Today’s Finales
AMC: Soulmates at 10p
Travel: Doomsday Caught on Camera at 10p

IN THE NEWS

Alex Trebek died November 8 at age 80. The revered, Emmy-winning “Jeopardy!” host, who had been with the quiz show since its syndication debut in 1984, announced in March of last year he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. “Words can’t even describe what a tremendous loss this is for ‘Jeopardy!’ family. Not only was Alex a television icon, but he was one of the most genuine, kind, caring people you could ever know,” said Steve LoCascio, President of CBS Television Distribution. “The way he openly and bravely battled cancer, while continuing to host the show, was a true inspiration. He has brought joy to the millions of fans – including generations of families — who have welcomed Alex into their living room each night. Our hearts go out to Alex’s wife and children. We have truly lost a legend.” Trebek’s last day in the studio was October 29; episodes hosted by him are expected to air through December 25.

CNN was first to project Joe Biden as the president-elect. “After four long, tense days, we have reached a historic moment in this election,” said Wolf Blitzer at 11:24 on Saturday. “We can now project the winner of the presidential race.” The call was followed minutes later by NBC, CBS and ABC. Fox News jumped in at 11:40.

Of Biden’s victory speech Saturday evening, Dan Rather tweeted, “A cliffsnote version of Joe Biden’s speech could be summarized as #WhatUnitesUs.” Tweeted “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “’Madam Vice President’ is no longer a fictional character.”

“Today” weatherman and co-host Al Roker revealed on Friday’s show that he’s having surgery this week for prostate cancer. “Good news is we caught it early. Not great news is that it’s a little aggressive, so I’m going to be taking some time off to take care of this.” Roker said he went public with the diagnosis to raise awareness of the risk for men.

“Young Wallander” was renewed for season two by Netflix. Season one of the European drama, based on the Henning Mankell novels, launched in September.

Univision Communications, Inc. has exited its minority position in El Rey, the English-language cable network and production studio created by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures. “This is an important and significant milestone for El Rey, and we’re thrilled to have full ownership of our brand,” said Rodriguez. “Thanks to Univision’s support and guidance, El Rey has been able to achieve more than we ever imagined and I’m confident that with this strong foundation we will continue to successfully serve one of the most important and influential audiences.” Univision will continue to provide El Rey with sales and distribution services.

With the apparent passage in California of Proposition 24, an expansion of the state’s privacy law that makes it more difficult to access data about a consumer’s ethnicity, health or finances for advertising purposes, the ad industry is calling again for a federal statute. “Every American deserves the same privacy rights, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission rather than a balkanized collection of state privacy regulators,” Leigh Freund, President and CEO of the Network Advertising Initiative, stated Thursday, reflecting the views of other advertising organizations.

SAG-AFTRA and the producers of AMC’s “The Walking Dead: reached a settlement over compensation due to stunt performers for reuse of clips – but they need to figure out who gets paid. “The union’s auditors …found clips with an identifiable stunt, but where not all stunt performers in the scene were identifiable,” said the SAG-AFTRA in a message to member. “Because of this circumstance, SAG-AFTRA negotiated as part of the agreement an opportunity for the ‘unidentified’ stunt performers to come forward to SAG-AFTRA and identify themselves in any such clips. Because the agreement was reached before September 30, 2020, the earnings can be counted toward SAG-AFTRA Health Plan eligibility for 2021.”

This Thursday, learn how marketers are taking advantage of the explosive growth of local news, one of the few segments seeing sky-high ratings in 2020. It’s sponsored by our partners at New York Interconnect, so it’s free to attend – we hope you’ll join us. Register here.

SESSION SPOTLIGHT: Cross Media Measurement – Where are We Today?

This moment of peak fragmentation is the perfect time to hear from executives from Nielsen, Publicis, WarnerMedia and USIM on where we stand on the road to a solution, and what we need to do now to get to our mutual destination.
Join us at 1pm on Tuesday, Nov. 17th!

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Mike Merrill (“American Soul”) will recur on season three of CW’s “All American,” whileChris Labadie (“Nightmare Smile”) landed a recurring part on the net’s “Walker.”…Virginia Williams (“Teenage Bounty Hunters”), Jessica Phillips (“Dear Evan Hansen”) and Eileen Galindo (“The Binge”) will recur in CBS All Access anthology series, “Why Women Kill.”…Anthony Ramos (“Hamilton”) is set to recur on HBO’s revival of “In Treatment.”

Who are you to judge? Actually, you might be just the right person to join this year’s judging panel for the upcoming Cynopsis Best of the Best Awards. The entry deadline is fast approaching and we will need assistance in identifying the industry’s best work of the year. If interested in joining the panel, please fill out this brief application and we will notify you if you are selected.

FINANCIAL REPORTS

ViacomCBS reported 3Q20 results that topped Wall Street estimates, including a growth in domestic streaming and digital video revenue to $636 million, up 56% year-over-year, as growth in subscription streaming revenue accelerated to 78% and Pluto TV advertising revenue more than doubled. Revenue slipped 9%, to $6.12 billion, with ad revenue hitting $2.2 billion in the quarter, versus $2.3 billion in 3Q19. As for a most unusual upfront, ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish said in call on Friday, “Doing an upfront — a virtual upfront, in fact — in the middle of COVID-19 was something that no one had ever experienced before. But I’m really happy with where we ended up.”

Dish Network revenue and earnings of $4.53 billion and 86 cents per share beat expectations, with an additional 203,000 subscribers for Sling TV offsetting a drop of 87,000 satellite TV subs.

3Q20 earnings for Graham Holdings included revenue from its television broadcasting division, Graham Media Group, of $133.8 million, up 16% from $115.2 million in the same quarter last year. The increase is due to an additional $24.8 million in political advertising revenue and $3.1 million increase in retrans revenues.

COMING UP

All episodes of “Alex Rider,” the first original series from Amazon streamer IMDb TV, will be released Friday, November 13. The thriller series is based on the book franchise by Anthony Horowitz.

Undertaker, the pop culture phenom who made his WWE debut in 1990, has his Final Farewell at Survivor Series on Sunday, November 22 at 7p. The event streams live on WWE Network.

Cinedigm has acquired North American distribution rights to “100 Days to Live,” a psychological thriller set in the world of suicide prevention and mental health. The film, following a woman who grapples with her inner demons by running a suicide support group in Chicago, will be released in 2021 on all major digital platforms.

“Between the World and Me,” an adaption of the bestselling book by Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Apollo stage performance of the same name, premeres Saturday, November 21 at 8p on HBO. With an ensemble cast including Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Yara Shahidi, Oprah Winfrey and others, tthe special embodies Coates’ letter to his 15-year-old son on coming of age in Black America.

TECH TALK

French media company CANAL+ Group announced a new partnership with LiveLike, choosing its audience engagement platform to bring its mobile and online viewers a new level of interactivity.

CYNOPSIS DIGITAL AWARDS
Tuesday, December 1st at 1pm / Register for Free

Join us as Digital Model D and Adtech winners are announced and “It List” honorees are celebratead for the ultimate (virtual) gathering of the industry’s best & brightest! We promise it’ll be fun

MODEL D FINALISTS ADTECH FINALISTS IT LIST HONOREES

ABC’s Thursday episode of “The Bachelorette” delivered a season-high audience of 5.3 million viewers, and matching a demo high of 1.4 among A18-49 as the show got a new lead.

CBS’s freshman comedy “B Positive” premiered to 5.1 million viewers and 0.6 among A18-49 on Thursday. “Young Sheldon” and “Mom” drew 6.8 million and 0.7 in the demo (down from a previous season average of 8.7 million/1.1) and 4.8 million and 0.6 (down from 6.3 million and 0.8), respectively.

TLC was the #1 network on cable the week of October 26 among W25-54/18-49, according to Live+3 Nielsens (excluding sports/news). “90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way” was the #1 program on all of cable on Sunday night among P/W25-54 and W18-49/18-34.

The Travel Channel’s 7 Nights of Frights in Ghostober averaged the network’s most-watched weekly Prime of the year and best weekly Prime share in network history among P25-54, W25-45, & P2+.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Thursday, November 5
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: The Bachelorette 5.61 (1.6), Your Voice 3.2 (0.6),
CBS: Young Sheldon 6.77 (0.7), B Positive 5.14 (0.6), Mom 4.82 (0.6), Young Sheldon 3.19 (0.4), Campaign 2020 2.18 (0.3)
CW: Supernatural 1.02 (0.3), The Outpost 0.44 (0.1)
Fox: Fox NFL Pregame 8.82 (2.4), NFL Football 13.17 (3.8)
NBC: Superstore 2.24 (0.5), Superstore 1.23 (0.3), Decision 2020 1.23 (0.3)
Telemundo: Domo del Dinero 0.73, Todo por mi Hija 1.51, Falsa Identidad 0.83
Univision: Rosa de Guadelupe 1.44 (0.4), Imperio de Mentiras 1.33 (0.4), Dulce Ambicion 1.07 (0.3)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

AT&T named William Kennard, former Chairman of the FCC, as Chairman of the Board, effective when current chair Randall Stephenson retires in January. Kennard has been a director at AT&T since 2014.

Jacqueline Parkes is stepping down as CMO of ViacomCBS’ Entertainment and Youth Group at the end of the year. In a note to staff, Parkes said, “I want to take this time to spend with my family and to assess what the next challenge is for me to take on.”

Giselle Ruiz has been named Head of Inclusion for WME. Ruiz was previously a global talent acquisition leader at TikTok.

IN MEMORIAM

Stand-up comedian Norm Crosby died November 7 of heart failure. He was 93. Crosby was a regular on talk shows, starred in 1988 sitcom “The Boys” and guest-starred on numerous series.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
On which series did Dick Van Dyke guest star as a professed hitman targeting his wife? Supertrain (1979). Kudos to: Charles Lore/NYC, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA, Ken DuBow-Bob’s Your Uncle/LA, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA/Burbank, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

Today’s Trivia Question
Network TLC was a spin-off of which programming block? (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.)