CBS Thinks Free Streaming ‘Golazo’ Soccer Channel Will Kick Up New Viewers

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Vladimir Duthiers has a new topic that he can discuss in his regular “What To Watch” segments on CBS Mornings” — himself. Duthiers, who has worked as a correspondent and fill-in on the program since 2019, has seen his role grow over time. He typically delivers segments on some of the trending items of the morning, and, more recently, took part in reports showing how he was preparing for the arrival of his newborn child. Now, his ties to the A.M. property will be even tighter. Duthiers has been elevated to “featured host” at the show. “With fatherhood and now this solidifying of my role on the morning show, my head is spinning,” says Duthiers.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News cut ties with Abby Grossberg Friday, Variety has learned, after the booker and producer for such hosts as Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo alleged in court filings earlier this week that she was coerced by executives into providing misleading testimony in the $1.6 billion defamation suit that Dominion Voting Systems has levied against the Fox Corp.-backed outlet. Grossberg, who had worked as a senior booking producer for Bartiromo and head of booking for Carlson, alleged in filings in Delaware Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that Fox attorneys worked to “coach, manipulate, and coerce Ms. Grossberg to deliver shaded and/or incomplete answers during her sworn deposition testimony, which answers were clearly to her reputational detriment but greatly benefitted Fox News,” according to her Delaware lawsuit.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Rob King, a senior executive at Walt Disney’s ESPN who had oversight of much of the company’s sports journalism, has abruptly left the Disney-backed sports-media giant. “After nearly 20 years with ESPN, I have decided the time is right for me to leave the company,: King said on Twitter on Tuesday “I’m looking forward to spending more time with my family and friends, and wish the company continued success.” The New York Post reported Tuesday that King departed after complaints were made to ESPN about harassing social-media posts. An ESPN spokesperson said the company would not comment on personnel matters.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A producer for Fox News who has worked for Maria Batirormo and Tucker Carlson alleged in court filings Monday that she was coerced by executives into providing misleading testimony in the $1.6 billion defamation suit that Dominion Voting Systems has levied against the Fox Corp.-backed outlet. In filings made Monday Delaware Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Abby Grossberg, who had worked as a senior booking producer for Bartiromo and head of booking for Tucker Carlson, alleged that Fox attorneys worked to “coach, manipulate, and coerce Ms. Grossberg to deliver shaded and/or incomplete answers during her sworn deposition testimony, which answers were clearly to her reputational detriment but greatly benefitted Fox News,” according to the Delaware lawsuit.

BreAnna Bell For the second consecutive week, Joe Goldberg continues to lead the competition on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 list following the release of “You” Season 4, Part 1. During the Feb. 13-19 viewing window, the thriller picked up 1.47 billion minutes viewed following its Feb. 9 release. That’s a slight fall from the previous week’s opening at 1.73 billion minutes viewed, but remains a solid performance. Part 2 of Season 4 was released on March 9, so it’s expected that the show will continue to stay among the top 10 titles for some time. Following closely behind is “New Amsterdam” with 1.05 billion minutes viewed. Netflix and Peacock both share the title’s catalog. Netflix added two seasons of the series in January. Previously, the show was only available for streaming on Peacock.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Rhett & Link are taking shows produced by their Mythical entertainment company — including the hugely popular “Good Mythical Morning” — and packaging them in a TV-like, around-the-clock stream on Roku Channel. The duo’s Mythical launched Mythical 24/7, an always-on free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel with a curated feed of its shows, which include flagship talk show “Good Mythical Morning,” “Good Mythical More,” “Mythical Kitchen” and “Ear Biscuits.” It also features “Mythical Specials,” comprising content from the company’s archives and other special projects like Rhett & Link’s comedy sketches and music videos.

Tommy Sheridan’s mother has tragically died after a fire broke out at her home in Glasgow.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor To a movie actor, the Oscar statue is worth its weight in gold. To Madison Avenue? Well, maybe a little less. Disney has declared sell-out of the approximately 60 to 70 commercial slots it sells in each year’s Oscars broadcast on ABC, a little more than 48 hours before the Sunday broadcast. The company sought $1.6M to $2.1M for a 30-second spot, according to a person familiar with the matter, a slightly lower range than in the past, potentially owing to the economy, or the event’s ratings declines in recent years. In 2022, Disney asked for between $1.7 million and $2.2 million for a 30-second ad, according to media buyers and other executives familiar with last year’s negotiations.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Nexstar Media has spent months assembling a massive roster of TV stations; acquring TV’s CW network; and building the NewsNation cable-news oulet. Now comes the hard part: Getting Madison Avenue to buy ads across all of it. The nation’s largest owner of local TV outlets is ready to make its pitch to advertisers and has already scheduled a presentation for media buyers in New York for April 25. The goal, says Michael Strober, the company’s chief revenue officer, is to showcase the company’s reach among both national and local media. “We can bring local and national to our clients in ways that have never been replicated across the country,” he says in an interview. “The CW, NewsNation, TheHill, Nexstar Digital and over 200 local stations — that to me is our differentiator in the marketplace.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Among the movie stars slated to make an appearance during ABC’s telecast of the Oscars: a young Mickey Mouse and Princess Jasmine. Hyundai Motor America will run a 60-second commercial during the awards program that links its vehicles to Disney characters in no small fashion. Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Princess Jasmine and Aladdin and the “Steamboat Wilie” version of Mickey Mouse all make appearances in the spot, which was crafted with Hyundai’s ad agency, Innocean and Disney’s own creative team. The famous song “When You WIsh Upon A Star,” from Disney’s Pinocchio, plays throughout. “We want to connect with audiences in a very emotional way” says Angelea Zepeda, the automaker’s chief marketing officer, in an interview. “We haven’t done that very well in all the years we have been in the U.S. We have been a little cold. We tried to sell our sheet metal and didn’t’ tell how we care about them as consumers or how we can affect them in their day to day lives.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The CW is hoping advertisers will take another swing at its unorthodox new golf tournament if it offers some different ways of doing transactions that involve it. The network, recently brought under control of Nexstar Media Group, will work with iSpot.TV, one of a handful of new providers of audience-measurement technologies, to measure the effectiveness of commercials attached to linear and digital broadcasts of tournaments backed by LIV Golf, the upstart league financed by Saudi Arabia. CW is to air 14 global LIV Golf League live events in 2023 and will stream the events live on its app. Weekend tournaments will air live on Saturdays and Sundays on the linear network, and stream online Fridays.

Suki Waterhouse’s brand new track “To Love” is out now.

After Bill Maher admitted that he’s “afraid of Trump on a very personal level,” Alyssa Farah Griffin is agreeing with him. During Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” the host admitted that she is also “genuinely afraid” of the twice-impeached former president — especially if he manages to earn a second term in office.Maher’s comments came during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday night.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor David Westin, the Bloomberg TV anchor, will focus more intently on duties tied to “Wall Street Week” as the network focuses more intently on breaking-news coverage throughout the market day. Westin will host the weekly show, which has ties to the PBS original hosted by Louis Rukeyser, while anchoring daily “Wall Street Week” segments tied to the program. The daily segments will feature a rotating panel of influential voices and thought leaders. He will leave his duties on “Balance of Power,” which will shift to 5 p.m. weekdays rather than noon, and move to Washington, D.C. from New York. “Balance” will be co-anchored by Annemarie Hordern and Joe Mathieu. Executives expect the retooled show to include more original reporting and roundtable discussions.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Most of the nation’s biggest TV companies are planning to gather under one roof next week and discuss something that has little to do with traditional boob-tube economics but is likely to play a critical role in them in weeks to come. When Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Walt Disney speak Tuesday morning at an event convened by The Trade Desk, they will give a tacit nod to the growing importance of so-called “programmatic” advertising to their many TV networks. In the not-too-distant past, programmatic sales were an add-on to mainstay TV commercials — and the networks were wary of ceding control to a technology that gave advertisers the ability to essentially use a software algorithm to insert an ad during a particular household’s streaming session or FAST watch, all according to the type of customer seen as most likely to be interested.

The cast of Daisy Jones & The Six took over New York City!

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor FX chief John Landgraf and ABC programming head Simran Sethi will expand their duties under an executive shuffle at Disney’s TV operations, one of the first big moves under Dana Walden, who was assigned responsibility for the company’s TV networks after Bob Iger returned as Disney’s CEO. Landgraf will take oversight of National Geographic as well as Onyx Collective, the production unit devoted to projects from communities of color and underrepresented groups. Sethi, meanwhile, will oversee programming and development for both ABC and Freeform. She will continue to report to Craig Erwich, president, Disney Television Group. The moves comes as Tara Duncan, who had been supervising programming for both Onyx Collective and Freeform, will devote her attention solely to Onyx, freeing up the programming duties for Sethi, who had a previous tenure at the cable network.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corp. sought to tamp down furor around a series of implicating quotes and texts culled from corporate executives and Fox News anchors, in the newest filing, part of a closely watched defamation lawsuit from voting-technology firm Dominion Voting Systems. Fox Corp. and Fox News Channel made the case in two filings in the Superior Court in Delaware that many of the colorful utterances from Fox News stars such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and even some from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch were beyond the scope of Dominion’s case, and urged the court to reject the company’s call for a summary judgement, or a ruling in Dominon’s favor that would negate the need for a trial. Dominion is suing Fox for $1.6 billion in damages it alleges it is owed after Fox News made false claims about the Dominion’s actions and influence on the 2020 election. It is the second legal proceeding made against Fox News for its coverage of the aftermath of the 2020 race for the White House. Smartmatic, a voting technology company, has filed a massive $2.7 billion suit against Fox News. At issue in the suits, are allegations that Fox News falsely claimed the companies had rigged the election, repeated items about the matter and refused to engage in efforts to set the record straight. The 2020 election was not fixed and its results were certified by multiple legal processes.

Spring is here! Hallmark Media announced a fresh set of movies that will air in April — and give viewers a taste of love in bloom.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor James Corden aims to leave the late-night stage in a big way. CBS plans to broadcast the last hour of its “The Late Late Show,” which Corden has hosted since March of 2015, on Thursday, April 27, and will add a primetime special that night to help mark the occasion. Tom Cruise will reunite with Corden for one big sketch to air during the primetime special. Cruise has previously joined Corden on “The Late Late Show” for segments include daredevil stunts such as piloting fighter jets and skydiving. In this new meeting, Corden will have Cruise take part in an epic musical performance during “The Lion King” at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood.