The exceptions in the week ending Dec. 9 include magazines TMZ, Access and Extra and some true crime series.
George H.W. Bush Coverage Saps Syndies
Top News
‘The Voice’ Inches Up Ahead Of Finale
The final performance episode of The Voice improved a little in Monday’s ratings as NBC swept all three hours of primetime. The show is currently at a 1.6 rating among adults 18-49, pending updates for a Monday Night Football preemption in New Orleans. If it holds, it would be a 0.2 improvement on the prior week’s outing. An America’s Got Talent special also put up decent numbers with a 1.2, pending updates. NBC also led every hour in total viewers.
Charter Settles Netflix Throttling Suit For $174M
Charter Communications has agreed to refund $62.5 million to 700,000 customers and provide streaming services and premium channels at no charge to 2.2 million active Spectrum customers to settle a consumer fraud lawsuit. On Tuesday, the office of the New York Attorney General announced the deal collectively valued at $174 million, which it says represents the largest-ever payout to consumers by an Internet service provider in U.S. history.
Brand Connections
How Streaming Has Saved ‘The Good Place’
It’s one of primetime’s biggest mysteries: Why does afterlife sitcom The Good Place keep getting renewed — despite dismal weekly ratings? NBC recently rewarded the series — starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson — with a fourth season, a head-scratcher given that The Good Place averages less than 3 million viewers per week. The answer: streaming. The Good Place is actually one of NBC’s highest-rated shows, averaging around 10 million viewers each week once viewership from other platforms is factored in. That puts it on par with the network’s hit competition show The Voice, which averages between 8 and 10 million viewers each week.
CBS Says No $120M Severance For Moonves
Former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves will not receive his $120 million severance package after the company’s board of directors determined he was fired “with cause” over sexual misconduct allegations. The board said Monday it reached its decision after finding that Moonves failed to cooperate fully with investigators looking into the allegations. The board also cited what it called Moonves’ “willful and material misfeasance,” violation of company policies and breach of his contract.
Exclusives
It’s Not Greed That’s Hurting OTA TV
John Hane: “It’s a complicated series of laws, regulations and court decisions that spurred the rapid growth of pay-only platforms, weakened profits (and caused significant losses) for broadcasters and resulted in necessary cost cuts in almost all aspects of their business.”
Comscore Expands To All Scripps Stations
All of E.W. Scripps stations will use Comscore’s television currency and will also use Comscore’s advanced automotive and political demographic currencies to sell the value and relevance, rather than just the size, of its audiences.
The Most Anticipated TV Of 2019
As the number of scripted series continues to grow (more than 500 in 2018), it is not just a race to produce the biggest quantity, but also the highest quality programming. Looking at the upcoming slate for 2019, there appears to be no shortage of unique stories coming. Here, Variety previews the most anticipated scripted television of 2019 — both new and returning.
Tribune Broadcasting Gets Google News Grant
Funding from the Google News Initiative/YouTube Innovation Program will support new formats of video storytelling.
Brand Connections
‘Elementary’ To End After 7 Seasons On CBS
CBS’s modern-day Sherlock Holmes & Watson series Elementary will end its run on CBS with its upcoming 13-episode seventh season. The decision comes as the crime drama procedural, created by Rob Doherty and starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, wrapped production Friday on Season 7 with the final scene in the finale the last one to film.
Comcast Launches YouTube 4K On X1 Platform
Comcast is turning on YouTube in 4K for pay TV subscribers on its X1 platform after integrating YouTube in 2017. So, X1 subscribers will be able to enjoy higher resolution content from YouTube, but only if they have a compatible XG1v4 or Xi6 TV Box with a compatible 4K TV.
Nielsen Tallies 2018’s Tops In Television
Needless to say, television in 2018 has provided a lot of drama. Television had an increasingly diverse amount of quality content to offer through 2018 so far. Here are the top 10’s in five categories.