Hulu has ordered eight new one-hour interconnected episodes of the series, starring Kristen Bell, that premiered in 2004 and aired on UPN for two seasons and The CW for one. Bell announced the news Thursday on her Instagram account.
‘America’s Got Talent’ Finale Shrinks
America’s Got Talent finished its season as the top summer show once again, but ratings for the finale were down considerably from a year ago. Wednesday’s finale averaged a 2.0 rating among adults 18-49 and 12.59 million viewers — declines of 33 percent in the demo (vs. last year’s 3.0) and 19.5 percent in viewers (vs. 15.64 million). The finale also fell from Tuesday’s last performance episode (2.3, 12.99 million).
Sinclair Broadcast Group will hold a relief effort, Stand Strong for the Carolinas, all day today encouraging viewers to help those struggling to rebuild. As part of the push, Sinclair will match the first $100,000 of the funds raised nationally.
The revival of the acclaimed comedy, which debuts on CBS on Sept. 27, has reunited the original cast after two decades and plans to take on the Trump administration.
In one week, Modern Family will premiere its 10th season on ABC. Behind the scenes, groundwork continues to be laid out for an eleventh season of the Emmy-winning family comedy, and all sides appear optimistic that it could become a reality. I hear conversations are still ongoing between ABC and Modern Family producer 20th Century Fox TV for a shorter 11th season, with a final season order in the neighborhood of 18 episodes discussed.
Exclusives
SAG-AFTRA has reached a three-year tentative deal with companies on TV animation work, two months after members overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization. The union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the negotiating arm for the entertainment companies, made a joint announcement about the deal on Thursday afternoon.
MasterChef has scored a not-so-surprising renewal at Fox, one that will bring America’s most-watched cooking show to season 10. The next season of the competition series, averaging 6.4 million viewers in its current ninth season, will air at some point during the 2018-19 broadcast season — one that will likely see Fox finally separated from its sister studio and enter its next phase with an eye on live and unscripted entertainment.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal judge in Connecticut has dismissed a lawsuit by 60 former professional wrestlers, many of them stars in the 1980s and 1990s, who claimed World […]
The company will attempt to harness the influence of its Univision Creator Network (UCN), a group of online creators under the network’s brand, to drive conversation around the upcoming 11th season of its competition series Nuestra Belleza Latina that it hopes will lead audiences to its linear channel.
Maroon 5 will be the halftime performers at the 2019 Super Bowl, two sources confirm to Variety. Reached for comment, an NFP rep tells Variety, “It’s a Super Bowl tradition to speculate about the performers for the Pepsi Halftime Show. We are continuing to work with [longtime sponsor] Pepsi on our plans but do not have any announcements to make on what will be another epic show.”
‘America’s Got Talent’ Hits 3-Month High
The final performance episode of the NBC hit scored a three-month high in adults 18-49 with a 2.2 rating. That’s up from 1.9 a week ago and is the show’s best demo performance since June 19.
NBCUniversal Domestic TV Distribution’s nationally syndicated daytime talk show, hosted by Clarkson, will debut in fall 2019. It will lead in to Ellen on many of the NBC stations.
American Public Television (APT) has chosen Shawn Halford, a public television veteran who has held key national content positions at PBS and Discovery Communications, to be vice president of exchange […]
Record-Low Viewership For Emmy Awards
The decline to 10.21 million continues a troubling trend for televised awards shows. The Oscars audience this year was down 19% from 2017 and the Grammys were down 23%. NBC won the week in primetime, averaging 6.7 million viewers last week. CBS had 4.8 million viewers, ABC had 4 million, Fox had 2.3 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 1.33 million, Telemundo had 1.31 million and the CW had 740,000.
Season Debuts Make Syndies More Interesting
In addition, ratings for many access shows were penalized by preemptions for Thursday Night Football. However, coverage of the life and death of charismatic movie star Burt Reynolds lifted several entertainment magazines in the key women 25-54 demo.
Emmy Awards Hit New Viewership Low
The 2018 Emmy Awards are down around 10% from last year, according to early Nielsen data. In metered market households, the awards show drew a 7.4 rating in metered market households Monday night, down from an 8.2 last year. That also represents a new low in that measure for the Emmys telecast.
Bob Greenblatt Saved NBC. Now What?
The TV exec opens up about the Peacock’s dark days, what else he’d love to reboot and the streaming future.
Viacom boss Bob Bakish has set a target for Paramount Television to become a billion dollar business over the next few years. Bakish claimed that the television production division is set to grow from a $400M in 2018 to a $600M in 2019 and has set plans to almost double this in a “few years.”
Amy Sherman-Palladino’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon became the first streaming series to win top Emmy comedy honors and HBO’s Game of Thrones recaptured the best drama series award Monday at a ceremony that largely slighted its most ethnically diverse field of nominees ever. With the exception of Saturday Night Live, broadcast shows were shut out of the top awards as 21st-century platforms continued to overshadow traditional network fare like This Is Us.
Julie Chen is steping down from The Talk on CBS, one week after her husband Les Moonves left the CBS Corp. under pressure. Chen’s decision is effective immediately, according to two sources close to her. She will address the decision through a videotaped message to viewers on Tuesday’s episode.
High-quality Emmy-nominated TV shows on cable and streaming services may not be getting enough on-air or other marketing support. In a survey from TV sales rep Katz Media Group, 57% “never heard” of Emmy-nominated shows on cable networks. That’s the same number for shows on video streaming services. (Some 43% have had “awareness” of those shows.)
“Comcast is the largest cable operator and we already have almost all the other major distributors, testifying to the strong demand Newsmax is generating from viewers across the country,” said Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, confirming the agreement.
NBC coasted to a ratings win Sunday on the back of its NFL coverage — which is either up some or on par with the same week a year ago, depending on which set of numbers you look at. Sunday Night Football delivered a 13.8 household rating/24 share in metered markets, off a modest 4 percent vs. last week but up 10% vs. week two in 2017 (12.5/21).
