Programming

CBS and CBS Sports Network will televise 20 Big East Conference men’s regular-season basketball games per year through the 2024-25 season in a new sublicense deal with Fox Sports. The pact includes at least two appearances for each of the 10 Big East schools.

Modern Family closed out its next-to-last season with its lowest-rated finale to date Wednesday night. The ABC comedy, which is headed into its final season in 2019-20, tied last week’s series low in adults 18-49 with a 1.0 rating.

The full House Appropriations Committee has proposed to increase funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, approving the recommendation of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, which last month approved a funding boost of $50 million (or about 15%) to $495 million for fiscal year 2022.

Epix has closed the final link in the chain. At long last, the pay TV channel owned by MGM has set a distribution pact with AT&T’s DirecTV.

Billy Bush will be the new host of Warner Bros.’ rebranded news magazine Extra Extra as the show heads over to Fox-owned stations in seven major markets — including New York and Los Angeles — when it starts season 26 on Sept. 9.

The NFL Network is being forced to cut $20 million out of its projected budget and, in the process, already has eliminated at least five shows, including one that featured Deion Sanders. The less-than-hoped-for budget has made negotiations with on-air personnel tense, and there is a feeling some will either not be retained or be forced to take pay cuts, according to sources.

The veteran CBS drama reaches a series low in adults 18-49 but is Tuesday’s most-watched show by a wide margin.

While many traditional TV players are looking to diversify beyond linear TV, Univision, with Vince Sadusky at the helm, has spent the past year getting back to its roots as a Spanish-language broadcaster. But while Sadusky believes in the broadcast TV model, Univision’s ratings are challenged, and it has felt increased pressure from its main rival, NBCU-owned Hispanic-targeted broadcaster Telemundo. But Sadusky’s bigger priority, he says, is telling Univision’s refocused story to the ad marketplace.

Univision Communications is rebooting its UniMás network with a focus on live entertainment in the shape of sports, news and reality. May 13 is also premiere day for a 10 p.m. newscast on UniMás. And it’s rebranding its Univision Deportes network to TUDN.

With eight of the 10 most-watched shows, CBS cruised to an overall weekly ratings victory with an average 5.96 million viewers. ABC had 4.64 million, NBC had 4.55 million viewers, Fox had 2.64 million, Telemundo had 1.36 million, Univision had 1.31 million, Ion Television had 1.24 million and the CW had 740,000.

Less than one month after series creator Sara Gilbert announced her departure, the CBS chatfest has found her permanent replacement in Marie Osmond. Osmond is no stranger to The Talk. Since 2013, she has served as a guest panelist nearly 40 times. She’ll officially join co-hosts Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood, Eve and Carrie Ann Inaba when Season 10 begins in September.

The paradox of broadcast television in the Peak TV era is that while there are fewer breakout hits, networks are also more willing to let shows run their course than in times past. Just about every show on broadcast at least got to play out its initial run in 2018-19.

The former HBO exec, who departed the premium cable network in 2018 after a 38-year run, will develop new projects for third-party outlets and the Viacom-owned cabler via the MTV Studios division.

The Fox drama and NBC singing competition lead the adults 18-49 demo, with the latter hitting a Monday low.

In the week ending April 28, the phenom’s run pushes the game show to tops in all of syndication again as his prize pot mounts.