Programming

The NFL remains on top in a down year, and The CW’s All American is the only series to increase both its total audience and adults 18-49 rating.

The broadcast networks made a swift turn into summer last week, with NBC’s America’s Got Talent topping the ratings upon its return. CBS led for the week, averaging 3.3 million viewers in primetime. ABC had 3.17 million, NBC had 3.16 million, Fox had 1.7 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 970,000 and Telemundo had 880,000. TNT led the cable news networks, averaging 2.36 million viewers in primetime last week. Fox News Channel had 1.94 million, HGTV had 1.25 million, MSNBC had 1.23 million and TBS had 938,000.

CBS is sticking with The Talk talent to host this year’s Daytime Emmy Awards, but with a twist: This year, Sheryl Underwood will handle solo duties. The Eye network announced on Tuesday that Underwood will host the 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, which airs on Friday, June 25, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, as well as streaming live on Paramount+.

The former drama head will fill the void created by Beatrice Springborn, who left last year to run Universal Content Productions. Helman has been head of drama at Hulu since joining the streamer in 2015.

The Bachelorette — sans Chris Harrison, which fans will now have to get used to on a permanent basis — ruled Monday night in Nielsen’s TV ratings. ABC’s The Good Doctor season finale at 10 p.m. did not let its two-hour lead-in down.

Amy Thurlow is leaving Dick Clark Productions after seven years, the last one as president. Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu, co-CEOs of DCP parent MRC just announced Thurlow’a departure internally, and she also shared the news with her staff. A search is underway for her replacement.

Just hours after the 17th season of The Bachelorette debuted, longtime host Chris Harrison has exited the romance franchise for good. Having fronted the Mike Fleiss-created The Bachelor and all its lucrative ABC spinoffs since 2002, Harrison will receive a rose of his own in the form of mid-range eight-figure payoff and promise to keep his mouth shut. The confidential settlement with franchise producers and distributor Warner Horizon was finally reached after one more flurry of back and forth between the parties and Bachelor broadcaster ABC on Monday night.

The yearlong pandemic blurred the already thin line between the media, with movies that were meant for theaters landing on streaming, and Marvel hopping onto the small screen.

There will be some 7,000 hours of programming between two broadcast networks (NBC and Telemundo), six cable channels (USA, CNBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel, Golf Channel, and Universo) and multiple digital platforms.

The veteran writer and producer takes over for series creator Jim Reynolds, who left the show amid complaints about his leadership.

Univision’s coverage of the U.S. men’s national team’s 3-2 victory over rival Mexico in the final of the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League on Sunday night tied ABC’s season premiere of Celebrity Family Feud for the night’s top broadcast in primetime. The game, which aired live from Denver and was decided in overtime, drew a 0.8 rating and 1.96 million viewers from 9 to 11 p.m. for the Spanish-language broadcast; it also aired live via CBS Sports Network.

The exclusive deal connects marketers to more than 1 billion travelers in 90+ top airports.

With the return to pre-pandemic behavior in newsrooms, critic David Zurawik reflects: “Adaptability, resilience, being nimble and the willingness to improvise are some of the lessons TV can teach us from the last 15 months. But there are deeper aspects of our relationships to the screen that bear further thought, such as how important those screens and the stories told on them have become to our lives.”

WTVO in Rockford, Ill., just completed the seventh season of its high school quiz show, Bergstrom Stateline Quiz Bowl. The station has aired 230 episodes so far. “It has been just hugely successful,” says David Rydell, chairman of the Bergstrom Manufacturing company, the show’s title sponsor.

Sunday’s Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul exhibition bout has apparently crashed Showtime’s servers. “We are aware that some customers have been having trouble accessing tonight’s Pay Per View event on Showtime.com. We are working diligently to resolve the issue and will redress customers appropriately,” a Showtime spokesperson said in a statement around 7:30 p.m. ET.

While many in the TV business are investing billions in subscription streaming services, big broadcasters are focusing on free over-the-air digital channels. Sinclair Broadcast Group has been investing in its digital channels — Comet TV, Charge and TBD — and is seeing a healthy increase in advertising revenue since getting ratings from Nielsen and upgrading their programming. In June, for example, Charge is adding CSI: Miami to its schedule. “What we’ve tried to do with these networks is level up the programming to make them general-market worthy,” Scott Ehrlich, Sinclair SVP, growth networks and content, said.

The final ratings for Season 46 of Saturday Night Live are in, and the venerable latenight sketch program ranked as the No. 1 entertainment show among all ad-supported networks in the adults 18-49 demo. The show averaged a 2.06 rating in 18-49 and 9.0 million total viewers overall in Live+7 numbers. SNL generated the No. 1 most YouTube video views (1.6 billion) of any late-night show in all of TV. It also gained the No. 1 most new fans/followers/subscribers (2.7 million) across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube of any late-night show in all of TV.

Broadcast shows like NCIS (which just finished its 18th season), ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (17 seasons) and NBC’s Law & Order: SVU (21 seasons) continue to have massive staying power and tremendous fan bases. And because they boast such large episodic libraries, they’re all among the most-watched acquired shows on streaming. In the world of the Emmy Awards, however, these shows seem to no longer exist.

CBS’s Clarice returned from its latest mini-hiatus — though with the first of four episodes in a row! — to 1.8 million total viewers and a 0.2 demo rating, hitting and tying series lows. Station 19 (4.7M/0.6) dipped in the demo with its season finale, yet delivered Thursday’s biggest audience. Grey’s Anatomy (4.6M/0.8) ticked up with its season finale, and led the night in the demo.