In the wake of dozens of film and television productions abruptly shutting down amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, several organizations and high-profile showrunners — Greg Berlanti, Shonda Rhimes, David Benioff, Julie Plec, Damon Lindelof, Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan — have come together to fund a relief effort for Hollywood’s support staffers, a low-paid group that often goes overlooked.
Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg says his and Meg Whitman’s new short-form mobile streaming service’s content is so good, there’s no way it can’t find an audience.
The PGA Tour has canceled all of its events through May 10 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tour announced Tuesday. Last Thursday, it canceled all events up through the Masters Tournament in early April. The Masters was then postponed Friday morning. No date has been announced for the 2020 Masters at Augusta National.
TV Ratings Reflect Hunger For Coronavirus News
CBS was the week’s most popular network, averaging 6.2 million viewers in primetime. ABC was second with 5.2 million, NBC had 3.7 million, Fox had 3 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW had 700,000.
The Voice won its first head-to-head matchup with American Idol Monday, drawing season highs in both adults 18-49 and total viewers in the process. CBS’s The Neighborhood also had its best outing of the season, and Fox’s 9-1-1 picked up about where it left off.
Exclusives
More Netflix. Less ESPN. The pandemic means a greater number of television viewers in the short term, but signals a potential threat to the ecosystem protecting the industry.
The moves are in response to the growing number of schools closed due to coronavirus concerns. “These are examples of what public television stations do best: educate our children and serve our communities,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations.
‘Jeopardy’ Tops The Games In Slow Week
The frame ending March 8 was a challenging one for most syndicated programs as it included Super Tuesday, the biggest day of the 2020 primaries with one-third of all delegates awarded in 14 states and one territory.
The Kentucky Derby will be postponed until Sept.5, organizer Churchill Downs said Tuesday morning. It was slated to run May 2 and be telecast on NBC Sports Network. It would be the 146th Derby and is the first time it won’t be help on the first Saturday in May since 1945. At the time the government issued a ban on horse racing due to World War II.
Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast Corp-owned NBCUniversal, will make its movies available at home on the same day they are released in theaters worldwide, beginning with the DreamWorks Animation film Trolls World Tour, which opens in the U.S. on April 10.
And so it begins. With production on some 100 TV shows now halted (out of an abundance of caution over the coronavirus pandemic), the networks are starting to tweak upcoming scheduling to make the very most of what they’ve got.
Major League Baseball’s delay of opening day could last another two months after commissioner Rob Manfred said Monday the league will follow the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s coronavirus guidance issued Sunday to restrict events of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks. This new timeline will push the season openers into May at the earliest; originally, the first games were scheduled for March 26.
CBS daytime dramas are the latest TV series impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. In the face of a fast-escalating health crisis and new restrictions by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti aimed at slowing the epidemic, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful are stopping production. The shutdown is effective Tuesday, March 17, as both series are dark on Mondays. Currently, filming is suspended for the next two weeks.
NBC’s latenight sketch program had been on a scheduled hiatus for the past week, slated to return to production on March 28. That now won’t happen. There has been no new date set for the show to resume production as it is been shut down until further notice.
Idris Elba just tweeted that he has tested positive for coronavirus, joining Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and a growing list of people who are self-quarantining.
As concern about the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic continues to rise, PBS presents a collection of programs and resources with timely and relevant information on the spread of the virus. […]
The 2020 IHeartRadio Music Awards have been postponed as people continue to hunker down amid the coronavirus outbreak. The annual trophy show, which was set to air live on Fox, had been set for March 29 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The venue is closed for all events until at least the end of the month. IHeartMedia and Fox said they “plan to reschedule at the appropriate time.”
‘American Idol,’ ’60 Minutes’ Grow
Network TV audiences were up week to week again on Sunday, consistent with the past few nights as people stay home during the coronavirus pandemic. CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC’s American Idol were the top shows on Sunday, both improving on last week’s total audiences. Fox’s animated shows were also up, as were two of CBS’ three dramas.
Marvel Studios is pressing pause on its Disney Plus shows currently in production, which includes The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and WandaVision. For shows that are in pre-production, work will continue remotely.
