Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, September 3rd, 2020

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, September 3rd, 2020. I'm writing this from the Twin Cities suburbs, where AllYourScreens HQ is powered by Ginseng Tea and leftover pasta salad

NIELSEN RELEASES KINDA, SOMEWHAT INTERESTING WEEKLY SVOD RATINGS
For the first time, Nielsen released weekly SVOD "ratings," although there are enough caveats to make it almost useless. It only measures Netflix and Amazon viewing. And only in the U.S. And since they count "viewing" as watching two minutes of a show, the list is going to naturally favor broadcast shows that have a hundred or more episodes. It also only counts viewing that is done via a TV or connected television. Which leaves all mobile and tablet viewing out of the numbers.

All of that being said, it's fascinating to see the Netflix original "The Umbrella Academy" lead the list. Especially since it is in season two. I also wonder if the fact that the list ignores mobile skews the demographics of the viewers who are included. I would assume they are somewhat older than mobile viewers, which might account for some of the broadcast TV program viewing.

FORMER WRITER FOR NETFLIX SHOW SAYS SHE QUIT DUE TO 'RACIST EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE'
A writer who worked on the upcoming Netflix series Grand Army says she and several other writers left the show "due to racist exploitation and abuse."

Ming Peiffer posted the allegations to her Twitter account on Tuesday, along with some follow-up comments. She tweeted the claim in response to a tweet from Netflix promoting the show, using the logline "Together we rise. Together we rage."

Here's a bit more background about the story. I'll have a longer piece about it (along with a comment from Netflix) later in the day on the web site.

NINTENDO ROLLS OUT ITS VERSION OF THE DISNEY VAULT
Nintendo fans will experience what is essentially their version of the Disney Vault with the Mario Collection for the Nintendo Switch. "Super Mario All-Stars" collects three games into one package, which will go on sale September 18th as a limited release until March 2021. After that, the company promises the titles Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy won't be available in either physical or digital formats.

PREMIER LEAGUE CANCELS DEAL WITH CHINESE LICENSEE
The Premier League has cancelled its UK£523m Chinese rights deal with Suning Holdings-owned PPTV. The streaming service still owed the league UK£160m for the final installment of its 2019/20 fee. The broadcasting deal with Suning Holdings is believed to be the Premier League’s biggest overseas TV contract.

Suning had agreed a three-year deal with the Premier League, running from 2019 to the end of the 2022 season. The collapse of this deal will be another financial blow to the league, which is already struggling dut to pandemic-related shutowns.

Here is the full statement from the league:

"The Premier League confirms that it has today terminated its agreements for #PL coverage in China with its licensee in that territory. The #PL will not be commenting further on the matter at this stage."

KEN JENNINGS JOINS "JEOPARDY' STAFF
Jeopardy'champion Ken Jennings is joining the game show as what is being described as a "consulting producer." Jennings is expected to "present his own special video categories, develop projects, assist with contestant outreach, and serve as a general ambassador for the show." But given Alex Trebek's ongoing battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer this move has to be seen as an indication that Jennings is at least in consideration for a future hosting role on the show. In March, Trebek said that he while he had beaten the 18 percent survival rate for those who have been diagnosed for a year, his future was still "difficult and uncertain."

Jeopardy returns with new episodes on Monday, September 14th. These are the first new episodes that have aired since the show shut down production in March as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Here is a rundown of the new television programs premiering today:

1) Afonso Padilha: Alma de Pobre (Netflix)
Brazilian comedian Afonso Padilha dives into his humble beginnings and digs out hilarious stories about his childhood in this very personal set.

2) A.P. Bio Season Three Premiere (Peacock)
When disgraced Harvard philosophy scholar Jack Griffin (Glenn Howerton, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) loses out on his dream job, he is forced to return to Toledo, Ohio, and work as a high school Advanced Placement biology teacher. As he comes crashing into Whitlock High School, Jack makes it absolutely clear that he will not be teaching any biology. Realizing he has a room full of honor roll students at his disposal, Jack decides instead to use the kids’ brainpower for his own benefit. But are his students instead helping him to realize his dream job might actually be the one he has right now? Eager to prove that he is still king of the castle, Principal Durbin (Patton Oswalt, Veep) struggles to control the force of nature that is Jack Griffin.

3) Buried In The Backyard (Oxygen)
The shock of finding a loved one’s deceased body is one thing, but what happens when the body is found buried in your own home, deep in your backyard, or in the woods by your house where the kids like to play?  

4) Dr. Pimple Popper: Before The Pop Series Premiere (TLC)
Dr. Sandra Lee comes to the rescue by taking virtual appointments with patients who can’t visit her office in-person. She reviews the cases via telemedicine and offers help to people with some of the most extreme skin conditions viewers have ever seen, many which have been festering and worsening during the pandemic. And, while a big part of an in-person visit with Dr. Lee features her rolling, squeezing, pinching and touching patients' skin tissue, in the show, patients must take matters into their own hands, quite literally! Viewers will watch as patients take Dr. Lee’s careful direction and do some gentle poking and prodding themselves during their video appointments. After virtually connecting, Dr. Lee will give patients the answer they long to hear: whether or not she can help them and take them on as a patient in the future. 

5) Love, Guaranteed (Netflix)
To save her small law firm, earnest lawyer Susan (Rachael Leigh Cook) takes a high-paying case from Nick (Damon Wayans Jr.), a charming new client who wants to sue a dating website that guarantees love. But as the case heats up, so do Susan and Nick's feelings for each other. 

6) Raised By Wolves Series Premiere (HBO Max)
This new drama that was originally set for TNT centers on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet. As the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences, the androids learn that controlling the beliefs of humans is a treacherous and difficult task.

7) Release Series Premiere (Topic)
A prescient and gripping series, created and produced prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, that reveals a series of interconnected portraits from the first several months of a fictional pandemic as it strikes the quiet outskirts of an American city.

8) The Serial Killer Among Us: Phillip Jablonski  (Investigation Discovery)
When Fathyma Vann, Carol Spadoni and Eva Peterson are found murdered within days of each other across California in the spring of 1991, investigators realize they're dealing with a depraved serial killer. After a recently released convicted killer, Phillip Jablonski, is linked to all three women, police have their prime suspect. Digging into Jablonski’s background, they learn the horrifying truth about his bloodlust and fear he's about to strike again. With no way of locating him, they embark on a nationwide search hoping to bring him in before he claims another victim. When Jablonski is finally apprehended, investigators discover something far more disturbing than anything they’ve ever encountered before: a hunter with a kill list in hand, and a macabre audio diary as he claims his victims.

9) The Sounds Series Premiere (Acorn TV)
In this riveting, twisty psychological thriller, Rachelle Lefevre (Proven Innocent, Under the Dome) and Matt Whelan (The Luminaries, Narcos) star as a happily married Canadian couple who moves to a sleepy harborside town in New Zealand to start a new life – to escape the husband’s oppressive family and launch his own business venture, a salmon fishery, that will help revive the local troubled economy. But when husband Tom Cabbott disappears after he goes out kayaking, unsettling facts about him soon come to light, and the search brings long-buried wounds to the surface. As wife Maggie struggles to navigate the escalating events, it becomes clear that in this small, seemingly close-knit community of Pelorus, nothing and no one are quite what they seem. Grieving wives, cheating husbands, epic embezzlement, and historic crime all collide to weave a complicated web stretching through the Sounds’ hidden valleys and deep waters.

10) We Got This Series Premiere (Sundance Now)
Grieving from the recent death of his father, the sudden collapse of his career and the arrival of an unsurmountable government debt, George English, an American living in Sweden stumbles onto an unlikely situation – a chance for a 50 million Swedish Crown reward for solving the 30-year-old murder of the former prime minister, Olof Palme. Naturally, George begins to imagine that cracking the Palme case could be the answer to all his problems.

11) Young Wallender Series Premiere (Netflix)
An incendiary hate-crime stirs civil unrest, fast-tracking rookie cop Kurt Wallander to detective in this origin story for the popular character.

TOO MUCH TV REALLY IS A THING
This newsletter is called "Too Much TV" because....well, it's hard to keep track of all the new television premiering everyday. To help you prioritize your viewing, click here to see our list of more than 400 upcoming television premieres, movies and finales. You'll find listings from more than 70 networks, as well as streaming services and web shows.

I'll be back with another one tomorrow. If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.