FIRST LOOK
http://www.eonline.com/news
ON TELEVISION (TUESDAY 4/23/19)
ABC: 1969 (Premiere) at 10pm
BET: Games People Play (Premiere) at 10pm
BET: Being Mary Jane (Finale) at 8pm
CW: Roswell, New Mexico (Finale) at 9pm
E! will expand its entertainment news and commentary programming with three additional hours of original content every weekday, starting in early 2020. Tammy Filler, who for 16 years was at NBC’s Today, most recently as exec producer for the fourth hour, will join E! as EVP and editor-in-chief, E! News, to lead creative development, production for current franchises and new formats. Additionally John Najarian, EVP & publisher, E! News and Digital, will work closely with Filler and also now oversee the digital strategy for the broader E! network. The E! News expansion aims to build on the network’s existing news franchises, including E! News, Daily Pop and Nightly Pop, as well as introduce new formats and personalities. E! News currently airs weeknights at 7p and is co-hosted by Giuliana Rancic and Jason Kennedy; the one-hour Daily Pop airs at noon weekdays; and late night talk series Nightly Pop, hosted by Morgan Stewart, Nina Parker and Hunter March, airs Sundays at 10:30p and Mondays at 9:30p.
(Source: Cynopsis)
NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans will return to CBS for the 2019-20 season, their 11th and sixth seasons, respectively. Series are the latest re-ups for CBS, which among recent renewals, picked up new seasons of Young Sheldon, Mom, Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods, FBI, God Friended Me, The Neighborhood and Magnum P.I. No word yet on several shows, including Bull, MacGyver, Madam Secretary, S.W.A.T and SEAL Team.
(Source: Cynopsis)
The final episode of the CW’s Riverdale to feature Luke Perry will air tomorrow (April 24) at 8p. Perry died March 4 ago after suffering a stroke. Show creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa took to Twitter to mark the occasion, noting, “This week’s #Riverdale is the last episode Luke filmed. As always, Fred’s imparting words of wisdom to Archie. A beautiful, true moment between a father and his son. Wish these scenes could go on forever.”
(Source: Cynopsis)
HBO gave a series order to Avenue 5, a comedy from Armando Iannucci that revolves around space tourism set 40 years in the future. Hugh Laurie, featured on Veep, in its final season on the net, stars as the captain of the space cruise ship Avenue 5. Series also stars Josh Gad, Zach Woods, Nikki Amuka and Rebecca Front. Iannucci will exec-produce, with Kevin Loader, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche and Will Smith.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Showtime Documentary Films announced a four-part documentary series chronicling the history of iconic LA club The Comedy Store, directed and exec-produced by Mike Binder (Black or White) and exec-produced by Mike Tollin (The Franchise). The project – which delves into the club that during the past 47 years helped launch the careers of David Letterman, Jay Leno, Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Tom Dreesen, Sam Kinison, Paul Rodriguez, Sarah Silverman, Chris Rock, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Marc Maron and more – is expected to premiere on Showtime in 2020.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Production is under way on the teen-focused The Half of It, writer/director Alice Wu’s follow-up to her 2004 feature film Saving Face for Netflix. Described by the streamer as “a modern day Cyrano-meets-Pygmalion,” story centers on a shy, Chinese-American student who finds herself helping the school jock woo the girl they both secretly love. Cast includes Leah Lewis (Charmed), Daniel Diemer (Sacred Lies), Alexxis Lemire (The Other Mother) and Becky Ann Baker (Girls). Producers are Anthony Bregman of Likely Story, M. Blair Breard and Wu.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Buddy Valastro and the Cake Boss crew return to Discovery Family for a ninth season with back-to-back premiere episodes Saturday, May 18 at 9p. Valastro and his Carlo’s Bakery family will deliver some of their wildest creations yet, including a fire-breathing dragon cake built with pyrotechnics, a drive-in movie theater cake complete with a built-in projector screen and a beef jerky cake.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Season two of Rookie on the Rise features Atlanta Hawks newbie Trae Young. Each 2-5 minute episode will showcase behind-the-scenes moments with Young following his rise to national stardom, interactions with family and friends, and more. The series is available for viewing on digital network Young Hollywood. View Young Hollywood here.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Smithsonian Channel slips into the bedchambers and back rooms of Britain and France’s royal palaces to discover the Private Lives of the Monarchs, premiering Monday, May 20 at 8p. Hosted by Tracy Borman, joint chief curator of the Royal Palaces, five-part series uncovers the nitty-gritty and outright strange stories about rulers from Henry VIII to King George III to Queen Victoria.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries will premiere three new installments of Hailey Dean Mysteries on consecutive Sunday nights in May beginning May 5 at 9p, with Kellie Martin (Life Goes On, ER) reprising her role as psychologist and former prosecutor Hailey Dean, and guest star Lauren Holly (NCIS, Dumb and Dumber). The movies also star Viv Leacock and Matthew MacCaull, and are based on characters from Nancy Grace’s same-titled New York Times best-selling book series.
(Source: Cynopsis)
May 16 is the premiere date for Netflix’s Good Sam, a feature based on the like-titled mystery book series by Dete Meserve. Film, starring Tiya Sircar, will be directed by Kate Melville from a script by Meserve and Teena Booth that follows an intrepid TV news reporter assigned to uncover the identity of a mysterious good samaritan who’s been anonymously leaving $100,000 cash at the doors of seemingly random residents of NY.
(Source: Cynopsis)
As part of its Biography series, A&E Network will premiere two new two-hour, and one one-hour doc exploring the lives and careers of comedians Chris Farley, Jeff Dunham and Jeff Foxworthy. The specials will delve into the careers and personal lives of the performers to give viewers an insider’s look at what it took for each to reach the top. Biography: Chris Farley–Anything for a Laugh drops Monday, May 27 at 9p; Biography: Jeff Dunham–Talking Heads bows Tuesday, May 28 at 8p; and Biography: Jeff Foxworthy–Stand Up Guy, a one-hour special, premieres Tuesday, May 28 at 10p.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan) will narrate Dolphin Reef, premiering on Disney+ in the U.S. on November 12. “For more than a decade, Disneynature has amazed and inspired the world through its acclaimed True Life Adventure films,’” said Agnes Chu, SVP of Content for Disney+. “We’re thrilled to give Disneynature’s unique stories a new home in our growing collection of original content.”
(Source: Cynopsis)
Cord-cutting continues to accelerate this year with 4.56 million TV households making the move, according to a new Convergence Research Group report that predicts by the end of 2019, 34 percent of US households will not have a traditional TV subscription. Among other learnings in its “Battle for the American Couch Potato” report:
The pay TV industry will see a 5 percent decline in pay TV subscribers in 2019, up from 4 percent in 2018.
Online video services collectively are poised to bring in $22 billion in 2019, up from $16.3 billion in 2018.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Jeanine Serralles (Hot Summer Nights) is in as a series regular opposite John Cusack, Rainn Wilson and Sasha Lane in Amazon‘s straight-to-series adaptation of British drama Utopia, penned by Gone Girl author/screenwriter Gillian Flynn.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Buddy vs. Duff wrapped its first season as Food Network’s highest-rated program to date in 2019 among both A25-54 and W25-54, as well as the network’s highest-rated freshman series since 2017 (A25-54), reaching more than 8.1 million Total Viewers with ratings 43% higher vs. the year-ago period and averaging a 1.1 rating among A25-54 and an 1.4 rating among W25-54. The finale garnered a 1.3 rating among A25-54 and a 1.6 rating among W25-54, reaching 3.2 million-plus viewers.
(Source: Cynopsis)
The series debut of ABC’s Bless This Mess grew by nearly 2.0 million Total Viewers over its L+SD average after three days of TV playback (1.96 million), marking the second-largest lift for a new comedy debut this season, behind only ABC’s The Conners. Bless This Mess spiked to 6.68 million Total Viewers and a 1.3/6 among A18-49 after three days of delayed viewing.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Animal Planet’s The Zoo delivered its highest-rated ep of the season across numerous key demos on Sunday, April 14 at 8p and broke into ad-supported cable’s Top 10 among both A25-54 (No. 9) and W25-54 (No. 8) during the time period. The episode also averaged more than 1 million viewers P2+ (1.014 million).
(Source: Cynopsis)
Pasiones reached its highest ratings to date, drawing 70,145 total viewers in primetime on Tuesday, April 2, according to Comscore. The performance comes on the heels of its HD launch on Spectrum at the start of this month.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Steve Golin, founder and CEO of Anonymous Content and co-founder and former CEO of Propaganda Films, died Sunday, April 21 in LA. Golin, 64, had been a cancer survivor but cause of death was not disclosed at press time. Revered across the independent television and film industry, Golin won the 2016 best picture Oscar for Spotlight. Among his myriad other credits, he exec-produced HBO’s True Detective, USA Network’s Mr. Robot and TNT’s The Alienist.
(Source: Cynopsis)
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