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| Wednesday, August 7, 2019 | |
| Good morning, this is your first early-morning briefing. Tonight’s Premieres: CW: Bulletproof at 8p, Hypnotize Me at 9p Discovery: Expedition Unknown at 9p, Contact at 10p Fox: BH90210 at 9p Science: Building Giants at 9p, Monster Ships at 10p Travel: When Monsters Attack at 10p Tonight’s Finales: ABC: Press Your Luck at 8p CBS: Love Island at 8p CNBC: Deal or No Deal at 9p Freeform: Grown-ish at 8p PBS: Ancient Skies at 8p Pop: Florida Girls at 10:30p IN THE NEWS The number of US households without a traditional pay TV subscription is nearing that of those that have one, according to a new study by eMarketer, which reports cord-cutting leaped another 19.2 percent in 2019. The number of pay TV households in the US will decline by 4.2 percent to 86.5 million, reports the researcher, which projects the number of households subscribing to traditional pay TV services will drop below 80 million by 2021 and 72.7 million in 2023, down from 100.5 million in 2014. eMarketer also found those still watching traditional TV are watching less, with TV time projected to dip 3 percent to an average of three hours and 40 minutes per day among US TV viewers. Order up: Fox Entertainment is acquiring Bento Box Entertainment, the animation shingle behind hit Fox series Bob’s Burgers. Bento Box will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity; the studio currently produces shows for Netflix, Adult Swim and Nickelodeon, among others. Financial details of the purchase were not released. Jussie Smollett is speaking out months after Chicago slapped the former Empire star with a lawsuit for the cost of an investigation - which in March was abruptly sealed and dropped - into the disputed hate crime against him. “The City’s Complaint appears to be an unprecedented effort to seek penalties and resources expended in connection with allegedly false statements made to the police where the related criminal case concerning the statements was dismissed …on all counts,” attorneys for Smollett declared in paperwork accompanying his motion to dismiss the suit. The leaders of entertainment, sports, advertising, tech and more are coming together to celebrate on September 9. Join us at the Cynopsis Top Women in Media Awards Gala in NYC. Early bird rates end this Friday. Reserve your table now.Platinum Sponsor: Turnkey Search. Disney fell notably short of Wall Street projections in its Q3 results, sending company shares tumbling yesterday in after-hours trading. Earnings per share came in at $1.35, below the expected $1.74; revenue was $20.2, below the projected $21.4 billion. Also yesterday in Disney-land, the company confirmed plans to launch bundle of Disney+, Hulu’s basic on-demand tier and ESPN+ for $12.99 a month. Pricing mimics exactly that of Netflix’s most-subscribed plan. The bundle will offer a $5 discount from the cost of subscribing to the platforms individually, and it adds a live sports element to a bundle package. Disney+ is slated to launch November 12. “The emergence of ‘audience graph’ within the OTT space (similar to what FB relies on or what’s in existence on the Data Management side) will be the single most impactful enhancement to audience measurement,” says Albert Thompson, Digital Strategist at Walton Isaacson. Gather insights from Thompson and execs from A+E, Discovery and VAB during the ‘Demos are Dead. Long Live the Audience!’ panel at the September Big TV Conference. View the agenda + register to attend. Discovery Inc. beat the Street in its Q2 earnings report, where quarter profit rose significantly on the wings of a one-time $455 million tax benefit due to restructuring of its overseas operations. Revenue inched up 1 percent to nearly $2.89 billion; net income during the quarter hit $947 million, compared with $216 million, in the year-earlier period. Kelsey Grammer will receive the Canopy Award at the North Fork TV Festival, which will take place October 4 at the Greenport Theatre in Greenport, NY. |
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| PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT ABC is developing a Fresh Off the Boat spinoff, with Rachna Fruchbom, writer/producer of the veteran network series, at the helm. In early stages of development at FOTB studio 20th Century Fox TV, new series reportedly would feature a new immigrant family. Fruchbom is under an overall deal at 20th TV, and would write and exec-produce with FOTB exec producers Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar. Fox is developing Our Kind Of People, a drama inspired by Lawrence Otis Graham’s book Our Kind Of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class, in conjunction with Karin Gist (Mixed-ish) and Lee Daniels Entertainment. 20th Century Fox TV is the studio. Penned by Gist, series follows a single mom who moves her family to Martha’s Vineyard with hopes of taking her hair care line to the next level by infiltrating the African American elite Atlanta, Donald Glover’s Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning comedy, got an early fourth season renewal at FX. Production of seasons 3 and 4 is scheduled to begin next spring. Created by and starring Glover, Atlanta is exec-produced by Glover, Paul Simms, Dianne McGunigle, Stephen Glover and Hiro Murai; studio is by FX Productions. FX also ordered a fourth season of Snowfall, its drama series about the start of the crack cocaine epidemic in LA that was created by the late John Singleton & Eric Amadio and Dave Andron. Season 4 will premiere in 2020. In more news from the house of Landgraf, FX presidents of original programming Nick Grad and Gina Balian at TCA gave a sneak peak of five new docuseries and one documentary film. Upcoming are Outlaw: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur, from director Allen Hughes (The Defiant Ones); A Wilderness of Error, from producer Marc Smerling (The Jinx) and Blumhouse Television and based on Errol Morris’ like-titled novel about Army surgeon Jeffrey MacDonald, who was sent to prison for killing his family; Pride, from Christine Vachon’s Killer Films and Refinery 29, which details the fight for LGBTQ civil rights in the US; Hip Hop Untold, from exec producer Malcolm Spellman and Lightbox; The Most Dangerous Animal of All, about a man's search for the father who abandoned him and his discovery that his father may be one of the most infamous serial killers in American history; and feature-length doc Women in Comedy, which examines how women are more daringly using the medium to express their POV. And… FX purchased several more big-screen hits, including Sony’s Spider-Man: Far from Home and Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, Universal’s Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw and Jordan Peele’s Us, and DreamWorld Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. E! trotted out an expanded entertainment news programming slate including additional hours of original weekday content from a celebrity interview series to a weekly review show to culture commentary programs scheduled to debut in 2020. Under the purview of Tammy Filler, who in May joined as EVP/editor-in-chief from Today, E!’s weekday schedule will include eight original entertainment news and commentary series, including new and existing shows. Additionally, current late night news franchise Nightly Pop will expand to four nights per week, while live daytime series Daily Pop will continue to air every weekday. E! News, which currently airs at 7p, will transform into morning show airing at 7a based in NY. The shift to the East Coast means the company will lay off 20-25 LA-based staffers. Among new entertainment news formats on the 2020 docket are: in-home celeb interview series In the Room (working title); Pop of the Morning (working title), a NY complement to LA-based Daily Pop; weekly series BingE! Club (working title), which will review TV, film, music and social sensations; plus two additional celebrity and pop culture commentary shows in development. What’s big, fat and hairy and headed to Nickelodeon? Viacom scored the rights to classic feline cartoon Garfield via an agreement to acquire the IP from its owner Paws. The company will develop a new Garfield animated series, and will manage global merch rights to the property going forward. Garfield creator Jim Davis will continue to create the syndicated comic strip he launched in newspapers in 1978. Netflix gave a 10-ep order to drama series Tiny Pretty Things, based on the book by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, from writer Michael MacLennan (Bomb Girls), Insurrection Media, Mojo Films and Peacock Alley. All3Media-owned Optomen Productions and conservation group National Wildlife Federation are partnering to develop and create television projects. Optomen, which is behind A&E’s Employables and Food Network’s Worst Cooks in America, will create specials and series based on the federation’s conversation stories and talent, which includes naturalist and TV personality David Mizejewski. Rough Draft with Reza Aslan will be the first original series to launch at upcoming streaming service Topic. Eight-ep project, an update of the 2016 Ovation series that featured conversations with novelists, screenwriters, journalists and songwriters in front of an audience, will be set in an LA bar. Show begins filming next month and is set to debut later this fall. NEW & RETURNING SERIES Univision will premiere El Corazon Nunca Se Equivoca (The Heart Is Never Wrong), the first Spanish-language US broadcast series featuring a same-sex couple in lead roles, on Tuesday, August 13, at 9p. Spinoff of Juan Osorio’s telenovela Mi Marido Tiene Mas Familia (My Husband Has More Family) follows the love story of Aristoteles and Cuauhtemoc (Temo), better known as their couple name “Aristemo.” Amazon Prime Video dropped a trailer for the first season of Carnival Row, which bows on the streamer Friday, August 30. Sneak peak, featuring stars Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne, depicts a Victorian fantasy in which faeries, fauns and other mythical beings populate the streets of London’s Carnival Row after Europe’s magical and mythical populations have been scattered as their homelands were toppled by the encroaching empires of man. Bravo’s Married to Medicine returns for season 7 Sunday, September 8 at 9p. Returning cast members include Dr. Jacqueline Walters, Dr. Simone Whitmore, Dr. Heavenly Kimes, Toya Bush-Harris, Quad Webb, Dr. Contessa Metcalfe, Mariah Huq and new friend Buffie Purselle. COMING UP On Saturday, August 10 at 7p, UPtv will debut the film Art of Falling in Love. Movie follows a spirited artist with a mysterious bucket list who finds herself falling for an architect after she gets a commission to paint a mural on a new hospital wing in a charming community. New bluegrass doc Big Family: The Story of Bluegrass Music will bow on PBS stations nationwide Friday, August 30 at 9p. Narrated by Ed Helms (The Hangover), Big Family explores the origins of the musical genre, the pioneers who influenced its sound, and the music’s growing worldwide appeal and pop culture impact. STREAMING NEWS Free streaming service Pluto TV this month is rolling out new genre channels featuring classic content licensed from Viacom’s library. This marks the latest installment of Viacom channels for Pluto TV this year, featuring programming from BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike and TV Land. Newbies include Yo! MTV, CMT Cheerleaders, TV Land Sitcoms and Are You The One?. Starzplay, the premium streaming service from Starz, is expanding the reach of A24 comedy Ramy. The company acquired the series about a first-generation Egyptian American living in New Jersey for the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg from the Lionsgate Worldwide Television Distribution Group. Ramy debuted in the US last April and has since been picked up for season 2; it will premiere on the service in the UK Friday, August 30. Cinedigm launched a reboot of its linear version of the digital OTT outlet Comedy Dynamics, available now on the XUMO streaming television service. Comedy Dynamic’s programming previously featured movies, series, original content and specials and now will deliver 24/7 stand-up comedy specials curated by Comedy Dynamics staff. Entrepreneur Ozzie Areu acquired OTT video distribution software company Endavo Media and Communications, and will immediately dive into development and distribution of content for the service. Endavo’s Video Distribution Automation (VDA) platform is now integrated with Youtube and Vimeo’s application programming interface (API), enabling creators to log into Endavo and actively manage their YouTube channel and Vimeo page directly from the platform. TECH TALK Indie film distributor Abramorama and audio streaming service Qobuz are partnering on an initiative to elevate Abramorama’s music-focused docs via original content and curated playlists of Qobuz. Paris-based Qobuz recently launched its streaming service in the US, offering streaming at up to 192 khz, which is better than CD quality. The companies will work to cross-promote 12-15 music docs per year; in the works is Qobuz content tied to films ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas; The Public Image Is Rotten; Straight Into the Storm; and Stanley Nelson’s Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. Shares of Snapchat parent Snap dipped nearly 2 percent yesterday after the company said it will issue $1 billion in debt securities for the purposes of working capital and potential acquisitions. The move would mark the first time Snap would be taking on long-term debt. Audio and reading platform Serial Box will release the continuation of BBC America series Orphan Black on September 12. Narrated by Tatiana Maslany, the Emmy-winning star of Orphan Black, the audio continuation of the series picks up the clones’ story eight years after the events of the TV show. Dreamscape, a VR startup backed by AMC, is opening its second space, in a Dallas mall on August 15. Dreamscape and AMC partnered in 2017 to open a total of six VR centers. Additional locations are being mapped in Columbus, Ohio and the New York/New Jersey metro area. KIDS NEWS Moonbug acquired South African video series and monthly sports comic brand Supa Strikas. Supa Strikas follows the world’s best soccer team as it journeys across the globe and to outer space on a quest to win the prized Super League trophy. Since debuting in 2009, it has released six 13-ep seasons. ADVERTISING & BRANDS US digital advertising revenues reached a landmark high of $28.4 billion in Q1 2019, the industry’s strongest Q1 on record, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report. Digital revenue rose 18 percent over the year-ago quarter at $23.9 billion and maintained the year-over-year growth trend. CASTING Alicia Silverstone (Clueless, American Woman) and Mark Feuerstein (Royal Pains) have been cast in the upcoming Netflix live-action series The Baby-Sitters Club… Holly Curran (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) got a recurring role on the current fifth season of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead… Tiffany Haddish, Carmen Ejogo, Blair Underwood, Garrett Morris and Kevin Carroll are all onboard for Netflix’s upcoming limited series Madam CJ Walker, about legendary African-American entrepreneur and philanthropist … John Boyd (Bones) landed a recurring role on upcoming season 2 of CBS drama series FBI. |
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| RATINGS The new season premiere of HGTV’s Flip or Flop, starring divorced couple Christina Anstead and Tarek El Moussa, delivered a 1.07 Live + three-day rating among A25-54 on Thursday, August 1, at 9p, a 73 percent increase in the demo for the 9-9:30 p timeslot over the prior six weeks. Premiere also garnered a 1.34 Live + three-day rating among W25-54, a 65 percent increase in the demo for the timeslot over the prior six weeks. Hallmark Channel launched its annual “Summer Nights” franchise with a splash on Saturday, featuring the premiere of new original movie Love and Sunshine. The film not only ranked as the highest-rated and most-watched program of the day, but it elevated the network to rank No. 1 across cable in household-rating during Weekend Primetime, and No. 2 during Primetime for the entire week[1]. The premiere averaged a 2.1 HH rating, 2 million Total Viewers, and 240,000 W25-54. For the week of July 29, UniMas delivered double-digit year-over-year audience growth during primetime among Total Viewers 2+ (23 percent to 426,000) and A18-49 (11 percent to 195,000), marking the fourth and seventh consecutive week of audience growth with A18-49 and Total Viewers 2+, respectively. In syndicated news, daytime shows were dragged lower in the session ended July 28 due in large part to heavy preemptions from the wall to wall coverage of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s July 24 Congressional testimony. Top talker Dr Phil (2.0 live plus same day national Nielsen rating, down 9 percent from the week before), in repeats on all five days, slipped to a new season low but still led the category for the 151st week in a row. Live with Kelly and Ryan (1.9, steady) cemented its standing as the second-highest member of the chat pack for the 22nd straight week. Meanwhile, usual ratings leader Judge Judy caught its breath, airing only reruns on all five days and giving back 10% to a still daytime dominant 5.7. In access, where the Mueller preemptions were much less of a factor, shows were narrowly mixed. Among the games Family Feud (5.8, down 3 percent) finished first followed by Jeopardy (5.4, down 2 percent), Wheel of Fortune (5.0, down 2 percent), and Who Wants to be a Millionaire (1.4, down 7 percent). In news of first-run trials, week three of a scheduled six-week test that began July 15 for comedic game show Punchline sank 50 percent from its lead-ins and dropped 40 percent from its year-ago time periods. TV Time's Binge Report for the Week of July 29 Orange Is the New Black (Netflix) - 8.33% Money Heist (Netflix) - 4.83% Stranger Things (Netflix) - 2.99% Lucifer (Netflix) - 2.40% Friends (NBC) - 2.05% Glee (Fox) - 1.71% The Boys (Amazon) - 1.41% The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 1.37% The 100 (The CW) - 1.37% Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC) - 1.31% Methodology: The weekly Binge Report ranks shows with the most binge sessions. A binge session is when four or more episodes of a show are watched and tracked in the TV Time app within a given day. Top 10 Broadcast Programs Among A18-49 ratings/share for the week of July 29 ABC: The Bachelorette (7/30) 2.1/10 ABC: The Bachelorette (7/29) 2.0/10 NBC: NFL Preseason Game (8/1) 1.5/9 NBC: America’s Got Talent (7/30) 1.2/6 NBC: NFL Preseason Pre-Kick (8/1) 1.1/8 CBS: Big Brother (8/4) 1.1/6 CBS: Big Brother (7/31) 1.1/5 CBS: Big Brother (8/1) 1.0/5 ABC: CMA Fest (8/4) 0.8/4 NBC: American Ninja Warrior (7/29) 0.8/4 Fox: MasterChef (8/1) 0.8/4 Fox: MasterChef (7/31) 0.8/5 Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of July 22 ranked in order by HH Rtg Family Feud (2/T) 5.8AA Judge Judy (CTD) 5.7 AA Jeopardy (CTD) 5.4 AA Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 5.0 AA The Big Bang Theory (WB) 4.1 AA Inside Edition (CTD) 2.5AA Entertainment Tonight (CTD) 2.3 AA Dr. Phil (CTD) 2.0 AA Last Man Standing (2/T) 2.0 AA Hot Bench (AT) 1.9 AA Live With Kelly and Ryan 1.9 AA Top 10 M-F Syndicated Strip Series for the week of July 22 ranked in order by A18-49 Rtg Family Feud (2/T) 1.4 AA Judge Judy (CTD) 1.1 AA Jeopardy (CTD) 0.9 AA Wheel of Fortune (CTD) 0.9 AA The Big Bang Theory (WB) 0.8 AA Family Guy (2/T) 0.9 AA Modern Family (2/T) 0.7 AA Last Man Standing 0.6 Goldbergs (AT) 0.5 AA Entertainment Tonight (AT) 0.5 AA Inside Edition (AT) 0.5 AA Basic Cable Top 5 – Primetime (P2+) ratings for the week of July 29 CNN: 3.26 million FNC: 2.57 million MSNBC: 1.27 million Discovery Channel: 1.22 million HGTV: 1.22 million *Corresponding Data from Nielsen Media Research Basic Cable Top 5 – Total Day (P2+) ratings for the week of July 29 FNC: 1.45 million CNN: 995,000 MSNBC: 855, 000 Nickelodeon: 756,000 HGTV: 679,000 *Corresponding Data from Nielsen Media Research Late Night Shows Weekly Average Ratings week of July 29 CBS: The Late Show 2.34 million total viewers; 0.30/2 among A18-49 NBC: The Tonight Show 1.72 million total viewers; 0.35/3 among A18-49 ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live 1.70 million total viewers; 0.30/2 among A18-49 Live + Same Day Viewers AA (millions):Monday, August 5, time period averages Source: Nielsen Live+SD NBC: 4.24 million American Ninja Warrior 4.60, Dateline 3.51 ABC: 3.78 million Bachelor in Paradise 4,37, Grand Hotel 2.62 CBS: 2.23 million Love Island 2.08, The Big Bang Theory 2.32, The Neighborhood 1.86, Bull 2.54 FOX: 2.26 million Beat Shazam 2.55, So You Think You Can Dance 1.97 TELEMUNDO 1.0 million Poquito Tuyo .867, Betty En NY 1.39, Preso No. 1 1.07 Univision: 1 million Reina Soy Yo 1.30, Not Uni PTA:Hisp-Mira 1.15, Sin Miendo a la Verdad 858,000 CW: 1.09 million Penn & Teller: Fool Us 1.24, Whose Line Is it Anyway? 0.94, Whose Line Is it Anyway? 0.95 Monday A18-49 Rating ABC 1.0/5, NBC 0.7/4, FOX 0.5/3, UNI .3/2, CBS 0.3/2, TELE 0.3/2, CW 0.2/1 EXECUTIVE MOVES The E.W. Scripps Company added Marcellus Alexander, former EVP of television at the National Association of Broadcasters and president of the National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation, to its board of directors. IN MEMORIAM Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, who was honored in 1998 for her novel Beloved, died on August 6. She was 88. Beloved was adapted as a film that same year by Jonathan Demme, with Oprah Winfrey as co-producer and star. Among Morrison’s other novels were 1992’s Jazz, 1997’s Paradise and 2015’s God Help the Child. This Day in History 1976 - Scientists in Pasadena, CA, announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found strong indications of possible life on Mars. Answer to our last trivia question On The Wonder Years (1988-1993), who sold Kevin his car for one dollar? His grandfather. Kudos to: Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NY; Joe Brucia-AMC Networks/NY; Greg Conner-Tennis Media/NY; Claire Hambrick-A+E Networks/NY; Carl Mayer-Active International/Pearl River, NY; Tom Moore -Kalt Productions/LA; Dan Whitford-WTTW/Chicago; Dave Hammargren-KCPQ-KZJO TV/Seattle; Today's Trivia Question Who was the original owner of the Peach Pit on Beverly Hills 90210 (1990-2000)? (Email trivia@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: A limit of four correct answers from each time zone will be selected.). |
Cynopsis Team
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| WEDNESDAY AUGUST 7 ABC: Press Your Luck, Card Sharks, Match Game CBS: Love Island, Big Brother, S.W.A.T. CW: Jane the Virgin, Jane the Virgin FOX: MasterChef, BH90210 NBC: Ellen’s Game of Games, Ellen’s Game of Games, The InBetween PBS: Ancient Skies, NOVA, To Catch a Comet Telemundo: Un Poquito Tuyo, Betty en NY, Preso No. 1 Univision: La Reina Soy Yo, Sin Miedo a la Verdad |
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