PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
A single mom comedy from Fresh Off the Boat producer Rachna Fruchblom and 20th Century Fox TV scored a script commitment plus penalty from ABC. Project focuses on a stay-at-home-mom who decides to go after her dream job.
Dance drama Major, from Todd Graff (Joyful Noise), Jennifer Lopez and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas’ Nuyorican Productions and Universal TV has been put in development by NBC. Lopez’s World of Dance was renewed for season three on the net.
Joel Fields (The Americans) has boarded FX’s upcoming limited series about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, slated for a 2019 bow, as a writer and exec producer. “It has been a true joy to have Joel join us in telling the story of these two complicated and fascinating people,” said producer Steven Levenson. “Joel is not only a brilliant writer and producer, but someone who shares our passion for the singular work that Bob and Gwen created and the incredible legacy they left behind.”
With the addition of four episodes, ABC freshman A Million Little Things now has a full season order of seventeen episodes. ABC also ordered another episode of The Conners, for a total of eleven; before its quick cancellation, Roseanne, from whence The Conners sprung, had been renewed for a 13-episode second season.
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: October 26-28, 2018
Halloween (Universal) $32.0 million (week 2), cume revenue $126.7 million
A Star Is Born (Warner Bros.) $14.1 million (week 4), cume revenue $148.7 million
Venom (Sony) $10.8 million (week 4), cume revenue $187.2 million
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (Sony) $7.5 million (week 3), cume revenue $38.3 million
Hunter Killer (Lionsgate) $6.7 million, opening weekend
The Hate U Give (Fox) $5.1 million (week 4), cume revenue $18.3 million
First Man (Universal) $4.9 million (week 3), cume revenue $37.9 million
Smallfoot (Warner Bros.) $4.8 million (week 5), cume revenue $72.6 million
Night School (Universal) $3.3 million (week 5) $71.2 million
Mid90s (A24) $3.0 million (week 2), cume revenue $3.4 million
Source: comScore
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
ID’s Body Cam profiles seemingly routine situations that escalate into tragedy, using police officers’ body camera footage. Ten-parter launches Tuesday, November 27 at 10p.
Andi Mack will anchor a new Friday prime-time lineup beginning Friday, November 2 at 8p on Disney Channel as well as VOD and DisneyNOW. Disney's #1 rated series will lead into the new series Coop and Cami Ask the World (8:30p) and Raven’s Home (9p).
E! builds on its slate of Snapchat originals with Camp Runway, following twelve aspiring models as they get a crash course in the profession at the fashion industry’s invite-only summer camp. Docu-series launches Thursday, November 1.
Friends From College returns to Netflix for season two on January 11. Ensemble comedy follows six Harvard alums living in NYC.
Are you glad to see Megyn Kelly exiting NBC? Let us know in the Cynopsis poll: www.cynopsis.com/poll/. (In our last poll, we asked which recent movie release would make the best TV series. Crazy Rich Asians was the big winner, with 66% of the vote; Night School was a not-even-close second with 13%.)
COMING UP
NBC time travel drama Timeless officially runs out Thursday, December 20. NBC is wrapping up the twice-canceled cult fave with a two-hour sendoff.
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Murphy Brown’s debut, Antenna TV will air a full-day marathon of the original CBS comedy’s episodes, from 5a-11:30p on November 14.
Country Music’s Biggest Stars: In the Spotlight with Robin Roberts airs Sunday, November 11 on ABC at 9p. It’s the tenth anniversary of the CMA Awards pre-show special.
The Lost Tapes: Clinton Impeachment airs tonight at 9p on Smithsonian Channel. “This is a story our Lost Tapes series was born to tell and it’s startling in how relevant it is to today’s heated political debates,” John Cavanagh, executive producer, Smithsonian Channel, tells Cynopsis. “The no-narration, no-interview approach transports the Clinton Impeachment into the social media era – letting viewers be the pundits, and inviting everyone’s hot take. Right from its forehead-slapping opening line, with President Clinton promising to make America great again, you’ll find yourself startled by its array of still-familiar names and faces, then reeling as you grapple with the issues of sex, lies and bitter partisan politics that could easily be ripped from 2018’s supercharged news cycle.”
WGN America is airing a marathon of reality crime show Cops from 7p-midnight on Mischief Night, October 30, followed by 1999 film The Sixth Sense on Halloween at 7p and 9:30p.
Call for Submissions: Cynopsis is producing its annual Holiday Programming Guide, which comes out on November 15 and will be sent to all Cynopsis subscribers. If your network has * holiday-themed * programming airing from November 15 through January 1, please send your listing to Lynn@Cynopsis.com and JanetDiLauro@gmail.com no later than Monday, November 6 with the subject line: Holiday Guide. To be included programs must be listed by date, title of program, and the start and end times each program will air on that date. A confirmation email will be sent following each submission (if you don’t receive a confirmation email, please resubmit).
DIGITAL DATA
WarnerMedia is closing subscription streaming service FilmStruck, effective November 29. Two weeks ago, WarnerMedia announced plans for a new direct-to-consumer streaming service slated to launch next year.
Good news for Amazon: The company boasted revenue of $56.6 billion in 3Q18, up 29% year-over-year, and the number of Alexa-compatible smart home devices quintupled year-to-date, to over 20,000 devices. Not-as-good news: fourth quarter net holiday sales, expected to be between $66.5 billion and $72.5 billion, were lower than analysts expected.
Snap saw a 3Q18 revenue rise of 43% year over year, to $298 million, but Snapchat’s daily active users declined 1% over the quarter, to 186 million. “Some users may be leaving the platform because it has lost its novelty, which would prove to be a bigger long-term concern,” said Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser. “However, our current assumption is the platform can maintain a sizeable-enough base of users to provide the company with opportunities to improve the platform and sustain its position in the advertising market as a niche digital media platform.”
Unique viewers of the opening game of the World Series rose more than 4 times higher than for game one in 2017 (up +323% year over year) on fuboTV. The streaming service credits a growing subscriber base, improved user experiences, and increased availability of the FOX network from coast-to-coast.
Facebook deleted over 80 Facebook and Instagram accounts originating from Iran that the company deemed guilty of “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” The effort was “sowing discord and it was trying to target sort of socially divisive issues as opposed to being specifically targeted on events that are about to occur,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy. It wasn’t the content that got the accounts removed, though, but the fact that they were run by people posing as someone else.
MEASUREMENT
ComScore announced it is updating its dynamic data exploration and visualization tool, MyMetrix Explore, by unifying its core digital data into a unified interface. The update is aimed at enabling publishers to run fewer reports, identifying data trends and stories through a visualization of all key digital data.
DEALS
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment acquired the assets of Truli.com, a global family-friendly as well as faith-based online video channel. The acquisition includes 2,500 hours of programming and brings CSS Entertainment an additional 630,000 Facebook fans.
Cheddar acquired NYC’s RateMyProfessor. Owned by Viacom since 2007, RateMyProfessor is used by 6 million college students monthly. Cheddar had already picked up Viacom distribution platform MTV Networks on Campus.
GOING GLOBAL
Corus Entertainment’s W Network and Crown Media Family Network’s Hallmark Channel inked a multi-year, multi-platform channel partnership that grants W Network exclusive Canadian licensing rights to all movies and scripted series produced by Crown for Hallmark and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
Endemol Shine International renewed MasterChef Indonesia for a fifth season with P.T. Rajawali Citra Televisi.
Mampre Media International in conjunction with Entertainment Studios reality competition series Win Place Show is headed into international format distribution and production with CIC Media in the United Kingdom for broadcast in the UK.
CASTING
Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) has joined the cast of CBS All Access’s The Twilight Zone. The episode, Nightmare at 30,000 Feet, starred William Shatner in the original….Nestor Carbonell (Bates Motel) and Mark Duplass (The Mindy Project) are onboard Apple’s untitled upcoming morning show drama series, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston….Aleksa Palladino (Boardwalk Empire) landed a lead role in Showtime’s upcoming limited series about Fox News founder Roger Ailes….Jessica Williams (2 Dope Queens), Nikesh Patel (Indian Summers), Rebecca Rittenhouse (Into the Dark: The Body) and John Reynolds (Search Party) have been cast in Hulu’s upcoming original limited romantic comedy series Four Weddings and a Funeral.
SHORT FORM
All eight episodes of streaming service Shudder’s first original scripted short-form series, Deadwax, drop Thursday, November 15. Deadwax chronicles the hunt for a rare recording believed to cause madness and death to anyone who dares listen.
