Programming

The numbers are sobering: Sunday’s NBC audience of 13 million was down 51% from the 26.7 million who watched the corresponding night in Rio five years ago. Saturday night was down 57%, last Wednesday down 53% and Tuesday down 58%, according to Nielsen. NBC averaged 13.4 million viewers in primetime last week. CBS had 2.22 million, ABC had 2.17 million, Univision had 1.9 million, Ion Television had 1.1 million, and Fox and Telemundo tied with 980,000. Fox News Channel led the cable networks with an average of 1.95 million viewers in primetime. USA had 1.68 million, MSNBC had 1.1 million, HGTV had 979,000 and TLC had 882,000.

Life felt a lot like TV judicial nonfiction as an appeals court poured ice cold water on efforts to drag the big salary of Judge Judy into the profits dust-up between CBS and Rebel Entertainment Partners over the now shuttered syndicated show. “It’s always gratifying when the correct judgment is affirmed,” Sheindlin said.

American Idol is keeping the band together for its fifth season on ABC. Judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan and host Ryan Seacrest have all inked new deals to remain with the singing competition in 2022 — which will mark the show’s 20th season overall, the first 15 on Fox.

NBC’s primetime Monday coverage of the Tokyo Olympics averaged 12.8 million total viewers (per fast nationals), marking the summer games’ best preliminary numbers since Thursday and the fifth-best tallies out of the first 11 nights.

The game show is flat in the week ending July 25 but its 5.5 is best once again in both the genre and overall.

Advertising rebounded strongly in the second quarter, enabling Discovery Communications to easily beat Wall Street’s estimates. Total revenue climbed 21% over the prior-year quarter, reaching $3.06 billion, as earnings per share hit $1.01. Analysts had expected revenue of $2.97 billion and earnings of 85 cents. Ad revenue in the U.S. rose 12% and the company noted it completed a record-setting upfront process during the quarter, which ended June 30. Distribution revenue also increased 12%.

Following an outbreak of a parasitic infection that shut down production and led NBC to yank the show from a planned post-Olympics premiere date, Ultimate Slip ‘N Slide will not air at all this summer, the network confirmed. NBC and Universal Television Alternative Studio, which is producing the show, are still committed to finding a new, safe location to film the $18 million show and get it on the air, but there is currently no plan in place for resuming production or an estimated window during which the show will premiere.

Saturday Night Live impresario Lorne Michaels has an intriguing offer for veteran cast members thinking of leaving the show: Don’t. Each summer brings with it an annual SNL ritual in which Michaels and top producers try to figure out which members of the current troupe of the show’s “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” will leave and which will remain. The process usually starts in August, but has commenced earlier this year, according to two people familiar with the matter, as Michaels works to convince cast members whose contracts may have lapsed not only to stay, but to stay for a while.

Competing economic incentives are leading NBCUniversal, Disney and WarnerMedia to make difficult decisions about how to program their streaming services. The tension between how to balance streaming video, theatrical release and linear TV is leading to some peculiar choices bound to confuse consumers in what’s becoming an increasingly jumbled landscape.

The 24-year-old Biles will compete in Tuesday’s balance beam final. She won bronze on beam in Rio de Janeiro five years ago and qualified for the eight-woman final at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre on the first weekend of the Games but removed herself from the team final on July 27 after a shaky performance on vault during the first rotation.

“He’s our future,” one CBS Studios executive said of Alex Kurtzman, who has a lucrative contract to expand the Star Trek universe — and with it the streaming service’s audience.

Thanks to searingly modern platforms like Twitch and Pluto TV, the late painter and public TV personality Bob Ross has become a mainstay of the digital universe — particularly during the pandemic, when the popularity of a new Bob Ross channel skyrocketed as people trapped at home turned to their televisions for therapy. Ross provides a reductio ad absurdum for a quiet digital-age truth: A sprinkling of coveted intellectual property can allow a shrewd company to punch well above its weight.

A debate is heating up over vaccination protocols for cast and crew members and how to enforce them.

As cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant continue to rise across the country, including in Los Angeles County, the Television Academy has added a vaccination requirement to all attendees of this year’s Emmy ceremonies. The organization joins most Hollywood events, including premieres, now requiring proof of vaccination before entry.

The Walt Disney Co. clapped back at Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson, slamming the actress’ breach of contract lawsuit for showing “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.” In a court filing on Thursday, Johansson said Disney’s decision to send the Marvel movie to Disney Plus at the same time it was released in theaters cost her millions of dollars in backend compensation.

Manifest‘s big run on Netflix continued in the week of June 28-July 4, as the canceled NBC series again topped the overall streaming rankings from Nielsen. Loki also rebounded in its fourth week, claiming the No. 1 spot among original streaming shows.

NBC’s primetime coverage of Wednesday’s Tokyo Olympics averaged 11.7 million total viewers (and a 2.7 demo rating), down about 15% from the preliminary numbers for the night prior.

Henry Schleiff, who has worked in cable television for more than 40 years, is exiting Investigation Discovery. He is leaving in a shakeup that will also see the departure of general manager Kevin Bennett, with Jason Sarlanis taking over the true-crime network. Sarlanis, who is currently SVP development, TLC, has been responsible for spearheading 90 Day Fiancé, one of the company’s biggest hits.