Friday November 19, 2021

Today’s Finale
HBO: Real Time With Bill Maher at 10p

Saturday’s Premieres
discovery+: The Great Soul Food Cook-off, The Baby Killer Conspiracy
Netflix: New World

Sunday’s Premieres
discovery+: The Mating Game
Oxygen: Fatal Frontier: Evil in Alaska at 7p
Netflix: True Story
Starz: Power Book II: Ghost at 9p
TLC: Sister Wives at 10p

Sunday’s Finales
PBS: Call the Midwife at 8p, Grantchester on Masterpiece at 9p, Baptiste on Masterpiece at 10p

IN THE NEWS

Sixty-seven percent of Gen Z and Millennial consumers recall seeing out of home advertising on social media, and 91% Gen Zers and 82% of Millennials say they would reshare OOH ads on social. That’s according to “OOH Media Opportunities: Consumer Insights and Intent – Early 2022,” a report from the Out of Home Advertising Association of America. A majority (82%) of both Gen Zers and Millennials say they are open to seeing some type of ad within VR or AR, and 72% of US adults in larger urban centers say the same. “This should be a wake-up call to all digital marketers: although Americans, particularly young Americans, are wary of targeted online advertising, they have a growing appetite for advertising that speaks to their need state,” said Anna Bager, President and CEO, OAAA. “It’s heartening that the growth of programmatic digital out of home will enable marketers to tap into a younger, tech-savvy demographic of consumer.”

Crown Media Family Networks and the National Cable Television Cooperative have reached a multi-year renewal agreement, securing continued carriage of Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama. The deal also allows viewers continued access to Crown Media’s TV everywhere streaming platform, Hallmark TV.

New to the NCTC is AccuWeather, which announced a multi-year distribution agreement. “NCTC’s member operators are always looking for ways to better serve their customers and NCTC is pleased to offer another option for members to deliver valuable and potentially life-saving weather information to those customers,” said Judy Meyka, NCTC’s EVP of Programming.

NBCUniversal Advertising & Partnerships shared two new ad innovations on the way for Peacock. Pod Bounce creates a limited-commercial experience condensing the first ad break for viewers, while Highlight Ad is a non-interruptive format that brings a brand sponsorship to life during key in-content moments, allowing viewers to take a closer look at pivotal moments on screen engaging directly with a brand’s message. NBCU also announced it is working with DSP partners DV360, OneView, The Trade Desk and Yahoo! “to bring flexibility and efficiency to our marketers on the platform.”

The global ad economy is poised for sustainable growth, concludes “Portraits of Change: The New Economy,” a report written by GroupM Business Intelligence Global President Brian Wieser, among others, but it won’t follow the usual pattern. Some traditional categories are flattening (think auto, CPG and telecommunications), while new categories – like luxury and technology – are fueling the growth. “Habits formed during times of adversity have a way of becoming permanent,” said the GroupM authors. “Children of the Great Depression never outgrew the compulsion to conserve resources, and the women who entered the workforce during World War II never really left. Today, as offices and cinemas reopen and airports prepare for holiday crowds, we are in the exciting position of seeing which consumer behaviors adopted during the pandemic may be with us for the long term and how they will affect our culture, our economy and our industry.”

Speaking of pandemic changes in consumer behaviors, in 2Q20, TV (44%) topped gaming (42%) on Gen Z’s list of personal interests, according to GWI’s “Connecting the Dots” trend report. But now gaming (54%) has pulled way ahead of TV (42%), and is moving closer to movies (57%). “Interest in gaming, and time spent on it, have continued to grow, even with more out-of-home activities available,” noted the report. “As lockdowns were erased around the world, [gaming] continued to make headway with consumers.”

The judge in the Kyle Rittenouse homicide trial banned MSNBC from the courthouse on Thursday, after a man who identified himself as an MSNBC producer was suspected of following a jury bus. “Last night, a freelancer received a traffic citation. While the traffic violation took place near the jury van, the freelancer never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations, and never photographed or intended to photograph them,” said NBC News in a statement. “We regret the incident and will fully cooperate with the authorities on any investigation.” Police said there was no breach of security regarding the jury.

CALLING ALL ENTRIES** The Best of the Best Award submissions and Rising Star nominations are due by midnight tonight! Finalize your entries and hit SUBMIT!

The Weather Channel and Pattrn, TWC’s climate centric and sustainability platform, inked a new sponsorship with BlueTriton Brands, known for its portfolio of regional spring water and national purified water brands. The sponsorship helps viewers understand the importance of prepping for challenging weather conditions, and will bring new sustainability and water conservation focused content to Pattrn. As part of the deal, The Weather Channel will integrate BlueTriton Brands’ regional spring water brands both in studio sets and in-field during storm coverage.

Former NBC News White House Correspondent Geoff Bennett is joining “PBS NewsHour” as Chief Washington Correspondent on January 3. When production relocates from New York’s WNET to D.C. under the WETA-TV banner in April, Bennett will anchor “PBS NewsHour Weekend.” Bennett will remain a political contributor for NBC News and MSNBC.

Lifetime and Reba McEntire are teaming for Gift of a Lifetime, the network’s pro-social giveback initiative. McEntire, who stars in and executive produces the new movie “Reba McEntire’s Christmas in Tune,” premiering Friday, November 26 at 8p, selected this year’s charity, Thistle Farms. The group has helped women survivors of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction for over 20 years.

SeriesFest has announced “Inclusion Initiative: From Start to Screen,” an effort to create opportunities to celebrate more diversity, equity and inclusivity at SeriesFest, and to influence change throughout the episodic industry. The initiative is presented by Royal Bank of Canada.

With competition tight, NBCUniversal landed a deal to extend its hold on Premier League soccer for six more years. From the 2022-23 season through 2028, matches will be carried across the broadcast, cable and streaming outlets. “This new agreement is …a testament to the hard work of production, marketing and other areas of our company, as well as the tremendous partnership that has been established with the leadership and club owners of the Premier League,” said NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua. Added Ray Warren, President of Telemundo Deportes, “We are extremely proud to have played a key role in the growth of Premier League in the United States these past nine years. We are incredibly excited to continue showcasing the league’s iconic clubs and top players in the world to our Hispanic audience. We look forward to working closely with NBC Sports to continue delivering the highest quality and most authentic Spanish-language coverage of Premier League for the next six seasons.”

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Disney Branded Television has greenlit “Hailey’s On It!”, an original animated comedy-adventure series created and executive produced by Devin Bunje and Nick Stanton (“Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything “). Auli’i Cravalho (“Moana”) voices the title character. Produced by Disney Television Animation, the series is slated to debut in 2023.

Amazon Prime Video has ordered a dark comedy starring and exec produced by Christoph Waltz (“Django Unchained”). “The Consultant,” from Tony Basgallop (“Servant”), Mark Shakman (“WandaVision”), MGM Television and Amazon Studios, the darkly comic workplace thriller is based on the novel by Bentley Little.

Director Chloe Zhao (“Nomadland”) has joined Participant’s upcoming limited series about the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin as an executive producer. Chin was killed in a hate crime by two white autoworkers whose punishment was probation and minimal fines. The series is in development with the Chin estate and executor Helen Zia.

TIME Studios is launching a new Kids & Family programming division. TIME Studios Kids & Family expands on success in the space with its “Kid of the Year” special, which will return to Nickelodeon in early 2022. The division has also sealed a deal with Canadian animation studio Nelvana to co-produce an animated preschool series. Also in development is an in-house project, “TFK’s The Scoop,” a news magazine series featuring Puppet Kid Reporters.

Starz has ordered a docu-series from Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, executive producer of Starz drama “BMF.” “The docuseries will offer an inside look at different perspectives from all of those involved, BMF — Blowing Money Fast,” Jackson said. The eight-parter, produced by G-Unit Film and Television and Jigsaw Productions, will be executive produced by Jackson and Shan Nicholson (“Jerusalem: City of Faith and Fury”), who also will serve as showrunner.

Casting notes: Jonah Hill (“Knocked Up”) will play the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia in a biopic for Apple TV, producing via his Strong Baby with Martin Scorsese and Rick Yorn of LBI Entertainment…Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”) landed the title role opposite Lizzy Kaplan in FX limited series “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” based on the bestseller… Senan West, the 13-year-old son on Dominic West (“The Affair”) will make his on-screen debut as Prince William in season five of Netflix’s “The Crown.” Dad plays Prince Charles.

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The Workshop Content Studio is going to the dogs. The American Kennel Club has tapped the company to produce the inaugural “AKC National K9 Detection Dog Challenge,” a two-hour special offering a close-up look at hero dogs competing to demonstrate their skills in narcotics and explosive detection. The event, held on November 15, will air nationally on ESPN2 on November 28 at 10p.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

TLC shared premiere dates for four returning series: “Darcey & Stacey” (Monday, January 10 at 8p), “Dr. Pimple Popper” (Wednesday, February 16 at 9p), “Doubling Down with the Derricos (Tuesday, February 22 at 10p), and “Unexpected” (Sunday, March 6 at 10p).

Real estate broker and designer Egypt Sherrod (“Property Virgins”) and her husband, builder Mike Jackson, star in new HGTV series “Married to Real Estate.” In the eight-episode season, premiering Thursday, January 13, at 9p, the couple will employ their complementary talents to help families land a perfect home in their ideal neighborhood.

Hulu limited series “Pam & Tommy,” telling the story of the infamous sex tape made by Pamela Anderson (“Baywatch”) and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, debuts Wednesday, February 2.

Cooking reality series “Fast Foodies” returns to truTV for season two on Thursday, January 27 at 10p. The inaugural season reached over 20 million viewers across linear and digital platform; guest this go-round include Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”), Nikki Glaser (“FBOY Island”), Reggie Watts (“The Late Late Show with James Corden”), Chris Jericho (“AEW”), Natasha Leggero (“The Honeymoon Stand Up Special”), and Bobby Moynihan (“Saturday Night Live”), among others.

Season six of Travel Channel’s “Kindred Spirits” arrives Saturday, December 18 at 10p, and it sounds like a doozy. “The paranormal anomalies and activity we encountered rival nothing we’ve come across before,” said paranormal investigator Amy Bruni. “From potentially discovering a body in a basement to finding a 300-year-old haunted shoe – this has been the most unpredictable and mind-bending set of investigations we’ve ever done.”

COMING UP

Alessia Cara, Harry Connick Jr., Mickey Guyton, Norah Jones, Brad Paisley, Rob Thomas, Carrie Underwood and, of course, the Radio City Rockettes will be on hand for NBC’s annual “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” airing Wednesday, December 1 at 8p on NBC and Peacock.

Helen Mirren will be honored with the SAG Life Achievement Award at the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, simulcast live on TBS and TNT on Sunday, February 27 at 8p. “Since I was a young actor starting out, I have always been inspired by and learned from American screen acting, so this award is particularly meaningful for me,” said Mirren.

Hulu Original “The Housewife & the Shah Shocker” explores the accusations against “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” cast member Jen Shah and her alleged involvement in a long-running telemarketing scheme that preyed on the elderly. The program begins streaming Monday, November 29, only on Hulu.

AMC+ has acquired spaghetti western drama series “That Dirty Black Bag” from BRON Studios and Paloma. The eight-part series, filmed in Italy, Spain and Morocco, will make its exclusive US, Canadian, and Australian premieres on AMC+ in March/April 2022.

Weekly preschool show “Tab Time” is set to premiere Wednesday, December 1 at 12p on the YouTube Tabitha Brown channel and the YouTube Kids app. “Everyone could use a bit of Ms. Tab’s positive energy in their life, which is exactly why we brought this show to our platform,” said Nadine Zylstra, Head of Family, Learning and Impact for YouTube Originals.

Smithsonian Channel talks turkey in special “Behind the Holiday: Thanksgiving,” premiering Monday, November 22 at 80.

HLN presents two-hour Real Life Nightmare event “Mojave Mystery – Vanished in the Desert” on Sunday, November 28 at 9p. The program follows an investigation into the November 2014 disappearance of popular hiker and YouTube personality Kenny Veach, as he searched for the mysterious “M Cave” near Area 51.

AWARDS SHOW UPDATES

The 57th Academy of Country Music Awards will air Monday, March 7 on Amazon Prime Video, the first time a major awards show has streamed exclusively. In the past, the ceremony aired on ABC (1972-78), NBC (1979-97) and CBC (1998-2021).

The 53rd NAACP Image Awards take place Saturday, February 26 at 8p, broadcast live on BET. Winners in non-televised Image Awards categories will be streamed February 21-23. “BET is proud to continue our long-standing partnership with the NAACP and amplify their efforts to honor the extraordinary contributions made by the Black community,” said BET President Scott Mills. “We look forward to recognizing Black excellence at this year’s Image Awards on all of our platforms.”

STREAMING

Struum is now available on all “living room” platforms including all Android Devices, the Roku platform, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV. Struum has also partnered with Groupon on a deal that offers subscriptions to the service for six months for $9.99.

Interra Systems, provider of content QC, monitoring, and analysis solutions to the digital media industry, announced that software company Frequency has deployed Interra Systems’ ORION and ORION-OTT systems in an AWS cloud environment. Using Interra Systems’ end-to-end, cloud-based solutions, Frequency can monitor TSoIP contribution feeds while assuring audio-video quality and stability across its network of of FAST channels.

TECH TALK

A bill has been reintroduced that would require companies to obtain consumers’ explicit consent before collecting or drawing on their personal information in order to serve them with targeted ads or to personalize content. The Online Privacy Act, first proposed in 2019 by California Reps. Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren, would give consumers the right to access, edit and delete data about themselves, and require companies to inform users about data breaches as well as “data abuses,” which including data processing by third parties. Companies would also be prohibited from intentionally taking “any action that substantially impairs, obscures, or subverts” people’s ability to understand a privacy policy, or their ability to consent to the use of their data.

Facebook unveiled tools to help users and advertisers customize and control what they see, and don’t see, in their news feeds. The new options in news feed preferences will enable users to increase or reduce the amount of content they see from friends and family, as well as the groups, pages, and topics they are connected to. Changes will be tested with a small percentage of users in the coming weeks. For advertisers, Facebook announced a “topic exclusion” control enabling them to select a specific topic to help define how Facebook will show an ad on its platform. Topics so far include “News and Politics,” “Social Issues,” and “Crime and Tragedy.” Advertisers’ ads will not be delivered to people engaging with those topics in their news feed.

The percentage of subscribers who are pushing against the upper limits of their broadband speed tiers has spiked nearly 400% during the past 18 months, according to the 3Q 2021 OVBI report. “By effectively identifying speed-clipping subscribers [those that exceed 80% of provisional broadband speed], network operators can prevent unnecessary truck rolls and better target them with speed upgrade offers that ultimately provide the consumer with a better experience,” the report says. “The results can improve customer satisfaction and net promoter scores (NPS), reduce operational expenses, and increase ARPU.”

Skincare line Cannuka Luxe has partnered with MadHive to power shoppable TV campaigns to launch their new collection. “CTV gives brands the best of both worlds — the precise targeting of digital with the high impact, premium experience of the TV screen,” said Adam Helfgott, CEO at MadHive. “This convergence has helped TV move beyond a brand awareness platform only to become a full-funnel marketing tool, especially when you incorporate shoppable TV tools like QR codes directly into creative.”

Enterprise customer data platform Treasure Data has introduced the Treasure Data Trusted Foundation, a suite of features enabling marketers to manage all data privacy and consent preferences related to individuals in the unified customer data record with data access permissions and controls, within one smart platform. “Just as marketers understand the need for one-to-one personalization, they must also recognize the need for one-to-one privacy,” said Tamar Shor, VP of Product Strategy at Treasure Data. “Brand reputation now relies on customer data stewardship balanced with personalization across every touchpoint.”

GOING GLOBAL

Insight TV is launching on LG U+ in South Korea. The launch comes after three years reaching viewers in South Korea with the Insight TV 4K service on the SKB 4K package and Insight TV programming on the UMAX platform.

Fremantle announced that “The Curse of Von Dutch: A Brand to Die For” has been acquired by Prime Video has in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, by Disney for FOX Channel in Belgium and The Netherlands. hayu in the UK and Ireland have also come onboard.

David P. Davis, executive producer of the HBO and BBC drama, “Industry,” is joining ITV Studios to launch 5 Acts Productions, the first label under the umbrella of Patrick Spence’s scripted Studio. 5 Acts Productions will be led by Davis as Creative Director.

M-Net, AMC Networks’ Acorn TV, Global Screen and Both Worlds Pictures announced the start of principal photography of South African murder mystery series “Recipes for Love and Murder.” The series stars Maria Doyle Kennedy (“Outlander”) as the recipe advice columnist for a small-town gazette, who investigates the murder of one of her correspondents.

Propagate International has closed the first format agreements for FOX Alternative Entertainment’s avatar singing competition, “Alter Ego” in the Middle East, Russia, Ukraine and Greece. Friday TV has picked up “Alter Ego” rights for Russia. In Ukraine, rights were snapped up by Ukraina TV, while producer Ogmented TV licensed the series for the Middle East and Silverline took rights for Greece.

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UPtv’s second weekend of Christmas premiere movies reached 4.1 million viewers. Saturday’s “A Snowy Christmas” was the 4th strongest UP Premiere Movie of the year, while Sunday’s “Snowed in for Christmas “came in at #3.

Outdoor Sportsman Group reports its hunting websites delivered the most aggregate pageviews and users in October 2021 since January 2018. Leading the way was North American Whitetail with more than 775,000 pageviews and 400,000 users, up +135% and +85% year-over-year,. The Bowhunting websites, Bowhunter and Bowhunting, also posted the largest combined pageviews (534,000) and users (364,000) numbers for the site since 2018.

Top 10 Streaming Shows for the week of October 18
Show, # Episodes, Minutes (000)
You (Netflix), 30, 2682
Squid Game (Netflix), 9, 1329
Maid (Netflix), 10, 865
Shameless (Netflix), 134, 851
CoComelon (Netflix), 15, 758
Locke & Key (Netflix), 20, 637
In the Dark (Netflix), 39, 608
Seinfeld (Netflix), 166, 595
The Blacklist (Netflix) 169, 586
NCIS (Netflix), 353, 540
Source: Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings (Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix), Nielsen National TV Panel, U.S. Viewing through Television

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Wednesday, November 17
Show, P2+ 000s, (A18-49)
ABC: The Goldbergs 3.42 (0.6), The Wonder Years 2.47 (0.4), The Conners 3.47 (0.5), Home Economics 2.21 (0.4), A Million Little Things 2.10 (0.3)
CBS: Survivor 5.77 (0.9), Tough as Nails 2.80 (0.4) CSI: Vegas 3.88 (0.4)
CW: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 0.50 (0.1), Batwoman 0.41 (0.1)
FOX: The Masked Singer 4.64 (1.0), Alter Ego 2.04 (0.4)
NBC: Chicago Med 3.90 (0.5), Chicago Fire 3.95 (0.5), Chicago PD 3.01 (0.4)
Telemundo: Por Amor o por Dinero 1.00 (0.3), Hercai: Amor y Venganza 1.20 (0.3), Malverde: El Santo Patron 0.85 (0.3)
Univision: La Rosa de Guadalupe 1.41 (0.4), Vencer el Pasado 1.40 (0.4), La Desalmada 1.48 (0.4)
Source: Nielsen, live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Rogers Communications’ former CFO Tony Staffieri has been named interim President and CEO after the abrupt exit of CEO Joe Natale. The board of the Canadian company has begun a search to identify a permanent CEO.

Little Dot Studios has appointed Zara Gregory to the newly created role of Director of Operations. Gregory joins the company from Sky, where she was Group Head of Transformation.

Kantar has named Duncan Houldsworth to lead its Brand and Marketing ROI Analytics Practice in North America. Previously Houldsworth was the Managing Partner and Founder of Purseia.

TIME Studios has tapped Alexandra Johnes and Loren Hammonds to lead its Documentary division and Maria Perez-Brown to spearhead its new Kids & Family programming arm. Additional creative new hires and promotions include Rebecca Teitel as VP of Documentary, Rebecca Gitlitz as Director and Showrunner and Jeff Smith as Executive Producer and Showrunner.

World of Wonder announced the addition of Dave Snyder as the SVP of Docs & Current Programming. Prior to World of Wonder, Snyder served as Executive Producer of Development for The Joe Berlinger Group at RadicalMedia.

FCB Canada announced that Leo Barbosa and Cuanan Cronwright have boarded the agency as Executive Creative Directors. Barbosa was previously at Grey, while Cronwright joins from Publicis New York.

Friday Fun Fact
There are more Lego mini-figures than there are people on Earth.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who replaced George Carlin as US narrator for “Thomas & Friends”? Alec Baldwin. Kudos to: Sandy Spiegel-WTTWT/Chicago; Robert Casalaina-ITN/NYC; Rev. Mark Wajda/Clermont, FL; Kyle Krebs-CBS 42/Birmingham; Eric Dunefsky-Crossmedia/NYC; Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; Sally Sluss-Spectrum Reach/St. Louis, MO; Squirrel Rippley-Dark Horse Media/Tucson; Carl Mayer-Active International/Pearl River, NY

Today’s Trivia Question
Which sitcom had the most spinoffs? (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.)