Longtime network president Tom Ascheim has opted to exit Disney’s younger-skewing cable network. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Ascheim, who was expected to renew his deal, has another post lined up that should be announced shortly. A replacement has not yet been determined.
The broadcaster announced Tuesday that it will air iconic films on Sunday nights throughout the month of May. The move comes as many network shows have had their seasons cut short due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The new movie night will kickoff on May 3 with Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Subsequent Sundays will see airings of Forrest Gump, Mission: Impossible, Titanic and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Ratings Boost For ‘Live With Kelly And Ryan’
The wildly popular daytime staple went ballistic in the week ending March 29, with a 2.6 live-plus-same-day national Nielsen rating, up 24% from last year at this time and its strongest performance since the week of Dec. 25, 2017.
‘Manifest’ Finale Grows As NBC Rules Monday
The season finale of NBC’s Manifest drew its largest same-day audience since its premiere in January and helped NBC lead all three hours of primetime among adults 18-49. CBS’s lineup also recorded more solid ratings, while ABC and The Fox aired mostly repeats.
Exclusives
With no signs of when production can resume amid the global coronavirus crisis, the Big 4 are considering everything — even streaming fare — as they address summer schedules filled with holes. And fall may pose an even bigger problem.
Two former senior executives at Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox have been indicted over their alleged role in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving kickbacks to FIFA officials in exchange for broadcast and marketing rights to some of the world’s biggest football tournaments.
Putting all 30 teams in the Phoenix area this season and playing in empty ballparks was among the ideas discussed Monday by Major League Baseball and the players’ association.
Fox is booking a return trip to Duncanville. The animated comedy, co-created by and starring Amy Poehler, has been picked up for Season 2, TVLine has learned. Duncanville marks the second freshman comedy to be renewed at the broadcast network, following fellow animated rookie Bless the Harts, which secured a Season 2 order back in October.
NEW YORK (AP) — Celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky has apologized for a series of statements unspooled in a recent video where he downplayed the coronavirus and suggested it was a “press-induced panic.” “I wish I had gotten it right, but I got it wrong,” said Pinsky in a video posted over the weekend. Pinsky is […]
NBCUniversal’s The Kelly Clarkson Show is adding content created from Clarkson’s ranch in Montana, where she is sheltering with her family, into episodes that were taped prior to the show’s pausing production in March.
The syndicated talk show from Debmar-Mercury will launch with more than 90% coverage, including all of the top 20 markets and 29 of the top 30 thanks to carriage by groups including Fox, CBS, Sinclair, Hearst, Nexstar, Mission, COX, Sunbeam, Capitol, Meredith, Tegna, Lockwood Broadcasting, Gray and CW Plus.
While the rest of the sporting world continues to be shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, the NFL is going full steam ahead with its offseason activities, formally annoucing the 2020 NFL Draft will be completely virtual. ESPN and NFL Network are still expected to air the draft, which is scheduled for April 23-25.
Time spent watching TV overall has risen 17% among total viewers, 39% for kids 2-11 and 46% for teens 12-17, the VAB said in its TV in the Time of COVID-19 report.
CBS’s first-year drama All Rise will resume production for an episode set during the coronavirus pandemic. The virtually produced episode will be the first such one from a current scripted series.
The pop star announced One World: Together At Home, a televised event featuring Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Billie Eilish aimed at fighting the coronavirus. It will air April 18 at 8 p.m. ET simultaneously on ABC, NBC, CBS, iHeartMedia and Bell Media networks.
‘The Rookie’ Draws Series High Audience
American Idol and CBS’s country music special ACM Presents: Our Country vied for first place in a relatively quiet night for TV ratings, as ABC’s The Rookie drew more Live+Same Day viewers than it has ever done before.
Two new commercials address the challenges sports fans — and ESPN itself — are facing amid the coronavirus shutdown.
Queen Elizabeth will address to Britain on Sunday, calling on the nation to rise to the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic. It will be only the fourth occasion during her monarchy for her to do so beyond her annual Christmas addesses.
‘Hawaii Five-0’ Finale Gets Big Goodbye
The end came with a bang for police procedural Hawaii Five-0, as the CBS series capped off ten years of action with a solid evening to top the Friday ratings. A new version of the original series (which lasted 12 years), this edition of Hawaii Five-0 bowed in Sept. 2010. It scored a solid 0.9 and had the largest total audience of the night by far. Lead-in MacGyver benefited from the anticipation, itself scoring an impressive 0.8. Blue Bloods capped the evening with an 0.7.
President Donald Trump spoke by telephone today with commissioners of various major league sports to discuss the response to COVID-19. Details on the call were not made available by the White House, which just released a list of participants to the White House Press Pool.
The rookie drama starred Stephen Dorff, who had one of last season’s biggest talent deals for the series from Entertainment One. The series launched in January to lackluster reviews and, after completing its 13-episode run, has a 40% and 57% rating among critics and viewers on aggregation site RottenTomatoes.com.
Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi — a snappy amalgam of “quick” and “bite” — is a mobile phone-only platform that will release its snack-sized installments of movies and TV shows each weekday. There will be seven-day-a-week dollops of news, sports and weather, gathered under the umbrella name Daily Essentials, all adding up to a mind-boggling 175-plus programs planned for this year. It launches Monday in the U.S. and Canada with a 90-day free trial and 50 programs.
CBS’ 60 Minutes has grown by more than 2 million viewers over the season average, while America’s Funniest Home Videos has increased by more than 1.3 million viewers. Both are at the crest of an upward trend in coronavirus quarantine-driven TV viewing in a time of year usually marked by viewing declines.
