Friday’s Finale
HGTV: Martha Knows Best at 10p and 10:30p

Saturday’s Premiere
Amazon: The Goes Wrong Show

Sunday’s Premieres
HBO: Lovecraft Country at 9p
TLC: Darcey & Stacey at 10p

Sunday’s Finales
HGTV: Renovation Island at 8p
HLN: Very Scary People at 10p
Telemundo: La Voz at 9p

IN THE NEWS

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show will expand to five nights a week the week of August 17-24 for “The Democratic National Convention – Electing America’s First Black President’s Friend,” and August 24-28 for “The Republican National Convention – Celebrating February’s Record Economy.” The additional episodes will feature news, analysis, interviews, coverage from the news team and special reporting from Jordan Klepper.

In more Comedy Central news, the net’s The Other Two and South Side will move to WarnerMedia sib HBO Max for season two. Their first seasons will beging streaming in 2021, followed by new seasons classified as Max Original series. HBO Max will also become the exclusive streaming home for CC’s Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens. “Comedy Central Productions’ deal with HBO Max is emblematic of our studio production strategy to maximize the value of our content by selectively working with third parties while prioritizing franchise IP for our own platforms,” said Keyes Hill-Edgar, Chief Operating Officer, ViacomCBS Entertainment and Youth Brands. “As we shift our strategy and double down on adult animation, topical shows and scripted movies – we are excited to supercharge our studio sales business and continue these great series with HBO Max.”

With the status of in-school learning uncertain, Comcast has expanded its Internet Essentials Partnership Program, and will include its xFi platforms for Essentials customers at no extra charge. The program began in the spring, to help low-income students get online. “We’ve seen firsthand that low-cost Internet access is an important part of improving digital equity and creating positive opportunities for low-income students and families,” said Dana Strong, President of Xfinity Consumer Services. “Through this new partnership program, we are accelerating the efforts of cities, schools, philanthropies, nonprofits, and private citizens to collaborate and open the doors of Internet access for more families in need.”

CBS News is also keeping house-bound kids in mind, with the launch of a new series dedicated to the upcoming school year. CBS News will look at how school districts across the country are navigating the return to school, what remote learning will look like and the impact it will have on students, teachers and parents. The network-wide initiative begins Monday, August 17 and continues throughout the fall. In addition, CBS This Morning will dedicate an hour of the broadcast to its recurring “School Matters” series on Monday, August 17.

The stars will be out for Dane Cook Presents Feelin’ A-Live, a virtual live table read of 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, on Thursday, August 20 at 9p. The roster includes Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey, Shia La Beouf and Sean Penn. The event, supporting the emergency relief nonprofit CORE, and the REFORM Alliance, will take place on CORE’s official Facebook page and TikTok.

Judgement welcomed: Entries are flooding in for the Cynopsis Digital Model D Awards, honoring trailblazers in digital media. If you think you’d be a good fit for the judging panel, please fill out this brief application and we’ll be in touch if you’re selected. Judging is done entirely online and will take place in late-August.

Are your digital products driving audience engagement and revenue? We want to hear about them! Tell us about your best Microsite, Podcast, Web Series, Virtual Event and more for a chance in the digital spotlight.

And don’t forget to recognize the brilliant minds behind these initiatives! We’re looking for the most innovative executives in digital media to take their place on Cynopsis Digital’s “It List.”

Get Started On Your Nominations>>

Awwww-some: Wildlife brand Love Nature greenlit New Kids in the Wild, following the first months in the lives of five baby animals. “This tender look at baby animals and their families has a universal appeal that is perfect for co-viewing across generations,” said Carlyn Staudt, EVP, Love Nature.

Steiner Studios has plans to build a 500,000-square-foot TV and film production hub in NYC’s Sunset Park, at the former port complex called Bush Terminal. The project, which will include eight soundstages, will include programs to “advance diversity and equity in the media and entertainment,” said the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

The first group of featured performers has been announced for HBO’s adaptation of stage show Between the World and Me, based on the bestseller by journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates. The cast boasts Angela Bassett (Black Panther), Alicia Garza (Black Futures Lab), Joe Morton (Scandal), Phylicia Rashad (Cosby Show), the Roots’ Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, Courtney B. Vance (The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story), Pauletta Washington (She’s Gotta Have It), Susan Kelechi Watson (This Is Us) and Oprah Winfrey, with additional names to be announced.

NEW & RETURNING SERIES

Home renovation expert Jasmine Roth comes to the rescue of homeowners who in over their heads in Help! I Wrecked My House, premiering Saturday, September 12 at 8p on HGTV.

All 13 episodes of the second season of Spectrum Originals’ L.A.’s Finest drop On Demand on Wednesday, September 9. Eight-part thriller Temple arrives Monday, October 26.

Detective drama Young Wallander debuts on Netflix on Thursday, September 3. The six-parter focuses on the fictional Swedish detective’s early career.

E!’s shot-at-home Celebrity Game Face, hosted and exec produced by Kevin Hart, returns with the first of five new episodes on Thursday, August 27 at 10p. The show aired as a special in July.

Madagascar, Borneo and Hawaii are featured in PBS three-part series Islands of Wonder, premiering Wednesday, September 16 at 8p.

The Biermanns hit the road – a family of eight in an RV – in season eight of Bravo reality show Don’t BeTardy…, kicking off Tuesday, October 6 at 10p.

The underground world of Donk racing – where classic American cars on huge rims compete for big money – is the setting for Vice TV’s Donkmaster, premiereing Wednesday, August 19 at 10:30p.

COMING UP

The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special will premiere on Disney+ on Tuesday, November 17 (that’s Life Day to Wookies). The special is a production of Atomic Cartoons, the LEGO Group and Lucasfilm.

Hulu original film Bad Hair debuts Friday, October 23. The horror satire centers on a woman in 1989 who gets a wave, only to realize her new hair may have a mind of its own.

Being the Queen, a one-hour special offering a window into the private life of Queen Elizabeth II, premieres Monday, August 31 at 9p on Nat Geo.

Lady Gaga has joined the lineup for the MTV VMAs, taking place Sunday, August 30 at venues throughout NYC. It’s the “Bad Romance” singer’s first VMA performance in seven years.

One-hour news special Black America Votes: The VP Choice airs Sunday, August 16 on BET and BET Her. Guests including Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congresswoman Karen Bass, Black Voters Matter co-founder Latosha Brown and more discuss the role Black women will have in the 2020 elections.

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The increasing popularity of OTT streaming content provides local & regional advertisers with a powerful opportunity to reach a growing streaming audience at scale, and to target their consumers like never before in every DMA. This panel, sponsored by Gamut Total, on Wed. Sept 23, will provide an insider’s look at how the leading players in the OTT space are meeting the growing demand.

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As of 2Q20, streaming comprises one-fourth of all television minutes viewed. Netflix is the largest contributor to streaming share at 34%, followed by YouTube at 20%, according to data from Nielsen’s Streaming Meter. Newcomer Disney+ now accounts for 4% of total streaming time. Viewers of all ages have embraced streaming – consumers ages 55 and up now comprise 26% of all streaming minutes viewed, up from 19% one year ago.

Apple TV+ has plans for a bundle that offers access to CBS All Access and Showtime content at a discounted price for subscribers, reports Bloomberg. Apple TV+ customers will be able to get CBS All Access and Showtime channels for $9.99/month, versus $9.99 and $10.99/month for each.

AVOD Haystack News will offer dedicated streaming channels for the Democratic National Convention as part of its ongoing Decision 2020 news programming. The streaming channels for the conventions will feature content from Haystack News providers with news and analysis from about 300 local broadcasters covering more than 90% of the major metropolitan areas in the US, and additional results and analysis from ABC News, the AP, Bloomberg, CBS News, Cheddar, Euronews and Newsy. Haystack News will also provide live look-ins for major speeches and provide coverage and analysis from local, national and international points of view.

Hallmark TV, a new SVOD service from Crown Media Family Networks, launched in the UK on Prime Video Channels. It’s the company’s first international SVOD offering and the first time a UK audience will have access to Hallmark content.

Ad-supported streaming service Redbox TV Live, launched in February, has added 20 channels, among them America’s Test Kitchen, Funny or Die, beIN Sports and Outside TV. “We’ve seen significant viewership growth in the News, Lifestyle and Food categories,” said Chris Yates, GM of Redbox On Demand. “We’re excited to continue growing our Free Live TV offering with great new content, increasing our distribution and adding new features.”

TECH TALK

President Trump’s announcement of a ban on Chinese messaging app WeChat in the US has sent users sprinting to Signal, which has seen a 30% rise in downloads since the August 6 executive order. “In the time since the announcement of WeChat’s impending ban, Signal saw 65,000 installs in the U.S., up from 50,000 in the six days before,” noted a Stephanie Chan, Sensor Tower Mobile Insights Strategist in a blog. Most of Signal’s users are in the US.

ADVERTISING

Nearly one-third of people like the ads they see to be personalized, and 30% like brands more when they personalize ads, according to “2020 Consumer Attitudes n Personalized Advertising,” a study from ad platform Innovid. Highlights of the study include:
· Thirty-five percent of respondents said they want to dictate their own data collection preferences.
· The three types of data people are most willing to share are likes/dislikes (60%), gender (47%) and location (27%).
· One-quarter are more willing to share data now than they were a year ago.
“The data shows brands aren’t doing enough to personalize across channels, although consumers have voiced a desire for it, which leads to a consumer ad experience that is lacking or low impact,” said Stephanie Geno, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Innovid.

Tru Optik has launched a new self-service platform, Data Marketplace, for streaming media and connected device audience planning. The Data Marketplace will be made available directly to brands and agencies, as well as expand the features and capabilities it already provides to ad tech platforms and publishers. “We are excited to be the first to power a consistent, scalable way to leverage both third-party and first-party data across the entire Connected Media ecosystem,” said Andre Swanston, Tru Optik CEO & Co-Founder. “By doing so, we are democratizing access to data-driven targeting across the fastest growing mediums in advertising.”

IPG Mediabrands released its Media Responsibility Audit, part of a larger effort aimed at enhancing brand safety and media responsibility in advertising. Key findings include:
· Policy Enforcement Matters: Platforms fall short by not backing up their policies with consistent enforcement of those policies.
· Lack of Consistency Across Platforms: Given broad regulations that surround anti-discrimination and data privacy, there are opportunities to become even more consistent in how data collection policies are enacted across the various social platforms.
· Eradicating Hate Speech Is A Common Goal: There is a shared recognition across platforms that eliminating hate speech is important but there are inconsistent definitions of what qualifies as hate speech, inconsistent identification of protected classes of people, and a lack of prevalence reporting and independent auditing of hate speech reports.
· Misinformation Is A Challenge: Misinformation is a challenge across most platforms. While certain platforms work with many organizations to combat misinformation, others work with none at all.
· Non-Registered User Experiences Vary: Some platforms still allow certain advertising placements to be viewed by a non-registered user, which may not result in responsible media delivery.
· Urgent Need For Third-party Verification: Only a few partners have specific controls for protecting advertisers from adjacency to content in objectionable or harmful categories.
“With this effort, we are seeking to raise the bar in the industry by holding platforms to a higher standard of responsibility: keeping brands, and the communities they serve, safe,” said Daryl Lee, Global CEO, Mediabrands. “

GOING GLOBAL

AVOD network and studio WildBrain Spark has been appointed by MarcoPolo Learning to manage the educational media company’s channel and content on YouTube on an exclusive worldwide basis. Under the agreement, WildBrain Spark will support and bolster the distribution of MarcoPolo Learning’s content including its flagship CG-animated series, The Polos, across the official MarcoPolo channel and on WildBrain Spark’s hub channels on YouTube.

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The series finale of ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. delivered a season high 0.4 rating among A18-49 in its first hour and 1.64 million viewers, dipping to 0.3 and 1.35 million viewers during its second hour.

Broadcast Nielsen Ratings for Wednesday, August 12
Show, P2+ 0000s, (A18-49)
ABC: United We Fall 3.17 (0.5), The Goldbergs 1.78 (0.4), Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1.46 (0.3)
CBS: Big Brother 4.11 (1.1), Tough as Nails 3.05 (0.5), SEAL Team 1.94 (0.3)
CW: The Hundred 0.58 (0.1), Coroner 0.67 (0.1)
FOX: MasterChef 1.32 (0.3), MasterChef 1.34 (0.3)
NBC: America’s Got Talent 6.15 (0.7), World of Dance 4.07 (0.6), Chicago PD 2.54 (0.3)
Telemundo: Exatlon Estados Unidos 1.18 (0.3), Cennet 1.28 (0.4), Enemigo Intimo 0.90 (0.3)
Univision: Rosa de Guadelupe 1.36 (0.4), Medicos Linea de Vida 1.47 (0.5), Como Tu No Hay 1.82 (0.6)
Source: Nielsen live + same day time period averages

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Thunderbird Entertainment announced the promotions of David Way to the role of President and Wendy McKernan to the role of Chief Operating Officer at Thunderbird’s factual division, Great Pacific Media.

Bitcentral announced Kieran Clarke as Chief Revenue Officer. Prior to Bitcentral, Clarke developed his own media consulting business, CMC Clarke Media Consulting.

This Day in History
1925 – A “Shrine of Democracy” at Mount Rushmore, featuring presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt, was proposed.

Answer to Our Last Trivia Question
Who replaced Ken Wahl as the lead in Wiseguy (1987-90)? Steven Bauer. Kudos to: Paul Blutter-Walk and Talk Production Rentals/Burbank, Anthony Salerno-Horizon Media/NYC, Michael J. Nagle-Ashling Digital/Garden City Park, NY, Russ DelCore-a4media/Oakland, NJ, John Carlo-UPtv/NYC John Kukla-KDFW/Dallas, Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station, TX, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA, Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA, Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo, CA

Today’s Trivia Question
On which show did Faith Ford guest star as her Murphy Brown (1988-98) character? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: a limit of four answers per time zone.)