The comedy and winner of nine Emmys this week will debut in national syndication on Sept. 28.
Paramount Network is shifting strategies — and changing names. Variety has learned that the ViacomBS-owned cable net is planning to move out of long form series television and instead focus its efforts on made-for-TV movies featuring big name stars. To that end, the network will be rebranded as the Paramount Movie Network. The rebrand will take place globally within the next year.
Lively Week For ‘Live With Kelly And Ryan’
The long-running morning favorite shot up 27% in the week ending Sept. 13 from the previous frame to a six-week high 1.9 live-plus-same-day national Nielsen rating. That was good enough to tie a steady Dr. Phil for first place in talk.
the debut of L.A.’s Finest on Fox delivered 2.9 million total viewers and a 0.5 rating, landing in a three-way tie for Monday’s second best demo number (behind ABC’s share of Monday Night Football).
Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group division Entertainment Studios today renewed its court series Justice for All with Judge Cristina Perez for seven more seasons, through fall 2027. Originally launched in September 2012, Justice […]
Exclusives
When Sterling K. Brown joked at Sunday’s Emmys that he was going to show up for work “tomorrow”… he was close. This Is Us is poised to start production on its upcoming Season 5 on Thursday, Sept. 24, sources confirm. A rep for the show declined to comment.
The deal includes mandatory and comprehensive use of personal protective gear and testing of cast and crew members, and a dedicated coronavirus supervisor to oversee it all. It requires the use of a “zone system” that strictly limits interactions between people on sets based on their job’s requirements.
KZBZ Amarillo, Texas (DMA 132) just cleared Tommy’s Garage, the conservative comedy show. “This is our 10th market,” Tom Adkins, the show’s host and executive producer, noted. “We are expanding […]
The Ellen DeGeneres Show started its 18th season in Los Angeles with the host on stage for the first time in months after taping from DeGeneres’s home during quarantine. There wasn’t a studio audience but a virtual one, with faces beamed in on monitors put in the audience seats. She addressed allegations of a toxic work environment, apologizing for things “that never should have happened.”
Virtual Emmys Eye New Audience Low
TV’s biggest night is looking at its smallest audience. Per Nielsen fast nationals (and pending possible adjustment in finals), ABC’s broadcast of the 2020 Emmys on Sunday night averaged 5.1 million total viewers, down double digits from last year’s all-time audience low — which is not unexpected, given multiple on- and off-screen obstacles.
NBCUniversal is quietly looking to replace top reality TV executive Meredith Ahr who was accused of cultivating a toxic workplace in a bombshell report in late July.
Fox Corp. is willing to spend as much as $2 billion a year to maintain its rights to National Football League games on Sunday, a huge increase from its current contract, according to people familiar with the matter. Negotiations with the league are heating up because current broadcast rights begin expiring at the end of next year.
The 2020 Emmy Awards saw a noticeable uptick in the number of nonwhite acting winners, with Watchmen star Regina King’s fourth Emmy win and a surprise nod for Euphoria star Zendaya leading the way. Out of the 19 performer categories — including the guest, short form and voice-over categories from last week’s Creative Arts Emmys — 10 went to Black actors.
Schitt’s Creek, Pop TV’s little Canadian show about a fish-out-of-water family, made history at Sunday’s Emmy Awards with a comedy awards sweep, something even TV greats including Frasier and Modern Family failed to achieve. Its seven awards included best comedy series and trophies for its stars, including Catherine O’Hara and father-son Eugene and Daniel Levy. Succession, an HBO family power struggle over a media empire, was honored as best drama series and star Jeremy Strong won the drama actor trophy for his role as a potential heir to the throne.
Post- and end-of-the-season action for TV sports franchises has seen sharply lower overall viewership as a result of sports competition caused by disruptions in scheduling due to COVID-19, as well as lower persons using television (PUT) data. MoffettNathanson Research says the returning NBA and NHL have been impacted by lower PUT data in August and September versus the April and May periods — the former period being one that traditionally sees lower PUT data.
America Ferrera isn’t punching out of Superstore as soon as we thought. Ferrera — whose previously announced departure from NBC’s No. 1 comedy was delayed due to COVID-19 — has signed on to appear in not one, but two Season 6 episodes. As a result, the sitcom’s milestone 100th episode will now double as Ferrera’s swan song.
‘Big Brother’ Leads Thursday Primetime
CBS’s Big Brother was the top-rated show in primetime Thursday, scoring a 1.0 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic to go along with 4.14 million viewers. It teamed with fellow reality mate Love Island (0.5, 2.03 million) to help the network finish No. 1 in the key demo overall in early Nielsen numbers. ABC was tops in viewers behind the second night of two Holey Moley specials (0.5, 2.50 million).
“I am both concerned and disappointed by public reports regarding patterns of unacceptable behavior that have been raised in recent weeks,” WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar told staff in an email on Thursday. In another memo, Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff said she had also “empowered, and will hold accountable, the Studios and Networks HR and Legal teams to act on any issues that are brought to them. These groups are a safe harbor where you can register any concerns.”
Scream, Clueless and Star Trek Beyond are among the CBS Sunday Night Movies on tap for the network’s second wave of the revived franchise. In turn, Big Brother‘s nomination ceremonies will be on the move.
Night 4 of the Creative Arts Emmys was headlined by Quibi winning prizes at TV’s top awards. The short-form content producer went home with two statuettes on Thursday night, both of which went to actors from the series #FreeRayshawn. Maya Rudolph won her first Emmy for voicing Connie the Hormone Monstress on Netflix’s Big Mouth. She could potentially pick up another come Sunday, as she is nominated for both Saturday Night Live and The Good Place in the guest actress in a comedy category.
Come for the awards, stay for the suspense of the first big Hollywood ceremony to attempt a live — but socially distanced — broadcast amid the coronavirus pandemic. “What could possibly go wrong?” Ian Stewart said drolly as he and fellow executive producer Reginald Hudlin detailed their efforts to celebrate TV’s best without a theater audience or red-carpet glamour and with daunting technical challenges.
Having previously released an early fall schedule that is chockablock with reality-TV and game shows — and then some mid-fall sitcom premiere dates — ABC now has lifted the curtain on its later fall plan, which launches new seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Doctor, A Million Little Things and other returning dramas.
CBS has topped primetime, daytime and latenight TV viewership for a second 52-week season in a row. While in a virtual dead-heat with NBC for overall total reach, the ViacomCBS-owned network averaged 6.32 million viewers in the highly valued 8-11 p.m. period for the 2019-20 full-year season, says Nielsen.
The Tom Ellis show has rocketed its way to the top of Nielsen’s weekly top 10 shows on streaming list for the week of Aug. 17, removing The Umbrella Academy from top spot for the first time. Season 5 of Lucifer premiered that week, hence its hellishly strong performance.
