EXEC SUMMARY: Thank you to all the moms reading this edition, especially my wife Jamie 😊 Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. Now here's a preview of the big week ahead in the media biz...
Upfront week is here
There are a greater number of TV shows from a growing number of sources every year. So the broadcast networks have to work harder and harder to stand out. Think about your own habits: How many of your favorite shows originated on broadcast TV? Did you watch 'em live, on demand, on air or online? My TV diet is mostly cable and streaming, mostly on demand, though a couple broadcast shows like "This Is Us" and "Family Guy" still slip through. This week, as the broadcasters tout their new shows to advertisers in NYC, execs are hoping for another "This Is Us" in the mix...
This Is Still "Us"
Brian Lowry emails: NBC's three-year renewal of "This is Us" was one of the highlights of the network's upfront announcement on Sunday, in advance of the formal presentation at Radio City on Monday. NBC called the deal "unprecedented" -- which it isn't, as anyone who remembers "Lost" can attest -- but it IS emblematic of what's become a play-it-safe approach, where stability is prized above all...
>> NBC Entertainment co-chair George Cheeks, meanwhile, seemed to acknowledge the somewhat diminished role the broadcasters will occupy this week during a conference call, noting that there would be much discussion of "platform strategies" -- that is, studio streaming services -- while noting that the network is "bullish about the role we will play in it."
>> This chart, in Monday's WSJ, tells the story of broadcast TV ratings since 2014 -- double-digit declines in non-sports viewership. Streaming is growing while broadcast is eroding: | |
Here are all the new shows
This is fun to read and watch: THR's Rick Porter has a long list of the coming season's new shows -- "32 new comedies and dramas" so far -- along with trailers for some of 'em.
And Variety's Rachel Yang has a list of the cancellations. Can't have one without the other...
The upfronts feel "smaller" now...
More from Brian Lowry: The notion that the upfronts aren't quite what they were -- a point I made in a set-up piece here -- was echoed by NYT critic James Poniewozik, who tweeted, "When I started as a TV critic, Upfronts Week used to be the High Holidays. The cancellations! The big announcements! Now I have to remind myself it's happening. Which is not a knock on network shows -- there's just so much ELSE that it feels smaller, & fall is so far away."
...But the $$$ is still huge
In a piece titled "TV Advertising Isn't Dead (Yet)," Variety's Brian Steinberg notes that the "upfront" commitments by advertisers -- to spend a certain $$$ amount on ads in the coming year -- have increased for each of "the past three years," even as ratings have decreased. One obvious reason: Competitors such as Netflix and HBO Now don't carry ads. So if you need to pitch a Prius...
>> Steinberg: "When there are fewer products to sell – in this case, TV viewers – and demand remains the same or increases, the price goes up. That is likely to remain a big part of the market back-and-forth, says Michael Nathanson..."
Reasons why the TV ad biz isn't teetering
Steinberg's story includes several notable specifics:
-- "Drug makers have spent heavily on TV in the last several cycles..."
-- Upstart companies such as Wayfair and Peloton, that started buying digital and social ads, "now want to use TV to reach a wider crowd..."
-- Streaming services are buying lots of TV ads to woo subscribers...
-- At the same time, "digital-video rivals have problems of their own..."
Fresh faces on stage
NBCUniversal presents its new shows on Monday morning... the newly slimmed-down Fox, on Monday afternoon... Xandr on Tuesday morning... Disney (including the new Fox cable assets) on Tuesday afternoon... WarnerMedia (CNN's parent) on Wednesday morning... CBS on Wednesday afternoon... and The CW on Thursday.
"The shows won't be the only new things on display," the WSJ's Joe Flint and Suzanne Vranica note. "The major networks—ABC, Fox, CBS and NBC—all have fresh faces calling the shots on their programming after a year of massive change in the entertainment industry."
The NYT's John Koblin has a feature about one of those newbies, former AMC president Charlie Collier, in Monday's paper. Collier's message: "The Fox broadcast network is alive and well." Read on...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Constance Wu has elaborated on her upset reaction to her show "Fresh Off The Boat" being renewed by ABC. As expected, she was venting because the show's return meant she had to "give up another project I was really passionate about..." (BuzzFeed News)
-- Over the weekend Wu's vulgar reaction has turned into a meme, with other stars parodying her to celebrate their shows being renewed... (THR
-- Alex Sherman's latest: "Disney and The New York Times show how the media dinosaurs can stay on top..." (CNBC)
-- Sunday night's biggest sports world story: The Toronto Raptors' epic "buzzer-beater" victory over the Philadelphia 76ers... (Bleacher)
-- Here's the sports cover of Monday's Toronto Sun: | |
Media week ahead calendar
-- Monday: Felicity Huffman is set to plead guilty... Per Chloe Melas, "she faces anywhere between four and 10 months behind bars -- but ultimately her fate is up to the judge..."
-- Tuesday: Howard Stern's new book hits bookshelves...
-- Wednesday: The leaders of New Zealand and France are holding a summit in Paris about online extremism. The organizers are pressuring Facebook and Google to do more to kick out terrorists...
-- Thursday evening: The series finale of "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS...
-- Friday: I'll be at the SABEW conference in Phoenix with Rich Barbieri, say hello if you're there...
-- Sunday evening: HBO's "Game of Thrones" meets its fate...
Eurovision begins on Tuesday
Hadas Gold emails: Hello from Tel Aviv. I'm here to help cover Eurovision. For those of you who may not know -- Eurovision is a continent-spanning singing competition, watched every year by nearly 200 million people around the world. Some 41 singers/bands from different countries (mostly Europe but Australia and Israel are non-European countries that participate) compete to win the most votes from the other countries in a live televised final. The winner's country hosts the competition the next year. Israel won last year (with this great song "Toy" by Netta), so that's why we're here this year. This year's final includes a special guest: Madonna.
Background: For Israel, Eurovision comes at a pivotal moment. The country is trying to pitch itself as a fun vacation destination beyond the historic, political and religious sites – with a big ad campaign highlighting the beach, food, shopping and party scene. The country has poured money into creating a Eurovision village both at the expo center and along the beach. But it's been a tense month of violence. And the competition sometimes becomes a microcosm of geopolitical tensions. (I remember the year when there were boos every time Russia was mentioned because of the invasion of Crimea.) So this week we're expecting lots of news from here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Lester Holt's sit-down with Ava DuVarney and the Central Park Five airs on Monday night, ahead of Netflix's premiere of ""When They See Us" at the end of the month... (Essence, People)
-- "RT America, a network known for sowing disinformation, has a new alarm: the coming '5G Apocalypse.'" William Broad has the full story here... (NYT)
-- Read Campbell Robertson's latest from NOLA, titled "How a Newspaper War in New Orleans Ended: With a Baked Alaska and Layoffs..." (NYT)
-- Following up on Friday night's news dump: Facebook sued a South Korean company "for alleged misuse of Facebook data." Donie O'Sullivan says this has "echoes of" the Cambridge Analytica scandal... (CNN Business)
Facebook's response to Chris Hughes
In his first US TV interview since joining Facebook last fall, Nick Clegg spoke with me about all the reasons why he disagrees with Chris Hughes' proposal to break up the company. Clegg started by conceding a big point: That Facebook has big problems on its hands.
"I don't think dismantling companies is the way to deal with some of the complex issues which he quite rightly highlighted -- data use, privacy, the attempt by folks from elsewhere to try and interfere in our elections," Clegg said. FB has a "heavy responsibility," but "chopping a great American success story into bits is not something that's going to make those problems go away," he argued. Here's the full interview in video form... Plus a recap by Nathaniel Meyersohn... | | Three key quotes
-- Clegg said "we are confident that we're going to be considerably better prepared, for instance, for the 2020 US elections than we were for 2016."
-- He said we need to get past the phase "where politicians throw rocks at tech and tech throws rocks back," and work together to "come up with new rules of the Internet..."
-- FB is trying to move "from being reactive" to propaganda, misinformation, etc, and "become more proactive..."
Harris and Booker weigh in
Of the 2020 candidates, Elizabeth Warren has been the most outspoken about FB, calling for the break-up of the company in no uncertain terms.
Kamala Harris stopped short of that in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, but said "we need to seriously take a look" at breaking up Facebook, because "it is essentially a utility that has gone unregulated."
Cory Booker, in an interview with ABC's Jon Karl, seemingly criticized Warren when he said "that sounds more like a Donald Trump thing to say, I'm going to break up you guys" -- but then said Warren is a friend...
Exclusive interview with Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Manning was released from jail last Thursday after being held in contempt of court for two months. And she might be back in jail soon. Here's what she told me on CNN on Sunday – full story by Devan Cole...
Top takeaways from Sunday's "Reliable"
-- The Intercept's EIC Betsy Reed spoke with me about the government's leak hunts, the significance of source protection, and why she thinks it's "preposterous" to call a whistleblower a "traitor..."
-- Carl Bernstein said "we are in the midst of a continuing cover-up by the president, aided and abetted by the attorney general..."
-- Catherine Rampell said the temperature keeps rising and the proverbial frog has been boiled..."
-- Jess McIntosh discussed what she shared with House Democrats at last week's "Winning on Fox News" training session...
-- Catch up with the show by listening to the podcast, watching the video clips or watching the full program via CNNgo or VOD...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Megan Thomas emails: Alex Trebek opened up about his cancer diagnosis to Jane Pauley -- it was a great interview... (CBS)
-- The case of Natasha Tynes: "A D.C. author shamed a Metro worker for eating on the train. Now her book deal is in jeopardy..." (WaPo)
-- Robinson Meyer gave the new "Morning Edition" music a chance. He's a no. And he's worried that NPR will go and change the "All Things Considered" music next... (The Atlantic)
-- Correcting two typos from Friday night's edition: The new podcast investment company is Podfund... Details here... And the author of this WSJ story about Viacom is Kimberly Chin. My apologies!
"California journalists condemn police raid of reporter"
Headline via KPIX. This case is causing widespread concern among First Amendment advocates: "San Francisco police on Friday raided the home of a freelance journalist who provided three Bay Area television stations with a copy of a police report into the death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi," the SF Chronicle's Evan Sernoffsky reported.
The journalist, Bryan Carmody, said "I don't think it was right to break my door down. I'm one of the original independent media companies in San Francisco. This is outrageous." WaPo's Eli Rosenberg has much more info here...
| | "An all-out war with Congress"
WaPo is calling the Trump admin's moves "an all-out war" and "the most expansive White House obstruction effort in decades." On Sunday's "Reliable," the panelists seemed to agree that the deluge of headlines about subpoenas and stonewalling has become a blur to many viewers and readers...
Kudlow admits the truth about tariffs...
Over and over and over again, Trump has been falsely claiming that -- in the words of one of his Sunday tweets -- the U.S. is "taking in tens of billions of dollars in tariffs from China." Americans actually end up paying for these tariffs. Fox's Chris Wallace was able to get National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow to acknowledge this on Sunday -- a moment that merited its own news story on multiple websites.
>> NPR's Steve Inskeep tweeted: "It should not pass unnoticed that it is now a news headline when presidential adviser, after being repeatedly pressed, admits an obvious fact..."
'SNL' mocks GOP members' loyalty to Trump
Chuck Todd was off on Sunday, but Kyle Mooney's impersonation of Todd was on "SNL." The show's cold open had "Todd" interviewing Susan Collins (Cecily Strong), Mitch McConnell (Beck Bennett) and Lindsey Graham (Kate McKinnon) about Trump. | | Per Frank Pallotta: "Mooney's Todd went through some hypothetical scenarios to test the loyalties of the senators to the President." You can probably guess how this went. Watch/read more here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Beto O'Rourke is planning a "reintroduction" of his campaign: "He is scheduled to appear on MSNBC's 'Rachel Maddow Show' on Monday night and ABC's 'The View' the next day..." (AP)
-- "Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is expected to jump into the presidential race this week -- making him the 22nd person seeking the Democratic nomination..." (CNN)
-- Rest in peace, Peggy Lipton. The Golden Globe award winning actress and star of the hit TV show "Mod Squad" has died at the age of 72. (CNN)
| | "Veep" is history
The final episode of "Veep" aired Sunday night on HBO. And I miss the show already.
Brian Lowry's review will be up on CNN.com overnight...
"Avengers" still on top
Frank Pallotta writes: "Avengers: Endgame" won the domestic box office for the third weekend in a row. The Disney and Marvel film brought in an estimated $63.1 million in North America this weekend. That was enough to win the weekend over "Pokémon Detective Pikachu," Warner Bros.' live-action film set in the world of Pokémon, which notched an estimated $58 million domestically to take the No. 2 spot. Read on...
Invite us next time, Iger! | | Brian Lowry emails: Over the weekend Disney CEO Bob Iger tweeted out some great pictures of him providing a private preview of Disneyland's new Star Wars Land expansion to directors Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams. Beyond the fun, though, was a not-so-subtle message -- namely, that when it comes to doing battle to attract top talent, the studio has some rather formidable chips to play...
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
The "Game of Thrones" series finale trailer
No spoilers here... But the teaser trailer for next Sunday's finale is up on YouTube... | | | Thank you for reading. Email me anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
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