Programming

New Fox Chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch looked outside for a leader of the soon-to-be independent Fox broadcasting network that will emerge after Disney’s acquisition of key Fox assets. AMC President and General Manager Charlie Collier has been named CEO of entertainment. He will start Nov. 1, reporting to Murdoch who made the announcement Friday in an internal memo.

Hulu is hoping to boost its over-the-top live TV subscriber rolls by extending a special promo to Sprint’s wireless customers. Starting Oct. 19, Sprint customers can upgrade to Hulu With Live TV, which includes 50-plus local and national networks and access to thousands of on-demand titles, from their Sprint account.

As her daytime talk show heads into its 10th season, Wendy Williams on Thursday received the NAB Show New York Impact Award for her 10 years as a New York-based TV talk show host, for her more than 20 years as a New York City drive time radio deejay and for the philanthropic work done with her husband and manager, Kevin Hunter, and their Hunter Foundation.

The Big Bang Theory tied its series low among adults 18-49 in Thursday’s ratings, although it still led the night’s non-sports programming. Fox’s Thursday Night Football also took a hit as it featured a lopsided game between two sub-.500 teams.

For quite some time, it looked as though Netflix, with its seemingly bottomless coffers and try-anything attitude, would never cancel anything. The company habitually renewed shows as soon as they hit the platform. Recently, though, that’s began to change. The streaming service just pulled the plug on the Marvel show Iron Fist after two seasons, and Everything Sucks after one—and comedian Michelle Wolf’s talk show The Break after only 10 episodes. Netflix’s laissez-faire approach to programming, it seems, is coming to an end.

David Nevins has been named chief creative officer of CBS Corp. effective immediately. The announcement was made by Joe Ianniello, the company’s president and acting CEO. Nevins has also been promoted to chairman of Showtime Networks, and will remain as the business’ CEO. He will remain based in Los Angeles and report to Ianniello.

That brings the show’s Season 1 episode count to 16. Though shows are typically ordered for 22- or 24-episode seasons on broadcast, this is not always the case. For example, NBC’s hit drama This Is Us has aired 18-episode seasons throughout its run.

The Fox drama finishes first in adults 18-49 on the broadcast networks, and NBC’s Chicago shows lead in total viewers.

The streaming service surprised Wall Street with huge gains in subscribers in the third quarter. The results showed why AT&T and Disney spent big on their latest acquisitions.

Hulu wants to cater to a new crowd of pay-TV “cord-shavers” with stripped-down, less-expensive live television bundles that include sports, news and on-demand content — dropping linear entertainment networks to save costs.

Fox’s hot ratings start is more complex than a simple infusion of NFL viewership on Thursday nights. With sports numbers excluded, Fox was the only network in the second week of the season to show no declines from week one, posting a 1.7 in the demo, finishing above CBS and ABC, and placing just one tenth of a point behind NBC. The implication is that, so far, Fox’s entertainment programming strategy — built with football in mind — has  yielded success, according to Fox Television Group Co-Chairman Gary Newman.

The drama, from writers Matt Olmstead and Nick Wootton, counts original creator Steven Bochco’s son and wife among its exec producers. The return of the series follows Andy Sipowicz’s (original star Dennis Franz) son, Theo, as he tries to earn his detective shield and work in the 15th squad while investigating his father’s murder.

Cast members posted a video Wednesday announcing the series’ 2019 end, which was confirmed by a Netflix spokeswoman. In the video, the actresses thanked fans for their support and promised a fulfilling wrap-up to the comedy-drama set in a women’s prison.

The network plans to go all out to renew its current NFL deal that is up for renegotiation in 2022, says CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus (r) with TVN’s Harry Jessell. He called live NFL games “the most valuable programming on television” and said CBS “will defend its territory and defend the AFC package.” McManus confirmed that CBS is getting $5 million-plus per Super Bowl 30-second ad unit, and said Super Bowl ad sales are “very strong.” (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)

Author Ken Auletta, who opened TVN’s TV2020 conference, says it’s risky for broadcast networks to sell programming to streaming platforms because advertising will continue to be a main revenue source for broadcasters and that allowing viewers to be conditioned to watching programming without advertising will not be beneficial to them down the road. (Photo: Wendt Moger-Bross)

The Conners, ABC’s Roseanne Barr-less Roseanne spinoff, fell considerably short of its predecessor’s debut last season — although it still put up solid numbers and is the top series premiere in adults 18-49 this fall. In metered-market households Tuesday night, The Conners drew a 7.5 rating/12 share, off about 35% from the 11.6/19 for Roseanne‘s premiere in March.

Steve Harvey is used to seeing nasty and frequently false info about him on the gossip sites and supermarket mags. But he isn’t the type to stay silent for long. He also addresses the fact 11 NBC affiliates plan to drop Steve for the 2019-20 season in favor of a new Kelly Clarkson talk show. But he doesn’t sound angry. And then there’s that new gray beard.

Jukin Media, a global digital media company, has signed a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group to take over operations of the company’s TBD Network that specializes in bringing digital-first programming to broadcast television as well as streaming it on TBD.com and the TBD app.