Programming

Television companies expect this year’s upfront to be stronger than last year’s. “We’re in a much better place than we were a year ago going into this upfront presentation,” Rita Ferro, president of global advertising sales at The Walt Disney Co., says. “It’s not 100% back, but it’s most definitely better than it was when we were going into the upfronts a year ago.”

For the first time in three years, Fox is unveiling a fall schedule at its upfront, reverting to the decades-old tradition of presenting a fall lineup to advertisers in May. And for the first time since Family Guy was brought back from cancellation by Fox 19 years ago, Seth MacFarlane’s animated hit, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary, won’t be on the network’s fall schedule. It is one of eight new and returning scripted series held for midseason. The network likely is plotting a major midseason rollout using its Super Bowl broadcast as a promotional platform.

Local TV broadcasting is facing some challenges these days, and I thought perhaps we could all use a laugh or two. Here are some examples of the Saturday Night Live cast faking local TV news from cities like Tampa, Phoenix, Albany, Buffalo, St. Louis and Columbus, as a vehicle for laughs.

Honey the therapy dog might need to seek some external help after Fox canceled animated series Housebroken. The series has aired two seasons on the network but struggled to break through. Season 2 of the show, which concluded in August 2023, averaged 1 million viewers and a 0.1 L7 rating among adults 18-49.

As television executives prepare lavish stage presentations in New York this week to dazzle advertisers during the annual TV upfront sales season, a harsh economic reality looms offstage — digital video advertising now eclipses spending on traditional television ads. The shift in spending and competition from tech players like Amazon has taken a toll on media companies’ financial results, raising the stakes for the annual showcase of TV content to attract spending commitments from advertisers.

Forget MJ, Tiger or Serena. When it comes to boosting TV audiences, the former Iowa star — who plays her first WNBA game Tuesday — is in a league of her own. (Darren Cummings/AP)

Some of broadcasters’ diginets have greater reach than many cable networks and are attracting general market advertising as well as original, first-run and off-network syndicated programs.

Tech leaders working on the cutting edge of AI in media share how it can already be used to extensively version content and usher in a new era of efficiency, as well as safeguards emerging across the industry for content authentication and rights protection in this panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere conference. Click here to register as a TVN subscriber and get access to all videos from this exclusive event.

NBC has made subtle changes to its schedule for fall, which features three new series, medical drama Brilliant Minds, starring Zachary Quinto; medical comedy St. Denis Medical, headlined by Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier; and Reba McEntire’s new sitcom, Happy’s Place. NBC is creating two clearly defined 8 p.m. comedy blocks next season — a workplace one on Tuesday and a family one on Friday.

The series is a producedural drama set in the Philadelphia Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit, with each episode featuring a search for a missing person headed by detectives Jason Grant (Scott Caan) and Nikki Batista (Dania Ramirez), a former couple whose marriage ended after the disappearance of their son.

Spinoffs have existed almost as long as TV, but executives are now leaning more heavily into familiar franchises — crowding out original ideas.

The music talent format has been renewed for its eighth season at ABC and 23rd season overall. The renewal comes ahead of its Season 22 Grand Finale, which takes place on Sunday, May 19. In February, Katy Perry revealed that she was leaving the show after this season. The show is now looking for her replacement to sit alongside Lionel Richie and Luke Bryant on the judging panel.

The network announced Friday that it’s long-running reality dating series has been renewed for Season 29. No word yet on a premiere date, though the show typically debuts in the winter.

The docuseries Full Court Press closely tracked college stars like Clark and Kamilla Cardoso. Fans who want to follow elite WNBA rookies could have a tougher time. Pictured: The women’s basketball players Caitlin Clark, Kiki Rice and Kamilla Cardoso were followed for the ESPN+ docuseries Full Court Press. (Darron Cummings/AP)

NBC’s Chicago Fire was Wednesday’s most-watched program (5.7 million total viewers and a 0.4 rating), while CBS’s Survivor dominated in the coveted 18-49 demo (4.7 million/0.8).

Fallout recorded 2.9 billion minutes of viewing time in the U.S. over its first five days, according to Nielsen’s streaming ratings for April 8-14. That’s far and away the best opening for a series on the Amazon-owned Prime Video, beating Reacher’s series premiere week in early 2022 (1.84 billion minutes) by more than a billion minutes.

The news comes after weeks of speculation that the show would make the jump to the streaming service from the broadcast network. The Season 4 finale will air on NBC on May 16 and stream the next day on Peacock.