 IN THE NEWS |
| Sony had the right to terminate its distribution deal with CBS for syndicated game shows “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” ruled an LA Superior Court. CBS’s bid for a court order that would have temporarily blocked Sony’s taking over distribution was denied. “Sony can begin distributing the Shows and need not deliver episodes to CBS,” stated the order. Responded CBS Media Ventures “This is only a preliminary ruling based on partial evidence, not the outcome of the full case. We’re confident once all the evidence is heard at trial, we will prevail on the merits.” Sony had accused CBS of licensing the shows at below market rates. |
 AMC Networks has renewed “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” for a third season. Thomas Schnauz (“Breaking Bad”) joins as co-showrunner with Esta Spalding. Season two of the supernatural horror drama, among the top series on AMC+ in both viewership and acquisition, concluded March 2.
“Carrie,” a TV series based on the Stephen King novel, has been greenlit at Prime Video. Mike Flanagan (“The Fall of the House of Usher”) is writer, executive producer and showrunner, with Amazon MGM Studios producing.
Sinclair announced its strategic entry into the media-for-equity space, utilizing its media assets to fuel the growth of high potential companies and emerging brands. Through direct investments and partnerships with Mercurius Media Capital and mediaforgrowth, Sinclair will provide advertising resources and strategic support in exchange for equity via Sinclair’s Local Media segment. “We recognize the transformative power of media in accelerating brand growth at scale,” said Chris Ripley, President and CEO, Sinclair. “By aligning with innovative, forward-thinking companies, we’re not just providing the advertising resources businesses need to expand – we’re strategically investing in high growth opportunities that propel both our partners and our portfolio forward.” |
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| PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT |
| Bruce Springsteen will be the focus of a BBC documentary produced by Wise Owl Films that focuses on the E Street Band’s first performance in the UK, back in 1975. “Bruce Springsteen is not only a global music icon, but he’s an honorary Brit here in the UK,” said Rachel Davies, Commissioning Editor, BBC Music. “We know BBC viewers will love watching this film, which lifts the lid on his early visits to the UK with a world exclusive new interview.”
Jack Lowden (“Slow Horses”), Emma Corrin (“The Crown”) and Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”) are set to star in Netflix’s “Pride & Prejudice,” a six-part limited series based on the Jane Austen novel.
NGLmitú is taking Hispanic Kitchen, its flagship Latino food brand, in a new direction. Moving forward, Hispanic Kitchen will shift away from only sharing recipes, and include entertaining content from various creators. |
| NEW & RETURNING SERIES |
 Season four of FX’s “Welcome to Wrexham” kicks off with two episodes on Wednesday, May 14 at 9p, following Ryan Reynolds and Ro McElhenny as they run the UK professional football club.
Meanwhile, Prime Video has a docuseries on tap focused on the Birmingham City Football Club’s promotion to the EFL Sky Bet Championship. Steven Knight, creator of “Peaky Blinders” and a lifelong Blues fan, is executive producing the behind-the-scenes sports show, launching this summer.
Gordon Ramsay trades his chef knives for a state-of-the-art surveillance vehicle and cutting-edge spyware in Fox’s new unscripted series, “Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service,” debuting Wednesday, May 21 at 9p. Ramsay will venture into struggling restaurants under the cover of night and with the help of a secret source on the inside, get a 360-degree view of the major issues facing restaurants.
TNT spinoff “The Librarians: The Next Chapter” premieres with a two-night event starting Sunday, May 25 following NBA Playoffs coverage. The next episode makes its debut on Monday, May 26 following NHL Playoffs coverage. Subsequent episodes will continue to air on Monday nights. The drama follows a “Librarian” from the past who time traveled from 1847 and now finds himself stuck in the present.
Season three of medical drama “SkyMed” drops Thursday, May 15 on Paramount+. All nine episodes will be available.
BBC Studios production “Walking with Dinosaurs” premieres Monday, June 16 at 8p on PBS. Each of six episodes focuses on the tale of an individual dinosaur, pieced together by paleontologists.
“Toxic,” hosted by Elizabeth Chambers, journalist and ex-wife of Armie Hammer, delves into the dark side of relationships through conversations with survivors. The six-parter debuts Monday, May 5 at 10p on ID. |
Today’ Premieres
Apple TV+: Your Friends and Neighbors
Hulu: Got to Get Out
Netflix: The Gardener
The Roku Channel: The Great American Baking Show
Saturday’s Premieres
Disney+: Doctor Who
Netflix: Resident Playbook
OWN: Love & Marriage: Detroit at 8p; Somebody’s Son at 9p
Tubi: Roboforce: The Animated Series
Sunday’s Premieres
HBO: The Last of Us at 9p
MGM+: Godfather of Harlem at 9p
The Weather Channel: Rocky Mountain Wreckers at 8p and 9p |
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| COMING UP |
| “The Quincy Effect” is set to premiere on Hulu on Wednesday, April 23. The doc, produced by Andscape, the Black content studio from Disney & ESPN, and Religion of Sports, tells the story of coach Quincy Avery’s journey from homelessness to transforming the NFL quarterback landscape.
To mark Earth Day, Prime Video is hosting a global event featuring two documentaries, “Common Ground” and “Kiss the Ground.” With Executive Producers Ian Somerhalder, Demi Moore, and Jason Momoa, the films bring attention to regenerative agriculture as a solution to climate change.
Apple TV+ is celebrating Earth Day with a special collection of series, specials and shorts highlighting the wonders of the planet, including the season three premiere of “Jane,” inspired by the work of conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall; “The Secret Lives of Animals”; and “Prehistoric Planet,” narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
On the way from AMC Networks: “The 49ers Project” comes to AMC and AMC+ in 2026, and will take audiences through the franchise’s meteoric run during the 80’s and 90’s, with behind the scenes footage and commentary from NFL great Tom Brady. The Anne Rice Universe continues to expand with a third show, “Telemasca: The Secret Order,” debuting this fall. And Janelle Monáe will be back to host Fright Fest in 2025 and try to outdo the 20 billion minutes of horror watched during the 2024 event.
Hulu film “Summer of 69,” telling the story of an awkward high school senior who hires an exotic dancer to help her seduce her longtime crush before graduation, premieres Friday, May 9.The ensemble cast includes Chloe Fineman (“Saturday Night Live”), Sam Morelos (“That ’90s Show”), Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”), Paula Pell (“Girls5eva”), Liza Koshy (“A Family Affair”), Nicole Byer (“Nailed It!”) and more.
True crime special “Southern Fried Lies” premieres Sunday, April 27 at 6p on Oxygen. The setting: “a quiet bucolic town where the only thing thicker than the humidity is the gossip.”
Steve Guttenberg (“Police Academy”) will play a serial killer in Lifetime’s “ripped from the headlines” film, “Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story.” The movie, based on the true story of a woman abducted as a baby and raised by the family of a serial killer who was convicted of murdering her mother, premieres Saturday, June 7, at 8p. |
| LEGAL MATTERS |
| OpenAI has asked a federal court to bar Elon Musk from unfairly attacking it through a high-profile lawsuit he filed last year that accuses two of its founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, of putting the commercial interests of the company ahead of the public good. Contending that Musk has “made it his project to take down OpenAI,” the company requested that Musk be responsible for any damage he has caused. “Elon continues to use bad-faith tactics in an attempt to slow down OpenAI for his personal benefit,” said a statement from the company. “These efforts are anti-competitive and go against our mission, which is why today we filed a countersuit to stop them.”
A Delaware judge ruled that Newsmax made false and defamatory claims about the role voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems played in the 2020 presidential election. The same judge ruled in Dominion’s favor in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News, which resulted in a $787.5 million settlement. “This case represents a serious threat to free speech and a free press and Newsmax will defend itself vigorously at trial,” responded a statement from Newsmax. The case, set to go to trial April 28, doesn’t appear to be hurting ratings – Newsmax grew 27% in Daytime and 24% in Total Day in 1Q25 versus the year prior, and Prime Time jumped 20%. |
| TECH |
| Music video network Vevo has struck a new partnership with Experian to strengthen audience targeting capabilities across Vevo’s distribution, including YouTube and FAST services, by utilizing Experian’s Mosaic UK segments. “Advertisers on Vevo can already tap into our existing toolbox to maximise their campaign effectiveness,” said Rich Brant, Senior Director, Advanced TV, Strategy & Partnerships, Vevo. “Now, we are further enhancing our capabilities within audience attributes and affinities.”
MissionOne Media, BarkleyOKRP’s media unit, is acquiring AI and SEO Performance marketing firm Growth Skills. As part of the acquisition, Growth Skills CEO Lavall Chichester joins MissionOne as EVP of SEO and AI Optimization, reporting to MissionOne President Sean Corcoran.“Brands need to be ready for the AI-powered future of search,” said Corcoran. “Growth Skills brings an innovative approach that moves beyond traditional SEO to help brands secure their place in AI-driven search.”
Advertising platform StackAdapt has partnered with Lyft Media to launch programmatic in-app advertising within the Lyft app. Through a strategic partnership with Kevel, provider of API-based media ad serving technology, the collaboration grants StackAdapt clients access to Lyft’s US in-app ad inventory, creating an opportunity for brands, agencies, and merchants to connect with Lyft riders daily through hyper-localized advertising experiences. “Partnering with Lyft and Kevel opens an extraordinary advertising avenue for agencies to engage a mobile, diverse audience,” said Greg Joseph, VP of Inventory Development at StackAdapt. “Together, we’re transforming the local ad experience by connecting brands, agencies, merchants, and restaurants to consumers at meaningful points in their daily lives.” |
| INSIGHT |
George Ivie is celebrating his 25th year as Executive Director and CEO of the Media Rating Council – and it’s safe to say his job hasn’t gotten easier over time. Here, Ivie shares what’s new, and what’s ahead, for the MRC.
The MRC has expanded its purview as the media business has evolved. What are upcoming initiatives you can share?
Yes, over the years (and accelerating recently) the MRC has expanded its focus into more areas of measurement as well as expanding our membership, the number of products we audit and standards we have written/deployed. Some examples of newer validation work areas for MRC include — CTV, streaming, retail media, point of care, out of home, third-party data suppliers, brand safety processes, identity processes, AI/machine learning applications (cropping up everywhere), attention and outcomes measurement.
Another easy way to discern where some of the future focus areas of MRC will be is to look at standards development projects we have in flight — for example we are presently working on a programmatic auction transparency standard, OOH phase 2 focused on OOH audience measurement as well as we will soon be opening up another phase of the cross-media measurement standard to move beyond video to add more guidance on inclusion of display and audio sources.
How deep have you gotten into retail media?
We are very deep into retail media audits/validation; I recently spoke on this topic on a panel at the measurement day that ran concurrently with the recent NRF convention in NYC. We have accredited certain metrics across several RMNs such as Amazon, Criteo and Instacart, with several other RMNs in process. We also collaborated with IAB to produce specific RMN standards/guidance. There is a lot of activity here with many networks and infrastructure vendors coming to us to discuss and get involved in the accreditation process. These are also global efforts where we are working with some RMNs that do business internationally and are seeking to use MRC’s rigorous accreditation process, once earned, to build trust internationally. In fact we have recently formed a European-centric audit committee within MRC wherein some of the focus of this group will be reviewing and assessing RMN audits centered in Europe — we are also seeking new members who may be interested participating in these global activities.
What is the biggest challenge facing measurement companies right now?
There are a lot of challenging areas — I’ll mention a few: (1) ensuring newer media consumption channels used by consumers are fully and fairly reflected in measurement, (2) continuing to ensure fair representation of the population being measured, across all population groups, (3) ensuring effective measurement can continue as signal loss occurs due to privacy regulations, which are compelling and necessary, but sometimes can create measurement challenges, (4) reflecting more passive measurement techniques and data-sets into research products such as larger data sets, with proper cleaning and adjustment (an area where we have considerable expertise), (5) keeping invalid traffic filtration guidance strong and robust, (6) ensuring variability associated with reported results are known and appropriately reported to research users, (7) validating/auditing cross-media measurement approaches, and (8) bringing more attention and outcomes measurement products into the MRC audit process to ensure the benefits of standardization and validation/auditing are realized on a wider basis. |
| DISTRIBUTION |
| Aquimo and GameLoop have partnered to bring Aquimo’s Tilt Games to broadcast television for the first time. Powered by Aquimo’s multiplayer mobile gaming platform, “Tilt Games” provides GameLoop fans with an interactive gaming experience that brings real-time, mobile-driven play to live television. First out of the game: basketball-themed “3 Point Challenge.”
“MasterChef Creators,” from Endemol Shine Brasil in partnership with YouTube, will air on the MasterChef Brasil YouTube channel. The new extension is supported by LATAM Airlines. |
| SPORTS REPORT |
| For the first time, NHL Network will televise an hour-long edition of “NHL Tonight: 2025 Hobey Baker Announcement” today, April 11 at 6p. The expanded ceremony will be held live at the Stifel Theatre in St. Louis with NHL Network’s Jamison Coyle and Kathryn Tappen hosting. |
| RATINGS |
| The global premiere of “Mobland” delivered 8.8 million viewers in its first seven days, quadrupling its audience, making it the biggest global series launch week ever on Paramount+. For the week, it leaped +298% from premiere day.
Season 16 of MTV’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked” drew the series’ highest ratings in three years among A18-34 (0.378 rating, up 14% from last season) and A18-49 (0.419, up 6%). |
| EXECUTIVE MOVES |
| Unanimous Media has appointed Sharla Sumpter Bridgett as Chief Content Officer. Previously, Bridgett served as a producer at Chernin Entertainment, where she oversaw the production of “Back in Action.”
Melissa Aoute has been named President of Blumhouse Television. Aoute was most recently President and Partner at Fabel Entertainment. |
This Day in History
1911 – Tel Aviv was founded.
Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Which series was set on Iron River (not Horse!) Ranch? “The Ranch” (2016-20). Kudos to: Rev. Mark Wajda/Clermont, FL; Kristen Van Vleet-Horizon Media/NYC; Neal Steffin-NBCUniversal/Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA
Today’s Trivia Question
On which series did Jon Hamm recur as a firefighter? (Email your answer to trivia@cynopsis.com and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.) |
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