Jennifer Maas: Last News

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix’s “Bridgerton” was viewed for more than 2.5 billion minutes during the week of its Season 2 debut, according to Nielsen’s newly released streaming Top 10 rankings.The Chris Van Dusen-created period romance was easily the No. 1 program on streaming for the week of March 21-27 on Nielsen’s charts, even though only its first season was available for the majority of that week, as Season 2 premiered on March 25.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDisney Television Animation has promoted David H. Wright III to head of casting and talent relations.In his elevated role, Wright will continue to oversee all voice casting and talent relations for animated series and movies produced by Disney Television Animation, which is a provider of original content for Disney+, Disney Channel and Disney Junior, with a primary focus on imaginative, aspirational stories for kids, tweens, teens and families.Most recently vice president of casting and talent relations, Wright reports to Meredith Roberts, senior vice president and general manager of television animation at Disney Branded Television.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAfter months of criticism and anticipation, “The Masked Singer” episode featuring the unmasking of Rudy Giuliani finally aired Wednesday on Fox. The show’s installment with the disgraced former mayor of New York City and former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, got a 0.6 demo rating and 3.6 million total viewers, according to fast-affiliate Nielsen data.Viewership for Season 7 has been in flux since its March 9 premiere, with the Fox celebrity singing competition drawing a season high 4.3 million viewers on March 30, only to reach a season low of 3.9 million last Wednesday — which was beat by last night’s new low.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOLER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Matryoshka,” the Season 2 finale episode of “Russian Doll.”In Season 2, “Russian Doll” broke out of its first season’s “Groundhog Day”-style time-loop format with a “Quantum Leap”-like time-travel device that allowed Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) and Alan (Charlie Barnett) to jump into the bodies of their deceased loved ones by taking a trip on the New York City subway. Nadia becomes her mother, Lenora “Nora” (Chloë Sevigny), in the East Village in 1982, and grandmother Vera (Irén Bordán, younger version Ilona McCrea), in World War II-era Budapest, while Alan is inhabiting his grandmother Agnes (Carolyn Michelle Smith) in Germany during the Cold War in 1944.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDiscovery+ is set to launch a new docuseries focused on Black food history in America from producer Viola Davis, featuring scholar and cookbook author Caroline Randall Williams as host, Variety has learned exclusively.The four-episode show, titled “Hungry for Answers,” will follow Williams as she travels the country, “uncovering the fascinating, essential, and often untold Black stories behind some of America’s classic and emblematic food and spirits,” per the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streamer.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe finale of CNN+’s “Land of the Giants: Titans of Tech,” titled “The Netflix Effect,” launches Thursday, perfect timing for an entertainment industry that is both reeling amid Netflix’s shocking Q1 subscriber miss, poor second-quarter outlook and the wait to see if CNN+ can find its groove as quickly as it might need to in order to survive.Based on the “Land of the Giants” podcast from Vox Media’s Recode, the CNN+ docuseries explores the complicated histories of Meta (a.k.a. Facebook), Apple, Amazon, Google and now Netflix.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterIrony Point is a production company that might not yet be known widely by name, but its projects, Netflix’s critically acclaimed “I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson”; Paramount Plus’ revival of “Inside Amy Schumer” and Schumer’s recently renewed Hulu dramedy “Life & Beth”; Michael Che’s Lorne Michaels-produced HBO Max show “That Damn Michael Che,” and Marvel’s new scripted “Squirrel Girl” podcast, certainly are.The banner, which is currently one year into a three-year deal at Netflix, is headed up by co-presidents Alex Bach and Daniel Powell. And their rapidly ramping up company is one that studios and talent are going to regret not having gotten into business with earlier five years from now.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterWhip Media has hired Disney global integration and digital distribution operation’s strategy executive Artin Nazarian as vice president of global enterprise account management, Variety has learned exclusively.In his newly created role, Nazarian will develop and grow the company’s enterprise platform customer relationships worldwide, including focusing on strategy, product adoption and revenue.Whip brings Nazarian on board on the heels of  the commercial launch of the Whip Media Exchange, described by the company as “a first-of-its-kind global licensing and research platform for film and TV content.” Whip will model the product, along with the company’s CVM and CVMi platforms, at the 2022 NAB Show next week in Las Vegas. Prior to joining Whip, Nazarian spent nearly two decades at Disney, where he most recently served as head of global integration and digital distribution operation’s strategy.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix reported its first-quarter 2022 earnings Tuesday, revealing how the company did in terms of subscriber signups and financial growth in the three-month period that included the debuts of “Bridgerton” Season 2 and “The Adam Project.”The streaming service lost 200,000 subscribers in Q1 and said it expects to lose another 2 million in the current second quarter. In January, Netflix reported it had 221.84 million subscribers at the end of 2021. The new total is 221.64 million subs.Netflix previously forecast 2.5 million paid net adds in Q1 while Wall Street analysts expected Netflix to add 2.8 million new subscribers worldwide in the first quarter vs.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterHBO’s “Winning Time” has landed a series high for the third week in a row, drawing 1.4 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max on Sunday.Per HBO, Episode 7 of the Los Angeles Lakers drama was up up 11% vs. last week’s episode and 59% above the season premiere.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAll hail the viscount. The second season of “Bridgerton” has knocked the show’s first season out of the No.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNonprofit Good Energy has published a resource guide to assist the TV and film industry in their coverage of climate change in projects.Titled “Good Energy: A Playbook for Screenwriting in the Age of Climate Change,” the document is described by the organization as “a guide to incorporating climate into any storyline or genre, was brought to life to provide screenwriters, industry executives, actors, and creatives with a groundbreaking and robust resource to help illustrate ways in which climate can be weaved into TV and movies.”Per the nonprofit, “To establish a baseline for climate change representation in TV and film, Good Energy partnered with USC’s Media Impact Lab at the Norman Lear Center to commission a first-ever research landscape of climate stories in TV and film over the past five years, as well as an audience survey, to gauge popular interest in climate stories and characters. USC analyzed 37,453 scripts from 2016-2020 and found that only 1,046 (2.8%) of the scripts included any climate change keywords – and within those scripts, there were only 1,772 mentions of those climate change keywords.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“All Rise” has won the 2022 SeeHer Programming Award, which will be presented to the show’s new home channel Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) during the fourth annual SeeHer SheFront Tuesday, Variety has learned exclusively.The Simone Missick-led series is a courthouse drama that follows the lives of its judges, prosecutors, and public defenders, as they work with bailiffs, clerks and police to get justice for the people of Los Angeles amidst a flawed legal system. “All Rise,” which was canceled at CBS after two seasons last May and then revived by OWN in September, will debut its third season in June. OWN is airing the first two seasons ahead of the Season 3 premiere.Missick, who plays Judge Lola Carmichael, executive produces alongside showrunner Dee Harris-Lawrence, Michael M.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOLER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched “Ariadne,” the Season 1 finale of “Russian Doll.”It’s been more than three years since the first season of “Russian Doll” launched on Netflix, and as such, even the most die-hard fans of the Natasha Lyonne time-loop dramedy need to forgive themselves if they don’t remember exactly how the first-season ending played out. But it is important we get that straight now if you want to enjoy Season 2 right when it launches Wednesday.So here to clear up what she considers a “misnomer” about the conclusion to “Russian Doll” Season 1, which had a lot of threads to follow in its closing moments, for Variety is star and co-creator Lyonne herself.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterIt should come as no surprise that cost is the main reason given for why someone will likely cancel a streaming service subscription — but what might be surprising is what those consumers feel is actually a fair price for Netflix, Disney+ and more platforms.According to Fandom’s second annual State of Streaming report, which was released on Tuesday by the mega-fan platform, 61% of those surveyed believe their streaming subs are too expensive and value the average streamer at $7.46 monthly.Here are the “average prices” consumers want to pay for top SVODs, per the Fandom study, in descending order: Netflix ($10.60), HBO Max ($9.30), Disney+ ($9.20), Hulu ($8.60), Amazon Prime Video ($8.60), Apple TV+ ($6.9), Paramount+ ($6.8) and Peacock ($5.5). The same report also revealed that 62% of surveyed consumers think “genre is the key differentiator” between streaming platforms, “with Disney+ being acknowledged as the genre-leader to date.”“I always look at originals and the way that they market originals is really the key to not only capturing audience, but keeping audience,” Anthony Iaffaldano, Fandom’s vice president of insights, told Variety.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterCBS shareholders have reached a $14.75 million settlement in their securities lawsuit against the network for what it relayed about the sexual misconduct allegations against disgraced former chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves and how his #MeToo comments affected the company.In a filing obtained by Variety Monday, CBS shareholders wrote, “Lead Plaintiff and Defendants have negotiated, at arm’s length and with the assistance of an experienced and neutral mediator, a proposed settlement of all claims in this Action for $14,750,000 in cash. This resolution, which falls well within the range of possible approval, involved a thorough investigation, extensive motion practice, consultation with an expert on damages and loss causation, and a formal mediation involving rigorous and extensive negotiations.” Representatives for CBS declined to comment Tuesday.In January 2020, a federal judge in New York allowed the shareholder lawsuit against CBS Corp.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix has ordered an adult animated series based on the card game “Exploding Kittens,” starring “Lucifer” star Tom Ellis and Lucy Liu. A new mobile game adaptation, “Exploding Kittens – The Game,” is being co-developed and will launch via the streamer in May, well ahead of the TV show’s planned 2023 debut.The show, which is executive produced by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, follows the eternal conflict between Heaven and Hell as it reaches epic proportions when both God and the Devil are sent to Earth – in the bodies of chunky house cats.Along with Ellis and Liu, “Exploding Kittens” stars Abraham Lim (“Clickbait,” “The Boys”), Ally Maki (“Wrecked,” “Toy Story 4”), Mark Proksch (“What We Do In The Shadows,” “Better Call Saul”) and Sasheer Zamata (“Woke,” “Home Economics”).

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterMarvel is kicking butt and eating nuts with the launch of a scripted “Squirrel Girl” podcast that serves as a continuation of the comic book series from Ryan North, Variety has learned exclusively.The six-episode SiriusXM podcast series titled “Marvel’s Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show,” which stars Milana Vayntrub of AT&T-ad fame as Doreen Green/Squirrel Girl and is written by North, debuted across multiple platforms on Monday. The podcast is produced by Radio Point, the podcast arm of “I Think You Should Leave” and “Life & Beth” production company Irony Point.Here’s the official description for the “Squirrel Girl” podcast: “Squirrel Girl has taken down Thanos and Doctor Doom — but now she faces something far more terrifying… living authentically.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterWarner Bros. Discovery and AT&T each ended the trading week with their respective shares selling at a 3% increase from where the stocks opened Monday.The newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery, born out of the $43 billion merger of Discovery, Inc.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Bridgerton” Season 2 has landed the title of Netflix’s third-most popular English-language TV series — a list that is calculated based on shows’ first 28 days on the streaming service — in just 17 days.Per Netflix’s newly released Top 10 data for April 4-10, “The series had 115.75M hours viewed on the English TV list, appearing in the Top 10 in 91 countries, making it the most viewed title for the third week in a row. The season also entered the Most Popular list at #3 with 560.50M hours viewed.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe CMT Music Awards aired for the first time on CBS and Paramount Plus Monday night, drawing 5.16 million viewers for the live telecast in early Nielsen numbers, which is up 521% from last year’s show on Paramount-owned cable channel CMT.The 5.16 million total viewer tally accounts for both linear ratings on CBA and live streams via television sets for Paramount Plus and other digital CBS platforms. The final Live + Same Day ratings for the 2022 CMT Awards, including out-of-home-viewing, will be released later Tuesday.