Amazon Plans Ad Tier For Prime Video Streaming Service

Amazon is planning to launch an advertising-supported tier of its Prime Video streaming service as it looks to further build its ad business and generate more revenue from entertainment, according to people familiar with the situation. The discussions, which the people said are in the early stages and have been going on over the past several weeks, come in the wake of cost-cutting reviews across the company’s businesses, resulting in tens of thousands of layoffs.

The Iron Sheik, WWE Hall Of Famer & Former Heavyweight Champ, Dies At 81

TUESDAY OVERNIGHTS

‘Superman & Lois’ Grows, With 2 Episodes Left In Season

NBC’s America’s Got Talent easily led Tuesday both in the demo and in total viewers with 6 million/0.6). Superman & Lois (666,000/0.1) inched up to its best audience since April 4 (and third-largest of the season), with just two episodes left to go.

BRAND CONNECTIONS

Danny Masterson To Be Sentenced On Rape Verdict In August

#PayUpHollywood Relaunches Financial Aid Fund For Industry Assistants Impacted By Writers Strike

#PayUpHollywood, the organization founded in 2019 to promote pay equity for Hollywood’s assistants, said Wednesday that it has relaunched its Hollywood Support Staff Relief Fund as a permanent emergency fund to aid film and TV support staff impacted by the ongoing Writers Guild strike and any other industry work stoppages in the future.

Tiffany Haddish Producing Unscripted Projects At Hearst Media Production Group

Tiffany Haddish is expanding into unscripted series after inking a development deal with the Hearst Media Production Group. The Emmy-winning actress, comedian and author will initially executive produce two original unscripted series. The first is a documentary about successful women who had long romantic relationships with homeless men.

‘Inside The NFL’ Lands At The CW

The CW is the new home for Inside the NFL. The show debuted on HBO in 1977 and moved to Showtime in 2008, then Paramount Plus in 2021. In its broadcast TV debut, Inside the NFL premieres on The CW Tuesday, Sept. 5. It will be season 47.

D’Artagnan Bebel Named Fox Soul GM

The GM of Fox’s Houston duopoly will now also head programming for the streaming network.

Nielsen Launches Local Streaming Insights Solution In Top 56 Markets

The company says the quarterly report provides streaming metrics at the local market level for the first time.

Surprise LIV Golf-PGA Marriage Risks Drawing Antitrust Scrutiny

The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia-backed challenger LIV Golf avoided calling their proposed partnership a merger. But their shock announcement is already raising serious concerns with US and European antitrust enforcers, according to people familiar with the matter. The tie-up, which was announced Tuesday, is being viewed by officials as a brazen play loaded with red flags, not the least of which is creating a giant monopoly in an industry that had only recently gained a competitor, said the people, who asked not be identified discussing non-public matters.

Tucker Carlson Debuts Twitter Show To Big Numbers; Threatens To Leave Elon Musk-Owned Platform If Anyone Calls Him Out

Tucker Carlson launched his promised new show, Tucker on Twitter, Tuesday with talk of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UFOs, who killed JFK and what really went down on 9/11 — and the one-time Fox News host was a hit. In just over four hours, the low-tech 10-minute video posted on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform attracted 27 million views.

The CW Eyes ‘Dateline’-Style True-Crime Offering

The CW, which is under new ownership following Nexstar’s acquisition last year, is developing its own true-crime strand. Heather Olander, head of unscripted programming at The CW, said Tuesday that the network is currently working on its own version of NBC’s Dateline, CBS’s 48 Hours and ABC’s 20/20. “What’s nice about true crime is it also can be scaled, you can do a lot of episodes, and it’s very efficient,” she said.

NYC Filming Permit Requests Dropped More Than 31% In May Amid WGA Strike

DGA National Board Unanimously Approves Tentative Contract Agreement With AMPTP

The Directors Guild of America’s national board of directors has unanimously approved the tentative agreement reached by the guild’s negotiating committee late Saturday, a deal that aims to set parameters around the use of artificial intelligence and boost streaming residual rates. With the board’s approval, the contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will be sent to a ratification vote by DGA membership. The guild expects to send materials to its members this week.

‘Perry Mason’ Canceled After Two Seasons On HBO

COMMENTARY BY DAN WETZEL

Opinion: PGA Tour Goes Full Hypocrite In Its Merger With LIV Golf

‘A Beautiful, Glamorous Deal’: Trump Celebrates LIV Golf, PGA Tour Merger

Writers Strike Impacts Ad-Spending Growth On Talk Shows, Soap Operas

Two of the program categories most immediately impacted by the Writers Guild of America strike registered advertising-revenue growth in the first quarter before the picket lines went up and production stopped. According to MediaRadar, ad spending on TV talk shows was $221.4 million in the first quarter, up 11% from a year ago. Spending on soap operas was $59.4 million in the first quarter, up 23%.

The CW To Air Remaining Seven LIV Golf Tournaments Through End Of Year

After that, the newly merged golf entity’s broadcast rights need to be hammered out.

MONDAY OVERNIGHTS

‘Ninja Warrior’ Returns Steady, Ties ‘Family Feud’ Rerun For Demo Win

NBC’s American Ninja Warrior (3 million/0.4) tied ABC’s Celebrity Family Feud (3.5M/0.4)rerun for the Monday demo win, while the latter also delivered the night’s biggest audience.

PGA Tour To Merge With Saudi-Backed Rival LIV Golf

the PGA Tour and European tour agreed to a merger with Saudi Arabia’s golf interests, creating a commercial operation designed to unify professional golf around the world. As part of the deal, the sides are dropping all lawsuits involving LIV Golf against each other effective immediately.

Fremantle Adds eTribez Digital Management Solution Software

eTribez, a provider of digital solutions to the global television, film and digital media industries, has added TV producer/distributor Fremantle to its list of leading international production companies signing adopting eTribez PM, its new ERP platform. Fremantle is the latest global entertainment company to subscribe to the eTribez platform, joining All3Media, Studio Lambert, Hearst Media Production Group […]

Viaplay CEO Anders Jensen Steps Down Amid Bleak Economic Reckoning

‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ Reboot In The Works At ABC

ABC is working to bring back Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to the network after the format’s brief dalliance with HGTV. The network is developing a reboot of the series, which ran on ABC between 2004 and 2012, with Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, who created global lifestyle brand The Home Edit.

SAG-AFTRA Members Vote 97.9% In Favor Of Strike Authorization

The membership of SAG-AFTRA has voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike authorization, maximizing the guild’s leverage ahead of negotiations that begin on Wednesday. The guild announced Monday night that 97.91% of the voting members supported the authorization. Turnout was 47.69%. The vote comes as the Writers Guild of America strike enters its sixth week.

‘Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent’ Spinoff A Go

Citytv has greenlit a crime drama set in Canada’s largest city and based on Dick Wolf’s mega-franchise.

‘Cheers’ Bar Sells For $675,000 At Dallas Auction Of Items From Classic TV Shows

DALLAS (AP) — The bar from the television series “Cheers” sold for $675,000 at auction over the weekend, garnering the highest bid among the nearly 1,000 props, costumes and sets from classic TV shows offered up from a collection amassed by one man over more than three decades. Heritage Auctions said that the items sold […]

Anna Shay, Fan Favorite On ‘Bling Empire,’ Dead At 62

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anna Shay, an heiress, philanthropist and breakout star of the Netflix reality series “Bling Empire,” has died at 62. Shay died from a stroke, according to a family statement provided to The Associated Press on Monday. It was not immediately clear when she died. “It saddens our hearts to announce that […]

Walt Willey Heads To ‘General Hospital’ — As ‘All My Children’s Jackson Montgomery

Louis C.K. Documentary Dropped By Showtime