Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, June 9th, 2023
The challenges of producing children's programming in the streaming era.
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, June 9th, 2023.
THE SPECIFIC CHALLENGES OF CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING IN THE STREAMING SPACE
There are a lot of criticisms of the streaming television business that are very justified. But there are also missteps that are less about management mistakes than just the problems that are inherent with doing something for the first time. Sometimes, you don't know what you don't know until you try it.
I have been trying to arrange an interview with children's programming producer Chris Nees, whose deal with Netflix ended in January. Nees had created Doc McStuffins for Disney and then moved to Netflix in 2018. That deal resulted in five new series, including progressive entries like Ridley Jones (featuring a young female adventurer and a nonbinary bison) and Ada Twist, Scientist (about a young Black female scientist). But Nees has been publicly critical of the streamer's marketing efforts and this passage from the an interview with The Hollywood Reporter stands out to me:
I’m not trying to point to any one place because they’ve all struggled, but at Netflix, part of the idea of the algorithm was that you wouldn’t get served the same thing twice. But rewatching is the bread-and-butter of younger kids TV. That was the grand lesson of Blues Clues. On average, kids watched an episode five times in a row. So, when some of my first shows came out, and I have a dedicated kids profile that I use as if I were a kid, I’d watch them disappear. The tech side didn’t seem to want to bend and learn that you had to do things differently. That with these shows, once a kid watches, you should be offering it up to them for a set period of time — whether it’s three months or six months, until they actually don’t click on it again. Kids who are pre-reading can’t type in the name of a show and find it again. The other thing that we really got to see is what a trusted brand actually means.
This sounds like a simple thing, but media companies - whether or not they are streamers - can have an incredible reluctance to change their methodology. Nees's observations are similar to ones I've noticed when checking out children's programming on Netflix and several other major streamers. They haven't made the adjustments necessary to serve the needs of a preschooler or viewer in the early grades and that impacts their engagement. Anyone who is a parent is familiar with the concept of having to watch a show again and again because that it is the only thing you child is interested in watching. Setting up an interface to allow that should be an easy decision. But without someone at the company willing to make it happen, the same mistakes keep getting made.
THE CW PICKS UP A SERIES ABOUT JESUS
The "new" CW announced on Friday it has picked up the first three seasons of The Chosen, a series about the life of Jesus from creator, director and producer Dallas Jenkins and starring Jonathan Roumie as Jesus. The series was originally crowdfunded before being picked up by VidAngel, the site/app most notable for editing Hollywood films in order to make them more family friendly. It later moved to the Christian-oriented streaming service PureFlix on a non-exclusive basis. The series is also currently streaming on Peacock (seasons 1-2), Netflix (season 1 only) and Amazon Prime Video (season 1-2)
Given the number of places it's currently available, it will be interesting to see how many people tune in. Even if - as The CW press release notes - the series is "based on the biggest IP of all time."
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE HIRED TO RUN CNN?
I've been working on a piece for this weekend that attempts to answer this very question. What moves would you make if you were tasked with turning around CNN? Especially knowing that Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav would want to at least appear to move the network in a more "non-partisan" direction.
One big sub-challenge to this problem. How would you handle the recent Donald Trump indictment? Would you bring in more pro-Trump commentators? Just try and stay away from digging too deeply into the story?
Pass along your thoughts by replying directly to this newsletter or emailing me at rick@allyourscreens.com and I'll include some of them in my piece as well as in Monday's newsletter.
TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS
* A new season of Paranormal: Caught On Tape premieres Sunday, July 9th on the Travel Channel
* The two-part Oscar De La Hoya documentary The Golden Boy premieres Monday, July 24th on HBO.
* The Food Network has picked up a second season of Ciao House.
* NBC has cancelled Young Rock and Grand Crew, but has yet to make a decision on American Auto. It also picked up the single-camera comedy St. Denis Medical to series. That show stars Wendi McLendon-Covey and David Alan Grier.
WHAT'S NEW FOR THIS WEEKEND:
FRIDAY, JUNE 9TH:
* An Unforgettable Year - Autumn (Um Ano Inesquecível - Outono) (Prime Video)
* Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Something New (Hallmark Movies And Mysteries)
* Bloodhounds Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Brooklyn 45 (Shudder)
* Duck & Goose: When Duck Met Goose (Apple TV+)
* First Five (Max)
* Flamin' Hot (Disney+/Hulu)
* Human Resources Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
* Match Me In Miami (The Roky Channel)
* Tex-Mex Motors Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Crowded Room Series Premiere (Apple TV+)
* The Lake (Prime Video)
* The Playing Card Killer (Netflix)
* The Proof Is Out There Season Premiere (History)
* The Snoopy Show Season Premiere (Apple TV+)
* The Wonder Weeks (Netflix)
* This World Can't Tear Me Down Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Tribunal Justice (Prime Video)
* You Do You (Netflix)
SATURDAY, JUNE 10TH:
* Build It Forward Season Premiere (HGTV)
* Love's Greek To Me (Hallmark)
* Mary J. Blige’s Real Love (Lifetime)
* New York Homicide Season Premiere (Oxygen)
SUNDAY, JUNE 11TH:
* Deep Water Salvage Season Premiere (Weather Channel)
* 53rd Annual Los Angeles Pride Parade (Hulu)
* Jurassic Ghost Town: A Mass Murder Mystery (Science)
* Prince: The Final Secret (Reelz)
* 76th Annual Tony Awards (CBS)
* Written In The Stars (Up TV)
* Yellowstone Wardens Season Premiere (Animal Planet)
MONDAY, JUNE 12TH:
* Hey Yahoo! Series Premiere (GSN)
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.