Welcome back to WeHo. Three popular Melrose Place original cast members, Heather Locklear, Laura Leighton and Daphne Zuniga, are reuniting for a followup to the 1990s staple. A Melrose Place reboot, with the trio attached to star, is in development at CBS Studios and is currently being shopped to networks and streamers.
The 2025 Critics Choice Awards will not be airing exclusively on The CW. The broadcast network has opted not to renew the awards show’s current option for next year, sources say. However, it is still possible to see the ceremony on the CW in 2025 as the network is looking for a path to continue to carry it, shared with another network or a streamer. There was a similar arrangement for the 2022 Critics Choice Awards, simulcast on The CW and TBS.
The April 7 finale had a first-night audience of 1.1 million viewers on HBO and Max (including replays), which was the best performance for Curb since the Season 10 finale drew 1.4 million cross-platform viewers in March 2020. The initial airing on HBO drew 530,000 viewers — about 51% higher than the show’s linear average for the previous nine episodes — with streaming on Max and replays contributing the remaining 570,000 viewers.
Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb will also be part of the Olympics opening ceremony coverage, set to take place around the River Seine in Paris.
Low-cost, family-oriented streaming service Frndly TV said it will add local TV stations to its lineup in six markets this month. The stations will give Frndly subscribers more access to local news and syndicated programming.
Today’s episode of ABC‘s Tamron Hall show was scotched after a grease fire in an on-set kitchen caused a brief evacuation of the Upper West Side ABC studio where Hall tapes the show. A rerun of the Monday eclipse episode was aired instead, but in a brief live appearance ahead of the episode Hall stood on the empty, mostly evacuated set and explained what happened.
Exclusives
SAG-AFTRA Seeks To Write AI Protections Into California Law
SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood actors, is pushing for legislation that would require detailed consent for the use of “digital replicas.” In a separate bill, the union also wants to prevent studios from putting dead performers in movies without the consent of their heirs. Underscoring the contentiousness around AI, the Motion Picture Association has come out against the digital replicas bill.
The women’s NCAA championship game drew a bigger television audience than the men’s title game for the first time, with an average of 18.9 million viewers watching undefeated South Carolina beat Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark, according to ratings released Tuesday. The Sunday afternoon game on ABC and ESPN outdrew Monday’s men’s final between UConn and Purdue by four million. The Huskies’ 75-60 victory averaged 14.82 million on TBS and TNT. The audience for the women’s game — in which the Gamecocks won their fourth national title and denied Clark’s Hawkeyes their first — peaked at 24.1 million during the final 15 minutes.
A change is coming at the helm of Chicago Med: after nine seasons, co-showrunners Diane Frolov and Andy Schneider will step down at the end of the season. The duo led the Dick Wolf series to nine successful seasons on NBC. The series has continually won its 8 p.m. Wednesday time period by averaging more than 10.5 million viewers.
NCIS has been a top 20 series for 18 of its 20 full seasons and has ranked as the No. 1 drama for the last five consecutive seasons – and 13 of the last 14. Now in its 21st season, NCIS is the No. 2 entertainment program this season, trailing only Tracker on CBS. The renewal brings NCIS through its 22nd season. The Neighborhood is averaging 5.83 million viewers season to date and is TV’s third-ranked comedy. This renewal brings the sitcom through its seventh season.
Sunday’s final was watched by more people than any other basketball game in the past five years, including NBA and NCAA men’s events.
If TV is all about football these days, so are the Sports Emmys. The New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences revealed the nominations for its 45th annual Sports Emmy Awards, and the NFL Network’s NFL 360 led the pack with 11 nods — followed closely by the CBS and Nickelodeon coverage of this year’s Super Bowl, with 10. Also in the hunt: ESPN’s E60 doc series and Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football, with nine each.
Spinoffs International and Most Wanted will also return on one-year pickups for 2024-25.
NBCUniversal said it has sold $1.2 billion worth of advertising in the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, putting it on track to be the gold medal winner for most ad revenue ever generated by an Olympics Games. The revenue total includes about $350 million from new advertisers. Digital ad revenue has already set a record, the company said.
Beyond the college women’s basketball tournament, the WNBA and National Women’s Soccer League have inked new rights deals that could increase exposure at a time when popularity is surging. Morry Gash/AP
South Carolina defeated Iowa in front of a record-breaking national audience on Sunday. The NCAA Women’s Championship delivered 18.7M viewers across ABC and ESPN, which marks an 89% increase in viewership year-over-year. Not only is that the most-watched women’s college basketball game on record, the matchup is also the second most-watched non-Olympic women’s sporting event ever on U.S. television. It comes in behind only the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final, according to Nielsen data. Pictured: South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley cuts down the net after her team’s 87-75 victory. (Morry Gash/AP)
Around a dozen Netflix employees are leaving after Dan Lin worked on the re-org with Bela Bajaria, outside partners and film heads
The end of CBS’s strikes-shortened 2023-24 season will begin on May 2, when Ghosts conjures up its Season 3 finale. The Rose McIver-led comedy is among 20 series to receive finale dates Monday. The list also includes NCIS, Fire Country, Tracker and FBI, and a series finale date for S.W.A.T. As previously reported, Young Sheldon will wrap its seven-season run with back-to-back episodes, while fellow outgoing Chuck Lorre sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola — which was initially slated to end on Monday, May 13 — will now wrap a week earlier than expected.
The sale will increase Endeavor’s ownership stake in TKO and comes just a few months after McMahon exited the company.
The Walking Dead and Interview with the Vampire company is also adding a horror “ambassador” and adding ad tiers to its niche streaming services.
Anything goes as station groups forge their own content fiefdoms. Pictured: Sony Pictures Television is offering stations two new hours of the NFL Network morning show Good Morning Football. (NFL Media)
Stations have snapped up professional sports rights from struggling RSNs, but could find themselves edged out by direct-to-consumer streamers.
Pat Sajak’s final run on Wheel of Fortune is quickly coming to a close. After more than four decades as host of the iconic game show, Sajak’s final episode will air on Friday, June 7. His farewell episode, which taped last Friday, will serve as Wheel‘s Season 41 finale.
First the PGA Tour and the upstart LIV Golf were implacable enemies. Then they were going to work something out. Now, as the Masters is set to begin, the tension is mounting again.
Thee women’s NCAA Semifinals on ESPN shattered viewership records Friday, as all-time NCAA basketball scoring leader Caitlin Clark led her Iowa Hawkeyes to a thrilling win over the UConn Huskies, 71-69, in a game that wasn’t decided until the final seconds. UConn-Iowa delivered 14.2 million viewers, making it the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever, according to Nielsen’s Fast Nationals. Viewership peaked at 17 million viewers for Iowa-UConn, while South Carolina and North Carolina State peaked at 9 million viewers. Pictured: Iowa guard Caitlin Clark with head coach Lisa Bluder during the second half. (Morry Gash/AP)
