Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, August 17th, 2023

Media company CEOs need to have an "Undercover Boss" experience

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, August 17th, 2023. 

PERHAPS TODAY'S MEDIA COMPANY CEOS NEED TO HAVE AN 'UNDERCOVER BOSS' EXPERIENCE
One of the most infuriating reality shows to watch is Undercover Boss. Every episode has basically the same few consistent story threads. A CEO who believes they have an accurate take on the business and how it operates day-to-day goes undercover and works at several different jobs inside the company. And inevitably, the boss discovers that the business doesn't work in the way they believed it did and that some of their prized business strategies have inadvertently made things much worse for their customers and employees. 

"Wow," they'll mutter in their hotel room later that night. "I had no idea cutting pay and adding unpredictable schedules would have such a negative impact on my employees!" 

And the strange thing is, I believe that in most cases, they are being sincere. They have no idea what life is like in the trenches. Because even if you started your now billion-dollar company out of the trunk of your 1975 Pinto, you have no clue what it's like for people tasked with delivering whatever promises your high-level management strategy has proposed. 

If sales are soft and you propose a 10% budget across the company, you only care that every department hits those numbers. You don't have the time to pay attention to the details of how your divisions get to that benchmark. And if you're one of the people in charge with making the cuts, you know that number is what matters. You can't go back to the boss and explain, "well, I only cut costs 8%, but this is much better for our employees.”

I thought about Undercover Boss quite a bit after reading this passage from a piece posted this afternoon in Variety:

The CEOs have taken a personal interest in getting a deal, as they also face business challenges on several other fronts this fall. The top executives have also faced criticism over their pay packages and scrutiny of their public remarks about the strike.

The CEOs were involved in making the offer to the WGA last Friday that included provisions on TV staff size and transparency on the performance of streaming shows. The sources expressed a view that the offer was generous, and they hoped it could lead to a breakthrough in the negotiations. The WGA counter gave ground on numbers, but not on the basic structure of its proposals.

I've heard similar takes from some of my studio sources and they describe the CEO reaction to the pushback from the WGA as being almost inexplicable. From their perspective, this is just business. Everyone gives a bit and the deal gets done. There doesn't seem to be a lot of comprehension about why the WGA has so far declined to budge on several key issues.

"See, we said we wouldn't discuss writers room size and we gave in! We said we'll leave it up to the showrunner's discretion and the budget of the show! We gave a little! Why can't you!"

This point of view is reflected publicly in pieces like Richard Rushfield's piece from earlier today in The Ankler:

The real worry for the WGA: given that they have different constituencies invested in different points in the negotiation, will compromising on particular points upset and alienate those constituencies?

Of particular concern, of course, the minimum staffing mandate, which many on the picket lines talk up as their hill to die on, seeing it as the bulwark against a shrinking industry.

The inflamed rhetoric of the picket lines won't easily be transformed into "Okay, that's good enough for now.

And in typical Undercover Boss style, the CEO's feel as if they legitimately are making a good-faith offer, only to have the zealots on the WGA side ask for even more.

There doesn't seem to be a real comprehension on the part of the studios that THEY are the reason why the WGA negotiators and the membership at large are so cautious. They have learned time and time again that if there is a loophole in a contract, studios will take advantage of it. And so proposing a mushy "let the showrunners decide" leaves a loophole big enough to guide the smaller of Bob Iger's yachts through. If the writing room size depends on the showrunner, studios will inevitably tie the size of a show room (or the existence of one at all) to the decision to pick up the show at all.

And this is not a hypothetical issue. If you want to see one possible future for writers, look no further than the world of animation. Except for a few WGA-represented animated shows, the norm has now become a small room of one or maybe two writers. And in an increasing number of cases, no real writers room at all. Just a showrunner juggling a bunch of gig workers.

All of this is why I'm more than a little leery of trade press reports that negotiations are "moving towards the end of the WGA strike." That's technically true in the sense that the two sides are talking and small moves are taking place. But there are still some fundamental differences between the two sides and without some breakthrough, I can't see from here, I have this slumping feeling we are still going to be at this in another couple of weeks.

And let's not even talk about the issue of writers asking for the ability to honor other strike lines.....

ODDS AND SODS
* Press-freedom advocates are in uproar over gov raid on a small-town Kansas newspaper. But much less attention has been paid to the raid on another journalist. Timothy Burke is accused of violating hacking law to obtain Fox News clips.

* Can’t hear the dialogue in your streaming show? You're not alone.

* What’s it like when a Barbie-themed TV renovation project moves onto your block? For the residents of a quiet street in Southern California, the experience was more than just an onslaught of pink.

WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND TOMORROW:

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17TH:
Cold Case Files: DNA Speaks (Hulu) 
Dark Rivers Series Premiere (Topic)
Fenris Series Premiere (Viaplay) 
Killing It Season Premiere (Peacock)
My Dad The Bounty Hunter Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
My Son Didn't Do It (LMN)
The Upshaws Part Four Premiere (Netflix)
Tracy Morgan: Taking It Too Far (Max)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 18TH:
Bad Things (Shudder)
Chris Fleming: Hell (Peacock)
Claim To Fame Season Finale (ABC)
Guns & Gulaabs (Netflix)
Harlan Coben's Shelter Series Premiere (Prime Video)
Honest Renovations Series Premiere (The Roku Channel)
LEGO Disney Princess: The Castle Quest (Disney+)
Love, Sex & 30 Candles (Netflix)
MarkKim+Chef Series Premiere (Max)
Mask Girl (Netflix)
New Bandits (Cangaço Novo) (Prime Video)
Puppy Love (Freevee)
Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie (Apple TV+)
10 Days Of A Bad Man (Netflix)
The Monkey King (Netflix)
The More Love Grows (Hallmark Movies And Mysteries)
The Winter King Series Premiere (MGM+)
Time Of Essence (OWN)
When Frank Met Carlitos (Disney+)

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.