Cable news networks Fox News Channel and MSNBC continued their hot summer ratings pace, leading both the primetime and total-day charts for the first week of August.

Fox News finished first in primetime for the 10th consecutive week, averaging 2 million viewers for the week of August 1-7, followed by MSNBC with 978,000 viewers, according to Nielsen.

On a total-day basis, Fox News extended its win streak to 31 consecutive weeks with an average of 1.4 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 670,000 watchers.

It’s the fourth week in a row that Fox News and MSNBC have occupied the top two slots in both the primetime and total-day charts, Nielsen said. 

HGTV was the most watched network in both primetime (925,000 viewers) and total day (528,000 viewers.) INSP finished fourth in primetime with 816,000 viewers, followed by TLC’s 804,000 viewers.

TBS (768,000 viewers), Hallmark Channel (763,000), CNN (656,000), Discovery Channel (655,000) and Food Network (654,000) rounded out the top 10 most watched networks in primetime.

On a total-day basis, CNN (51,000 viewers), Hallmark Channel (452,000), INSP (425,000), Food Network (422,000), TV Land (383,000), USA Network (370,000), and TBS (359,000) finished among the top 10 most-watched cable networks, Nielsen reported. ■

The cable news networks, bolstered by coverage of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, locked in the top slots on both the primetime and total day cable charts last week, according to Nielsen.

Fox News led the pack with an average of 3.5 million viewers in primetime for the week of February 28 to March 6, reported Nielsen. Along with its Ukraine coverage, Fox News was led by its March 1 coverage of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, which drew 7.2 million viewers. CNN finished second with 1.8 million viewers for the week, followed by MSNBC with 1.6 million viewers. 

ESPN was fourth with 1.3 million viewers, followed by HGTV’s 1 million watchers. Food Network (823,000 viewers), TLC (816,000), History (810,000), Discovery Channel (796,000) and Hallmark Channel (769,000) rounded out the top 10 most-watched networks for the week. 

Fox News, CNN and MSNBC also held the top three spots on the total day chart, followed by HGTV, ESPN, Hallmark Channel, Food Network, INSP , TV Land and History, said Nielsen. ■   

The final season of Darren Star comedy Younger premieres on TV Land Wednesday, July 7 with two episodes. Season seven debuted on ViacomCBS sibling Paramount Plus in April. 

Younger follows Liza Miller (Sutton Foster), an editor navigating the publishing world while facing the lie she created about her age to land her dream job. In the final season, “Liza’s personal life is on shaky ground as she tries to stay true to herself,” said TV Land. After a setback at work, Kelsey (Hilary Duff) wonders about her career decisions and discovers a new creative outlet. Meanwhile, Maggie (Debi Mazar) gets cancelled.

Younger is created, executive produced and written by Darren Star, creator of Beverly Hills, 90210, Sex and the City and Emily in Paris. Tony Hernandez of JAX Media executive produces with Dottie Zicklin, Eric Zicklin and Alison Brown. ViacomCBS MTV Entertainment Studios’ Keith Cox and Antonia Covault are the executives in charge of production. 

The series is produced by Darren Star Productions and MTV Entertainment Studios.

All seven seasons of Younger are on Paramount Plus. The first five seasons aired on TV Land and season six was on Paramount Network. 

Pop TV will simulcast its March 24 premiere of One Day at a Time with sister ViacomCBS services TV Land and Logo, the network said Thursday.

The series, which debuts its fourth season on Pop Tv after three seasons on Netflix, follows the lives of a Cuban American family and stars Justina Machado and Rita Moreno. The series is based on producer Norman Lear’s 1975 series of the same name.

Pop TV’s One Day At A Time episodes will follow all-new episodes of the final season of Schitt’s Creek before moving to its permanent 9 pm time slot on April 14th.

A slew of new and returning series on deck this week to premiere on cable and streaming services.

On June 16 HBO premieres its new drama Euphoria starring Zendaya, while Showtime debuts its crime drama City On The Hill. The first episode of the series, which stars Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge (pictured), is already available online.

With regard to returning shows, OWN debuts the fourth season of its drama series Queen Sugar on June 12 while Netflix premieres the third and final season of Netflix’s series Marvel’s Jessica Jones.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

June 10 -- Straight Forward (drama series) – Acorn Tv

June 11 – Pose (returning series) –FX

June 11 – Ice On Fire (documentary) – HBO

June 12 – Krypton (returning series) – Syfy

June 12 – Younger (returning series) – TV Land

June 13 – Baskets (returning series) – FX

June 13 – Strange Angel (drama series) – CBS All Access

June 14 – Absentia (retuning series) – Prime Video

June 14 – 16 Shots (documentary) – Showtime

June 14 – Jett (drama series) – Cinemax

June 14 – Los Espookys (comedy series) – HBO

June 14 – Murder Mystery (comedy movie) – Netflix

TV Land will bring back its dramedy series Younger for its sixth season in June, the network said Tuesday.

The Darren Star-created series, which stars Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff,  will return on June 12, according to the network. Season five of Younger, which aired in summer 2018,  was its highest-rated season to date among adults 18-49 in Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings, said TV Land. 

Younger is created, executive produced and written by Star, with Tony Hernandez, Dottie Zicklin, Eric Zicklin and Alison Brown also serving as executive producers and writers on the series.

Just ahead of its fifth season premiere, TV Land's dramedy series Younger has been renewed for a sixth season, the network said Mondayty (June 4).

The series, which stars Sutton Foster, Hilary Duff, Debi Mazar, Miriam Shor, Nico Tortorella, Peter Hermann, Molly Bernard and Charles Michael Davis, returns for its fifth season Tuesday night (June 5), according to the network. 

The series, in which Foster plays Liza Miller -- a 40-something woman who lies about her age in order to get a job in the highly competitive world of publishing -- is coming off its most watched season in series history, finishing season four as the top-rated cable sitcom with women 18-49 and women 25-54, according to TV Land.

“Younger exemplifies romantic comedy at its best and each season the show hits new creative and ratings heights,” said Kevin Kay, president, TV Land, CMT and Paramount Network in a statement. “We are honored to continue to work with the brilliant Darren Star and this amazing cast, led by the multi-talented Sutton Foster. The new season is outstanding and we are thrilled for what’s to come for these beloved characters.”

Younger is created, executive produced and written by Darren Star, with Tony Hernandez, Dottie Zicklin and Eric Zicklin serving as executive producers and writers on the series, said TV Land.

As we near the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City’s premiere, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong releases her book Sex and the City and Us: How Four Single Women Changed the Way We Think, Live and Love. Keishin Armstrong, who also wrote the Seinfeld deep dive Seinfeldia and Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, chose Sex and the City for a book because of the effect it had on her life. The introduction details the author, emboldened by the show, leaving her fiancé in the early 2000s.

“It was very personal to me, and I don’t think I’m alone,” she said.

Keishin Armstrong landed interviews with Sarah Jessica Parker, Darren Star, Michael Patrick King, Kristin Davis and other key figures involved with the series. She supplements those with published reviews and think pieces about its six-season run on HBO.

Which episodes stand out? One entitled “My Motherboard, My Self,” from season four, which sees the women rally around Miranda when her mother dies. “It’s the absolute essence of the show,” Keishin Armstrong said.

She noted Sex and the City’s “magical effect” on young women. “It changed people’s lives,” she said. “It changed so much about the way we date, the way we talk about sex.”

A new season of Teachers begins on TV Land June 5. Season three offers surprises, star and executive producer Katy Colloton promised. “We’ve done 30 episodes, and wanted to change it up a bit,” she said. “We introduce some new characters and explore new territory.”

One episode offers an homage to The Walking Dead. A student has lice, prompting the teachers, in ponchos and hairnets, to wander the halls like the living dead. “It’s a fun twist on zombie movies,” Colloton said.

Teachers features six stars that also write and produce: Colloton, Caitlin Barlow, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O’Brien and Katie Thomas, collectively known as the Katydids. Each has her own style of comedy, said Colloton, be it bathroom humor or something more sophisticated. “It ends up being something everyone can enjoy,” she said.

What style of humor does Colloton bring? Physical. “I just want to be Lucille Ball,” she said.

The fallout from Roseanne Barr’s racist Twitter comments continued Tuesday afternoon as several Viacom networks announced the removal of reruns from the original Roseanne series beginning tomorrow.

A Viacom spokesman confirmed that the Paramount Network, CMT and TV Land will discontinue its carriage of episodes from the 1990s Roseanne series beginning May 30. 

RELATED: ABC Cancels 'Roseanne' over Racist Twitter Remarks 

The decision comes after the series’ star Roseanne Barr released a racist Twitter rant earlier in the day in which she likened former President Obama adviser Valarie Jarrett to an offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes.”

Hours after the Tweet -- which Barr eventually removed and apologized  for -- ABC cancelled its successful Roseanne reboot, which had already been renewed for a second season.

Comedy-themed broadcast diginet service Laff also announced that it will no longer carry Roseanne episodes. The network said in a statement: “While we believe viewers have always distinguished the personal behavior of the actress Roseanne Barr from the television character Roseanne Connor, we are disgusted by Barr’s comments this week. Therefore, we are removing the original Roseanne series from the Laff schedule for the time being, effective immediately.”

Viacom has named Jennifer Zaldivar-Clark senior VP of talent for Paramount Network, which launches in January 2018.

Zaldivar-Clark will also continue to serve as SVP of talent and communications for Viacom’s TV Land.

Related: Executive Shuffle Continues at Viacom’s TVLand

She reports to Kevin Kay, president of Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT, with a dotted-line relationship to Frank Tanki, TV Land general manager.

“Jen has an innate ability to develop and maintain strong relationships with talent and the creative community,” Kay said. “She has significantly elevated the TV Land brand and expanded its footprint across the entertainment business in new and creative ways. Jen’s leadership will be instrumental to the success of Paramount Network as a premier destination for top-tier talent across the industry.”

Read Kay's staff memo about Zaldivar-Clark at broadcastingcable.com.

Tv Land’s original dramedy series Younger set a series ratings record with its June 28 fourth season premiere, network officials said.

The series, which stars Sutton Foster as a 40-year old woman who pretends to be 26 in order to secure a publishing job, averaged 1.3 million viewers four its fourth season premiere -- a double-digit increase compared to the prior season’s premiere episode, according to network officials.

Younger, created by Darren Star, also stars Hilary Duff, Debi Mazar, Miriam Shor, Nico Tortorella, Peter Hermann and Molly Bernard.

Hulu will stream the first three seasons of TV Land’s dramedy series Younger ahead of next week’s season four premiere as part of a deal between the OTT service and Viacom.

All past episodes of the series, which stars Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff, are now available to stream on Hulu, according to company officials. Younger premieres its fourth season on June 28. 

The series, which has already been greenlit for a fifth season, is created, executive produced and written by Darren Star, with Dottie Zicklin and Eric Zicklin also serving as executive producers and writers on the series. 

Younger is the latest series from a Viacom-owned network to secure streaming rights with Hulu, joining CMT's Nashville, and Comedy Central's Broad City and South Park.

TV Land has renewed two of its veteran scripted series Younger and Teachers for new seasons to debut in 2018, the network said Thursday.

Drama series Younger, which will launch its fourth season June 28, will return next year with a 12-episode fifth season, said the network. The series stars Sutton Foster as a 40-year old woman who pretends to be 26 in order to get a job in the highly competitive world of publishing.

Teachers, which revolves around a group of flawed elementary school teachers, will return for a 20-episode third season in 2018. The second half of Teachers’ sophomore campaign launches this fall, said the network.

In addition, the network has greenlit a second season of the Melissa McCarthy-produced comedy series Nobodies. The series, which stars Hugh Davidson, Larry Dorf and Rachel Ramras, is currently airing on the network.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be bringing back Younger and Teachers for more seasons and double down on our dedication to creating smart, funny, honest and compelling originals,” said Frank Tanki. Tv Land general manager in a statement.

TV Land, one of the networks designated as non-core by new Viacom CEO Bob Bakish, has named Frank Tanki as general manager.

In Viacom’s recently revised structure, TV Land reports into Kevin Kay, president of Spike TV, a core Viacom network that will be undergoing a brand change to become the Paramount Network.

Since the restructuring, TV Land’s president of development and production Keith Cox was promoted to president of development and production for both Paramount and TV Land, while Sharon Levy, TV Land’s executive VP of original series, left the network.

Tanki most recently served as executive VP, brand marketing and creative for Spike.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Pasadena -- TV Land has ordered anthology series Heathers to series, the network announced during its Television Critics Association presentation Friday.

The 10-episode series, based on the 1988 film of the same name, will debut this fall. Shannen Doherty, who starred in the movie, will guest star in the series in a pivotal, unnamed character role, according to the network.

"Our take on Heathers is a cinematic, surprising and twisted comedy that gives a wonderful nod to the film while also creating something entirely on its own,” said Keith Cox, president of development and production for TV Land in a statement.

Cox also announced that the network has greenlit a second season of Nobodies prior to the March 29 debut of the series. The Melissa McCarthy/Ben Falcone-produced series will premiere its second season in 2018, said the network.

Related: George Lopez talks about his TV Land show 'Lopez.'

TV Land announced has commissioned a second season order of comedy series Lopez, officials said Friday.

The series, starring and executive produced by stand-up comedian and actor George Lopez, revolves around the comedian’s life as he struggles with fame and wanting to give back to the Latino community where he grew up.

The Lopez season one finale airs June 22, according to the network.

The series is also executively produced and written by John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky (Silicon Valley, King of the Hill), Michael Rotenberg (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) and Troy Miller.

Few television personalities are as versatile as George Lopez. For nearly two decades, the comedian-actor has starred in numerous television stand-up comedy specials, movies and series — as well as a late-night cable talk show. Lopez, who currently stars in TV Land’s original comedy series Lopez, spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about his childhood love for cable TV, as well as adapting to the TV industry’s ever changing technological landscape. Edited highlights follow.

MCN:Growing up were you a big television viewer?

George Lopez: Listen, I’m an only child and I was kinda like a shut-in. So, the day that I got cable, I was living with my grandmother. Man, that day changed my life. From sports to the news, it was great. It must have been like when people heard radio for the first time. Before that you had four or five channels that would show Gilligan’s Island or maybe Gomer Pyle. Then when cable came, man, it exploded everything.

MCN:So much has changed since the early cable days. Have you kept up with the all the new distribution platforms?

GL: Now when you buy a TV, it comes with the apps and everything, and there’s a DVR in my cable. And to think that it keeps reinventing itself almost daily. They’re not really so wrapped up in ratings and numbers and demographics and minute-by-minute viewership. In network, there’s a lot more constriction than in cable.

MCN:Has TV Land given you more creative freedom forLopezthan you had when you didThe George Lopez Showon ABC?

GL: TV Land, with the new show Lopez, is probably the first place that allowed me to be creative and didn’t have negative comments or unsupportive things to say, not during the first episode or the 12th. Like, when I went to TV Land, [The] Jim Gaffigan [Show] was premiering last year, and they have Younger, Teachers, Impastor; they’ve got good shows. They still honor a little bit of the history with the Icon Awards, but they allow me to do a show that I couldn’t do at ABC. They are the best place I’ve ever been to create.

MCN:The landscape is changing so much in terms of what we see and how we watch it, particularly with the emergence of video on the Web. From your perspective, are we going in the right direction, or is technology actually hurting the entertainment business?

GL: I was telling Arsenio [Hall] that we came up in a time when if you wanted to get good, you had to leave the house. And now, you don’t really have to leave the house to get a following or to be known. You never have to leave your house. In a way it’s very impersonal. So it used to be cool to say, ‘I saw Bruce Springsteen’s last performance at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles.’ But now somebody can say, ‘Oh yeah, I downloaded the concert on YouTube.’ So that’s not a good direction, I would say.

MCN:At the same time though, some people say this is the Golden Age of Content, in that there are so many ways of getting content distributed. Do you see yourself taking advantage of the full landscape of distribution opportunities that digital affords you?

GL: Yeah, no question about that. But also I think that I’m fortunate enough to have a built-in audience already. I would not want to be an unknown trying to get a show off the ground. My first show’s still on TV from 2002, so I would not want to be a young comedian trying to get a show off the ground who does not have an audience. It seems like the whole weight of the Internet, cable and everything would be on you, because of the amount of options that you have to compete with.

MCN:WhenThe George Lopez Showcame out in the early 2000s, there were very few people of color starring in major shows. Have we made significant progress, or is there still progress to be made?

GL: Well, there’s still progress to be made in everything, but I think that it’s much more — you know, Jane the Virgin and Empire and shows like that. What we need to do is not entirely have a black show, but have a show that looks like the country looks. Like in this show, there’s people of all races in it because when I do my shows, I like them to look the way the world looks. Not like a Woody Allen movie or not like a show that’s entirely black. One of the things growing up, you would see a McDonald’s commercial, and [there] would be a white McDonald’s commercial, and [there] would be a black McDonald’s commercial, and then there’d be a commercial in Spanish that had all Latinos. And when you go to Mc- Donald’s, everybody’s eating at the same place at the same time. So definitely, when I did my shows, I had an eye to make [them] look as inclusive as the world is.

MCN:In terms of what you want to do going forward — I was reading a story where you may have some political aspirations down the line?

GL: I think maybe in Season 3 I run for mayor on the show. And then we spin off that, I actually do run for mayor. Because it’s based kind of like a Curb Your Enthusiasm, so if you floated it out there I think you would get a good feel of what the possibility would be. Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for governor — no political experience. Donald Trump is running for president — no political experience. Ronald Reagan became president — was an actor. So maybe it’s time.

MCN:What do you make of this whole political season?

GL: Well it’s not very political anymore, if you have a guy that has not revealed any plan other than just to divide people … and ‘my wife’s prettier than your wife’ thing. There’s no place in politics [for that]. Your wife’s a mail-order bride; you picked the right page. So, I’d like it to go back to the issues. The president was never un-presidential. Anybody that was running for president, you wanted them to look and sound like they could be president, not that they were doing it on a whim. It’s not even anywhere near November, and I don’t think we’ve seen the craziest things that are gonna happen yet.

Several cable networks have put their ratings faith into scripted dramas and comedies that have church- and religion-based themes as a backdrop.

Shows ranging from dramas like OWN’s upcoming Greenleaf, starring Oprah Winfrey; Bounce TV’s first original series, Saints & Sinners; and AMC’s DC Comics-driven Preacher to comedies like TV Land’s The Soul Man and Impastor feature religious overtones that networks say help bless the show’s main storyline and characters — who often than come across more as sinners than saints.

“The shows provide a fresh perspective of the world that we know,” Ri-Karlo Handy, senior vice president of original programming for multicast network Bounce TV, said about the new church-themed drama series Saints & Sinners. “We’re not being overly religious, but instead are showing real, flawed characters that often make mistakes even in the midst of the church.”

TRACK RECORD OF RATINGS WINS

Church- and religious-themed original movies and limited series have generated strong numbers in recent years. History’s five-episode series The Bible averaged more than 13 million viewers in 2013, while National Geographic Channel’s original movie Killing Jesus set a ratings record last March with 3.7 million viewers. (Nat Geo will target the faith-based audience in a different way on April 3 with the new docuseries The Story of God With Morgan Freeman.)

Until recently, though, there have been very few scripted drama or comedy series on television that have featured the church or religion as a main component of a show’s storyline. Unlike reality or Bible-based documentary shows, which tend to have a more preachy focus, scripted dramas and comedies focus less on theology and more on the human and often-flawed characters within the church, executives said.

For African-American targeted network Bounce TV, Saints & Sinners, which stars Vanessa Bell Calloway (Coming to America) and Gloria Ruben (ER) and follows the conflicts among members of a small-town Georgia Baptist church, drew a network-record 1.5 million cumulative viewers for the episode that bowed March 13.

“Our audience is one that really likes the drama and the characters, and this is a great new backdrop that they haven’t seen,” Handy said.

“Not every character in our show is a devout Christian, but they have some sort of connection to the church, whether good, bad or indifferent.”

OWN also hopes to draw religious and non-religious viewers to Greenleaf, which debuts in June. The show, the first scripted series in which network CEO Oprah Winfrey will have a recurring acting role, follows a powerful and influential family and their Memphis, Tenn., megachurch.

Greenleaf gives the network a way to reach its core viewers with drama, as it did with the Tyler Perry-created series The Haves and the Have Nots, but this time with a show that probes religious themes, OWN president Erik Logan said.

“We find this arena to be compelling and interesting … there hasn’t been a lot of exploration to date in it, and I think it’s an area where we see opportunity to put real characters and real situations on screen for storytelling purposes,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s about all the challenges that a large family has, but the background that the church provides is a very interesting and compelling stage for us to have this story and have these very rich and diverse characters talk from.”

‘SOMETHING LARGER AT PLAY’

TV Land has approached religion afrom a comedy standpoint with freshman series Impastor, about a gambling addict who ends up stealing the identity of a gay pastor, and The Soul Man, which stars Cedric the Entertainer as a superstar singer who returns to lead his father’s church.

The Soul Man, which launches its fifth and final season March 30, is TV Land’s most watched show among African-Americans.

The religious themes add a new wrinkle to the show’s overall characters and storylines, TV Land executive vice president of development and original programming Keith Cox said.

“While the church is a background element in every episode, it’s really just a touchstone for the idea that there’s always something larger at play,” Cox said.

Amid overall ratings struggles for its parent company Viacom’s portfolio of cable networks, TV Land is looking to build its ratings fortunes by repositioning itself as a comedy-centric network focusing on a 25-54 audience, which is a departure from its previous target audience of 50-plus baby boomers. The network has traded earlier, older-skewing original shows like Hot in Cleveland for new comedies slash dramas like Younger, starring Sutton Foster as a 40-year-old mother trying to pass herself off as 26 to land her dream job, and the upcoming  Lopez series, in which comedian George Lopez plays himself as a Latino comedian who tries to balance the spoils of his success with his humble beginnings. Leading the network’s programming charge is Keith Cox, TV Land’s executive vice president of development and original programming. Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead and Cox spoke after the network’s upfront presentation in New York about the network’s repositioning, as well as some of the challenges it faces in a crowded programming environment. Here are some edited highlights.

MCN:How would you define the TV Land brand?

Keith Cox: The DNA for the channel has always been great comedies. Even with our acquisitions, we curated the best comedies that the broadcast networks offered. At the time, my role to augment that was to make multicam comedies like Hot in Cleveland that featured great casts and fun concepts. But now the TV landscape has become so crowded, with 400-plus shows. For comedies, it’s especially hard to get traction, unlike the great dramas that people are driven toward mostly because of serialized storytelling. Big things can happen in dramas — the killing off of main characters and other big surprises — that aren’t really done in comedy.

So where we mutated a bit is staying in comedy, but adding more dramatic elements; nobody’s really doing that in a half-hour sitcom. Our first foray into that was [producer] Darren Star’s Younger, and then we launched [dark comedy] Impastor, which has a big mystery element built in into it. So yes it’s an evolution, but it’s not a total rebrand because we’re still in the comedy space.

MCN:So if the brand has evolved, has your target audience changed as well from baby boomers over 50 to a younger audience?

KC: It was boomers, but they have aged, so now we’re looking at Gen X. We do like people with life experience … we sell adults 25-54, but we’re leaning more 18-49. We wanted to do something real and less fabricated, which is a risk, but it stands out for the audience.

MCN:How do you appeal to a younger audience while serving your core viewers?

KC: Through shows like Younger, which was our first soap and is working for us — we’ve just picked up our third season. With the Lopez show, I’ve always been a George Lopez fan and he knows how to push buttons but there is a lot of likeability there. He’s basically playing himself and he has a distinct voice. He really goes into some dark places, but it’s really funny. It’s a nice balance and it’s really a different genre and I’m excited about that.

MCN:What are the challenges you face as a programmer within a very crowded multichannel environment?

KC: There is a lot of TV in the marketplace and it’s hard to create urgency with the comedy genre. With Game of Thrones crazy stuff happens and people talk about it; The Walking Dead is eye-popping. Comedies are harder: they are there but you can catch them almost anytime, there isn’t as much urgency. People want spectacular television, so we need figure out how to add that drama into our comedies. You want to tell stories that invest the audience — we need to develop superfans. If you try to build it for everybody, it loses its voice.

There’s also a need for more diverse writers. That’s a challenge, but it’s an exciting challenge for us.

The realities of scripted TV show pitching, evaluating and promoting were shared with The Content Show attendees during a lively opening panel that followed a keynote conversation with Donny Deutsch Wednesday.

Pearlena Igbokwe (pictured, right), executive vice president of drama development for NBC Entertainment, had a popularly-tweeted comment when she estimated she heard 400 show pitches from July to October yearly. Of those, perhaps 50 scripts are ordered into development, eight shows gets pilot orders and four get series orders. “It’s quite a lottery,” she said.

Igbokwe, a former Showtime content executive, said broadcast networks are under competitive pressure to produce shows that don’t feel like traditional network fare, and don’t have the luxury some streamed series seem to have of audiences watching four or five episodes before deciding they like a show. NBC needs “eyepopping” first, second and third episodes “because every week you need to earn the viewer’s attention.”

Kim Rosenblum, EVP of digital, creative and marketing at Viacom-owned TV Land, said that network has evolved the way it approaches and markets original series from when Hot In Cleveland launched in 2010 and Younger debuted in 2015. TV Land is more willing now to make deals that have somewhat less favorable economics for the network in the first season -- provided the first season sets the stage for continued success in later seasons, she said.

Network marketers also must constantly go through social media sites looking for comments about a show and communicate with those fans and create a fear of missing out that will keep drawing in new viewers, Rosenblum said. “We go and read every comment on every social platform and find where the fans are and then just start to talk to them directly to try to snowball it, to try to get those people to talk about it, to bring up the next week and the next week,” she said. 

Shows also hope their stars will exploit social followings to help bring in viewers, panelists (questioned by Leftfield Entertainment CEO Brent Montgomery) said. Younger’s Hilary Duff, for example, can help by promoting the show, but then the network has to work and build on those new leads, not rely on Duff to do all the marketing, Rosenblum said.

Lisa Honig, senior EVP, program distribution, The Americas, for FremantleMedia (pictured, left), agreed that shows need to have buzz as part of the package and get talent to commit to help marketing. Chris Donahue, president of Paulist Productions, said original ideas are still paramount: his studio successfully pitched a series about cryogenics and what happens when frozen people come back to life.

Igbokwe stressed that the real key to successful scripted shows is great storytelling.

The Content Show continues today and tomorrow at The Park Central Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

TV Land has greenlit a new comedy series starring comedian/actor George Lopez, the network said Tuesday.

The 12-episode, single-camera series will follow Lopez as he struggles with his celebrity status, which has left him too rich to go back to his working class, Latino roots and too “brown" to feel comfortable in his affluent celebrity life, according to TV Land officials.

John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky (Silicon Valley,King Of The Hill) will write and executive produce the series, according to TV Land.

“We are excited to produce a series around iconic comedian George Lopez that reveals him in a hilarious, yet brutally honest way” says Keith Cox, Executive Vice President of Development and Original Programming. “George is constantly reinventing himself and as TV Land continues its evolution, we can’t wait to tell his story from a fresh, innovative perspective.”

The series marks Lopez’s return to television after a stint on FX with Saint George, which was not renewed after a 10-episode run. 

The announcement comes one day after TV Land cancelled another comedy series, The Execs, after four seasons, according to reports. The network also announced late last month that it will end comedy series The Soul Man after its fifth season.

In the wake of the controversy over the Confederate flag, TV Land has pulled episodes of the iconic 1980’s series Dukes of Hazzard.

A Tv Land spokesperson confirmed the network’s removal Monday of the classic series, in which the main characters played by John Schneider and Tom Wopat rode in a 1969 Dodge Charger with the Confederate battle flag on its roof.

The network would not give a reason for pulling the series, which ran on CBS from 1979 to 1985. The decision however, comes amid a national debate over the symbolism and use of the flag.

The network had just started running Dukes Of Hazzard June 10th twice daily during the late afternoon time period.

TV Land last November pulled episodes of The Cosby Show after the comedian faced new and renewed allegations of sexual assault from numerous women.

TV Land will develop a single-camera comedy series inspired by the life of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards.

The project, set in the 1970s and inspired by Richards’ childhood being raised by a single mom, will be executively produced by John Riggi (30 Rock), John Wells (Shameless, ER) and Andrew Stearn (Shameless), according to the network. Richards will serve co-executive producer.

“We are beyond thrilled to be working with Warner Horizon Television and all of these amazing talents – John Riggi, John Wells, Andrew Stearn and, of course, Kyle Richards,” said Keith Cox, executive vice president of development and original programming for TV Land, in a statement. “This project, the caliber of the people behind it, and its fearless authenticity brings TV Land to new heights.”

Nickelodeon will simulcast Saturday’s Kids’ Choice Awards across several cable networks as well as online, the network said Thursday.

The 28th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards will air simultaneously on Nickelodeon, TeenNick, Nicktoons and TV Land, and will be streamed live on Nick.com and the Nick App beginning at 8 p.m., said network officials. The simulcast will mark the first time the annual event will air live outside of the Nickelodeon kids network.

Immediately following the Kids Choice Awards, Nick will air an episode of its new animated series Harvey Beaks, created and executive produced by C.H. Greenblatt (Chowder), said network officials.  

A day after MTV veteran Van Toffler said he was stepping down as part of a sweeping Viacom restructuring, TV Land president Larry Jones said he too would be leaving the programmer.

Toffler, who had been with Viacom for 28 years and was one of the executives that pioneered the MTV brand, announced Tuesday that he will step down as president of MTV Networks Music & Logo group in April to start a new venture as an independent producer.

Jones, who has been with Viacom since 1998,  announced his departure as part of a major corporate restructuring at the parent company that is expected to be unveiled as soon as this week.

“It’s truly not an overstatement to say that I have loved every second of being at TV Land for the past 18 years as part of my 27 years with Viacom,” Jones said in a memo to staff.  “With that said, due to the restructuring, I will be stepping down from my role with the company.”

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman hinted at the restructuring in a recent conference call with analysts to discuss quarterly results. In his own memo to staff after the Toffler resignation, Dauman said that more details of the transition would come shortly.

Viacom has been plagued by ratings declines and sagging advertising revenue. In the fiscal first quarter, domestic ad sales were down 6%.

TV Land has been undergoing a transformation from classic TV reruns to more original programming, like Sex and the City creator Darren Star’s Younger,  set to premiere on March 31 and new comedies,Impastorand Teachers, all aimed at attracting a younger audience.

Here is Jones’ memo in its entirety:

To My TV Land Family,

It’s truly not an overstatement to say that I have loved every second of being at TV Land for the past 18 years as part of my 27 years with Viacom.  With that said, due to the restructuring, I will be stepping down from my role with the company.

I am so proud of the work we have accomplished over the years and especially excited about the new initiatives we have coming up on TV Land.  The channel is on the verge of amazing things and I’m constantly impressed by the team of people who have worked tirelessly to make it all happen.  This has been so much more than a job to me and as I have often said to all of you, I always felt we were on a mission... a mission to be successful, to be creative and to make something that we could all be unapologetically proud of each and every day. It’s that mission that made it so easy to come to “work” everyday and be with all of you and for that, I thank you.

I am so happy to have been a part of the great legacy of this network.  The great thing about television and all the platforms we now exist on is that I will be able to watch you every step of the way as you continue on the mission…

Peace.

L

While three programmers have already retreated, several cable networks are mulling over whether or not to pull programming featuring beleaguered comedian Bill Cosby after a rash of alleged assault charges by numerous women have threatened to derail the popular comic’s career and legacy.

Cosby during the past week or so has faced a barrage of renewed and new allegations from multiple women accusing him of sexually assaulting them over the years. Cosby has denied the allegations through a statement from his lawyer, but refused to answer direct questions about them during an interview that aired Nov. 15 on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.

In light of the accusations, upstart African-American targeted network Aspire said it is “closely monitoring the situation” before determining whether or not to pull the 1970’s sitcom The Bill Cosby Show and/or the 1960’s drama series I Spy starring Cosby from its lineup.

Centric, which airs the 1980’s sitcom The Cosby Show, said it is not removing the show from its schedule as of right now. TV One also isn’t dropping A Different World, a The Cosby Show spinoff series created by Cosby.

Several networks have dropped their support of upcoming projects featuring Cosby or have removed shows starring Cosby from their lineupsdue to the controversy. A TV Land spokesperson confirmed it has pulled the popular The Cosby Show from the network’s lineup but would not comment further.

TV Land will pull episodes of The Cosby Show from its upcoming Thanksgiving holiday marathon of comedy sitcoms which also includes Everybody Loves Raymond and I Love Lucy.

NBC said earlier this week it will not move forward with plans to develop a family comedy series around Cosby, which followed Netflix’s decision to indefinitely delay the release of the comedian’s stand-up special Cosby 77.

TV Land's The Soul Man, starring Cedric "The Entertainer" and wife Niecy Nash, has named Bill Martin and Mike Schiff showrunners, the network announced today. 

Set to premiere in 2015, comedian Sherri Shepherd will also return to the sitcom for 10 of the 12 episodes. 

Executive producers include Cedric and Suzanne Martin, as well as Eric C. Rhone, Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner of Hazy Mills Productions.

The show centers around Reverend Boyce “The Voice” Ballentine (Cedric) and his wife Lolli as the once R&B singer takes on his new St. Louis life.

TV Land has ordered two new single-camera comedies, Impastor and Teachers, to debut in 2015.

Impastor, a single-camera comedy from Christopher Vane (Wings), stars Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville), Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect), Aimee Garcia (Dexter), Mircea Monroe (Episodes), Mike Kosinski (The Second City Chicago), and David Rasche (Ugly Betty) and revolves around a gambling, pot-smoking slacker on the run from a loan shark who ends up posing as the new gay pastor in a small, tight-knit town.

Teachers revolves around six elementary school teachers who are trying to mold the minds and lives of America’s youth, even though they don’t really seem to have their own lives together at all. 

“Ten-episode first seasons of Impastor and Teachers are perfect examples of the type of comedies we’re looking for as TV Land evolves its original series – innovative, unconventional, and hilariously funny for an audience that enjoys smart humor with a hint of heart,” said Jones.