In advance of its upfront presentation, ABC has renewed American Idol for season eight, The Bachelor for season 29, Celebrity Jeopardy! for season three, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune for season five, Dancing with the Stars for season 33, Shark Tank for season 16, and What Would You Do? for season 17. 

The Conners has been renewed for season seven, which will be its final one. 

Comedy Not Dead Yet, starring Gina Rodriguez as an obituary writer with a unique knack for the job, has not been renewed. The show, created by David Windsor and Casey Johnson, debuted in February 2023 and lasted for two seasons. 

ABC shows off its 2024-25 series at the Disney upfront presentation May 14 in New York. 

Previously announced renewals are season four for Abbott Elementary, season eight for 9-1-1, season 21 for Grey’s Anatomy, season seven for The Rookie and season three for Will Trent. Previously announced orders include Doctor Odyssey and High Potential. 

Decisions on pilots Shifting Gears (working title) and Forgive & Forget have not yet been made. 

ABC has renewed unscripted series America’s Funniest Home Videos, American Idol, The Bachelor, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and Shark Tank. AFHV gets season 33, American Idol sees season six on ABC, after 15 on Fox, The Bachelor rolls into season 27, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune will have season three, and Shark Tank is up to 14.

Alfonso Ribeiro hosts America’s Funniest Home Videos. Vin Di Bona Productions produces.

American Idol wraps season 20 May 22. Fremantle and 19 Entertainment produce.

Jesse Palmer hosts The Bachelor. Next Entertainment and Warner Bros. Unscripted Television produce.

Pat Sajak and Vanna White host Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. Sony Pictures Television produces.

Shark Tank will go live for its season premiere, a first for the show. MGM Television produces in association with Sony Pictures Television. ■

Comedian Kevin Hart appears on Shark Tank Friday, January 7 on ABC. He shares the stage with Sharks Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O’Leary and Lori Greiner. 

Shark Tank began season 13 in October. 

Hart’s films include Think Like a Man, Ride Along, The Secret Life of Pets and the Jumanji movies. He hosted the new year’s special 2021 and Done with Snoop Dogg on Peacock. 

Hart’s episode of Shark Tank features entrepreneurs with a tool “that takes snacking to the next level,” said Shark Tank; another team with a product made of space-age materials; another pitching a social network that connects fans to celebrities and influencers; and a team with a book publisher focused on Black content. 

Before the season began, O’Leary told B+C Shark Tank will feature a number of direct-to-consumer goods with sturdy digital platforms. “I don’t think I’m gonna see a lot of people saying, ‘I can’t wait to get my product into retail,’” said O’Leary. “Because that’s not where the growth is.” ■ 

ABC has ordered 10 episodes of courtroom comedy Judge Steve Harvey (working title), the network shared during its Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour session. With Harvey as the star, the one-hour unscripted comedy will premiere in 2022. Harvey “will welcome a variety of conflicts and characters to his courtroom–from small claims to big disputes and everything in between. Steve plays by his own rules, basing his courtroom on his own life experiences and some good old common sense,” said ABC. 

Harvey hosts Family Feud. 

Judge Steve Harvey is produced by Den of Thieves in association with Walt Disney Television’s alternative unit. Steve Harvey, Brandon Williams and Den of Thieves’ Jesse Ignjatovic, Evan Prager, Jared Morrell and Barb Bialkowski are executive producers, with Myeshia Mizuno the showrunner. 

ABC also announced it will air The Most Magical Story on Earth: 50 Years of Walt Disney World Friday, Oct. 1. Whoopi Goldberg will host the two-hour special. Christina Aguilera and Halle Bailey will perform in front of Cinderella Castle at Disney World, accompanied by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. Anthony Anderson, Tom Brady, Candace Cameron Bure and John Stamos are among the stars scheduled to turn up.  

Goldberg is moderator on The View. 

The special “will take viewers through Walt Disney World’s humble beginnings in the swamplands of Florida and its evolution into a cultural phenomenon,” said ABC. “Through an expansive look into the past, present and future of the vacation destination, fans will get a never-before-seen-on-TV glimpse into the journey to bring Walt’s vision to life and a look at grand plans for the future.”

Disney executives past and present, including Bob Chapek, Bob Iger and Michael Eisner, will share their favorite memories of Walt Disney World. 

The special is produced by ABC News in association with ABC Entertainment and Disney Parks Global Content. David Sloan and Sally Conner are senior executive producers and Matt Lombardi is executive producer.

ABC also announced that season 13 of Shark Tank, which starts Oct. 8, welcomes four guest Sharks to the set. Emma Grede, CEO and co-founder of Good American and founding partner of SKIMS; actor Kevin Hart; Peter Jones from the BBC’s Dragons’ Den; and Nirav Tolia, co-founder of Nextdoor, will appear. The regular Sharks are Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary. Daniel Lubetzky, founder and executive chairman of KIND, also returns this season. 

Shark Tank is produced by MGM Television and Sony Pictures Television. Mark Burnett, Clay Newbill, Yun Lingner, Max Swedlow and Phil Gurin, Brandon Wallace, Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary are the executive producers. The series is produced by MGM Television in association with Sony Pictures Television.

Finally, ABC shared that Anthony Anderson, Tituss Burgess, Laverne Cox, Marcia Cross, Anthony Michael Hall, Melissa Joan Hart, Vanilla Ice, Tara Lipinski, Haley Joel Osment, Donny Osmond, Andy Richter, Tori Spelling, Raven-Symoné, Nia Vardalos and Johnny Weir are among the stars showing up on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune this season. The season begins Sunday, Sept. 26. 

Pat Sajak and Vanna White host. 

Celebrity Wheel of Fortune is produced by Sony Pictures Television.

Kevin O’Leary, known to many as Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank, hosts Money Court, which debuts on CNBC Aug. 11. The show sees O’Leary play the judge on financial disputes between business partners, married couples, siblings and other litigants. 

O’Leary spoke at length about the new show on the B+C/Multichannel News podcast Series Business. He said business disputes have increased during the COVID era, with  businesses transforming amidst the turmoil, and partners often unable to meet face to face. “The pandemic has created a logjam of cases that are not getting to court,” he said. “So arbitration is the only solution.” 

Trial attorney Katie Phang and former judge Ada Pozo help O’Leary come to his verdict. 

Money Court is produced by Anvil 1893 Entertainment, with O’Leary, Eric Schotz and Myeshia Muzuno executive producing along with Luke Bauer of CNBC.

A new season of Shark Tank starts on ABC Friday, Oct. 8. O’Leary said to expect a lot of direct-to-consumer goods with sturdy digital platforms. “I don’t think I’m gonna see a lot of people saying, ‘I can’t wait to get my product into retail,’” said O’Leary just before shooting on season 13 began. “Because that’s not where the growth is.”

He said the Mr. Wonderful nickname came from Shark Tank colleague Barbara Corcoran, who was “being facetious and critical about my style of investing.”

O’Leary said he and Corcoran are pals, and he respects her as an entrepreneur. In terms of shooting the new season in Los Angeles, he quipped, “The only reason she got here on time this year is, I bought her a new broom.”

O’Leary promised “strong, strong, strong people that know how to tell stories about their products and services” on Shark Tank this season. 

Kevin O’Leary is on Shark Tank, analyzing products and services alongside fellow Sharks Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec and Daymond John, and deciding if he wants to invest. O’Leary has made a bundle of smart investments in his career, including selling a climate-controlled storage facility business for $110 million and a software company for a cool $4.2 billion. 

O’Leary answers to Mr. Wonderful, the moniker reflective of an occasionally charming manner mixed in with his austere assessments of products and the entrepreneurs standing next to them. 

Shark Tank debuts season 12 on ABC Oct. 16. It airs in syndication on CNBC. O’Leary spoke to Multichannel News about how the show captures the American dream. An edited transcript follows. 

MCN: Do you make money on most of the entrepreneurs you invest in on Shark Tank?

Kevin O’Leary: I have, actually. What people don’t understand about the Shark Tank platform, if you look across the continuum of venture capital today, the No. 1 issue for startup companies is customer acquisition costs, because the majority of them have done the digital pivot to online. A typical startup company in America, 20-25% make it and the rest die over three years — they’re never able to get their customer acquisition costs below the lifetime value. 

That’s the big advantage Shark Tank has. You get 3 or 4 million people seeing the show and you get eight minutes of exposure for your product or service. 

Then it goes into syndication. It’s continually brought forward year in and year out on TV, in addition to the millions of [social] followers that each of us Sharks has. We change the equation completely. We can get companies zero customer acquisition costs and they really, really, really thrive with that. Our returns are significantly higher than the industry’s because of this weapon, if you want to call it that. 

I would argue we’re the most successful venture capital firm that ever existed. We have capital, we have Sharks, we have fantastic products, and we have tens of millions of people watching the show all over the world. 

MCN: What has been your most successful investment on Shark Tank?

KO: The largest in history was actually a Shark deal [involving all Sharks], when [meal-kit business] Plated sold to Albertsons for over $300 million. That was extraordinary for me, and paid for a lot of mistakes. 

My assumptions are always wrong. What I think is the hottest deal of the season doesn’t necessarily end up that way. Some crazy things I did like Potato Parcel — putting people’s faces on a potato and mailing it to them — who would’ve thought that would have such an extraordinary return? During COVID it went crazy. How about cat DNA? Basepaws. You swab your cat’s cheek — why would that be a business? It’s huge. There are 100 million cats sitting at home with people beside them, wondering, where did you come from? 

That’s why you have to do a bunch of deals, because you never know the outcome of any single one. 

MCN: Give us a teaser for the new season. 

KO: No. 1, and I say this practically every season — I can’t believe how big the deals are getting. Valuations over $50 million coming into the Shark Tank. Five years ago, I would’ve said, that’s insane. I actually invested in one this year. It’s such an incredible project that it deserved that valuation. I get criticized all the time for being the mean Shark. I tell the truth. When I see a great value, regardless of the valuation, I invest in it. 

No. 2, I call it the Great Digital Pivot, America 2.0. Everything we saw this year had a digital strategy, ship direct to the customer anywhere in the U.S. or abroad. They’re starting to realize the world is shifting and people want the convenience of having products and services delivered right to their door. Every entrepreneur gets that. All of these new deals talk about that channel. They’re not abandoning retail, but they’re focusing most of their energy on direct-to-consumer. 

MCN: What keeps viewers watching? 

KO: I was there when the show was made. I love to see how the editors take an hour pitch down to eight minutes. I’m glued to the TV like everybody else. It’s the essence of the American Dream. It’s the visceral power of success and failure and drama and human desire — all those things are encapsulated in eight minutes. 

We don’t see those cameras anymore. Every Shark, we are so engrossed in the competition, the pitch, the deal, what’s happening in front of us, we forget we’re making television and just go after it. 

Every year it gets more intense. You really have to hand it to Sony and ABC and Mark Burnett and MGM. The first year, people said, this will never work, nobody’s interested in watching a business show. How wrong were they? Look at it now. It’s insane. I get pitched every single day, everywhere I go: I want to get on Shark Tank, how do I do it? Can you look at
my deal?

I’m not talking about just adults. I’m talking about 10-year-old kids who are inspired by this and want to pursue their own deal. I think it’s fantastic.

Shark Tank returns to ABC Oct. 16 as season 12 begins. There are two new guest Sharks, in Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms, and Kendra Scott, founder and CEO of jewelry business Kendra Scott LLC.

Shark Tank sees people pitch their business to the Sharks, with the hopes of getting them to partner on their venture. The Sharks are Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary. Former MLB star Alex Rodriguez and Daniel Lubetzky, founder and executive chairman of KIND, will also be on the new season. 

Related: 'The Goldbergs', 'The Conners' and 'Black-ish' Return to ABC Oct. 21

Mark Burnett, Clay Newbill, Yun Lingner, Max Swedlow and Phil Gurin, Brandon Wallace, Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary are the executive producers. 

Produced by MGM Television and Sony Pictures Television, the series filmed for the first time in Las Vegas, at The Venetian and Sands Expo & Convention Center.

Squatty Potty pulled an ad featuring comedian Kathy Griffin after her controversial photo holding a severed dummy head of President Donald Trump, recalling the awful images of terrorists and their victims.

Utah-based Squatty Potty, which says it has sold 4 million units following an appearance on ABC's Shark Tank, said it had pulled the ad from its new campaign in response to the photo, which had created a social media buzz Tuesday (May 30) which extended to news stories on major media.

“We were shocked and disappointed to learn about the image Ms. Griffin shared today," said Squatty Potty CEO Bobby Edwards late Tuesday. "[I]t was deeply inappropriate and runs contrary to the core values our company stands for. In response, Squatty Potty has suspended its ad campaign featuring Ms. Griffin. We have acted swiftly and decisively to demonstrate our commitment to a culture of decency, civility, and tolerance.”

According to a video of the photo shoot, Griffin suggested to the photographer, only half jokingly, that they might have to leave the country after the picture was published. She later apologized in a video and tweet (see picture), saying she had "crossed the line" and gone "way too far," adding: "The image was too disturbing, it wasn't funny. I get it." She said was asking the photographer to take down the image.

The President tweeted early Wednesday morning: "Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!"

Anderson Cooper of CNN tweeted "For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate." Griffin has co-hosted CNN's New Year's Eve coverage, though The Hill was reporting that CNN was now "evaluating" that relationship.

It’s been called a Shark Tank for ganjapreneurs, but The Marijuana Show’s producers, Wendy Robbins and Karen Paull, think of their online reality program as more of a dolphin tank. Budding weed capitalists who come in seeking investments for, say, a car with a body made from cannabis or a seed-to-sale inventory system for marijuana dispensaries always get encouragement and help achieving their dreams.

Starting July 8, Robbins and Paull will see their own efforts pay off with broader over-the-top distribution of the show, on platforms including Amazon Prime, iTunes, Google Play and Xbox. The pair held auditions June 14 in New York for the show’s third season and said going OTT worked for them. “In terms of the [traditional] network model, they pretty much wanted to control the creative and take [us] out,” Paull said. “We want to retain the brand, the marketing, and really the back end is where we make a lot of the money” via relationships with invested companies.

Feedback from meetings, via show developers, included recommendations to change the name, and “they wanted us to make it [dumber],” Robbins said. “You know, like we are goofy people … and it’s so opposite of what we’re trying to bring in, which is a financial, educated, medicinal show.”

Half-hour episodes from season 2 will be available on the new OTT platforms first, and the producers said they have pitched outlets including Hulu, DirecTV and Netflix as well.

To find out where auditions will be held this summer — including in Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and San Diego — and to see a sample of the program, go to themarijuanashow.com.

Multichannel News is pleased to announce that ESPN reporter Shelley Smith will co-host the March 10 Wonder Women luncheon event at the New York Hilton. The event, co-sponsored by the New York chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, will honor 13 Wonder Women and 13 Women to Watch, selected by the editors of the magazine in recognition of their leadership and contributions to companies and organizations in multichannel TV and related industries.

Read more about the 18th class of Wonder Women and Women to Watch at our editorial coverage page and at the event site: mcnwonderwomen.com.

Smith joins previously announced co-hosts Lori Greiner, the entrepreneur and co-host of ABC’s Shark Tank, and Egypt Sherrod, the real-estate expert and host of HGTV’s Property Virgins and Flipping Virgins.

Shelley Smith is a four-time Emmy-winning reporter for ESPN who joined the network in January 1997. She has covered just about every sporting event in existence, and has done many long-form features and investigative stories for a multitude of shows.

A former writer-reporter at Sports Illustrated, Smith has written extensively for ESPN.com and various ESPN in-house entities. She also has written three books – Just Give Me The Damn Ball, with former New York Jets and current ESPN analyst Keyshawn Johnson; You Play to Win The Game, with former head coach and current ESPN analyst Herm Edwards; and Games Girls Play: Lessons to Guiding and Understanding Young Female Athletes.

In May 2014, Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent treatment, which ended June 2015. A recent mammogram showed no evidence of disease and she is considered cancer free.

In 2015, ESPN featured a story about Smith and her relationship with Jake Olson, whom she met as a 12-year-old about to lose his sight to cancer. Despite so many odds, Olson made his high school football team as a long snapper and this fall is a walk-on on the USC Trojans football team. Smith has documented his journey and, in the most recent feature, talked with him about their battle to beat cancer.

Smith has one daughter, Dylann Tharp, who was an All-Pac-12 Conference second team soccer player at the University of Oregon and is a freelance producer with NFL Network and other entities. In October 2015, Tharp and Smith teamed with Keyshawn Johnson to produce a 30 for 30 documentary, The Trojan War, about the 2005 USC Trojans and their appearance in the BCS national championship game against eventual victor Texas.

Smith (Twitter ID: @ShelleyESPN) continues to help spread the importance of early detection in breast and other kinds of cancers and has consulted with numerous charities, including the V Foundation, the American Cancer Society and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. In 2015, she teamed with InfiniteLimitsMedia, a production group out of Seattle, documenting her first post-treatment mammogram, done on state-of-the art 3D machinery. Entitled Triumphant, it, for the first time, gave doctors proof that the cancer is gone.

Follow Wonder Women news on Twitter (@MCNWonderWomen) and at www.multichannel.com/mcnww.

Spike TV’s  Bellator MMA 143 telecast pinned down the most social media his in an otherwise light night of activity for TV shows on Twitter.

The live mixed martial arts fight card, which featured the Joe Warren vs. LC Davis bout as its headliner, drew 6,000 tweets reaching a unique audience of 367,000 users to finish first among all entertainment shows for the evening, according to Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings figures.

Bellator beat out broadcast network shows Shark Tank (ABC), The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS) and The Amazing Race (CBS) – as well as a Lifetime’s reality series Bring It! -- for Friday’s TV social media honors, according to Nielsen