Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, October 25th, 2021
I answer some reader questions. And talk about subtle racism on television.
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, October 25, 2021. I'm writing this from the Twin Cities, where AllYourScreens HQ is listening to a Spotify list I created called "Coolest Jukebox In Your Favorite Southern Dive Bar."
PROGRAMMING NOTE
I probably don't promote AllYourScreens.com as much as I should in this newsletter. In part, it's because I've realized that the web site and the newsletter have quite different audiences. Still, I do get questions about both and I wanted to take a few paragraphs to answer a couple of the most asked ones from the past couple of weeks. Especially since I've added a number of newsletter subscribers in October. Today is a good day to do this because it is an exceptionally slow news day so far. Which of course means that the rest of the week will be insane:
Q: Why doesn't the website cover X show?
A: There are a couple of factors at play with these decisions. In part, it's a time constraint. I have a limited amount of time, so I have to do triage and decide which shows are a priority. I'll give less attention to shows I just don't find personally interesting (90 Day Fiancée, the various Real Housewives, etc.), although I will sometimes have a freelancer cover some of those shows anyway (Big Brother). I also will frequently give a lower priority to shows that all of the major trade sites are covering extensively. That decision is based on the reality of SEO. Succession might be a worthwhile show, but whatever I write about the series is going to be buried behind 200 other search results. So that's not an effective use of my time and resources.
Some of the decision making is also marketing based. To a large extent, what gets covered on the web site (and in this newsletter) is a reflection of my personal tastes and that also ends up being my "brand." I half jokingly describe myself as the digital equivalent of one of those old video store clerks who always had suggestions about what to watch - often cool things you wouldn't otherwise have been exposed to. That knowledge was valuable back then and I think it has real value in 2021. When that works, it's good for readers and for me. An example of that is my review of the new Netflix reality series Insiders, which was kinda dumped onto Netflix without much promotion last week. The review has received tons of traffic, in large part because few other sites covered it. It also helps that it is a truly insane series.
The final consideration is a bit behind-the-scenes, but it does have an impact. In the scheme of things, AllYourScreens.com is a small-ish entertainment news web site, although it is receiving well north of two million unique visitors a month. But that also makes AllYourScreens one of the biggest independent sites, and between the traffic, my long relationship with many publicists and my membership to organizations such as the TCA, I manage to get access to most of the screeners and interviews I need to do my job.
There are exceptions and that directly impacts what I cover and when. For instance, while there were new seasons of Insecure and Curb Your Enthusiasm that premiered Sunday night, I didn't devote much attention to them. And I made that decision because for whatever reason HBO and HBO Max continue to be almost impossible for me to deal with on a regular basis. Getting screeners is like pulling teeth and the only time I can get interviews is when they are set up by outside publicists. I have no idea why and I'll live without the access. But it means that while I'll have reviews and interviews this week from Netflix, Discovery, Apple TV+, Paramount+, CBS, Peacock and more, my coverage of HBO and HBO Max stuff is minimal. Which sucks, but as the old cliché goes, it is what it is.
Q: Why don't you charge for your newsletter?
A: I get this question from a lot of people (including my family). The newsletter now has more than 18,000 subscribers and if industry averages are to be believed, somewhere between 3 and 5% are likely to convert to paid subscribers. For now, the value of the newsletter being widely shared offsets the money I might make from subscriptions. I do get regular emails from people wanting to support the newsletter. So share it as much as possible. And in the next week, I am going to add an option to subscribe to the newsletter that doesn't impact anyone else. Everyone will continue to receive their M-F free newsletters. But you can "subscribe" if you wish and I'm working on some extras to send out to subscribers. I think that gives me the best of both approaches. Everyone can still get the newsletters for free. But there is also an option for readers who want to offer their financial support.
THE COMPLEXITY OF RACISM ON TELEVISION
I am certainly no expert on racism and how it has an impact on the television we see on the screen. But I do know that institutional racism can be subtle to see unless you're looking for it. And I was reminded of that by a commercial I just saw for the Food Network series Holiday Baking Championship. The ad is a spoof of a traditional Christmas movie and it comes across like 20 seconds out of every Hallmark Christmas movie you've ever seen. The couple in the commercial are a black man and a white woman.
Watching it, I'm reminded that while it's common to see a black man and a white woman on television, it's rare to see the opposite. Once you think about it, it suddenly becomes obvious that the black woman/white man is rare on television, either in commercials or in scripted programming. Why is that the case? I honestly don't know. Is it a comfort level with casting directors and producers? Is it a belief that audiences are more comfortable with one scenario than another? I haven't been able to find any studies that look at the issue. But once I noticed it, the examples seem to be everywhere on television.
This isn't the only example of casting choices that seem to have some underlying racial component. For instance, there are plenty of examples of healthy gay relationships on television. But what you rarely see are on-screen relationships that feature two black men. Once again, I don't know enough about this to say with assurance that it is happening for X reason. But it is the case and I have a feeling that it's a complex answer that no one is going to want to discuss publicly.
TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS
* The surprisingly complicated answer to the "Monty Hall Problem."
* A listing of all the new television and streaming premieres coming this week.
* Apple TV+'s first Korean-language TV series is set to premiere globally on November 4th. Dr. Brain stars Parasite star Lee Sun-kyn as a brilliant brain scientist whose family falls victim to a mysterious accident.
SEE YOU TUESDAY!
If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.