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Faith Stowers, a former Vanderpump Rules cast member, accused NBCUniversal on Friday of racist harassment and retaliation, becoming the latest Bravo star to sue over her treatment on a popular reality show. Stowers appeared on Seasons 4 and 5 of the series, which aired from 2015 to 2017. In her lawsuit, she alleges that castmate Lala Kent brandished a knife at her during an argument in Season 4, held it to her neck and threatened to “cut a bitch.”

LinkedIn, Microsoft’s business-networking site, has entered the connected TV ad business. NBCUniversal joins as an initial partner to give business-to-business brands a way into CTV. The expansion into CTV from in-stream video ads running on its site will help advertisers get business message in front of the 1 billion LinkedIn members. Through LinkedIn’s Connected TV offering, the ads are delivered only on immersive large-screen TV devices.

NBCUniversal and Roku are expanding their streaming relationship, adding to the roster of classic and nostalgia TV titles available on the Roku Channel. The NBCU Global Distribution Studio library is backing a number of new channels launching today, including dedicated ones for Murder, She Wrote, Little House on the Prairie, Saved By The Bell and Bad Girls Club. The Universal Crime channel offers a rotation including Columbo, Kojak and The Rockford Files, while Teen NBC packages the likes of Punky Brewster, Major Dad and Hang Time.

Joe Benarroch is leaving NBCUniversal for Twitter, following his former boss Linda Yaccarino, who was named CEO by Elon Musk last month. In an email, Benarroch said he would be taking on a role focusing on business operations.

Cozi TV, the multicast network showing classic television, turns 10 this month. Home of Columbo, The Munsters, Frasier and other vintage hits, NBCUniversal Local’s Cozi has escalated from 43 markets at launch to 145, and 49 million homes to 109 million. Broadcast partners include Nexstar, Gray Television and Tegna.

Laura Molen, who rose to president of advertising sales at NBCUniversal during a decade-long run, has announced plans to depart the company early next year. The longtime deputy to ad and client partnerships chief Linda Yaccarino will stay on through the end of the first quarter of 2023 in order to help with the transition. (Image credit NBCU)

A report last August about NBC considering dropping the 10 PM hour and giving it back to its affiliate stations rattled the creative community. NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell in October acknowledged the discussions, but stressed that no final decisions have been made. A decision has now been made, at least when it comes to the next 2023-24 broadcast season.

Beginning in the spring, JetBlue passengers will be able to watch a selection of Peacock Originals for free on demand on the seatback screens on JetBlue planes. Passengers will also be able to access the full Peacock offering via JetBlue’s free high-speed Fly-Fi on plane broadband service.

NBCUniversal says its advertisers had hundreds of millions of reasons to be thankful over the Thanksgiving weekend — one of the business shopping periods of the year. Across its portfolio NBCU’s programming — as measured by Nielsen — reached 121 million people aged 2 and up. Data from measurement company iSpot.tv shows the ads on NBCU properties reached 128 million adults.

The news that NBC is considering canning its 10 p.m. programming slot and handing it over to local stations may have farther-reaching implications beyond the 2023-24 season. Looking ahead, digital analyst and former ABC Daytime president Brian Frons sees that decision as a potential death knell for broadcast TV’s scripted drama programming.

NBCUniversal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Shell has asked his top deputies to find savings at its legacy cable and broadcast TV networks, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been finalized.

Executives from NBCUniversal, Fox Television Stations, E.W. Scripps, Gray Television and Estrella Media told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week they’ve needed to embrace a wide range of tools and tactics to grow audience and revenue for their streaming channels. Ubiquity and flexibility, they said, are key.

On Monday, NBC is launching Dateline Premium, a new subscription on Apple Podcasts offering ad-free access to more than 400 hours of exclusive audio programming. The subscription costs $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, after a seven-day free trial.

NBC has floated the idea of shrinking back primetime and giving back the 10 p.m. hour to local news. Would it be a shrewd move or just another sign of the network’s slavish prioritizing of Peacock?

The 2022 NFL season kicks off Thursday, Sept. 8, with the defending champion Los Angeles Rams playing the Buffalo Bills on NBC and Peacock. Coverage begins at 7 p.m.

NBC is considering reducing the number of hours it programs in prime time, people familiar with the matter said, a cost-cutting move that would reflect broadcast television’s diminishing popularity. Under the scenario being discussed, NBC would stop programming the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. hour and give those seven hours per week to local TV stations to program, the people said.

Peacock launches its first ever DocFest, an on-platform showcase highlighting a selection from the streamer’s top-tier documentary roster. The six-week virtual festival will feature six brand new Peacock Original titles between Sept. 14 and Oct. 19, with new titles dropping every Wednesday.

Journalists who have made the switch from traditional TV news to streaming media have found room to experiment and rewrite the rules in a medium that offers live linear and on-demand opportunities. Comparing notes during a TVNewsCheck webinar were (clockwise from upper left) Amagi’s Brian Ring, Atmosphere’s Micah Grimes, Cox Media Group’s Matthew Dominguez, AccuWeather Network’s Sarah Katt and LiveNOW from Fox’s Shareef Abul-Ela. 

NBCUniversal is providing coverage of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing from Feb. 2 to 20, featuring a Winter Olympics-record 2,800-plus hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. Here’s where all the tech necessary to deliver all that comes from.

NBCUniversal, which has been active in the search for alternatives to Nielsen for audience measurement, is touting some metrics that could encourage its Olympic advertisers. The fancy metrics show that NBC’s coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics has fewer commercials and that those commercials are working hard, the kind of data NBCU believes is important to companies writing big checks to sponsor the games.

Peacock has a serial TV problem and is counting on a pandemic-delayed pipeline of programming to help overcome it. More than a year after its launch, NBCUniversal’s streaming service lacks the buzzy original TV shows of its rivals or even the fan-friendly Star Trek offerings of Paramount Plus, the ViacomCBS service formerly known as CBS All Access. And while top brass praised Peacock as “headed in the right direction” during Comcast’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts last week, the lack of breakthrough hits, considered key to streamer growth, suggests the service has much work to do before it becomes truly competitive with its rivals.

NBC News named the producer to lead its “NBC Nightly News,” replacing Jenn Suozzo, who recently departed for a senior role at CNN. In a memo to staffers Thursday, NBC News President Noah Oppenheim cited Rafferty’s “keen news instincts and innovative vision” and indicated she would play a role in helping the newscast not only in its linear edition, but in new formats across digital venues.

The U.S. media group, which operates broadcast network NBC, a slew of cable networks and streamer Peacock, and the British public broadcaster have teamed up to find unscripted shows that can work both in the States and UK. The pair will hunt for shows produced by British producers across unscripted genres and will look to co-commission pilots or develop projects with series potential.

The network wins the full TV year in both total viewers and adults 18-49 for the first time since 2018. NBC averaged 5.29 million viewers in primetime for the TV year, a slim 30,000 more than CBS (5.26 million). ABC ranks third with 4.31 million, and Fox is at 3.56 million.

The Brooklyn Nine-Nine series finale rose in its final episode, earning a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demo and 2.17 million viewers, per fast affiliates. But it came in second to Big Brother on CBS, which ruled Thursday in all fields. The latest episode (0.9, 3.77M)  of the reality series was the highest-rated and most-watched title of the evening.