Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Tuesday, April 25th, 2023

A possible shadow effort to rehabilitate Tucker Carlson.

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

REPUTATION REBUILDING, 2023 STYLE
Just one day after Tucker Carlson was unexpectedly booted from Fox News, someone or some people are already organizing an effort to boost Carlson's image in the face of some of the allegations that have surfaced in the wake of his firing.

I've had two different people forward me emails today that they received from someone who claims to be a prominent conservative media figure. The email asks the recipient to "stand strong against the liberal media's effort to cancel Tucker Carlson" and it asks that the recipient share on social media a positive memory of an interaction with Carlson, a reminder of his importance to conservatives or a time when the former Fox News anchor "positively influenced your life or the lives of your listeners." In both cases, the people receiving the emails were medium market conservative talk show hosts and the email also asked them to remind listeners that "Tucker always stood up for you, for what's right and for America's greatness."

It's not clear if the emails did in fact come from the media figure that signed them. The emails originate from a generic-sounding email address and my attempts so far to verify directly whether the email sender's identity is accurate have been rebuffed.

I did reach out to a number of other conservative radio and media people this afternoon and several admitted having received similar emails. But these recipients refused to identify the sender to me and in several cases I was told that they had received "plenty of support from unhappy listeners," so they didn't believe the emails were part of any organized campaign.

That being said, a number of conservative media types did post social media messages in support of Carlson today, so it's certainly possible that at least some of it is a semi-organized effort to rally support among Carlson's most likely viewers. The person who allegedly signed the emails didn't work directly with Carlson, but is a well-known conservative media figure. And asking for support for the beleaguered host would not be out of character for this person.

But aside from determining the validity of the email sender's identity, the much more interesting question is whether this is part of an organized effort to build support for Carlson or whether it's just an unplanned and organic effort to help out a like-minded host going through a rough spell.

I still don't have an answer for that question, but either way, this is an interesting and almost predictable next step in the post-Fox News Tucker Carlson saga.

DON'T SLEEP ON THIS SHOW
While I don't have any relevant interviews to point to with the show, I did want to highlight a broadcast television show you might have let slip past you this season. Will Trent is a smart and breezy show, with Ramón Rodríguez playing the lead role in a series based on Karin Slaughter’s best-selling detective novels. Trent is an obsessive detective with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and he is quirky in a way that might seem familiar to fans of the long-running Monk. Although the two characters (and shows) don't share a lot of specifics in common. The ensemble is strong, the scripts are sharply written and it's just a fun show to watch.

The season finale airs next Tuesday, so this is a last chance to get caught up on the series before it wraps for the year. Will Trent has already been renewed for next season, which is fine with me since it's one of my two favorite rookie shows on broadcast television this season.

I am also a huge fan of ABC's comedy Not Dead Yet, which also airs its season finale next week. The delightful Gina Rodriguez plays Nell Serrano, an accident-prone American newspaper reporter who left her last job five years ago to follow her boyfriend to the UK. She's now back, sans boyfriend and looking to restart her newspaper career. Unfortunately for her, the only available job is writing obituaries. And even more unfortunate, the ghosts of those she writes about seem to be talking to her. The series hasn't been renewed (or cancelled), but I am hoping for the best. While the network has a number of comedies, Not Dead Yet has a vibe that doesn't quite fit with the majority of the other ABC comedies. I suppose we'll see if that is a good or a bad thing.

ODDS AND SODS
* Peri Gilpin, who played Frasier Crane’s (Kelsey Grammer) radio producer, Roz Doyle, on the long-running NBC comedy Frasier, will reprise her role for a guest appearance on the upcoming Paramount+ sequel.

* MGM+ has ordered a 10-episode series of Emperor of Ocean Park, which will be based on author and law professor Stephen L. Carter’s best-selling novel.

* Court TV announced today that it will premiere a new, original 10-episode documentary series Accomplice to Murder with Vinnie Politan on Sunday, May 7th.

A BIT OF STREAMING UI FUN
Long-time readers will recall that I love diving deep into the little UI tweaks that happen on the various streaming services. And in recent days, I've noticed that while Warner Bros. Discovery is buried deep in the last minute tweaks of its upcoming HBO Max reboot/refresh Max, the company is also doing a bunch of minor tweaks to the sister streaming service Discovery+.

One small tweak has been to replace thumbnail images taken from the episode with a thumbnail of the show's key art. At least on the “continue watching” horizontal tab. Which definitely helps the usability a bit. The service has also added a "new" tag to the thumbnail of any series with new episodes (although it's not clear what qualifies as "new" in this context):

The service has also begun highlighting the day new episodes will be arriving. I had previously seen that descriptor on some of the shows, but not all of them. Once again, it's a super useful little addition.

Two bigger issues on the service still remain. There's no way to stop the service from automatically moving on to an episode of some randomly selected show after the episode you're watching has ended. Which can be extremely annoying, because if you don't stop it in time, that random show will then appear in your "continue watching" row. And there is currently no way to delete a show off of that list.

The other issue is that while Discovery+ does a good job of adding new in-season episodes of shows you have followed and have been watching into your "continue watching" row, it seems to forget that preference once the current season ends. When a new season arrives on the service, new episodes won't appear under "continue watching" until you've watched at least part of one episode of the new season. 

WHAT'S NEW FOR TUESDAY:
* Chopped: Military Salute Series Premiere (Food)
* Family Legacy Series Premiere (Paramount+)
* Halfway To Halloween (Shudder/AMC+)
* Inspector Rex Season Four Premiere (MHz Choice)
* John Mulaney: Baby J (Netflix)
* Murderous Memories Series Premiere (MHz Choice)
* Supermarket Stakeout Season Premiere (Food)


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

SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!

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