Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, August 25th, 2023

So when will the Hollywood strikes be over?

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, August 25th, 2023. 

SOME PROGRAMMING NOTES
It might be counter-intuitive to announce this on a day when I have added a bunch of new subscribers. But I am taking a few days off next week.

Other than a random sick day, I haven't had a vacation away from the keyboards since early last year. And as much as I love doing this, I need a mental refresh. I estimated that between the newsletter and the web site, I wrote close to a million words in 2022. And I'm sure I'll hit at least that mark in 2023.

So next week I'm headed to Chicago with my family to take my son to see his beloved Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field for the first time. Although his hopes of getting an autograph from his favorite Patrick Wisdom seem to be a lot less certain. But we'll relax, eat a lot of great food and I have vowed to stay away from work. I am not even taking my laptop with me.

I'll be gone Monday-Thursday of next week, but will be back on Friday with a regular newsletter. In the meantime, I'll be sending out a couple of samples of newsletters you should be reading. I hope you find them useful.

I do want to thank of all for the support. TooMuchTV has more than 60,000 free and paid subscribers and I couldn't do it without those of you sharing the newsletter and telling other people about it. And that also extends to those of you reading and sharing my work at AllYourScreens. I will modestly say that I have been doing some really unique coverage of the industry and most recently of the strike. 

So thanks to all of you.

SO WHEN WILL THE STRIKES BE OVER?
One thing about living outside of an industry town is that I am surrounded by people who generally couldn't give a crap about the inner workings of the entertainment industry. Maybe they recognize the name Bob Iger, but that's the extent of their media CEO knowledge. They don't understand issues like span or AVOD residuals. But every "civilian" who asks me about the TV business asks me the same question I hear from every industry person I've spoken to this week: When will the strikes be over?

Overall, most writers and actors I've spoken with in recent days are tired and want this to be over. Not just because of the financial crunch most of them are suffering through. But also because this is what they do. And not being able to do something you love is difficult. But there also seems to be a wide belief that these issues are worth fighting for. One unintended consequence of living in a social media age is that it has made people aware of what others are experiencing in the business. The pay disputes, the petty injustices, and the workplace issues that in previous strikes never seemed to resonate in this way. At the same time, an increasing number of creatives I've spoken to share some variation of "I don't know how we get this solved."

It's fair to say the vibe on the studio side is much different. Of course, I haven't spoken to the CEOs. But I talk to people who are mid-level executives who know the day-to-day business workings of the struck companies. And there is this sense of helplessness in all of them that is striking. There is a general sense that for all the talk about the need for the CEOs to "step up" and help both sides come together and make a deal, the CEOs are in reality a lot of the problem right now.

You don't become the CEO of a major media company without having a healthy amount of EGO and belief in your inner sense of how to make a deal that comes out in your favor. We're now stuck in the ego-driven portion of the negotiations where changing your position and moving towards a compromise almost feels like a loss. More than almost anything executives like Bob Iger and David Zaslav don't like to lose. They don't even like to feel like they didn't get the best possible deal. And in a sense, they are paid the enormous salaries they receive because they possess those very traits.

But those qualities are not the ones they help during a difficult negotiation. I remember speaking with a union official who had negotiated a very difficult strike against a telecommunications company. And he told me that in a lot of ways, the process of a contentious negotiation was a lot like going through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. At some point, he explained, both sides have to get to the point where they accept the limitations of their position and work out a deal based on that framework.

Based on what I can tell from the outside, the WGA negotiating team has a pretty good sense of what is and isn't possible right now. Even if they're going to tip that to anyone. But the studios - especially the studio heads - are still stuck in the denial stage. Telling themselves that the writers are a rowdy bunch who don't know what they want or that the union is listening too much to the "activist" side of the membership.

"I was asked by [name withheld, but someone at the C-Level of one of the AMPTP members] what the mood was with the writers I speak with and I told them writers were angry," I was told by a mid-level executive today. "'Oh, the writers are ALWAYS angry about something' I was told. I am just at a loss right now."

I think this is part of the rationale behind AMPTP's decision to hire an outside PR firm to handle messaging for the studios. There seems to be a feeling among executives that the anger and scorn aimed at the industry's CEOs is just a matter of bad framing and some unfortunate missteps. Instead of a reflection of the reality on the ground. And even worse, these high-priced efforts are likely to be focused on the very trade publications who are already most open to studios point of view.

SPEAKING OF SHARING
One of the biggest challenges I have is just getting the word out there about my work. I've been at this a long time - I interviewed Netflix's Reed Hastings back when the company was mailing out DVDs from a lone warehouse in the Bay Area. So I've been able over the years to cultivate a lot of sources younger reporters don't have. But getting the word out in a media news industry that is mostly dominated by trades owned by Penske Media can be a challenge.

It is surprising to me how much traffic can still be driven by Twitter, even with all of the ways the company has worked to throttle driving traffic offsite. A few accounts tweeted out a link to a piece I did earlier in the week today and it's amazing how much traffic an account with over a million followers can drive to a page. 

ODDS AND SODS
* This NY Times piece about new Top Chef judge Kristen Kish is really fascinating.

* A new season of Life Below Zero premieres Monday, September 4th on NatGeo.

* Disney+ has cancelled Doogie Kamealoha, M.D after two seasons. One of the more perplexing developments at Disney+ has been its inability to market non-franchise originals.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND THIS WEEKEND:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 25TH:
* Inside No. 9 (BritBox)
* Killer Book Club (Netflix)
* NFL Draft: The Pick Is In (The Roku Channel)
* Wanted: The Escape Of Carlos Ghosn (Apple TV+)
* Vacation Friends 2 (Hulu)
* Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity (Prime Video)
* You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah (Netflix)

SATURDAY, AUGUST 26TH, 2023:
* Danger In Yosemite (Lifetime)
* Napa Ever After (Hallmark)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 27TH, 2023:
* Disappeared Season Premiere (Investigation Discovery)
* Princess Power (Netflix)

MONDAY, AUGUST 28TH, 2023:
* Princess Power (Netflix)
* The Chelsea Detective Season Two Premiere (Acorn TV)
* The Conversations Project (Hulu)
* The Museum (BritBox)

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

SEE YOU SOON!

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