Disney is continuing its retreat from traditional television by selling its stake in German family channel Super RTL. The U.S. company’s joint-venture partner, the German broadcasting giant RTL, has acquired Disney’s 50% holding in the channel. RTL will now own 100% of Super RTL. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Pandemic Golden Globes Ratings Plunge 64%
CBS was the most-watched network in primetime last week, averaging 4.5 million viewers. ABC had 3.9 million, NBC had 3.4 million, Fox had 2.3 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 1.2 million and Telemundo had 1 million. Fox News Channel topped the cable networks, averaging 2.46 million viewers in primetime.
BBC Three is returning to UK TV screens. The channel is coming back to the air after pivoting to OTT back in 2015, the org confirmed today. The move has been expected following hits on the platform such as Normal People and Fleabag. There was a campaign back in 2015 spearheaded by notable industry figures including Avalon’s Jon Thoday and Hat Trick’s Jimmy Mulville to reverse the BBC’s decision to put the channel online, and last year talks began about a return to linear.
Exclusives
The network will open a second animation block on Monday nights in the summer. Newcomer Housebroken, featuring the voices of Lisa Kudrow, Nat Faxon, Will Forte and Sharon Horgan, will pair with second-year show Duncanville, starring Amy Poehler, beginning May 31. Duncanville will premiere with two episodes on Sunday, May 23, before moving to its regular berth.
The rookie DC Comics drama from Greg Berlanti earns a speedy pickup after airing only one episode. The second episode airs tonight.
Syndies Bounce Back Following Preemptions
In the session after the coverage of the impeachment trial, shows in multiple posted single and double-digit increases, with Dr. Phil gaining the most with its 43% gain.
CBS has set a date for the 73rd annual Emmy Awards, which will also be streamed on Paramount+. The Awards will take place on Sunday, Sept. 19, at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. Host and venue will be announced later.
The Doozy and Defy TV multicast reality networks will launch on July 1. Doozy targets women 25-54 and Defy TV aims for men 25-54.
NBC’s The Voice opened Season 20 with 7.7 million total viewers and a 1.1 demo rating, down just a tick from its fall premiere (8.2M/1.1). The singing competition easily led Monday in total audience, while tying ABC’s The Bachelor for the nightly demo win.
NBC’s bicoastal and mostly virtual broadcast of the 78th Golden Globes on Sunday night not at all surprisingly delivered one of the gala’s smallest audiences in … well, a while. Averaging 5.4 million total viewers and a 1.2 demo rating in preliminary numbers, the Globes were down more than 60% from last year’s early tallies. Even with inevitable adjustment in the Nielsen finals (which last year was +24%), the show is on track to deliver its smallest audience since 1995.
Where’s Succession? Atlanta? After the number of scripted shows fell for the first time in a decade, Hollywood hopes to satisfy a restless audience with less costly fare.
LONDON (AP) — Johnny Briggs, a British actor best known for his role as businessman Mike Baldwin in the long-running TV soap opera “Coronation Street,” has died. He was 85. […]
Netflix, which came in with a commanding 42 nominations, won the top TV awards. The Crown, as expected, took best drama series, along with acting wins for Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles), Emma Corrin (Princess Diana) and Gillian Anderson (Margaret Thatcher). The Queen’s Gambit won best limited series, and best actress in the category for Anya Taylor-Joy. Schitt’s Creek, the Pop TV series that found a wider audience on Netflix, won best comedy series for its final season and its Catherine O’Hara also took best actress in a comedy series. Tina Fey (l) in New York, and Amy Poehler in Beverly Hills hosted the ceremonies on NBC.
The comedian has agreed a deal to host Late Night with Seth Meyers through 2025, which should take him to around 1,800 episodes of the show. In addition, he has also signed an overall deal for Sethmaker Shoemeyers Productions, the production company he runs with Late Night with Seth Meyers showrunner Mike Shoemaker, with Universal Studio Group through 2025.
The streamer commissioned the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative to analyze its 2018 and 2019 original, live-action films and series, and presented the results to members of the press Thursday in a video presentation. The results were, as Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founder and director Stacy L. Smith noted, far more positive than most Annenberg reports, which have typically found only slow, sporadic improvement in the most popular films.
NBC bubble comedy Mr. Mayor closed out its freshman term on Thursday night with 2.47 million total viewers and a 0.4 demo rating, dipping to series lows on both counts. On CBS, Young Sheldon (7.6M/0.9), B Positive (5.1M/0.7z) and The Unicorn (3.7M/0.5) all ticked up, with Sheldon topping Thursday in both measures.
Netflix’s offering of Criminal Minds was the most-viewed show on streaming platforms in the last week of January, according to Nielsen’s latest Top 10 list released Thursday. The popularity of Criminal Minds has been the fuel for news just this week. Paramount+ confirmed yesterday it is rebooting the hit CBS procedural, which ran from 2005-2020 and spawned two spinoffs, with a 10-episode season revolving around a single case.
NBC’s Young Rock premiered recently to a 1.0 rating in the adults 18 to 49 demographic — which sounds awful but in 2021 qualifies as a tremendous debut. In an age when almost everything does between 0.4 and 0.8 in fast national Nielsen ratings, we’ve truly gotten to the point where live+ same day or even live+3 day and live+7 day numbers don’t mean anything anymore.
ABC’s For Life on Wednesday night wrapped Season 2 with 1.7 million total viewers — its best audience in five episodes — and its fifth straight 0.3 demo rating, opposite reruns on both NBC and CBS. The bubble drama’s sophomore run thus averaged 1.8 million weekly viewers and a 0.35 demo rating (in Live+Same Day numbers), ranking last in both measures among the dramas ABC has aired this TV season.
