It’s the Most Wonderful Time to Partner with WBD
We’re serving up can’t-miss entertainment all season long across all of
our platforms, with everything audiences need to enjoy the holidays:

Max: Barbie (Coming in December)
Food Network: Holiday Baking Championship (11/6-12/18)
TNT: NBA In-Season Tournament (Knockout Stage Starts 12/4)
TBS + TNT: 24 Hours of A Christmas Story (12/24-12/25)
CNN: New Year’s Eve Live w/ Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen (12/31-1/1)
…and so much more!

Warner Bros. Discovery: Dream bold here

Tuesday November 28, 2023

IN THE NEWS

Paramount Global has become the first programmer to join Go Addressable, a group that started in 2021 as an industry initiative and has now been incorporated as a nonprofit trade organization. “As we reach a pivotal point in the future of addressable TV, Go Addressable continues to find new ways to enhance, innovate and drive momentum behind this medium across the TV ad ecosystem,” said Paramount VP, addressable advertising partnerships Maribel Becker. “We’re very excited to lead programmer participation in this industry group.” The other members of Go Addressable are Altice USA’s a4 Advertising, Charter Communications’ Spectrum Reach, Comcast Advertising, DirecTV Advertising and Dish Media.

Taylor Swift has a little something extra for her fans, tied to her 34th birthday. “Well, so, basically I have a birthday coming up and I was thinking a fun way to celebrate the year we’ve had together would be to make The Eras Tour Concert Film available for you to watch at home!”, posted Swift. “Very happy to be able to tell you that the extended version of the film including ‘Wildest Dreams,’ ‘The Archer’ and ‘Long Live’ will be available to rent on demand in the US, Canada & additional countries to be announced soon starting on … you guessed it, December 13.”

Late night will have to go on without new episodes of CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” this week, as the host recovers from a ruptured appendix. Shows planned for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have been canceled. “Going forward, all emails to my appendix will be handled by my pancreas,” posted Colbert.

Tegna has notified viewers that its stations could go dark on DirecTV starting November 30 if a retransmission agreement can’t be reached. The company said it is looking for “fair, market-based” terms. Responded DirecTV, “Tegna has once again made a private negotiation public in the hopes of creating unnecessary and premature concern among some of our customers to extract higher rates for local broadcast stations. Unfortunately, that’s become the industry norm as the costs for free local stations have soared more than 20% year upon year upon year despite declining popularity and less compelling content.”

Season 16 of ABC’s “Shark Tank” will be the last for billionaire tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who broke the news during Showtime podcast “All the Smoke.” “It’s time,” said Cuban. The reality show is currently in season 15.

BONUS!

We extended it an extra week, but today is the FINAL day to submit nominations for Cynopsis Standouts Q3. Celebrate your colleague, peer or boss this season with a recognition award. They deserve it!

NOMINATE A STANDOUT HERE

Hallmark Media is jumping into unscripted with Hallmark Channel star Lacey Chabert (“A Very Scottish Christmas”). “Celebrations with Lacey Chabert” will surprise people who have contributed to their communities with events created in three days. Produced by UnConventional Entertainment, the series will premiere in late 2024 on Hallmark Media’s streaming service. “We’re proud to announce our foray into the unscripted programming space,” said Lisa Hamilton Daly, EVP programming, Hallmark Media. “The Hallmark brand lends itself to a wide array of opportunities to tell stories that bring inspiration, comfort, joy and happiness to our viewers, so tapping into this genre allows us to evolve and expand our programming footprint in incredibly rewarding ways.”

Paramount+ is expanding its development slate from Boat Rocker with two new Canadian original titles: scripted dramedy “Bensen,” created and written by Clara Altimas, and comedy “Elected,” created and written by Michael McGowan.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

A new season of “Why the Heck Did I Buy This House?” premieres Tuesday, December 26 at 9p on HGTV. The show’s first season attracted 15.4 million viewers.

“Hazbin Hotel” debuts Friday, January 19 on Prime Video. The adult animated musical comedy series follows Charlie, the princess of Hell, as she pursues her seemingly impossible goal of rehabilitating demons to peacefully reduce overpopulation in her kingdom.

STREAMING

Netflix emerged the winner in a bidding war for a comedy film produced by Kim Kardashian and Paula Pell. “The Fifth Wheel” will star the reality TV fixture in an ensemble female cast.

Newsmax is no longer streaming for free on OTT platforms or via the Newsmax smartphone app but is available via subscription on the Newsmax+ app as well as the free streaming service, N2 (Newsmax2) and the Newsmax cable channel. Since its launch on November 1, Newsmax+ has gained 150,000 subscribes.

GOING GLOBAL

UK’s Channel 5 yanked a documentary hours before it was slated to air Sunday night following allegations that a historian in the film, “1928: The Year the Thames Flooded,” is a “hardline Nazi.” “We will not be airing the film this evening whilst producers look into this further,” said a network spokesperson.

Red Arrow Studios International has signed more international deals for anthology series “Those Who Stayed.” The drama has been licensed by CBC’s streaming service CBC Gem in Canada, SBS Australia and France Télévisions, and already sold to Lumière for Benelux, DR in Denmark, ERR Estonia, Czech Television in the Czech Republic and RUV in Iceland.

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INQUIRE NOW

The premiere of Food Network’s “The Elf on the Shelf: Sweet Showdown” posted a 0.61 P25-54 / 0.84 W25-54 Live+3 rating, up +79% and +95% respectively vs. prior six-week benchmarks and marking the network’s highest-rated freshman launch. “Holiday Wars” returned with a 0.62 P25-54 / 0.91 W25-54 rating, up +7% and +17% respectively vs. prior six-week benchmarks.

Top 10 Streaming TV Shows for the week of November 20
Program, Platform, Total Actions, Total Content, Actions per Content, Fans & Followers
Entertainment Tonight (CBSMV/Syndicated), 2.6m, 453, 5,705, 12.3m
Today Show (NBC), 2.1m, 909, 2,365, 15.3m
Dancing with the Stars (ABC), 2.0m, 92, 22,138, 9.2m
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC), 1.9m, 136, 14,129, 33.5m
The Daily Show (Comedy Central), 920k, 83, 11,081, 29.0m
Good Morning America (ABC), 911k, 708, 1,287, 15.7m
The Voice (NBC), 683k, 51, 13,386, 24.3m
Saturday Night Live (NBC), 457k, 11, 41,506, 16.4m
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS), 382k, 67, 5,694, 5.2m
The Price is Right (CBS), 354k, 2, 177,215, 1.4m
Source: Comscore Social Powered by Shareablee

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Corrina Greenberg is joining the Ad Council as Chief Revenue and Development Officer. Greenberg previously led philanthropic fundraising efforts for New York Public Radio.

Tennis Channel has appointed Matt Graham to the newly created position of SVP, direct-to-consumer and streaming business development. Graham joins Tennis Channel from AMC Networks, where he had served as GM of its streaming platforms Acorn TV and Sundance Now.

M. Scott Havens is leaving his job as CEO of Bloomberg Media to become president of business operations for the New York Mets, effective in January. “Scott did a terrific job during Bloomberg Media’s transition over the past two years, and I wish him all the best as he joins one of the city’s storied sports teams,” said Mike Bloomberg. “It’s an exciting opportunity to contribute to New York’s culture and economy, a mission near and dear to my heart. And even though I will still root for all of New York’s teams, I may don a Mets cap a little more frequently now.”

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who simultaneously hosted “What’s My Line?” and ABC’s nightly newscast? John Charles Daly. Kudos to: Rick Dascher-Turner Home Entertainment/Atlanta; Paul Gluck-TUTV/Philadelphia; Greg West-WATC/Atlanta; Ron Simon-The Paley Center for Media/NYC; Steve Stander-A+E Networks/NYC; John Kukla-KDFW Fox 4/Dallas; Dave Sikula-San Francisco State University/San Francisco; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; Ken DuBow-Access Entertainment/LA; Larry Hutchings/San Luis Obispo, CA

Today’s Trivia Question
FYI was a rebrand of which network? (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.)

Cynopsis Team