Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, February 28th, 2022
March will be Christmas time for fans of "Alf"
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, February 28th, 2022.
IS THERE AN AUDIENCE FOR A 'SERIOUS' CABLE NEWS ORGANIZATION?
Discovery CEO David Zaslav - who will also lead the Warner Bros. Discovery following the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger - has chosen Chris Licht to be CNN Global CEO once the merger closes.
I've been sketching out some thoughts about the choice and what I think it means. But right now, I wanted to focus on these comments Licht sent to CNN employees this morning after the decision was announced:
“I know you have a lot of questions. Perhaps the biggest one is how will CNN change? The honest answer is that I don’t know yet. David Zaslav has given me one simple directive: to ensure that CNN remains the global leader in NEWS as part of Warner Bros. Discovery.”
He continued, “I am a journalist at heart. While I have enjoyed every minute at The Late Show, I am joining CNN because I feel a genuine pull to return to news at such a critical moment in history. CNN is uniquely positioned to be a beacon of meaningful, impactful journalism for the world. I am committed to upholding and building on CNN’s legacy.”
I have heard this drumbeat from a number of media reporters and industry analysts in recent weeks. Zaslav - as well as investor John Malone - apparently believe that CNN needs to move away from the commentary and so-called leftward-leaning coverage to return to its straight journalism roots.
What no one seems to have an answer for is what this “more serious CNN” would look like on a daily basis. CNN remains the go-to choice for many news viewers during a crisis or breaking news. In part because it has massive reporting assets scattered across the globe.
But that audience goes away when the breaking news fades and the hard truth is that the reason CNN leaned into more commentary and political opinion is it was following the audience. There's a reason why CNN Headline News rebranded itself and no longer does 30-minute news blocks 24/7. There's not much of an audience for serious news on a normal news day.
"I hope CNN goes back to straight news" feels more like one of the nostalgic concepts along the lines of "why can't MTV play more music videos like it used to back in the day?" I have serious doubts that Zaslav is prepared to trade lowered ratings and revenue for a more straight-forward news approach at CNN. Especially given that he is already signaling his desire to reign in spending once the merger closes later this spring.
NETFLIX SAYS NO TO CARRYING RUSSIAN TV CHANNELS
Netflix said it has no plans to add any Russian channels to its service there despite a regulation that would require the streaming giant to carry several Russian state-run broadcasters:
Given the current situation, we have no plans to add these channels to our service,” a Netflix spokesman said Monday, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The spokesman declined to comment on whether it had informed Russian authorities that it wouldn’t be adding the channels.
Netflix, which launched in Russia just over a year ago, was told in December that it would have to comply with a new rule requiring the company to distribute as many as 20 local news, sports and entertainment channels, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The law applies to all audio and visual services available in Russia that reach more than 100,000 subscribers. Netflix is the only international programmer that has enough subscribers to require compliance with the rule, the person said.
The decision is obviously a good one for political and optics reasons. But it also is the only decision the streamer can make, given the huge headaches that would arise from agreeing to the demands. Netflix has already been battling with regulators in India and a number of countries have passed laws that "encourage" large streamers such as Netflix to spend a specified portion of their local revenue on homegrown productions.
Acceding to Russia's demands would lead to a cascade of other demands from governments who want Netflix to include their own TV networks on the service.
There's no word on whether or not Netflix has informed the Russian government of its decision, which is set to go into effect tomorrow. The company has never disclosed the number of subscribers it has in Russia, although it is believed to be less than one million. Being forced out of the Russian market would bring some temporary pain to Netflix. But nothing compared to the grief that would come from 40 or 50 governments demanding their pet propaganda networks be added to the service.
I WAS STRANGELY HAPPY TO READ THIS
I have ranted in this newsletter about my frustrations with the PR folks at HBO/HBO Max more than once and I'll be the first to admit that it's a bit of inside baseball for most people reading this. However, I was strangely pleased to read that I am not the only person who struggles to get data from that cable network/streamer. The Entertainment Strategy Guy just posted his latest newsletter and he vents a bit about his experiences with them:
I’ve been fairly irritated with the folks at HBO, something I’ve let everyone here know about constantly. Because they don’t let Nielsen release their data, even when they claim they care intently about Netflix’s viewership data!
Worse, and this is just kvetching, I can’t get their PR folks to return my emails. (Update: After I posted this on my website, HBO reached out and added me to their distribution list!)
I have heard similar things from a couple of other industry journalists who are independent and/or who work for smaller outlets. My sense is the problem is a cultural one at HBO. They've been the luxury car of cable nets for a long time and their PR structure has only really needed to deal with big outlets. And I get that on one level. Most publicists don't have the bandwidth to deal with 400 random requests and because HBO shows have done really well in recent years, there's not much incentive to reach out to other outlets.
Hopefully that is slowly changing, although I admit that the thought the HBO/HBO Max PR efforts combined with the Discovery Inc. people (which have the industry's absolute worst media site) is a bit disheartening.
But enough of the PR complaints...
IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME FOR FANS OF 'ALF'
All 102 episodes of the classic '80s live-action series ALF, 26 episodes of ALF: The Animated Series, 21 episodes of the animated series ALF Tales, and TV movie Project: ALF are coming to the subscription streaming service Shout Factory TV on March 25th.
There is no word yet on whether Shout Factory will eventually launch a FAST Channel of Alf content to join the ones it has already created for The Carol Burnett Show, The Johnny Carson Show and Mystery Science Theater 3000. But it's a safe bet that will roll out at some point in order to monetize those ALF fans who don't want to subscribe to another streaming service.
SPEAKING OF ESG
I just referenced his latest newsletter above, but I wanted to highlight something he mentioned somewhat in passing about South Koreans shows on Netflix and comparing their performance to Squid Game:
I will add, there are a bunch of other South Korean series that were released in 2021 and 2022 that have failed to make the charts, including Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, Love and Leashes, Our Beloved Summer, Single’s Inferno, Sweet Home, The King’s Affection and The Silent Sea. If I had to draw a conclusion, I would note that the top series have heavy genre elements like horror (All of Us Are Dead, Hellbound), sci-fi (Squid Game, Space Sweepers) and mob/crime (My Name). The South Korean soap operas, on the other hand, haven’t broken through.
As I've mentioned, I don't love comparisons to Squid Game, because that show's success is such an outlier. It's like comparing other movies made in Hollywood to the MCU films. Yes, it's a fair comparison on one level. But the success point for other movies tends to be very different than it would be for Black Panther IV or Avengers: Introducing The New Guys.
ESG is right about the fact that South Korean genre shows tend to do better in the U.S. than that country's rom-coms and other dramas. It is really a cultural issue and while that's changing a bit, the difficulty is that South Korean rom-coms in particular have a very different feel than what American audiences are accustomed to seeing. While many of the South Korean romance shows are written and/or produced by women, they still mostly follow a format that is as recognizable as the plot of every Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. The viewers who enjoy that format are super fans. But there just aren't enough of them yet in the U.S.
But if you look at the Top Ten charts in the APAC countries, the South Korean rom-coms tend to overperform on a regular basis. So I suspect Netflix sees them as a necessary part of their content mix, even if they appeal to a smaller subset of global viewers.
TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS
* Houston, Texas paid a whopping $240,000 to be a featured stop on the 26th season of The Bachelor.
* Peacock has handed a series order to Twisted Metal, a comedic half-hour live-action adaptation of the popular video game, from Sony Pictures TV, Playstation Productions and Universal Television.
WHAT'S NEW FOR MONDAY
Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:
Better Things Season Premiere (FX)
Chappelle's Home Team: Earthquake: Legendary (Netflix)
History's Greatest Mysteries Season Premiere (History)
Million Dollar Wheels Series Premiere (Discovery+)
My Brilliant Friend Season Three Premiere (HBO Max)
My Wonderful Life (Netflix)
Ragdoll Series Premiere (AMC)
Rock The Block Season Premiere (HGTV)
Spring Baking Championship Season Premiere (Food)
Spring Baking Championship: Easter Series Premiere (Food)
The Good Doctor Spring Premiere (History)
Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.
SEE YOU TUESDAY!
If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.