Programming

Producers say they were led to believe they were making a talk show for A&E, which said no to the program. “You are playing a dangerous game with the truth,” the top producer, Brad Bessey, wrote in his resignation email.

The NFL, Pepsi and Roc Nation announced Thursday that the five music icons will perform on Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The game will be broadcast by NBC.

NBCUniversal’s cable and broadcast networks are still live on YouTube TV, after the media company and Google reached a short-term extension to their previous distribution agreement just prior to the Sept. 30 midnight ET expiration.

Hulu places two shows in the top 10 originals for the first time with Only Murders in the Building and Nine Perfect Strangers.

Dish Network says that AT&T SportsNet and Root Sports Regional Sports Networks were removed from Dish TV Thursday in Denver, Pittsburgh and Seattle.

Talk show host Williams had expected to begin the 13th season of her syndicated series on Monday, Oct. 4. Due to “some ongoing medical issues,” that premiere has been delayed for at least two weeks.

An alternate Monday Night Football becomes an instant hit on what was once a dull evening. Any public consensus is a marvel in 2021. Polarized America can barely bring itself to agree on the day of the week. But the Mannings? America in lockstep loves the Mannings, and their newly-coined “Manningcast,” and the numbers bear it out, with ratings rising each week.

Fox’s The Masked Singer, CBS’s Survivor and that network’s Big Brother finale landed in a three-way tie for the Wednesday demo win, while NBC’s Chicago Fire commanded the night’s largest audience.

The National Football League is defying gravity in the changing television universe. Three weeks into the 2021 season, overall viewing of the NFL is up 9% over the comparable period last year according to data from Nielsen and the league’s partners, with an average of 16.9 million viewers on TV and digital platforms. It’s the best start for the league since 2016, which analysts attribute in part to the easing of the pandemic and other factors.

The canceled CBS legal drama starring Simone Missick has officially been revived for a 20-episode third season. Additionally, HBO Max and Hulu will share streaming rights to the series. The show will debut on both platforms on Dec. 1. Showrunner Dee Harris-Lawrence will return.

Faigus, who was previously VP, alternative series and specials, becomes SVP, unscripted and alternative entertainment, ABC Entertainment and Walt Disney Television Unscripted. She will work across both the network and the Mouse House’s newly launched unscripted production division, which is overseen by Rob Mills.

Frndly TV, the low-priced streaming TV provider featuring wholesome programming, said it is launching Hallmark Movies Now video-on-demand service as an add-on for subscribers. Subscribers to Frndly TV, who already get three Hallmark Networks — Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama — as part of its core $5.99 a month month package, can also subscribe to Hallmark Movies Now for an additional $5.99 a month.

NBC’s La Brea debuted on Tuesday night to a 0.7 demo rating — making it the fall’s top-rated freshman series thus far — and 6.2 million total viewers. Bookending La Brea, The Voice (7.1M/0.9) and New Amsterdam (3.5M/0.4) both dipped week-to-week, though the former still led Tuesday in both measures.

The Bachelor has found Chris Harrison’s replacement … and he’s already a member of Bachelor Nation. Jesse Palmer, who starred in Season 5 of The Bachelor back in 2004, will host the upcoming season of ABC’s reality romance hit, the network announced on Tuesday. The new season is slated to air early next year.

With the curtain set to go up on the NBA and NHL season, MSG Network is alerting viewers that it is nearing a potential blackout on Comcast Xfinity cable systems in New Jersey and Connecticut. Comcast, though it is the No. 1 U.S. cable operator, has virtually no customers in New York City, but a healthy six-figure number of them in the suburbs are at risk of losing service.

Carroll will stay through year’s end. He’s the latest executive to leave the company that is seen as a prime acquisition target at a time of consolidation in media. Carroll oversaw all business operations for the company and in recent years focused on building its portfolio of niche streaming services and the AMC Plus service.

An industry-created content ratings oversight board whose members include major studios and networks is recommending that streaming services adopt TV’s age-based ratings system, given the growing number of families that can access those platforms, many of which do not use the TV parental guidelines content ratings.

The network’s Sunday night football franchise was by far last week’s most-watched primetime program, as it traditionally is each fall. But NBC said it was the first time it won television’s fall premiere week in 20 years when only entertainment programming — and not sports — is taken into account. ESPN led the cable networks with a primetime average of 2.66 million. Fox News Channel had 2.36 million, MSNBC had 1.3 million, HGTV had 958,000 and TLC had 837,000.

The network announced Tuesday that it is bringing the cops-and-courts police drama back for a 21st season. When the show left the airwaves in May 2010, it was tied with CBS’s Gunsmoke for the longest running primetime TV drama.

NBC’s The Voice this Monday drew 6.7 million total viewers and a 0.95 rating, dipping week-to-week yet leading the night in the demo. Over on CBS, NCIS (7.8M/0.7) dropped a few eyeballs from last week’s Monday debut yet still copped the night’s biggest audience, all while steady in the demo. The new season’s most watched freshman show thus far, NCIS: Hawai’i (5.4M/0.5), was down 18% in viewers but steady in the demo.

Don Roy King, who has won 11 Emmys for directing Saturday Night Live, is retiring and is set to be replaced by The Ellen DeGeneres Show director Liz Patrick. King, who is thought to have directed more hours of live U.S. network television than anyone else, has been the director of the long-running NBC series since 2006. He previously directed CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, CBS This Morning and Good Morning America.

Sony Pictures Television has begun accepting applications for its 2021 Diverse Directors Program, which is part of SPT’s overall strategy to identify and engage emerging talent from a wide range of backgrounds. Participants will have the opportunity to get an in-depth education on directing episodic television at SPT as well as have the chance to interact with veteran TV directors, creative executives and showrunners.