Programming

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp and LG Ads’ Justin Fromm discuss whether children’s specials like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which airs on PBS stations on Oct. 24, still have the power to draw audiences to linear TV in a streaming age.

Hundreds of protesters gathered Wednesday near Netflix’s Hollywood headquarters to protest the streamer’s release of a Dave Chappelle comedy special featuring anti-transgender jokes. The rally, called “‘Stand Up’ in Solidarity” organized by trans activist Ashlee Marie Preston, began as an estimated 10% of Netflix employees in New York and Los Angeles staged a virtual walkout at noon local time in an extraordinarily public rebuke of the company.

The drama is not over. The contract must still be ratified, and many members quickly denounced it on social media. The rank and file had organized online in support of a historic strike authorization vote, sharing the pain and frustration of toiling behind the scenes in Hollywood, in hopes of getting better working conditions and pay. To them, the deal felt like the status quo. It’s not clear whether that opposition is broad enough to kill it with a no vote on the ratification — but the leadership has more work to do.

Declaring “Enough is enough,” former Batwoman star Ruby Rose has come forth with a new wave of allegations about the circumstances leading to their exit from the Warner Bros. TV series — while also insisting they didn’t “quit” but was forced out.

NBC’s The Voice this Tuesday drew 6.5 million viewers and a 0.6 rating, dropping sharply (and conspicuously so?) in the demo yet still leading the night in total audience. Over on ABC, The Bachelorette (2.8M/0.7) was down from its June cycle’s premiere (3.8M/1.0) but still led Tuesday in the demo.

On the eve of a planned employee walkout at the streaming giant — organized by trans and LGBTQ+ staffers, content creators and allies — Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed numerous points related to recent jokes from comedian Dave Chappelle that have incensed the trans community and been labeled as harmful.

MoffettNathanson says bundling Disney+, Hulu could attract older viewers, while Barclays points to more and better content

Variety and Twitter have partnered on what Variety calls “a unique, first-of-its-kind chart” that ranks the most tweeted about TV shows across network television and streaming. The three Variety Trending TV charts, powered by Twitter, will detail the top 10 programs that are organically bubbling up on the social platform, analyze the day-to-day movement of the top three shows and provide a heat map of which shows are resonating across the country.

Dish has revealed on its website that it will raise prices on most programming packages by $5 a month, effective Nov. 16. The satcaster blamed rising programming acquisition costs for the increase, the same reason it (and other pay TV providers) has offered for years. Dish last raised prices in January of this year when it hiked most programming packages by $5 a month.

Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein, co-presidents of syndication company Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury, say that even as syndicated options recede and station groups ramp up their own programming, there’s still a business ahead for syndies.

CBS had 14 of the 20 most-watched non-sports shows on network television last week, while NBC had the other five and Fox had one. ABC was shut out

The game surged 7% from the prior frame to a new season high 5.9 live-plus-same-day national Nielsen rating, and easily topped all of syndication in the session ending Oct 10.

CBS’s NCIS: Hawai’i this Monday drew 5.3 million total viewers and a 0.5 rating, ticking up in the demo week-to-week and easily beating all comers in the 10 o’clock time slot. At 9, Minus Mark Harmon (7.4M/0.6) was steady in the demo and easily delivered Monday’s biggest audience.

Beth Courtney, president and CEO of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, will retire at the end of January. Courtney, who has worked in public broadcasting for more than 45 years, has led LPB since 1985.

ViacomCBS and Altice USA said they reached a new carriage deal that includes the media company’s streaming services as well as its broadcast stations and cable networks.

The former ViacomCBS executive will oversee development of new projects and day-to-day operations for dramas at the broadcast network.

NBC’s Sunday Night Football match-up between the Steelers and Seahawks averaged 13.2 million total viewers and a 3.6 demo rating, down sharply from last week to veritably match season lows.