Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, August 22nd, 2022

Hulu's new replacement theory

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, August 19th, 2022.

HULU'S NEW REPLACEMENT THEORY
Roughly 92 percent of the think pieces about the future of Hulu mention the fact Comcast is clawing back the next-day streaming rights of a number of its shows, ranging from NBC programs to the universe of popular Bravo reality shows. "Oh, what will Hulu do if they lose those Comcast shows for good?"

As it turns out, Hulu can take advantage of another source for popular reality programming - the various channels owned by A&E Networks. That company is co-owned 50/50 by Disney and Hearst Communications. That weird co-ownership between two rivals has led to scatterings of catalog shows showing up on both Hulu and Discovery+. Although the content on Discovery+ has tended to be limited to older seasons.

It's not clear if the recent content adjustments at Warner Brothers Discovery are directly responsible for the move, but Hulu is set to add a massive number of programs from across all of the A&E Networks. More than 120 seasons of programming from A&E, History, Lifetime, fyi and LMN are being added on September 1st and the titles range from the obscure (Zombie House Flipping) to the wildly popular (American Pickers). Here is the complete list of shows and seasons.

It's worth noting a number of these seasons are currently available on Discovery+, but although I've reached out to Discovery+, I'm not sure if they will be exiting that rival platform or if the two platforms will share the content.

Check out the complete list of additions here. In what I suspect is not entirely a coincidence, about a dozen Comcast-owned titles are disappearing from Hulu on Septembr 18th, including the series run of NBC's Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Bravo's Keeping Up With Kardashians, The Real Housewives Of Atlanta, The Real Housewives Of New Jersey, The Real Housewives Of Hew York, The Real Housewives Of The Potomac, Top Chef and Vanderpump Rules.

THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF ALASKA'S SNOW CRAB
Over the weekend, The Washington Post had a fascinating look at the near-disappearance of Alaska's snow crab population:

The theories are many. The crabs moved into Russian waters. They are dead because predators got them. They are dead because they ate each other. The crabs scuttled off the continental shelf and scientists just didn’t see them. Alien abduction.

Okay, not that last one. But everyone agrees on one point: The disappearance of Alaska’s snow crabs probably is connected to climate change. Marine biologists and those in the fishing industry fear the precipitous and unexpected crash of this luxury seafood item is a harbinger, a warning about how quickly a fishery can be wiped out in this new, volatile world.

The prevailing theory seems to be that the disappearance is climate related, although the mechanics of that still aren't understood. But the story reminded me that back in 2016, I wrote a piece about how networks such as Discovery devoted hundreds of hours of primetime programming a year to fishing, mining and other related trades. But they seemed to be unwilling to even acknowledge climate change, opting for language that had the show's narrator talking about the "unusual weather pattern" that year.

I spent a fair amount of time trying to find someone from one of Discovery's shows to talk about climate change. The lone person was Captain Keith Colburn from Deadliest Catch and his interview makes some eerily accurate predictions:

It's going to be just the same as we've seen on the East Coast. For instance, Rhode Island used to have a more than 100-million pound a season cod catch. And now it's down to maybe five million. Most of that population has moved north into Maine. What happened in Rhode Island was that as the water warmed, predator fish moved in and started to seek out the cod and other fish that were there. Lobster populations are moving north and at some point you're going to need a Canadian passport to catch lobster on the East Coast.

My concern in Alaska is that we're going to see predator fish moving in. It could be Cod, it could be something else. But my fear is that these fish will move into the warmer water, become more prolific and push out the populations we fish. We just don't know. Scientists really struggle with trying to predict what we're going to fish and when we're going to catch it. And that's the scariest thing right now. We just don't know what's going to happen. We just know it's going to change.

The thing is, the lifespan of a crab is only seven years or so. So it only takes a few years to completely disrupt the biomass as they reproduce.

All of this is a reminder to myself and to all of you that networks such as Discovery and NatGeo are generally shrugging off the effects of climate change in their programming. It doesn't matter whether you believe man is primarily responsible for climate change or not. Change is taking place and television should reflect that.

Speaking of television reflecting climate change, I wish the Food Network had a program that discussed the reasons why products ranging from scallops to butter have doubled in price in the past year. Andrew Zimmern has been an advocate of discussing the impact climate change is having on food prices and there is a place in the TV landscape for a show that delves into the issue.

ICYMI
* Lost Ollie premieres on Netflix this Wednesday and it is a truly extraordinary four-part miniseries. I reviewed it over the weekend and you can read that here.

* HBO Max's sudden removal of some programming over the past week will feel sadly familiar to fans of Warner Brothers' classic film library, who suffered through their own mini-content apocalypse when AT&T acquired Warner Brothers in 2018.

* No matter how smart or talented you may be, every human has an intellectual expiration date. And based on his recent interview with the NY Times, I'd argue John Malone has reached his.

TWEET OF THE DAY

YES, IT'S MOSTLY A MARKETING EVENT
September 8th is "DisneyPlusDay" and while I tend to ignore all the gushing PR efforts surrounding, it's worth noting that Disney+ will be premiering a bunch of content that day:

ODDS AND SODS
* Hulu's upcoming original limited series Welcome To Chippendales will premiere on Tuesday, November 22nd.

* The true-crime series Disappeared - which last aired on Investigation Discovery in 2018 - is returning to the network with new episodes. Season ten of the show premieres on Wednesday, September 7th. Portions of the shows previous seasons are available for streaming on Discovery+. For instance, only one episode from the premiere season is available. 

* The AV Club suspects that HBO Max is treating animation fans and creators like hot, burning garbage.

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

Anne (Acorn TV)
Bobby And Sophie On The Coast Series Premiere (Food)
Kevin Can F&*k Himself Season Premiere (AMC)
Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge Season Finale (NatGeo)
TMZ Investigates: What Really Happened to Richard Simmons (Fox)

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

SEE YOU TUESDAY!

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