After a nine-year revival, Sony’s TriStar Television label, which was behind such series as The Afterparty, is being phased out again. Its two top executives, EVP Jennifer Turner, who ran the unit for the past two and a half years, and SVP Nicole Norwood, will be leaving the studio. TriStar Television has no current series on the air. Its development slate will be taken over by Sony Pictures Television’s drama development team. Pictured: The Afterparty, Lucky Hank, On Becoming a God in Central Florida and Good Girls Revolt (AMC/Showtime/Prime)

CLOSING BELL

Dow Jumps 575, Nasdaq Slips 2, S&P Gains 42

Wall Street rallied Friday to close out a bloom-filled May. Stocks broadly got a boost from easing Treasury yields in the bond market after the latest reading on inflation came in roughly as expected.

BRAND CONNECTIONS

Saturday Night Live Season 49 was the 2023-24 TV season’s top-rated comedy series, with an average demo rating of 1.13 — down just a few percentage points from the long-running NBC sketch series’ Season 48 average. Not only did SNL top all TV comedies in the demo for a fifth straight season, its average audience across all platforms rose 3% year-over-year, with 7.2 million total weekly viewers.

NBCU Rebrands TNBC FAST Channel As NBC Comedy Vault

NBCUniversal said it is rebranding its teen-oriented TNBC free ad-supported streaming television channel as NBC Comedy Vault. NBC Comedy Vault will initially be available on Amazon Freevee, The Roku Channel and Xumo Play, effective June 1.    

The articles on a local news site popping up around the country appear to cover what any community outlet would focus on: crime, local politics, weather and happenings. “In-depth reporting about your home area,” the outlet’s slogan proudly declares. But a closer look at the bylines populating the local site and a national network of others — Sarah Kim, Jake Rodriguez, Mitch M. Rosenthal — reveals a tiny badge with the letters “AI.” These are not real bylines. In fact, the names don’t even belong to real humans. The articles were written with the use of artificial intelligence.

Streaming Ratings: Tom Brady Roast Hits Top 10 Originals After One Night

The Roast of Tom Brady racked up 279 million minutes for the week of April 29-May 5, good for 10th place among original series in Nielsen’s rankings. The special streamed live on May 5, meaning it tallied those viewing minutes in under 12 hours. (With a running time of almost three hours, the 279 million minutes equates to about 1.6 million complete runs of the special.)

The only certainties at the moment is that ESPN will retain the top package and Turner Sports' 40-year relationship with the league is in jeopardy. Pictured: Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown drives to the basket against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the second half of Game 5 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series Wednesday, May 15, in Boston. The Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference finals (Charles Krupa/AP)

The announcement came as news organizations were preparing to end a second day of waiting out jury deliberations with no conclusion. They quickly scrambled when Judge Juan Merchan, instead of saying court was dismissed until Friday, said there was a verdict that would be announced in a half hour. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool Photo via AP)

TikTok and its Chinese owner, ByteDance, continue to have one of the lowest reputation scores across all of the companies measured annually in the Axios Harris Poll 100, thanks to bipartisan concerns around social media safety and security.

TVN’S MANAGING MEDIA BY MARY COLLINS

Broadcast TV Must Come To Terms With Its Maturity

Local TV broadcasters have two options in front of them: wind down or transition. For those that choose the latter, they still have assets they can bring to bear.

TVN’S MEDIA JOBS

New Jobs Posted To TVNewsCheck

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a remote position as a national advertising sales account executive. Existing jobs posted include openings for a vice president-GM, a market manager and director of student media.

TVN Webinar: News, Sports And Remote Production In 2024

Technology leaders from NBC Regional Sports Networks, Sinclair, Gray Television, Hearst Television and Fox Television Stations discuss the benefits and challenges of remote production in an IP environment in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar on July 16 at 1 p.m. ET. Register here.

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