FIRST LOOK
http://www.eonline.com/news
ON TELEVISION (WEDNESDAY 3/15/23)
APPLE TV+: Ted Lasso (Premiere)
APPLE TV+: Stillwater (Premiere)
NETFLIX: The Law of the Jungle (Premiere)
BET: Tyler Perry’s Sistas (Finale) at 9pm
In a second round of layoffs, Meta is eliminating 10,000 jobs and closing 5,000 open roles. The moves are to “improve organizational efficiency, dramatically increase developer productivity and tooling, optimize distributed work, garbage collect unnecessary processes, and more,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg. As for timing, “My hope is to make these org changes as soon as possible in the year so we can get past this period of uncertainty and focus on the critical work ahead,” said Zuckerberg.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Meta employees who keep their jobs could find themselves spending more time in the office. “Engineers who either joined Meta in-person and then transferred to remote or remained in-person performed better on average than people who joined remotely,” said Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement Tuesday.
(Source: Cynopsis)
The WGA is looking for a major overhaul of writer compensation in its negotiations with producers. “Driven in large part by the shift to streaming, writers are finding their work devalued in every part of the business,” said the guild in a bulletin. “While company profits have remained high and spending on content has grown, writers are falling behind.” Negotiations are set to start March 20.
(Source: Cynopsis)
“A League of Their Own” was renewed for a second and final four-episode season on Prime Video, following extensive negotiations with Sony Pictures Television to lower the show’s licensing fee. The series is a reinterpretation of the 1992 film.
(Source: Cynopsis)
National TV advertising hit $106.1 million for 63 airings of Oscar TV commercials, according to iSpot.tv, with 505.7 million impressions for viewers 18+. Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” spot was tops in driving incremental online engagement, followed by Lucid Motors and Autodesk.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Comcast NBCUniversal and NBCUniversal Local, a division of NBCUniversal that includes NBC/Telemundo owned stations, will award $2.475 million in grants – which for the first time will be unrestricted funds – to nonprofits located in and servicing 11 regions. The program has also been rebranded from “Project Innovation” to “NBCUniversal Local Impact Grants,” reflecting its local grassroots focus. Grant categories include Next Generation Storytellers, Youth Education & Empowerment, and Community Engagement.
(Source: Cynopsis)
CBS shared season finale dates for spring. First to wrap is “Ghosts” on Thursday, May 11 at 8:30p; last to go is “Survivor,” with a three-hour season ending episode on Wednesday, May 24 at 8p.
(Source: Cynopsis)
HGTV has picked up “What’s Wrong With That House?”, a new series featuring “Home Inspector” stars Joe Mazza and Noel Gatts. During the eight-episode series, Mazza will help clients uncover and repair any hidden issues in their homes before they take on their dream renovation, then designer Gatts will make it beautiful. The series is scheduled to premiere on HGTV in late 2023.
(Source: Cynopsis)
“Game of Thrones” director Jeremy Podeswa will direct the pilot episode for Prime Video’s “Blade Runner 2099,” from Alcon Entertainment and Scott Free Productions. Podeswa will also serve as producing director and executive producer.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”) is set to star in and executive produce “The Key Man” for Miramax Television. The limited series tells the story of disgraced financier Arif Naqvi.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Casting notes: Jason Ritter (“Candy”) landed the lead opposite Kathy Bates in CBS drama pilot “Matlock,” an update of the Andy Griffith legal drama…Judy Greer (“Arrested Development”) has joined Ellie Kemper in ABC comedy pilot “Drop-Off” (wt), based on the British series “Motherland.”
(Source: Cynopsis)
Where’s The Beef? Season two of FX’s “The Bear” returns this June on Hulu. Tagline: “It’s not a reopening, it’s a rebirth.”
(Source: Cynopsis)
Carmen Villalobos will return as host for the new season of Telemundo’s “Top Chef VIP.” “We are so excited to bring ‘Top Chef VIP’ back for our audience with a new season featuring more contestants, more episodes and brand-new cooking challenges, plus trips to some of the most beautiful destinations across Latin America” said Ronald Day, President, Entertainment and Content, Telemundo.
(Source: Cynopsis)
New seasons of “Alex vs. America” and “Supermarket Stakeout” hit Food Network next month. “Alex vs. America” kicks off its season on Sunday, April 16 at 8p, followed by “Supermarket Stakeout” on Tuesday, April 25 at 9p.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Netflix was responsible for nearly 15% of global downstream traffic last year, almost as much YouTube and TikTok combined, according to the 2023 Global Internet Phenomena Report from Sandvine. The streamer was responsible for one-sixth of the world’s total downstream internet traffic last year, the most of any single application, up from 2021, when it had a 10.61% share in total downstream traffic. Netflix surpassed YouTube, which saw its share drop to 11.6% in 2022 as interest in viewing TikTok and short-form videos surged.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Just in time for March Madness, YouTube TV is launching early accessenabling fans to watch multiple streams at once. Some members will begin to see an option to watch up to four pre-selected, different streams at once in their “Top Picks for You” section. After selecting Multiview, viewers will be able to switch audio and captions between streams, and jump in and out of a full-screen view of a game. “Multiview joins our suite of features for sports fans and we’re looking forward to continuing to improve the experience and introducing it to all YouTube TV subscribers over the next several months,” said YouTube in a blog post.
(Source: Cynopsis)
To help customers manage the madness of 134 college basketball teams competing in the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, Comcast is bringing all live and on demand coverage from both tournaments into one experience and rolling out several new features designed to make following, navigating and watching all the action simpler. “There is no better place to experience all the excitement of March basketball than X1,” said John Dixon, Senior Vice President, Entertainment, Comcast Cable. “X1 has always been the best place to watch live sports, and with new features that make navigating this year’s tournament quick and easy, plus seamless access to every live game regardless of where its airing, we’re bringing customers even more ways to maximize their viewing experience.”
(Source: Cynopsis)
Twitter is offering an eight-part educational series, “Unskippable,” on video marketing for advertisers. “This course was created for creatives, by creatives, and does not just teach you what the best practices are, but how to use them to think about and approach your next piece of content,” said the Twitter team.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Lenny Kravitz has been tapped to host the ‘”2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards.” LL Cool J will also appear, as well as Latto, joining previously announced performers P!NK, Kelly Clarkson, Muni Long, Keith Urban, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Coldplay and Cody Johnson. The show airs live on Fox on Monday, March 27 at 8p.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Reelz special “John Wayne: Cowboys & Demons” premieres Sunday, March 26 at 9p. Sharing their stories of Wayne are his “The Shootist” co-star Ron Howard, commentator Dennis Miller, director Peter Bogdanovich, biographer Scotty Eyman and his son Ethan Wayne.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Blake Shelton, Carly Pearce, Cody Johnson, Keith Urban, co-host Kelsea Ballerini and Lainey Wilson are the first round of stars added to the lineup of the “2023 CMT Music Awards,” airing Sunday, April 2 at 8 on CBS.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony on ABC was viewed by 18.7 million viewers, according to early Nielsens, up 12% from the 2022 show. Among A18-49 the show hit a 4.0 rating. Competing for viewers was the season finale of hit drama “The Last of Us” at 9p, which drew 8.2 million viewers on HBO and HBO Max.
(Source: Cynopsis)
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