Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, October 19th, 2023

Hollywood's stars are not like us, and I don't mean that in a good way.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, October 19th, 2023. 

JON STEWART, APPLE TV+ END 'THE PROBLEM' FOLLOWING CREATIVE DISPUTES
The NY Times broke the news today that the Apple TV+ interview series The Problem With Jon Stewart is halting a previously announced third season following disagreements over whether or not the show would be able to cover topics that made the tech company uncomfortable:

But Mr. Stewart and Apple executives had disagreements over some of the topics and guests on “The Problem,” two of the people said. Mr. Stewart told members of his staff on Thursday that potential show topics related to China and artificial intelligence were causing concern among Apple executives, a person with knowledge of the meeting said. As the 2024 presidential campaign begins to heat up, there was potential for further creative disagreements, one of the people said.

While kudos to the newspaper for breaking the story, the piece provided zero context about why Apple might be nervous about an episode that focused on China. (Spoiler: they don’t want to annoy the government & risk their iPhone business). The article also lumped this cancellation in with other failed streaming only talks shows. Which is an incorrect narrative about what is happening here. The other shows being cited had their own issues. but censorship was not one of them:

Now “The Problem” will join the many other talk shows that failed to survive in the streaming world, including ones hosted by Sarah Silverman, Norm Macdonald, Chelsea Handler and Joel McHale. Netflix, which made several attempts at a talk show, has moved on from the format.

The problem for Stewart or anyone else hoping to create a talk show that focuses on uncomfortable political issues is that any large streamer (or traditional media company) has global interests and no stomach for annoying authoritative governments around the world. And that's not just in China, but in the Middle East, Pakistan and India and large swathes of Africa.

STARS ARE NOT LIKE US, AND I DON'T MEAN THAT IN A GOOD WAY
A story surfaced yesterday about a call that took place between a number of "A-List celebrities" and the top negotiators at SAG-AFTRA. The stars had some suggestions on how the now-suspended negotiations might be moved forward. And in what I am sure will be a shock to all of you, the idea is pretty dumb.

I posted an opinion piece earlier today entitled Even During A Strike, Some SAG-AFTRA's A-Listers Want To Be The Star Of The Show, and I somewhat leaned into my natural inclination to be a grump. Everything about the story annoyed me. From the goofball idea itself to Deadline ending one story describing the proposal with a sentence that would embarrass the biggest super-fan:

It seems admirable that this group is willing to kick in this amount of money to move the negotiations to a close.

Go read the piece. I suspect my cardiologist would prefer I not recount my point of view on this subject again today.

VANITY FAIR SETS IT SIGHTS ON BRAVO'S 'REAL HOUSEWIVES' FRANCHISE
Page Six is reporting that Vanity Fair is preparing to publish a deeply reported probe into the complicated relationships between Bravo and its stars. Given the added attention the shows have received from critics in recent months, this isn't a surprise. But based on the sparse details in the NY Post piece, my hunch is that someone got word there was an expose coming, but couldn't nail down any details. But that small fact was enough to justify a stand-alone article:

Sources say that a reporter for the famed magazine has been interviewing cast members and other sources around the “Real Housewives” franchise for some six months, and that the piece is slated to appear in the coming weeks.

A reporter for the magazine? That's just about as vague as you can get. Still, this franchise is ripe for an expose and I suspect we are going to see a lot of reporting over the next few months that targets some of the worst of the behavior in reality (or "unscripted") television.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO FIND REGULAR TV FOOTBALL GAME COVERAGE ENTIRELY TOO BORING
Sports Business Journal is reporting that the NFL+ is offering its subscribers two alternate streams for all of its live games, beginning this weekend. The new alt-casts are the NFL+ Vision Stream, which will apply AI logic to show advanced metrics, and the NFL+ Stats Stream, which will identify skill players and list their box score stats:

Among the more compelling Vision Stream metrics is a colorful cue to indicate open receivers, with the aim of educating fans and evaluating quarterback play. “Broadcast does it a lot in replay,” Herold said. “This will do it live -- ‘This person is open, not was open.’” These two new features soft-launched for select games last weekend and with no marketing, as NFL Media tested the technical viability, discoverability and stickiness. Having passed that, it rolls out to all games this weekend as the first step in a multi-year product road map.

ODDS AND SODS
* Emily Horgan has a really informative breakdown of the recent announcement that Skydance Animation, which is currently headed by John Lasseter, left Apple TV+ for a new deal with Netflix. If you have any interest in the kids TV sector, Emily's newsletter is a must-read.

* Proving that we are indeed living in the dumbest timelines, The Atlantic has a piece about the sudden rise of a "MAGA Bluey" Facebook page, which is just as troubling as you might expect.

* Netflix has renewed Sweet Magnolias for a fourth season. Speaking of conventional wisdom,  I was under the impression that Netflix canceled everything after two seasons. Also, the show has been getting 10-episode seasons, which is not that much shorter than the 13-episode seasons a lot of newer broadcast dramas have received in recent years.

* Prime Video has ordered a second season of the series Gen V, which is set in the same universe as its hit series The Boys.

* Veteran showrunner John Shiban is taking over as showrunner for Law & Order: Organized Crime, which is set to premiere its fourth season sometime in "mid-season" after production begins following the resolution of the SAG-AFTRA strike. The show has had a string of showrunners, beginning with the original showrunner Ilene Chaiken. Barry O'Brien was then picked as an interim showrunner and was later replaced by Bryan Goluboff. Sean Jablonski was next and was replaced by David Graziano in the middle of last season. Without getting into a bunch of details, I think it's fair to say it's a challenging role, but Shiban is well respected and more than capable of navigating through strong personalities and opposing visions.

GRAPH OF THE DAY
Antenna recently teamed up with Adobe on a custom analysis to better understand the journey of the streaming subscriber and the business impact. It's worth reading the entire page of findings. But I thought this graph was especially enlightening. It shows that more than one-third of users who canceled a Premium SVOD service between Q1’21 and Q1’22 were "won-back" 12 months later. Nearly a quarter of these users were "won-back" within three (3) months after canceling:

WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND TOMORROW:

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19TH, 2023:
* Bodies (Netflix)
* Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Crashing Eid Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Crypto Boy (Netflix)
* Everyone Else Burns Series Premiere (The CW)
* God's Grace: The Sheila Johnson Story (BET+)
* Just For Kicks Series Premiere (Crackle)
* Mysteries Of The Abandoned Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Neon Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Payback Series Premiere (Britbox)
* Peter & The Wolf (Max)
* Scavengers Series Premiere (Max)
* The Burning Girls Series Premiere (Paramount+)
* Wicked City (ALLBLK)
* Wolf Like Me Season Two Premiere (Peacock)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20TH, 2023:
* Big Mouth Season Seven Premiere (Netflix)
* Bosch: Legacy Season Two Premiere (Freevee)
* Checkin' It Twice (Hallmark)
* Creature (Netflix)
* Disco Inferno (Netflix)
* Doona! Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Elite Season Premiere (Netflix)
* Flashback (Netflix)
* If You Were The Last (Peacock)
* Joe Bob's Halloween (Shudder)
* Kandasamys: The Baby (Netflix)
* Night Of The Hunted (AMC+/Shudder)
* Old Dads (Netflix) 
* Penn & Teller: Fool Us Season Ten Premiere (The CW)
* Sayen: La Ruta Seca (Prime Video)
* Shape Island: Creepy Cave Crawl (Apple TV+)
* Silver Dollar Road (Prime Video)
* Surviving Paradise Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Pigeon Tunnel (Apple TV+)
* Upload Season Three Premiere (Prime Video)
* Vjeran Tomic: The Spider-Man Of Paris (Netflix)


Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU FRIDAY!

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.