Programming

Citing an unidentified person close to the family, CNN says the 87-year-old King is undergoing treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest led the way Thursday with its annual countdown to the new year, drawing a 2.4 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 8.37 million viewers in the primetime portion of its broadcast in fast affiliate Nielsen Live+Same Day numbers.

With uncertainty surrounding production as COVID outbreaks frequently pause filming, a number of premiere dates are still TBD, as networks and streamers often wait until last minute to set debuts so they are sure than the new seasons would be completed successfully. That said, here’s Deadline’s annual list of midseason/winter premiere dates for new and returning series. It covers hundreds of broadcast, cable and streaming programs debuting from today through March 31 and includes shows that were on hiatus and some one-off specials such as awards shows.

Disney Television Studios has joined other major TV studios in pushing the post-holidays start of production for Los Angeles-based shows amid an unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections and Covid-19 deaths in Los Angeles County. Sixteen scripted series produced by Disney TV Studios’ ABC Signature and 20th Television divisions will remain on holiday hiatus until Jan. 18, when production will resume. The shows had previously been slated to return to production on Jan. 11 or a few days earlier.

Universal Television will be extending the holiday hiatus on six productions amid a COVID-19 spike which include Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Good Girls, the company announced on Thursday. Other affected series include Hacks, Never Have I Ever, Mr. Mayor and Kenan. Production is expected to resume Jan. 11. Brooklyn Nine-Nine will start back on Jan. 18.

Warner Bros. Television has become the second major TV studios to push the production return date for the series that had been slated to resume filming in Los Angeles next week. It joins CBS Studios, with other studios and streamers expected to follow. All American, Bob ❤️ Abishola, B Positive, Call Me Kat, Mom, Shameless, and You, which had been scheduled to return from the holiday break the week of Jan. 4 will all prolong their production hiatus.

All was fairly quiet across broadcasters Wednesday as NBC led the night with encores of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago PD which delivered a 0.4 in the adults 18-49 demographic across the board. NBC may have led the night overall, but CBS’s rerun of Young Sheldon topped the night with a 0.5 in the demo and 4.07 million viewers.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show has extended its hiatus in compliance with the recommendation from Calif. Governor Gavin Newsom that Hollywood studios put a pause on filming amid the ongoing COVID-19 surge in the state. Producers informed staff on Thursday that the show will delay its return to production by a week, rather than resuming with new episodes Jan. 4 as originally planned. Employees will be paid and will continue to work from home.

The broadcast networks will be happy to put 2020 in their rear view mirror. Unlike streaming platforms, which got a tremendous boost from the nationwide shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the broadcast networks endured steep drops in primetime viewing this year. The drops in Nielsen ratings go far beyond the typical erosion of the past decade that is a result of viewer fragmentation due to the dramatic increase in content options coming from streaming services. Above, ABC was fortunate to be able to make fresh episodes of its unscripted hits like The Bachelorette.

The morning mainstay led the yak pack in the week ending Dec. 20, racing ahead 11% to a 2.1, its highest Nielsen number since early May.

In a typical year, shots of raucous parties from around the world dominate news programming. This year, the networks had to get more creative.

2020 was not, by any standard, a typical year. Even the linear television universe, a familiar and cyclical staple of media, saw its fair share of oddities. Halts in production of new and existing shows, delays in fall TV season premieres and an overall sense of time lost became realities as Americans were forced to recalibrate to spending more time at home for the good of public health and their communities. And in all likelihood, the atypical nature of the year will be profound enough to drive permanent shifts in consumer behavior, including media consumption. In fact, we’re already seeing them.

Besides having to do all profiles virtually due to COVID-19 protocols, there has been keeping up with late-breaking news and trying to hold the usual lively debates while being socially distanced. Above, l-r: Charissa Thompson, Tony Gonzalez, and Michael Vick discuss NFL topics on the set of Fox NFL Kickoff during a 2019 show.

This year, TVNewsCheck reported on the deaths of outstanding men and women who shaped television as actors, lawmakers, producers, business people, journalists and on-air personalities. Here’s a look back at some of those influencers.

Dawn Wells, best known for playing the girl-next-door castaway Mary Ann on the iconic TV comedy series Gilligan’s Island, died Wednesday morning in Los Angeles from complications due to COVID-19. She was 82. Wells, who was Miss Nevada in the 1959 Miss America pageant, beat out 350 actresses for the role of Mary Ann.

The first of the five episodes will air Monday and start with Trebek’s “powerful message about the season of giving,” producer Sony Pictures Television said in a release Wednesday.

CBS has pushed the post-holiday restart dates on several of its series back a week as COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County have surged. Production on NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and SEAL Team, all broadcast by CBS, as well as CBS All Access’ Why Women Kill and Disney+’s Diary of a Future President had been scheduled to return to production on Jan. 4 after their holiday break. All five shows will now resume on Jan. 11.

The pandemic didn’t slow down the NFL, which once again dominated Variety’s ranker of the most-watched television telecasts of the year. No surprise, of course, Super Bowl LIV was easily the top program of 2020, with 102 million viewers on Feb. 2. Actually, seven of the 10 telecasts of the year came from the NFL, and 28 out of the top 100 of the year. The other major sports leagues weren’t as lucky. Scripted series accounted for 39 of the top 100 slots, while competition series took up nine spots.

The new ownership, in partnership with Televisa, says it will enhance Univision’s digital presence, deepen relationships with Hispanic audiences and communities, and create market-defining content for the next generation of Spanish-speaking viewers. Televisa will maintain its existing ownership and the Program License Agreement with Univision. Veteran media executive Wade Davis becomes CEO of Univision.

ABC’s Monday Night Football season finale, in which the Bills clobbered the Patriots, averaged 6.1 million viewers and a 1.2 demo rating — easily leading a super-quiet night in both measures.

Singular installments of television can have their own magic, such as the series finale of Schitt’s Creek or the anatomy of a break-in on The Crown. Clockwise form top left: This Is Us, BoJack Horseman, The Queen’s Gambit and Schitt’s Creek.

The new Netflix series Bridgerton joins a tiny but growing handful of prestige shows adapted from mass-market romance books. What took so long?