Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Tuesday, October 19th, 2021
ABC hopes you need a 'Queen' in your life.
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, October 19th, 2021. I'm writing this from the Twin Cities, where AllYourScreens HQ is writing this while listening to the new Beatles expanded release of Let It Be that was just released.
WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN ON THE NETFLIX EARNING CALL?
Netflix will be reporting its earnings after the close of the market on Tuesday and aside from the normal speculation about subscriber numbers, a number of analysts seem to expect Ted Sarandos to take yet a third run at trying to spin the controversy over the latest Dave Chapelle comedy special.
I have no idea what will happen, but from listening to earnings calls since the very beginning of the company, I expect to hear a very carefully scripted presentation. Netflix is notorious for running a very tight ship during these calls and company executives tend to only respond to questions from a couple of friendly-ish analysts.
I think it's clear that the company is prepared to just wait out the protests and that might be a good idea at this point. But this has been a textbook case of the dangers of playing it safe with a PR response. It is interesting that no one has heard from Chappelle in recent days, which makes me suspect that Sarandos was at least able to keep him from making the situation worse by making some more "if this is what the cancel culture feels like, I love it" comments.
As for the actual earnings numbers, analysts will be looking to see how Netflix's global paid streaming subscriber base has grown. The expectation is that growth will still be lagging behind the company's previous years, but growth will be accelerated over its tepid Q2 numbers.
Analysts also expect both earnings per share (EPS) and revenue growth to rise at a steady pace in Q3 FY 2021. But that pace will be significantly slower than last year. EPS is expected to rise 46.9% while revenue is forecast to expand 16.3% compared to the year-ago quarter. That would be the slowest revenue growth Netflix has posted since at least the first quarter of FY 2017.
Overall, the expectations from analysts going into this call are restrained, which gives Netflix the opportunity to make headlines if it beats expectations. And shareholders will be happy to see an upwards surprise, so far in 2021, shares of Netflix have lagged behind the overall performance of the stock market. Which has not been the norm for the company in recent years.
BROADCAST TV WORTH CHECKING OUT
ABC is premiering its new hip-hop drama Queens tonight, starring Eve, Naturi Naughton, Nadine Velazquez and Brandy. The show follows four women in their 40s who reunite for a chance to recapture their fame and regain the swagger they had in the 1990s when they were legends of the hip-hop world. If you are a fan of that 90s vibe, you'll love the show's original music, which comes from executive music producer Swizz Beatz.
The premise might sound a bit familiar if you've seen recent shows such as Girls5Eva or Star, but showrunner and producer Zahir McGhee insists that Queens shouldn't be compared to those other shows:
"Number one, I'm not intimately familiar with them to talk about exactly what the comparisons are. We're still figuring out our show as we build it. Certainly, there's space for all those shows to exist. And I think, as I sort of said before, you know, this show is more of a musical and a character drama about these women and their lives, and second chances. And I think those shows were potentially a little more focused on the music business. And what makes this special and the right time now is we have a lot of the real people who were there doing it at the time, which gives it a certain level of authenticity.
And on this network, and most places, we don't have a show where you can have, you know, five women of color and a man of color front and center. I mean, that is just not common on ABC and not common in broadcasting media. And we have the opportunity to tell the breadth of stories about the experience of women of color and Black women in this country that isn't the pressure of Eve having to be the one Black character to say the thing that matters, right? "
While most of the group had a successful musical career back in the 1990s, Nadine Velazquez is best known as an actress. And she says that this role helped bring out a side of her she had been hiding:
"It was was an intimidating idea. But I was ready to face the things that I've been keeping from the world. So, you know, I am musical in my soul. I am a poet in my soul. I am a dancer. And she's in there. And this job is making her come out. And I've been hiding her forever. I'm going to cry. The support of Eve, and the way that Tim Story supports, and Brandy supports, they gave me life and every scene bring her out more and more. And I've had a really traumatic experience in the entertainment business, because I was so afraid to show so much. But I get to be that here. And so, like the character; it's a second chance, and it's like an opportunity to become something, to redefine myself, just like these characters are."
This is a show I'll be covering regularly on AllYourScreens and will have more extended interviews and feature pieces posting over the next couple of weeks.
TWEET OF THE DAY
Okay, this isn't a tweet. It's actually a pretty funny excerpt from the entertainment-ish oriented newsletter "The Dirt"
THE DEAL THAT BOBBY FLAY WOULDN'T MAKE
As I mentioned last week, aside from the money concerns, one of the sticking points that seemed to stand in the way between Bobby Flay and the Food Network making a new deal was Flay's unwillingness to take on the expanded multi-platform role that the Food Network is looking for from all of its personalities. To give you an idea of what that might have looked like, here is a much smaller version of that proposal.
The Food Network announced today that it had signed a new deal with its long-time personality Ina Garten and here is how the deal was described in a press release:
Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, has locked an exclusive multi-year deal with Discovery Inc. to create content across all the company’s platforms, it was announced today by Courtney White, President, Food Network and Streaming Food Content, Discovery Inc. The deal expands Garten’s reach even beyond her wildly popular Barefoot Contessa franchise with projects in the works for streaming, linear and podcasts. Her inaugural project under the deal is Be My Guest (WT), a new series in development for 2022 with a fresh take on Ina’s signature style of welcoming viewers into her home. The series is structured as a true multi-platform project with three distinct versions: an hour-long extended cut on discovery+, half hour on Food Network linear and a companion podcast.
Garten's role at Food has always been much less expansive than Flay's. But this provides a hint of what the network is looking for from its stars. Multi-platform shows, done in a range of formats and presentations. Digital-only programs, podcasts and more. It's a lot to take on and there's a good argument to be made that Flay doesn't need to do that grind anymore.
ODDS AND SODS
* Moonbug Entertainment Ltd., the company behind the hit children’s show “CoComelon,” is looking to cash in on its popularity by either selling itself or going public, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!
If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.