Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, June 22nd, 2022

The biggest challenge for Discovery+ will be editing Josh Gates into footage of the attack on the Capitol building.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, June 22nd, 2022.

ONE OF THE MORE HONEST INTERVIEWS YOU'LL READ THIS MONTH
After you've been in Hollywood for a couple of decades - especially if you've had some success - you've earned yourself the ability to be a bit blunt about the business and some of the challenges you've faced behind the scenes. 

Variety has an interview with Jason Priestley in which he discusses some of the problems that led to the cancellation of the Beverly Hills 90210 reboot series BH90210. As Variety notes, the show opened strong, but quickly shed a fair percentage of its audience:

“BH90210” came flying out of the ratings gates with a 1.52 in Live+Same Day, but saw a substantial 38% drop-off to episode two, and another 18% fall to episode three, before leveling off.

The series also went through some behind-the-scenes drama during production which resulted in then showrunner Patrick Sean Smith and multiple senior-level writers quitting the show. According to one source, the exodus was prompted by interference from two of the show’s lead actresses, while another noted at the time that the writers were unhappy with one of the executives overseeing the project.

While he doesn't name anyone specifically, Priestley acknowledges the behind-the-scenes struggles and has a pretty good take on what went wrong:

“Once we actually got into production, too many people thought they were running the show,” said Priestley in Monte-Carlo. “The network thought they were running the show, the studio thought they were running the show, the writers’ room in L.A. thought they were running the show, the executive producers we had in Vancouver thought they were running the show. Like, everybody thought they were running the show, and therefore nobody was running the show.

“And a concept like that, that was that difficult to pull off, we really needed somebody with a super firm hand and a super clear vision of what the show was going to be to guide that show. And I think that, unfortunately, there were just too many people who had too much input on the show. And that’s why it didn’t work.

“And at the end of the day, I feel like audiences, although they turned up initially to the show, as the show floundered and didn’t really have a clear vision of what it was going to be, ended up just leaving the show, and Fox didn’t pick the show up because it just didn’t have the viewership that it needed to have.”

It's rare to hear even this level of honesty from someone associated with a show that was ultimately unsuccessful. No one wants to burn any bridges in a town where relationships still matter more than they probably should. And thanks to that fear (and the frequent NDAs they're forced to sign), it's even more rare to hear a producer or writer discuss their experience on a failed project. Everyone is rightfully looking towards their next opportunity. Which is probably a pretty smart career move, although it makes for a world that is a lot less interesting.

PARAMOUNT+ LAUNCHES IN THE UK AND IRELAND
Paramount+ launched in the UK and Ireland today as part of its continuing global roll-out and the overall feedback on social media seems to be that while it has a few really compelling original titles, the overall size of the catalog leaves something to be desired:

Although to be fair, the Paramount+ library in some other countries is equally sparse:

I am assuming that part of the issue with the catalog size is due to the fact that a lot of the older Paramount stuff has already been licensed in these markets and it will take awhile for the deals to end and for the rights to be available for Paramount+. It's one of the challenges any streamer runs into as their roll out their platform globally and this is perhaps the primary reason why Netflix had been paying extra to obtain global rights for programming over the past five years. Having a core amount of catalog material that is available globally makes the licensing problems a lot easier to manage and it also provided a bit of a guide to licensed content costs moving forward. 

But it's also why you're seeing Netflix shorten the timeline for the global dealings they have signed in the past year. As they become a more mature company and the pace of rolling out into new territories slows, they don't have the same need for consistent content across as many markets as possible.

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

THE BIG CHALLENGE WILL BE EDITING JOSH GATES INTO THE ASSAULT ON THE CAPITOL
Discovery+ revealed on Wednesday that the streamer has purchased Unprecedented, documentary filmmaker Alex Holder’s three-part series that has gained the attention of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol:

Some members of the Trump campaign were in the dark that the project even existed and seemed surprised when its existence surfaced. But it’s the type of new twist that potentially gives the committee more heft as they make their case against Trump, as their hearings so far have had some of their biggest impact with the release of audio and video clips.

Some is known: The New York Times reported on Tuesday that in one interview, Ivanka Trump seems to support her father’s pursuit of false claims of election fraud, saying, “he has to take on this fight.” The Times also reported that the filmmaker got access to the Trump family via Jason Greenblatt, who was then the White House envoy to the Middle East. CBS News’ Robert Costa reported that Holder has 11 hours of footage of interviews with the Trump family from September, 2020 to January 2021. On CBS Evening News on Wednesday, Costa also presented pictures of Holder interviewing Trump and Ivanka Trump.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
* Peacock has renewed the Craig Robinson-led comedy Killing It for a second season.

* The HBO Original six-part documentary series The Anarchists on Sunday, July 10th.

* "This is Fox, we need a hot girl in the cast."

* The UK's ITV has ordered an eight-episode localized version of the Fox cooking format Next Level Chef.

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

Bruna Louise: Demolition (Netflix)
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes (HBO)
Circumstance (Criterion)
Eureka! Series Premiere (Disney Jr.)
Love & Gelato (Netflix)
Obi-Wan Kenobi Season One Finale (Disney+)
Planet California (PBS)
Snowflake Mountain Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Hidden Life Of Pets Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Umbrella Academy Season Three Premiere (Netflix)
We (Mubi)
Wellington Paranormal Season Premiere (The CW)

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

SEE YOU THURSDAY!

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