Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, June 23rd, 2022

If a streaming show premieres without much promotion, did it even premiere at all?

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, June 23rd, 2022.

STREAMING MARKETING FAILS NUMBER 345
When CBS premiered their summer drama Blood & Treasure back in 2019, I was a big fan. The show's breezy humor and non-stop action made it the perfect summer series. Things seem to be going well for the show, which CBS picked up for a second season. As you might imagine, there were COVID-related production delays, but once the second season was completed, it sat on the shelf for more than 18 months before being transferred over to Paramount+. Season two of the show is now set to premiere on the streamer on July 17th and while I haven't see screeners of the new season, based on season one I'm assuming it's entertaining.

Being sent over to Paramount+ from CBS doesn't have to be a death sentence. Evil seems to be doing rather well after moving over to streaming-only and that also seems to be the case for S.W.A.T. 

So you have a show that's in the can and a cast and crew eager to do promotion. And let's be honest, Paramount+ isn't exactly Netflix or HBO Max when it comes to the number of original productions each month. So given that the spending on the production of the show has already been completed, you might assume that the fine folks as Paramount+ would be heavily promoting the season two premiere. Even if they have no intention of picking up a third season.

Ah, but you would be wrong. We are less than a month out from the season two premiere and to say the promotion for the show is off-the-radar would be an understatement. Paramount Global just launched a new press site for all of its networks and brands. When that happened, the show info for Blood & Treasure was finally removed from CBS. Which makes sense, except that there is no way to find out about the show through official channels at Paramount+. The streamer's media site has no listing for the show, no publicist contacts. A search of the archives does bring up press releases from the show's CBS run, but they were just transferred over and none of the photo or show links go to the correct page.

Season one of Blood & Treasure is available for streaming on Paramount+. But there's no mention of an upcoming season and the show is still listed as a "CBS Original." It appears that no one at Paramount+ has made the slightest outwardly apparent effort to promote the upcoming season.

As I mentioned, I just don't comprehend why you would not promote an original series which has already been paid for. This is the lowest-hanging fruit of marketing and PR and for whatever reason, Paramount+ just seems to be happy to burn off the series without much notice.

I am reasonably sure I will hear from some publicist arguing that there is still a month before the season two premiere and that's plenty of time to effectively promote a show. That's true in many cases. But not with a show that hasn't aired new episodes since August 2019. You need time to start building some mindshare and giving people who haven't seen season one of the show to play catch-up on Paramount+.

WE'RE NOW AT THE POINT WHERE ENTERTAINMENT OUTLETS ARE SENDING OUT BREAKING NEWS EMAILS ABOUT THE RELEASE OF A TRAILER

CBS RELEASES ITS FALL 2020 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE
CBS is the latest broadcast network to announce its fall 2020 primetime schedule. Here is the complete lineup, with new shows highlighted in bold:

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17th:
10 p.m.: 48 Hours

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18TH:
7:30-8:30 p.m.: 60 Minutes

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH:
8 p.m.: The Neighborhood
8:30 p.m.: Bob Hearts Abishola
9 p.m.: NCIS
10 p.m.: NCIS: Hawai’i

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH:
8 p.m. FBI
9 p.m.: FBI: International
10 p.m.: FBI Most Wanted

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21ST:
8 p.m. Survivor
10 p.m.: The Amazing Race

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH:
8 p.m.: Big Brother (finale)

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28TH:
8 p.m.: Survivor (90-minute episode)
9:30-11 p.m.: The Amazing Race (90-minute episode)

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH:
8 p.m.: Young Sheldon
8:30 p.m.: Ghosts
9 p.m.: So Help Me Todd
10 p.m.: CSI: Vegas

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2ND:
7:30 p.m.: 60 Minutes
8:30 p.m.: The Equalizer
9:30 p.m.: East New York

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5TH:
9 p.m.: The Real Love Boat

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7TH:
8 p.m.: SWAT
9 p.m.: Fire Country
10 p.m.: Blue Bloods

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9TH:
7 p.m.: 60 Minutes
8 p.m.: The Equalizer
10 p.m.: NCIS: Los Angeles

THE THING ABOUT PAM - FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (sponsored ad)

TED SARANDOS TALKS ABOUT THE STUFF YOU EXPECTED HIM TO TALK ABOUT
Honored as the Cannes Lions 2022 Entertainment Person of the Year, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos took to the main stage on Thursday in Netflix’s festival debut. He was asked about Netflix's advertising plans and the only real news to come out of that part of the conversation was that he confirmed Netflix's ad-supported tier will be a separate offering and there are no plans to include advertising in Netflix's current platform.

He also discussed complaints from some critics that Netflix has too much original content and that it's impossible to keep up with everything worth watching. His comments might sound familiar, if you've been reading this newsletter for awhile:

Netflix has been criticized for its content overload approach to production compared to deliberate premium channels such as HBO, but Sarandos said Netflix’s advantage is in not just providing one person with shows and films they love, but doing that for every subscriber. “If you really love ‘Star Wars’ and Marvel, Disney’s probably the service for you. Our key is, can we have the engagement with consumers such that they will complement it with other subscriptions,” he said. 

“People's tastes are so diverse,” he said. “So, every time people say, ‘That's a lot of content,’ I say, ‘It's not all for you.’ And we’re really trying to make your favorite show, my favorite show—they probably don't line up. We do well at that, and then the UI is used to kind of personalize so I find my favorite show. That scales infinitely.”

According to Sarandos, Netflix has 20 genres of shows and movies to choose from, and the average viewer consistently watches six. He called onto the projector screen an image of the “Bridgerton” poster, which was animated with a web connecting it to other Netflix programming. He said the obvious connection was romance and drama, but that the Netflix algorithm can apply one’s personal preferences when deciding where to direct them next, regardless the genre. Thus, Netflix has enormous, yet niche, demand to meet across its entire audience.

New York Magazine Editor-At-Large Kara Swisher conducted the interview and I wished she had followed those comments up with a question about Netflix's marketing efforts. The streamer has long faced criticism from people in the industry - especially some who have had shows on Netflix - that the company often struggles to find the right marketing and PR mix in order to properly promote its original content. So much so that studios and productions companies are often hiring outside PR firms to beef up Netflix's efforts. The company has recently made some changes in its marketing staff and I would be interested in hearing Sarandos discuss that issue as well of the challenges of promoting global content in territories outside of the market in which is was created.

And of course, Sarandos was asked about Dave Chappelle and he gave a variation of the same answer that he has given in previous interviews:

“We're programming to people with a real variety of tastes and sensibilities and how they were brought up and what they think is offensive, or what they think is damaging to themselves, or their children,” he said. “So the variety of how you can plan the same thing for everybody—it's an impossible feat.”

Sarandos said that Netflix’s queer content receives the same support. “I do think supporting expression is really important,” Sarandos said. “I think it's almost impossible for me to censor Dave in the U.S. and then I've got people from all over the world who are super offended by our LGBTQ+ content—they want to take it down and they think it's super harmful; they think it's destroying their society—And not only do we fight for it, we fight it all the way to the Supreme Court and have never take it down anywhere in the world.”

The problem is that his claim isn't true. Yes, Sarandos and the company fought hard to protect Chappelle. But Netflix has removed content in the past that various governments have objected to, including a 2019 episode of the talk show Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj, which was removed from the service in Saudi Arabia after the government objected to the comedian's comments about the Royal Prince.

Netflix is also one of the companies that agreed in 2019 to begin "self-censoring" content in India, voluntarily banning content that "deliberately and maliciously disrespects the national emblem or national flag,” outrages "religious sentiments of any class, section, or community," "promotes or encourages terrorism and other forms of violence against the State (of India) or its institutions," as well as content that Indian courts have prohibited, including anything that depicts children engaging in sexual acts. That decision as led to some content simply not being added to India's version of Netflix, in order to head off any complaints from the government. Netflix argues those moves aren’t censorship, but a reflection of market forces. Which feels like a carefully drawn distinction.

Netflix won't fight with the same fury for all content. Because while complaints from employees and some customers can be distracting, the last thing any large global company can afford to do is irritate a national government.

TWEET OF THE DAY

BTW, if you’re interested in a good perspective about Autism, Pete is a great person to follow.

ODDS AND SODS
* Season two of the wonderful Alex Vs. America premieres on Sunday, July 31st.

* Netflix has reportedly laid off another 300 people as part of a second round of layoffs.

* Robin Thede, the creator, showrunner, exec producer, writer and star of A Black Lady Sketch Show has inked a three-year overall deal with HBO.

* Reality TV has become a parody of itself. If you can think of it, there’s probably a reality show about it. The surplus has taken the genre into the surreal.

* Comcast abandons plans for $50 million dedicated esports arena in favor of multipurpose facility.

WHAT'S NEW FOR THURSDAY
Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:

Austin Dillon's Life In The Fast Lane Series Premiere (USA)
Beavis & Butthead Do The Universe (Paramount+)
Bid For Love (BET+)
Buckhead Shore Series Premiere (MTV)
Chrisley Knows Best (USA)
Faster Than Fear Series Premiere (Topic)
First Class (Netflix)
Gordita Chronicles Series Premiere (HBO Max)
Jersey Shore Family Vacation Season Premiere (MTV)
Little Ellen Season Premiere (HBO Max)
Menudo: Forever Young (HBO Max)
Netflix Is A Joke: Best Of The Fest (Netflix)
No Demo Reno Season Premiere (HGTV)
Queen (Netflix)
Southern Charm Season Premiere (Bravo)
The Bear Series Premiere (FX)
The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club (Peacock)
The Split (Sundance Now)
2022 NBA Draft (ABC)

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.