Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, March 18th, 2022

I might have gotten distracted today....

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, March 18th, 2022. 

HULU'S MISSING NEWS COVERAGE
Live news coverage is one of the low-hanging fruits of the streaming video world. It's cheap to produce and while the live nature of the programming means that it doesn't have the shelf life of scripted programming, the fact that it's live makes it compelling to viewers. And did I mention that it's cheap to produce?

This is why you see Peacock leaning heavily into news coverage, both original programming and streams from the NBC live news service. CBS also has its own stand-alone streaming channel, which includes feeds from a number of local CBS affiliates. Much of which is integrated into Paramount+.

And then there is Disney-owned Hulu, which has a perplexing lack of news programming on its streaming service Hulu. Hulu doesn't have a "news" link across the top navigation bar and the only hint of ABC's live news streaming service ABC News Live is a tile buried deep inside the "Hubs" section of the service. A tile which ironically leads to a grouping of the most recent episodes of The View, the third hour of Good Morning America and ABC News Live Primetime. 

It is strange that you can't watch the actual live feed of ABC News Live in the section of the same name. But it gets even stranger.

Hulu has been aggressively promoting news and true-crime programming produced for Hulu by various ABC News teams. As a matter of fact, I just received info on an upcoming three-episode special about the disappearance of fraudster John Ruffo.

When the program premieres, it will briefly be promoted in the big promo window at the top of the Hulu home page. It will likely end up not in a dedicated news vertical, but buried in a documentary and true crime bar inside the "Hulu Originals" hub.

To be fair, even if Hulu was streaming the ABC News Live feed, it wouldn't be much of a draw. Unlike the impressive CBS and NBC News efforts, ABC's streaming news channel is a mix of live news programming, news specials and reruns of other ABC news programming. It is indeed streaming 24/7, but that is about the best thing to recommend it.

As I said at the top, I find this lackluster approach to news by Disney and Hulu to be a massive missed opportunity. I know that Hulu is in flux right now and there continue to be rumors that it will end up being somehow integrated into Disney+. But even given those challenges, not offering a more robust news product is a big miss.

WHY DOES NETFLIX DECIDE TO CANCEL A SHOW?
Today's newsletter is shorter (and later) than usual because I found myself getting side-tracked earlier today. I was planning on writing about a piece on the Netflix's cancellation of the series The Baby-Sitters Club which was posted yesterday on Vulture. Journalist Kathryn VanArendonk interviewed series showrunner Rachel Shukert and while the interview itself is incredibly well-done, it has also sparked a lot of misunderstandings about why Netflix might have canceled the show.

I began dissecting the piece and writing about Netflix's decision making process and the next thing I knew I had a piece that was entirely too long for the newsletter. The entire piece is here and I hope you have time this weekend to read it and share it with others.  The Vulture piece spawned a number of misguided hot takes about Netflix's algorithm-based decision-making process. I felt most of the takes were ill-informed and 2,800 words later, I ended up with a piece I believe provides a unique take on the issue:

In a weird way, this is Netflix's ideal scenario. There seems to be a belief from some people in the company I have spoken with that this organic type of content discovery is the most valuable. That traditional publicity efforts are valuable for alerting subscribers to what is coming. But that they aren't as effective convincing people to watch.

Even if that were the case (and I have my doubts), organic content discovery is at best a little understood process. And when Netflix is releasing perhaps a dozen or more different titles over the course of seven days, a lot of worthwhile and potentially valuable content is going to be missed by subscribers.

To me, that is the takeaway from this interview. Everyone is focusing on the predictable conventional wisdom of "Netflix's algorithm led to the cancellation of The Baby-Sitter's Club." Instead of the more likely "Netflix's marketing mistakes contributed to the cancellation of The Baby-Sitter's Club."

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

Alessandro Cattelan: One Simple Question (Netflix)
Animal (Netflix)
Black Crab (Netflix)
Cheaper By The Dozen (Disney+)
Cracow Monsters Series Premiere (Netflix)
Deep Water (Hulu)
Drowning In Secrets (LMN)
Eternally Confused And Eager For Love Series Premiere (Netflix)
Human Resources Series Premiere (Netflix)
Is It Cake? Series Premiere (Netflix)
Life & Beth Series Premiere (Hulu)
Light The Night Part 3 Premiere (Netflix)
Lust (HBO Max)
Master (Prime Video)
More Than Robots (Disney+)
On My Way With Irina Rimes Series Premiere (HBO Max)
Ranch To Table Season Premiere (Magnolia)
Standing Up Series Premiere (Netflix)
Stillwater Season Two Premiere (Apple TV+)
The Cursed Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Newsreader (Roku Channel)
Top Boy Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
WeCrashed Series Premiere (Apple TV+)
Windfall (Netflix)
Without Saying Goodbye (Netflix)
Young, Famous & African Series Premiere (Netflix)

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

SEE YOU MONDAY! 

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