Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, January 22nd, 2024

Some more context on that "Peak TV" number.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, January 22nd, 2024.

PROGRAMMING NOTE:
I hope you'll allow me a bit of a personal moment. Today is my wedding anniversary and I wanted to publicly thank my lovely wife Stephanie for her support and her love. 

If you're extremely lucky, you'll experience a moment in your life when you meet someone for the first time and you can feel the Earth shift slightly beneath your feet. And at that moment, you realize you are where you were always meant to be with the person you had been waiting to meet.

It's not easy being married to me. A journalist's life is almost always financially precarious and mine has been so more than most. But she's always there to cheer me on and help pick me up when I've had a bad day (or week).

I hope that I've been as supportive and loving for her. And I can honestly say I would never have accomplished what I have without her help.

And now on to the world of television...

NETFLIX'S HEAD OF FILM SCOTT STUBER TO EXIT
Netflix's longtime head of film is exiting in March to run his own media company. Scott Stuber joined the company in 2017 and has overseen the building out of the streamer's push into star-packed high-profile (and often high-budget) original films.

But it's been an open secret for awhile that Stuber was increasingly unhappy with Netflix's focus on an extremely short theatrical release in favor of a primarily streaming-only release schedule. I'm told that several months ago Stuber had made a concentrated pitch to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos to shift some of the company's bigger movie releases to a hybrid release schedule that would carve out what would essentially be a 30-day theatrical window for those films. According to one source at the company I spoke with on Monday, after that pitch, Stuber decided it was time to move on to his own projects.

According to Netflix, Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria will oversee things until a permanent replacement is hired.

SOME MORE CONTEXT ON THAT LATEST 'PEAK TV' NUMBER
I knew that when Ampere Research released its report last Friday that included its estimate of the number of original scripted shows released in the US in 2023, it was going to lead to a lot of confusion in the reporting. Because more reporters were just going to report the top-line number from the report and not provide any context.

Back in the beginning of this month, I wrote a piece that estimated how many original scripted English-language shows premiered in the US in 2023 and that number was less than Ampere's estimate of 481 shows released and 418 shows ordered. And both estimates seemed to be close but not identical to previous numbers provided by FX Research during John Landgraf's annual "Peak TV" presentation to the TCA. 

Which on the face of it is not a big deal. As I've mentioned before, this top-line number of scripted original shows isn't an exact science. No matter whose dataset you use, different analysts come to their number using different definitions of TV shows. And with the growth of multi-territory co-productions, determining which show can accurately be described as a US-based original can be in the eye of the beholder.

So it frustrates me when journalists conflate the different estimates in ways that are just inaccurate. I read one piece in a trade today that noted the Ampere Research number and mentioned that is was an X percentage drop from last season's estimate from FX. A comparison which is not remotely accurate.

I reached out to Ampere hoping to get a bit more clarity about their dataset and how it compared to my numbers and the previous estimates from FX. Here's part of their Principal Analyst's explanation and I think it provides a nice glimpse at how complex this issue can be:

• The FX methodology recorded shows releasing new episodes in a given year. This means that there are elements of double-counting of single seasons- for instance if a show launches in October and ends in March the following year, it will be counted in both years. Our methodology instead follows a model of season premieres, which removes this double counting but also can lead to disparity in numbers

• Our data includes Animated and Kids scripted series- certainly the FX data I believe used to exclude these types of content, although I’m not sure if you included this in your research

• The FX data previously included all English-language premieres in the US- so that would include Canadian, British, Australian imports, and even shows that had eg. premiered in the UK in 2021, but in the US in 2022. Our methodology instead only examines content produced in the US- while it may not make too much of a difference to the audience, part of our role as an industry analysis firm is to assess the strength of the TV production industry in different markets, so in a single-market study like this the value of the research is diluted if British or Canadian productions are counted alongside American.   

All of which is to say that when you read a story that quotes the Ampere Research estimate or anyone else's, you should keep in mind that the number is interesting, but not one that is written in stone. It's meant to provide context, not a final judgement on the state of the industry.

A BIT OF DRAMA BEHIND-THE-SCENES OF TOURNMENT OF CHAMPIONS
Season five of Tournament Of Champions premieres Sunday, February 18th on the Food Network. And one of the big questions I had was how the network would handle the presence of Superchef Grudge Match host Darnell Ferguson. He's been a fixture on the show in previous seasons and the network had previously announced he would be participating this season.

But Ferguson was recently arrested in his hometown in Kentucky on a warrant related to a domestic violence case. According to the police report, Ferguson was charged with burglary, strangulation, assault, terroristic threatening, menacing, criminal mischief, and theft of a stolen debit or credit card. 

The details of the police report are fairly horrifying and the Food Network immediately pulled Superchef Grudge Match from the network's schedule and removed previous seasons from Discovery+, Max and on-demand platforms.

But it's not clear how much Ferguson appears on Tournament Of Champions. The Food Network press release lists 14 "West Coast" chefs and only 13 "East Coast" chefs. So presumably, Ferguson participates in the show but the network doesn't want to highlight it.

They can edit around his appearances in the crowd of chefs, but replacing his competition segments would be nearly impossible. So it appears the network has decided just to move forward and hope for the best. 

I've reached out to the Food Network for more details and I'll let you know if I hear anything.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
*I reviewed the stand-up special Kevin James: Irregardless, which premieres tomorrow on Prime Video. I think it's fair to say that I was not impressed.

* Today is the 40th anniversary of the premiere of Airwolf. And I can't think about that show without remembering this clip from more than 20 years ago, which showed a fan trying to digitally insert himself into an episode of the show.

* The second half of season two of Invincible debuts on March 14th on Prime Video.

* It's not a big surprise, but Nordic streamer Viaplay has announced it is exiting the US and Canada in February.

* Richard Linklater’s Hit Mandebuts June 7th on Netflix. The logline: "Inspired by an unbelievable true story, a hit man meets his match in a client who steals his heart and ignites a powder keg of deception, delight, and mixed-up identities."

* Hulu announced it has acquired the four-part Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, the first-ever docu-series on the band’s history with full cooperation from all past and present members of Bon Jovi. It premieres Friday, April 26th in the US and at a later date outside the U.S. on Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ elsewhere in the world.

* Here is a rundown of the top ten global TV and streaming video stories you should know from today.

NO, MAYBE THIS IS THE TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

MONDAY, JANUARY 22ND, 2024:
* America's Most Wanted Season Premiere (Fox)
* Battle On The Mountain Series Premiere (HGTV)
* Death By Fame Season Premiere (Investigation Discovery)
* Hey Qween! (WOW Presents Plus)
* Just Justice Season Premiere (Freevee/Prime Video)
* Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation (Netflix)
* Not Quite Narwhal Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
* Superhot: The Spicy World Of Pepper People Series Premiere (Hulu)
* The Bachelor Season Premiere (ABC)
* The Impact New York Series Premiere (VH1)
* The Playboy Murders (A&E)
* TMZ Investigates (Fox)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 23RD:
* American Experience: Nazi Town USA (PBS)
* Father Brown (BritBox)
* Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees (Netflix)
* Kevin James: Irregardless (Prime Video) - [review]
* Love Deadline Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Open Wide (Netflix)
* The Winemaker Series Premiere (MHz Choice)

SEE YOU TUESDAY!