2 2022. 2x more ad fraud in Q2 2022 on Roku apps without app-ads.txt vs. with app-ads.txt.
· USA traffic has the highest rate of mobile in-app ad fraud (35%) among the top 10 countries based on ad volume.

David Letterman has interviewed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for a special standalone episode of Netflix’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.” Letterman traveled to Kyiv for the interview, which is set to premiere later this year.

Warner Bros. Discovery reported 3Q22 results that didn’t meet analyst expectations, thanks to charges related to the company’s merger, and a sluggish ad climate. Total revenue was $9.8 billion, versus forecasts for revenue of $10.4 billion. As for streaming, WBD now counts 94.9 million subscribers across its platforms. “We are reimagining and transforming the organization for the future while driving synergy enterprise-wide, increasing our target to at least $3.5 billion, and making significant progress on our combined DTC product,” said President and CEO David Zaslav. “While we have lots more work to do, and there are some difficult decisions still to be made, we have total conviction in the opportunity ahead.”

Difficult decisions were made at Sony Pictures Television, with Glenn Adilman and Scott Landsman, EVP and SVP of comedy development, among senior executives let go. “I realize these changes will be an adjustment for many of you; change is never easy. But it is essential that we remain agile and flexible in order to maximize new opportunities as our industry continues to evolve,” wrote new studio president Katherine Pope in a note to staff. “There has been immense change in our business over the last few years, and I know this flexibility will serve us well in the future.”

2023 Model D & It List Awards – Congratulations It List Honorees!

Yosef Johnson, Vox Media
Camilla Cho, Vox Media
Dave Kersey, GSD&M
Jared Blitz, Blitz Creative
Yarko Petryshyn, STN Video
Tina Maher, Hartbeat
Steve Braband, WWE
Rob Schneider, Lexipol Media Group

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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Sky and Peacock have ordered a series inspired by Frederick Forsyth’s thriller The Day of The Jackal and its 1973 film adaptation from Universal Pictures. While remaining true to the DNA of the original IP, the drama will delve deeper into the anti-hero at the center of the story. The series will be produced by Carnival Films, which is part of Universal International Studios, in association with Sky Studios. Irish screenwriter Ronan Bennett is attached to write and showrun.

WildBrain has signed an overall first look deal with Bonnie Arnold (“How to Train Your Dragon”), who will spearhead episodic projects, TV specials and features. Initial projects include Which Way to Anywhere, the latest novel from Cressida Cowell, as well as Cowell’s Emily Brown picture books. WildBrain has exclusively optioned both properties from Cowell.

Adam Kassen (“Cold Justice”) and Liz Yale Marsh (“Little Richard: I Am Everything”) inked exclusive overall deals with Universal Television Alternative Studio. “We are excited to partner with two of the best in the business, Adam and Liz, to build, diversify and propel our premium slate,” said Toby Gorman, President, UTAS. “It’s been thrilling to make dreams come true with our game shows and competition programs, and we’re putting that same level of passion into these additional unscripted spaces.”

Lineup Industries has scored a US commission from Game Show Network for trivia game show “Switch. The first season of the half-hour original series will premiere in nearly 2023, produced by DIGA Studios with actor Jeff Hephner (“For All Mankind”) signed on to host.

Casting notes: Bellamy Young and Eric McCormack have joined the cast of Hulu’s “The Other Black Girl” as series regulars… The voice cast for animated holiday special “Reindeer in Here” includes Adam Devine, Jim Gaffigan, Melissa Villasenor, Henry Winkler, Candace Cameron Bure, Donald Faison, Jo Koy, Gabriel Bateman and Brooke Monroe Conaway. The special premieres Tuesday, November 29 at 9p.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Two January premieres at Freeform: “grown-ish” kicks off the second half of it fifth season on Wednesday, January 18 at 10:30p. Newcomer “The Watchful Eye” arrives Monday, January 30 at 9p with a double episode premiere; the drama follows a woman working as a nanny for a family in a building with deadly secrets.

HBO late-nighter “Game Theory with Bomani Jones” is back for a second season on a new night, starting Friday, January 20 at 11p. Its former timeslot was Sundays.

A new season of HGTV’s “Home Town” kicks off Sunday, December 4 at 8p. The series attracted 26 million viewers last season.

Hulu’s “Reasonable Doubt” will make its broadcast television debut on ABC with a special airing of its premiere episode on Thursday, November 10 at 10p. Produced by ABC Signature with all-Black writing staff, it’s the first scripted series from Onyx Collective.

COMING UP

The 2023 “CMT Music Awards” will air Sunday April 2 at 8p on CBS, live for the first time from Austin’s Moody Center.

Meanwhile, a slew of presenters were announced for “The 56th Annual CMA Awards.” Among the non-country artists featured will be Los Angeles Dodgers Star Mookie Betts; actress Jessica Chastain; Sarah Drew (“Amber Brown”); “Yellowstone” star Cole Hauser; and Rex Linn (“Young Sheldon”). The show airs on ABC Wednesday, November 9 at 8p.

Ryan Reynolds will be honored with the People’s Icon award at the 2022 “People’s Choice Awards,” airing Sunday, December 6 at 9p on NBC and E!.

Spectrum is saluting the troops on Veteran’s Day with movies available on the Spectrum On Demand portal under the category For the Troops from November 8-14. Films include “American Sniper,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “A Private War” and more.

Oxygen and CrimeCon are teaming for CrimeCon: Give-Back-a-Thon, a livestream event hosted by true-crime investigative journalist Stephanie Bauer. The live auction will open on November 25 at 8p, with items remaining open for bidding through Giving Tuesday, November 29.

STREAMING

AMC Networks is adding 11 new FAST channels to the Roku Channel: AMC Showcase, featuring AMC dramas including “Mad Men,” along with The Walking Dead Universe, Stories by AMC, Slightly Off by IFC, Thrillers by AMC, All Reality WE TV, IFC Films Picks, All Weddings WE TV, AMC en Español, ALLBLK Gems and Anime HIDIVE.

Sling TV is raising the monthly price of its base services by $5. “Sling doesn’t own the networks you watch – we pay programmers for their channels, and the price continues to rise,” explained EVP and Group President Gary Schanman in a blog post, adding that Sling has plans to add 150+ new channels through 2023.

Music video network Vevo has partnered with cloud-based SaaS company Amagi to support its CTV expansion. “As Vevo expands and monetizes on CTV worldwide, we are extending our capabilities correspondingly in order to work with more distributor and advertising partners, especially those in the rapidly growing FAST space,” said Natalie Gabathuler-Scully, SVP, Global Revenue and Distribution Operations, Vevo. “Amagi’s cloud-based infrastructure enhances our ubiquity and bolsters our flexibility as we navigate growth.”

The Fox Sports app is now available on VIZIO Smart TVs, joining Tubi, FOX Nation, and Fox Now. As part of the agreement, the Fox Weather channel has been added to VIZIO WatchFree+, alongside existing Fox ad-supported channels LiveNOW and FoxSoul.

TECH TALK

Gaming technology will serve as the biggest driving force for the metaverse’s evolution in the near term as augmented reality and virtual reality hardware enables users to engage in virtual worlds in and outside of work, according to a new S&P Global Market Intelligence report. “The foundational shift of the global economy to a digital footing—a shift that has been underway for over a decade and accelerated during the pandemic—continues, said Eric Hanselman, Chief Research Analyst for TMT at S&P Global Market Intelligence. “This is creating enormous opportunities for new value creation and disruption.”

Authenticated email as an ID saw flat growth YoY (67%), with 30% of those surveyed saying it’s hard to scale, and 58% saying email-based IDs are still using third-party cookies, according to Lotame’s new report, Beyond the Cookie: Next Generation Customer Acquisition & Retention for Marketers & Publishers. Other findings include:
· Data clean room use is up but half (47%) report privacy as a challenge. Meanwhile, nearly 60% of those not using clean rooms say they won’t because of cost.
· Google Topics is the most popular ID (71%) but over one-third (36%) are concerned about growth if they can’t target beyond walled gardens and 31% feel constrained by having to work within them. Still, with limited options, nearly 40% will spend more there in 2023.
· More than half (54%) of marketers predict a reduction in programmatic spend over the next year – at the expense of publishers.
“We see tremendous interest in next-generation tools for audience building, enrichment and activation,” said Andy Monfried, Founder & CEO of Lotame. “As brands take stock of the insights and analytics they can secure for known customers with a CDP, the market remains hungry for simple, effective tools that can expand those insights to the open web while minimizing new customer acquisition costs.”

Programmatic media partner MiQ has acquired UK-based privacy-first audience platform AirGrid. Instead of using cookie-based data, AirGrid uses machine learning to segment publisher audiences without the use of any identifiers. It then stores, models, and activates locally on-device or “at the edge” so that user data never leaves a device. “With AirGrid, publishers and marketers will be able to target inaccessible audiences previously out of reach due to cookie blockers,” said John Goulding, Global Chief Strategy Officer for MiQ. “It’s a win-win-win scenario. Publishers get better control, access, and monetization opportunities, brands can apply more precise targeting functionality to key audiences historically out of reach, and consumers’ data never leaves their device.”

Advertising platform Innovid has struck a partnership with NCSolutions aimed at empowering the CPG ecosystem to create and deliver more effective advertising with purchase-based audiences and sales measurement solutions. Leveraging NCS’ purchase insights and Innovid’s proprietary dynamic creative optimization and personalization technology, the partnership provides a new way for brands and agencies to optimize creative delivery and drive sales. “Historically, purchase signals have been well-known for audience targeting and post-campaign outcome-based measurement, leaving creative messaging use cases as an afterthought,” said Dan Mouradian, VP Global Client Solutions at Innovid. “With a combined offering that unifies NCS’ industry-leading PDM solution with our advanced DCO technology, CPG advertisers can now optimize their creative messaging strategies to drive deeper engagement and maximize incremental sales.”

SPORTS

Fubo TV will stream full coverage of Qatar 2022, starting November 20. All 64 World Cup matches, as well as analysis and shoulder programming, will be available for FuboTV’s US customers through content partners FOX Sports (English language coverage) and Telemundo (Spanish language coverage). Qatar 2022 will conclude on December 18. “Soccer is where it all began for FuboTV,” said David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, FuboTV. “We’re looking forward to bringing Fubo subscribers the world’s biggest soccer tournament enjoyed through a custom and personalized viewing experience.”

Docuseries “Good Rivals” premieres November 24 on Prime Video Sports. The three-parter follows the intense rivalry between the Mexican and American men’s national soccer teams.

The 2022 Street Skateboarding season culminates this weekend at the Super Crown World Championship title in Rio de Janeiro. Fans in the US can watch the event streaming live on ESPN+. Additionally, the men’s Final will be available live on ESPN Sunday at 3p.

All 15 NBA games on Monday, November 7 will be available for free on the new NBA App. All 30 NBA teams will be in action with games starting at 7p with the Washington Wizards vs. Charlotte Hornets and all subsequent matchups tipping off 15 minutes apart.

ESPN’s “First Take” averaged 507,000 P2+ viewers in October, a year-over-year increase of 16%, for its most-watched month since December 2019. Also on the rise is “NBA Today,” with viewership seeing a 10% spike versus last year.

Production has completed on an ESPN Films documentary about WNBA champ Candace Parker. The untitled film, the first feature from W. Studios, follows Parker on and off the court.

Soccer/football platform OneFootball has launched a new CTV app that makes its video content available alongside free and paid live matches, highlights and breaking news. The OneFootball TV app is now available on Apple tvOS and Amazon Fire TV devices across the world, with Android TV, Samsung and LG smart TVs to launch in the future.

CBS Sports’ presentation of the 2022-2023 UEFA Champions League recorded the most-streamed group stage ever on Paramount+, delivering double-digit year-over-year growth in viewing households, streaming minutes and average minute audience. All 12 UEFA Champions League group stage matchdays this season rank among Paramount+’s top 20 most-streamed UEFA Champions League matchdays ever.

GOING GLOBAL

“Three Mothers, Two Babies and A Scandal” will launch on Prime Video on Friday, November 18 for customers in the UK and Ireland. The docuseries shares the stories of three of the women at the heart of an internet baby adoption scandal.

5 Acts Productions has launched a Writers in Residence for unrepresented writers entering the industry. Bristol-based Michael Jenkins and Cardiff-based Tina Pasotra will develop two original ideas over the next two years.

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RATINGS

Live+SD viewership of Fox’s “Call Me Kat” jumped 28% for the episode following the fatal car crash of cast member Leslie Jordan. Jordan was in the middle of production on the comedy’s third season when he died at age 67.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Wednesday, November 2
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: The Conners 3.69 (0.5), The Goldbergs 2.54 (0.4), Abbott Elementary 2.66 (0.5), Home Economics 2.02 (0.4), Big Sky 2.22 (0.3)
CBS: Survivor 4.64 (0.6), Amazing Race 2.80 (0.4), The Equalizer 2.02 (0.2)
CW: DC’s Star Girl 0.44 (0.1), Kung Fu 0.43 (0.1)
FOX: 2022 World Series 12.05 (2.8)
NBC: Chicago Med 6.58 (0.6), Chicago Fire 6.56 (0.6), Chicago PD 5.06 (0.5)
Telemundo: Exatlon Estados Unidos 0.82 (0.2), La Reina del Sur 0.94 (0.3), Fuego Del Destino 0.72 (0.2)
Univision: Vencer la Ausencia 1.18 (0.4), Ricos Tambien Lloran 1.37 (0.4), La Madrasta 1.08 (0.3)
Source: Nielsen, live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Brad Schwartz has been named Entertainment President at The CW. The former president of Pop TV had been consulting for the network.

ABC Signature has promoted Sydnee Rimes to the position of SVP of Series. Rimes has been at the studio since 2010.

John Davis joined Goodway Group as SVP of Brand Direct. Previously, Davis led OMG’s investment operations practice.

Twitch has appointed Laura Lee as Chief Content Officer. Lee most recently served as Global Head of Top Creators at YouTube.

Stampede Ventures has tapped Nate Hopper as content executive to oversee the production of IP by author and illustrator Mo Willems. Hopper was previously a senior executive at Paramount Animation.

This Day in History
1987 – The NBA announced four new franchises: Charlotte and Miami for 1988 and Minneapolis and Orlando for 1989.

Friday Fun Fact
A warm basketball is bouncier than a cold one.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
What kind of farm did Dwight Shrute have on The Office (2005-2013)? Beet. Kudos to: Dana Keith-Great American Family/Atlanta; Rhonda Seaton-AccuWeather/State College, PA; Betsy Frank-Betsy Frank Insights/NYC; Kate Vernier-Warner Bros. Discovery/NYC; Tom Boyd-WGN/Chicago; Sean Douaire-Warner Bros. Discovery/Chicago; Andi Leston-Outdoor Sportsman Group/Waukesha, WI; Creed Heilskov-ImOn Communications/Cedar Rapids; John Kukla-KDFW/Dallas; Ken DuBow-Access Entertainment/LA; Ken Huyck/Kennewick, WA; David Garber-Loyola Marymount University/Playa Vista, CA; Sandy Spiegel/Chicago; Nada Karasakov-WBD/UK; Jim Himmel-TCB Media/San Clemente, CA

Today’s Trivia Question
On “The White Shadow” (1978-81), why had Ken Reeves been forced to retire from the NBA? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four per time zone.)

Cynopsis Team