Good morning and welcome to Cynopsis — the media industry’s essential morning read. Today:
· Fubo TV Gets Its Peacock Back
· Same Game, New Stream: “The Circle” Lands at Hulu
· Rich Kids, Dark Secrets — Ryan Murphy’s Summer Is Here |
 IN THE NEWS |
NBCUniversal networks are back on Fubo TV, thanks to a new distribution agreement.
· NBCU networks went dark on Fubo on November 21, 2025, when the two sides couldn’t reach a carriage deal. The blackout included all NBC local broadcast affiliates, cable channels, and the spinoff Versant channels.
· Fubo claimed NBCU’s terms for pricing and packaging were “egregiously above” terms offered to other distributors, while NBCU said it had offered the same terms agreed to by hundreds of other distributors.
· Fubo customers can now stream NBCU’s Spanish-language networks, Telemundo and Universo, with NBCUniversal’s English-language networks, regional sports networks (RSNs) and new FAST channels, set to launch in the coming weeks.
· The Takeaway: The new deal is another sign that programmers and virtual MVPDs are finding their footing on pricing and packaging — but carriage fights remain a real friction point as legacy networks push to maintain distribution leverage while streaming bundles compete for subscribers.
“The Circle” is returning — but not to Netflix, where it ran for seven seasons. Deadline reports that Hulu has ordered a new version of the social experiment, first launched in the UK in 2018.
· The new iteration includes celebrity contestants and audience voting.
· Hulu’s version will also be filmed in real time.
· Original producers Studio Lambert (“The Traitors”) and Motion Entertainment return, joined by Omaha Productions.
· The Takeaway: The move signals the appeal of proven reality formats, as platforms compete to lock down established IP rather than develop unproven concepts from scratch.
“Property Brothers” star Jonathan Scott is trading demo days for daytime TV. His new syndicated talk show, “Better! With Jonathan Scott” (w/t) is piloting this month through CBS Media Ventures (“The Drew Barrymore Show”). |
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| A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM BUCKEYE BROADBAND |
| NEW & RETURNING SERIES |
 “The Shards” arrives on FX and Hulu on Wednesday, August 5 at 9 p.m. The Ryan Murphy drama drops viewers into the sun-soaked, shadow-filled world of 1980s Los Angeles — where a group of privileged prep school seniors discover that senior year comes with more than just college applications. |
 Season two of “Diarra From Detroit” kicks off Wednesday, July 29 on Paramount+. This time around, what starts as a seemingly harmless furniture recovery mission spirals into a triple homicide investigation.
In HGTV’s “Worst Yard on the Block,” owners of unsightly yards have their lawns transformed by landscaping experts, starting Wednesday, July 15 at 10 p.m. And in an expanded one-hour format, “Ugliest House in America” returns on Monday, July 20 at 9 p.m., with owners of hideous homes competing for a showstopping renovation.
New York Life’s new docuseries “The Assist” takes US Men’s National Soccer Team stars Tyler Adams, Tim Ream, and Matt Turner off the pitch and into the moments that actually made them. The series is built around the relationships and support systems that shaped three very different paths to the world stage — and ties directly into New York Life’s commitment to mentorship and youth development through soccer. Lisa Thomsen, Head of Acquisition, Client and Sponsorship at New York Life, breaks down the strategy behind it, in Cynsiders.
LatiNation Media is launching “CopaNation,” devoted to stories surrounding the World Cup. Premiering on the LatiNation app Monday through Friday beginning June 14, the daily live show brings together fútbol legends, current players, creators, entertainers, and fans. |
Today’s Premieres
AspireTV: City Eats: Charleston
Great American Pure Flix: Mark vs. The Mountain
NBC: Surviving Earth at 8 p.m.
Netflix: The Evil Lawyer; Sweet Magnolias; Viral Hit
Prime Video: Raakh |
| SPORTS REPORT |
| Michelob ULTRA, the Official Beer Sponsor of FIFA World Cup 2026, is launching an out-of-home campaign with two fan-facing tools, both built on FANZO’s technology. International travelers will encounter ads in airports, train stations, and metro systems across host cities — each featuring a QR code linking to a FANZO-powered Michelob ULTRA venue map. On the domestic side, the brand has teamed up with soccer podcast Men In Blazers to create a guide helping American fans find the best places to watch the tournament, with recommendations shaped by atmosphere, community, and overall experience rather than just proximity.
EDO has launched EDO’s Sponsored Ad Outcomes, an AI-powered measurement tool that brings outcomes data to live sports sponsorships. The offering debuts today, with real-time coverage across all 104 matches of the World Cup.
Disney+ subscribers in France can now access La chaîne L’Équipe through the ESPN on Disney+ hub, marking the first time the platform has offered a live linear TV channel as part of an existing subscription. The addition brings a broad slate of live sports to French subscribers, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the FIFA World Cup, Biathlon World Championships, the Spanish Super Cup, the Diamond League athletics series, European Table Tennis Union circuit events, and the Dakar Rally.
Havas has taken a majority stake in Archrival, a U.S. youth culture and experiential agency, bolstering Havas Play’s capacity to connect brands with culture, fandom, and lived experience. The move broadens Havas Play’s reach across sports marketing, live events, branded partnerships, creator engagement, and experiential activation. |
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| PROGRAMMATIC IO
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Plus, eligible attendees may participate in an onsite interview with AdExchanger or AdMonsters and receive a complimentary recording to share with their team.
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APPLY HERE |
| PRODUCTION |
| Bomanbridge Media and Canadian content studio, Wind Sun Sky are collaborating to co-produce a new animated series in the multimedia Future Chicken franchise. “Future Chicken and The Planet Protectors” (w/t) is slated for spring 2028 delivery. |
| TECH |
As entertainment providers increasingly rely on LLMs to help viewers cut through the flood of available content, new research from Gracenote reveals a critical limitation: AI-powered discovery is only as good as the data underneath it. The report, “Plot holes in AI: Why Ungrounded LLMs Can’t Fix Content Discovery,” tested how accurately a leading LLM could answer questions about popular movies and TV shows across 2,600 titles, and the results were stark: for nearly one in five titles, the ungrounded model hallucinated every piece of measured metadata. Additional insights include:
· Similar titles led the LLM to the wrong content. In one example, the ungrounded model returned the correct title and year for the 2025 thriller “Heel,” but pulled the description, cast and genre from “Heels,” a Starz drama series that ran from 2021 to 2023. In another, it conflated the 2024 horror-thriller “Trucker” with a 2008 movie of the same name.
· Recent content exposed major blind spots. The ungrounded model was unable to provide information about several new titles, including “GOAT,” a 2026 film that earned nearly $200 million globally before hitting Netflix.
· Core cast information proved unreliable. For the top 100 U.S. movies, only 53% of the ungrounded LLM’s primary-actor responses matched the grounded data.
Spectrum Reach and Anoki AI have teamed up to give advertisers greater transparency into where their ads run across streaming TV. The partnership brings Anoki’s ContextIQ technology into Spectrum Reach’s streaming ad inventory, allowing brands to see in real time what content surrounds their ads — from live national and local news to sports and entertainment programming.
Equativ, a media platform, has teamed up with AI-powered creative intelligence company SofiaPulse to merge their respective technologies — Equativ’s omnichannel media platform and Creative Enhancement tools with SofiaPulse’s agentic creative infrastructure. The partnership aims to streamline the full campaign lifecycle for advertisers and agencies, from initial brief through creative production, personalization, and activation to performance measurement across the open web.
Samsung Ads is opening up its Smart TV home screen inventory to programmatic buying for the first time, allowing advertisers to purchase these placements automatically through major demand-side platforms. The capability is built on Magnite’s SpringServe technology and will integrate with The Trade Desk and Google’s Display & Video 360 (DV360), with a global rollout beginning in Q3. |
| COMING UP |
| Sinclair is partnering with Feeding America® to launch Sinclair Cares: Summer Hunger Relief, an awareness and fundraising campaign to help provide meals to children and their families across the U.S. Sinclair will produce content to air throughout the campaign, including a 30-minute special featuring interviews with Feeding America partner network members across the country. The special will air on Sinclair’s television stations on June 27 and 28.
“The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door,” a film about the 2018 Novichok nerve agent attack, premieres Sunday, July 12 at 8 p.m. on CNN.
HBO climate crisis doc “The Welcome Table” debuts Tuesday, June 23 at 9 p.m. The film tells the story of climate migrants across six continents. |
| RATINGS |
Broadcast Evening News for the Week of June 1
ABC World News Tonight: 7.66 million Total Viewers; 974,000 A25-54
NBC Nightly News: 6.30 million Total Viewers; 892,000 A25-54
CBS Evening News: 3.81 million Total Viewers; 560,000 A25-54
Source: Nielsen Live + Same Day Big Data Plus Panel
Basic Cable Ratings for the Week of June 1
P2+ AA (000)
Primetime
FOX News 2,300
ESPN 1,232
MS NOW 976
HGTV 718
CNN 637
TBS 567
History 544
Hallmark Channel 504
TLC 491
Discovery Channel 468
Total Day
FOX News 1,432
MS NOW 603
ESPN 602
CNN 439
HGTV 355
TNT 276
Hallmark Channel 274
TBS 258
GSN 255
History 249
Source: Nielsen
An average 3.73 million viewers tuned in for the 158th running of the Belmont Stakes on Fox and FS1 on Saturday, peaking at 4.7 million viewers from 7–7:15 p.m.
The Stanley Cup double overtime Final Game 3 on ABC drew 5 million viewers, the second most-viewed Game 3 since 1994. |
| EXECUTIVE MOVES |
| Brendon Thomas has been appointed Chief Revenue Officer of Radial Entertainment. Thomas most recently served as Senior Vice President of Distribution and Business Development at Paramount Global. |
Today’s Trivia Question
Which five-season TV series spawned two TV movies in which the matriarch was played by a different actress each time? (Email answers to trivia@cynopsis.com and include your name, company and city. Answers limited to four per time zone.)
Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Which series featured a working mom with two sons — whose kids are no longer part of the show in its fourth and fifth seasons? “The Doris Day Show” (1968-73).
Congrats to: Jackie Howell-Nexstar WCMH TV/Columbus, OH; Greg West-WATC TV/Atlanta; Andrew Goldman-Phanes Funding Group/NYC; John Amato-KTTV Good Day LA/LA; Roy S. Restivo-Allen Media Group/LA |
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