Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, February 1st, 2023
A UI-based attempt at "Seinfeld" and lots of exiting streaming shows.
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, February 1st, 2023.
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NOT SURE THIS IS THE FUTURE OF TV...BUT IT'S THOUGHT-PROVOKING
Someone has created an "Infinite Seinfeld" Twitch stream that combines jaggy, somewhat generic computer-generated video with all the characters talking to each other in text-to-speech voices using Chat GPT.
Watchmeforever, started by the media lab Mismatch Media, runs the 24/7 Seinfeld-like, sitcom-like Nothing, Forever and technically, it's beyond rough. The characters often stare into random corners and the conversation is stilted in a way that screams "English is my fourth language!" And while there is a laugh track, the computer-generated nature of the production usually has the laughter briefly appearing several seconds after what the AI suspects should be a laugh line. Still, it's easy to see how an improvement in technology could make this a real mass-audience idea. Not so much for things such as recreating copyrighted material such as Seinfeld. But I can see some uses for this in creating odd little pieces of content that are cheap yet entertaining enough to draw enough of an audience to be profitable.
As I am watching the stream now, it has about 30,000 concurrent viewers. Which means it's drawing more of an audience that some of those Byron Allen-owned linear TV channels.
THE CHALLENGE FOR PEACOCK, IN ONE IMAGE
Today I received an email from Peacock letting me know what was coming in February on the service. And this part of the email jumped out at me:
Now to be fair, there are a couple other random Peacock original premieres likely coming and the service primarily promotes live sports and next-day access to Bravo, NBC and other NBCUniversal-owned networks. But no matter how you caveat things out, this line-up of originals is paltry for a streaming service which no longer offers a free, ad-supported option.
It's unfair to compare Peacock's original output in February to the content hose that is Netflix. But rival Hulu has eight originals premiering in February, not counting a few random foreign-produced series that it has picked up from sister services such as HotStar.
Paramount+ has the same challenge as Peacock as its lineup of originals in limited in February to the original rom-com After Midnight, the new season Picard and the FBI True. In a lot of strategic ways, Peacock and Paramount+ are very similar, with their reliance on next-day linear TV premieres and live sports.
In that context, it'll be interesting to see what impact the integration of Showtime has on Paramount+'s subscription numbers. In the same the addition of FX's content helped boost Hulu's original catalog, Showtime's more extensive original content development pipeline should help.
SPEAKING OF PARAMOUNT+
Now that Paramount+ and Showtime are set to merge, both services are trimming their catalog of offerings ahead of the move.
Paramount+ has removed at least none shows from the service, including The Real World: Homecoming, comedies Guilty Party, No Activity and Players, and the live-action children’s show The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder. None of those shows have been officially canceled by Paramount+, but I think we can consider this move a likely vote of no confidence in the shows.
The streamer has also removed the shows Coyote (starring Michael Chiklis), The Harper House, Interrogation and the 2019 remake of The Twilight Zone. All of those shows had previously been canceled.
Showtime has also been removing shows, including Jim Carrey’s Kidding, Kirsten Dunst’s On Becoming a God in Central Florida, and the recently cancelled shows American Gigolo and Let the Right One In.
Jeff Daniels’ American Rust has also been removed, although it had previously been announced that a second season of the series had been picked up by Amazon's AVOD Freevee.
Also removed from Showtime was the anthology series Super Pumped, which starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in season one. The streamer had previously announced it was picking up the series for a second season, which would focus on the rise of Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
HOLLYWOOD CAN'T SIT OUT THE CULTURE WARS
Back when Florida Republicans were accusing the Walt Disney Corporation of grooming kids and demanding changes to the tax structures that guided Disney World, I predicted that Hollywood was not going to be able to dodge the culture wars of the Right. Targeting Hollywood and big media is too tempting of a move and if you're comfortable going after Disney, you won't have any qualms about less culturally beloved targets.
One example of that is the ongoing carriage disagreement between DirecTV and the conservative cable network Newsmax. Previously Newsmax had offered its feed to DirecTV for free. But in recent negotiations, it had asked for a per subscriber fee and DirecTV refused. And then removed the channel once their current carriage agreement expired. And to stick the knife in just a bit more, DirecTV also replaced Newsmax with the smaller rival network The First.
Republican politicians saw this as a great talking point and there have been ongoing claims that DirecTV is "cancelling" conservatives by removing NewsMax. Sure, DirecTV carries other conservative news outlets. But why let a good excuse for outrage go to waste?
So Republican House members are promising an investigation and tonight the Republican National Committee sent out this press release building on the manufactured outrage:
ODDS AND SODS
* NBC has picked up a third season of La Brea, ahead of the show's season two midseason premiere tonight. One advantage in making the announcement now is that it provides an assurance to viewers they won't be left at the end of the season with answered questions and no upcoming new episodes.
* Fox has renewed The Cleaning Lady for a third season.
* NBC said Wednesday that the forthcoming 10th season of The Blacklist will be the show’s last. The final season of the James Spader-led drama is set to premiere February 26th.
* Warner Bros. Discovery announced today it will report its fourth-quarter and full year 2022 results on Thursday, February 23rd, 2023, after the market close.
* The Alfred The Butler origin series Pennyworth has been canceled by HBO Max. The first two seasons were on Epix+ and HBO Max picked up the series (with a name change) for a third season.
TWEET OF THE DAY
WHAT'S NEW FOR WEDNESDAY:
Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa (Netflix)
Gunther's Millions (Netflix)
My 600-Lb Life Season Premiere (TLC)
Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong (ABC)
Soul Of A Nation Presents: Black In Vegas (ABC)
Taiwan Crime Stories (Hulu)
The Ark Series Premiere (Syfy)
The Great British Baking Show: The Professionals (Nerflix)
The Chorus: Success, Here I Go (Disney+)
The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder Season Two Premiere (Disney+)
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.