Skip a newsletter last week? “In Case You Missed It” rounds up the top stories in each of our three daily editions, so you can be up on the latest news, Cynopsis-style, in the worlds of linear, digital, sports and kids television. Enjoy!
FLAGSHIP
Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer announced he is retiring this summer, after 46 years with CBS News. Scheiffer, 78, became CBS’s chief White House correspondent in 1982, and anchor of Face the Nation in 1991. He also served as interim anchor of CBS Evening News in 2005-2006, after the exit of Dan Rather. Said CBS News president David Rhodes in a memo to staff, “He’s been an inspiration and mentor to so many colleagues.”
ABC’s World News Tonight With David Muir broke the 288-week total viewer winning streak of NBC Nightly News, with 7.99 million viewers versus NBC’s 7.91 million. ABC also won in the A18-49 and A25-54 demos, its first trifecta in over seven years. NBC was quick to voice support for its anchor, who took over when Brian Williams was suspended in February for misreporting events: “Lester Holt has led NBC Nightly News to great success over the past two months, and we continue to be pleased with his strong performance during this time.”
DIGITAL
Arrested Development Executive Producer Brian Grazer made fans happy yesterday. Grazer told The B.S. Report (in an interview with ESPN’s Bill Simmons at SXSW) that the series has been given a 17-episode order for a fifth season on Netflix. In August, AD star Will Arnett confirmed that it would be back, after Netflix’s Ted Sarandos first revealed that new episodes were in the works. AD originally aired on Fox for three seasons from 2003 to 2006, and was revived for 15 more episodes in 2013 on the streaming service.
Snapchat says it’s now blocking third-party apps from accessing the messaging company’s data. The news comes as Snapchat continues to grow its user baseestimated to be more than 100 millionand prepares to release its first transparency report, due in July. Like similar reports released by the likes of Apple and Google, Snapchat says it will reveal details about government requests for users’ account information and demands to remove content, as well as requests to remove content that violates copyright law.
SPORTS
The AVP will be playing on a new court this year, as the Pro Beach Volleyball Tour stuck a deal with NBC Sports Group for tournaments to be televised on NBC and NBCSN, as well as live streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra. The return to the NBC umbrella will see 17.5 hours of coverage this year with 10 on NBC and 7.5 on NBCSN and include the men’s and women’s finals of all seven regular-season tournaments. In addition, NBC and NBCSN will feature the finals and early-round coverage of an AVP-run tournament on the international FIVB Tour within the United States.
The Duke/Wisconsin National Championship was a high-scoring affair, at least from an audience perspective. The matchup averaged 28.3 million total viewers, for a markup of 33% from last year to rank as the most-viewed NCAA title game in 18 years. The contest averaged a fast national household rating/share of 16.0/26, up 28% from last year’s score on CBS. Overall, the entire tournament across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV became the most-watched NCAA Tournament in 22 years, according to Nielsen Fast National ratings, pulling 11.3 million average total viewers, up 8% from last year, and drawing a HH rating/share of 7.0/15, up 8% from last year.
On the digital front, NCAA March Madness Live scored all-time records including 80.7 million live video streams as well as 17.8 million hours of live video consumption during this year’s tournament. This year’s live video streams are up 17%over last year, with hours of live video consumption up 19% this year.
KIDS
A coalition of consumer advocacy groups is asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google’s YouTube Kids app, claiming it violates rules about advertising to children. In a letter sent to the FTC yesterday, the coalition-including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Digital Democracy, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America and Public Citizen wrote the videos in the app “intermix commercial and other content in ways that are deceptive and unfair to children and would not be permitted to be shown on broadcast or cable television.” In response, YouTube released the following statement: “We worked with numerous partners and child advocacy groups when developing YouTube Kids. While we are always open to feedback on ways to improve the app, we were not contacted directly by the signers of this letter and strongly disagree with their contentions, including the suggestion that no free, ad-supported experience for kids will ever be acceptable.” Launched in February, YouTube Kids contains videos from content providers including DreamWorks Animation, Jim Henson Co., National Geographic Kids, HiT Entertainment and Reading Rainbow.
Music artists Fifth Harmony and Carly Rae Jepsen are among presenters at the 2015 Radio Disney Music Awards, which will air at 8p on Sunday, April 26, on Disney Channel, preceded by a half-hour red carpet preshow. Also presenting are actress Chelsea Kane (Baby Daddy), country artist Kelsea Ballerini, stars of Stars of ABC series black-ish and talent from Disney Channel Original Movie Teen Beach 2 including Grace Phipps, Garrett Clayton and Chrissie Fit.
