Programming

The National Football League is exploring options for its media properties including selling stakes to strategic partners, a move aimed at expanding the reach of its television networks and digital services, the league told team owners in a letter Wednesday. The league said it has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to explore potential partnerships for the properties, which include the NFL Network and RedZone pay TV channels as well as NFL.com.

NBCUniversal and Amazon just announced that Peacock will launch on Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets in the U.S. starting on Thursday. The Peacock app will bring thousands of hours of on-demand movies and shows, as well as live news and sports programming, to Fire TV and Fire tablet customers nationwide. The announcement is part of a larger partnership between Amazon and NBCU, with more announcements coming soon.

The television hit — the most abiding of entertainment traditions — appears to be dying. That isn’t to say shows don’t have fans; they do, and some of them are more passionate than ever. But according to its long-standing definition — a universally recognized show that gathers a large, verifiable audience and becomes unavoidable in all the places people talk about television and endures well beyond its run — the TV hit is vanishing.

The 48th annual Daytime Emmy Awards will include tributes to TV icons Regis Philbin, Alex Trebek and Larry King, with Kathy Lee Gifford, Ken Jeong, Martha Stewart and Robin Roberts making special appearances to honor their late colleagues. Presenters for this year’s awards — hosted by The Talk’s Sheryl Underwood and set to air Friday, June 25, on CBS — were announced today, along with the special tribute appearances.

NBCUniversal gave its strongest indication yet that it would move forward with plans to broadcast 7,000 hours of Tokyo Olympics events even as worries continue over the potential health of attendees and athletes as Japan continues to grapple with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

NBC’s America’s Got Talent this week drew 6.6 million total viewers and a 0.8 demo rating, down a tick from its last regularly scheduled episode but still dominating Tuesday in both measures. Leading out of that, NBC’s College Bowl revival debuted to 2.8M and a 0.5, tying for second in the demo for the night.

The return of the classic game show hosted by Jay Leno has been sold in 190 U.S. markets to station groups including Sinclair, Nexstar, Scripps, Tegna, Meredith, Gray, Hearst, McKinnon, Standard Media, Block, Lockwood, Mission and Sun Broadcasting. It launches on Sept. 13.

Fuse Media yesterday kicked off the beta launch of Fuse Plus, a new streaming service that will roll out widely later this year. It’ll be available on Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices to start.

Richter, who has worked alongside Conan O’Brien on his three shows, reflects on at his career as latenight’s No. 1 second banana.

In a virtual presentation today during the Cannes Lions brand confab, Nielsen shed a bit more light on streaming from its growing body of research on the U.S. market. Following up on its announcement last week of a new measurement tool called The Gauge, SVP of Product Strategy Brian Fuhrer explored the May viewing numbers during a 20-minute talk. Subscription video on demand services remain the dominant form of streaming, he said, with 52% of total streams. Ad-supported video on demand followed with 27% and MVPDs and virtual MVPDs (e.g., YouTube TV) account for 10% of all streaming.

Since the pandemic, many TV stations are facing measurement and under-delivery issues that they fear will only be compounded by Nielsen’s inclusion of BBO homes in October. While Nielsen is working to improve the sample, the uncertainty has some broadcasters turning to less Nielsen-reliant alternatives. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios has ordered We the People With Judge Lauren Lake, a daily/strip one-hour syndicated court series that will be available to broadcast TV and global cable, network and digital platforms in fall 2022. The series will be produced and distributed by Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios.

ABC’s The Bachelorette drew 3.3 million total viewers and a 0.9 rating, moving up in the demo week-to-week and dominating Monday in that measure. Over on NBC, the latest coverage of the U.S. Olympic trials delivered Monday’s biggest audience (3.8M) along with a 0.6 rating.

At 5.9 and 5.2 household ratings, respectively, the two set the pace in the session ending June 13, which included preemptions for French Open tennis.

CBS’s decision to keep the specifics of NCIS star Mark Harmon‘s alleged “limited” Season 19 commitment under wraps is beginning to make sense. Multiple sources confirm to TVLine exclusively that Harmon is slated to appear in a relatively small number of episodes next season. One insider close to the CBS procedural said: “It’s going to be in the low single digits.” Another source says the actor will make only “a few” appearances throughout the season.

The high court agreed with a lower court’s determination that NCAA limits on the education-related benefits that colleges can offer athletes who play Division I basketball and football violate antitrust laws. The case is important in the short term for students who may see schools competing for talent by sweetening their offers with a variety of education-related benefits. It’s also important in the long term because it sets the stage for future challenges to NCAA rules limiting athletes’ compensation.

After lengthy conversations and deliberations that stretched into this week, Netflix has opted not to order a fourth season of Manifest following the series’ cancellation by NBC after three seasons, sources said. The streaming giant, which recently released the first two seasons of the missing plane drama, had been considered the most viable option for Manifest. With that, Manifest studio Warner Bros. Television has concluded its efforts to find a new home for the series.

Mere days away from sentencing for her involvement in the NXIVM cult, former Smallville actress Allison Mack on Monday got an unexpected helping hand from federal prosecutors.

Michelle Lee, Allure’s top editor for the last five and a half years, is joining the Netflix marketing team in a newly created editorial and publishing role. She will lead and oversee Netflix’s team focused on social media channels, podcasts and other initiatives, including the streamer’s Queue magazine.

Adult Swim’s animated sensation Rick and Morty has posted its entire season 5 premiere online for free. The 10-episode new season launched Sunday evening, and the video was posted on YouTube early Monday. By midmorning, it had already racked up 1.7 million views and was the No. 2 trending video on the platform.