Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, February 9th, 2024

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, February 9th, 2024.

SOME PROGRAMMING NOTES
You are not imagining things, there was not a newsletter last night. I am in Pasadena this week (and most of next) for the TCAs and we went to an FX event last night that returned me back to the hotel close to midnight. And at that point, it seemed pointless to crank out a very late newsletter. And I might have also been a bit tired.

It's been humbling trying to juggle my normal intensive writing schedule on top of the additional responsibilities associated with the TCA coverage. But I have learned a lot, snagged a number of interviews you'll be reading over the upcoming weeks and made a number of new connections. 

I'll likely send out a short-ish newsletter this weekend, just as a way to get caught up with this week's coverage. The newsletter schedule will likely continue to be a bit unpredictable through next Thursday, when the TCAs wrap up and I return to TooMuchTV World Headquarters.

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT PEAK TV
FX's John Landgraf made his annual appearance at the TCA's on Friday afternoon and he announced that - to no one's surprise - there were fewer scripted English-language TV series produced year-to-year in 2023 than in 2022.

If you've been reading this newsletter for awhile, you already know I have issues with the framing of Peak TV, so you won't be surprised to learn that when I wrote about it today, I wasn't especially happy with how eagerly industry journalists report Landgraf's numbers with no context or skepticism:

The Peak TV number is almost irresistible to reporters, even though the number doesn't really represent a usable metric for the health or even the growth of the television and streaming TV business. Yes, tracking the number of new English-language scripted originals released in the U.S. is interesting. 

But it doesn't actually provide any accurate sense of the health of the TV industry. Any more than you can judge the health of Quaker Oats by tracking how many boxes of Cap'n Crunch it sold over the past decade.

And simply tracking the number doesn't reflect the number being spent each year on scripted content in total. Which industry is stronger? One that produces 50 Andor's or one that produces 150 BET+ originals?

Please go read the entire piece and pass it along. I guarantee it's a point of view you won't read anywhere else in the industry coverage of the topic. And I think this is one of things that makes my reporting so distinctive and important to support.

LOVE THE DOCUMENTARY, NOT THE BRANDING
I have been writing about Dan Schneider and his alleged misconduct during his time at Nickelodeon for years. And it was a frustrating experience for me because it was not just difficult to get people to speak on the record. I also worried about being sued if I was too explicit. I wasn't worried about being wrong. I was concerned that just the process of me being sued would be a financial extinction-level event for me. It was the most difficult decision I ever made as a journalist. But my family and my ability to make a living had to come first.

So I was thrilled last spring to be contacted by a producer working on what she hoped would be a deep expose of Schneider and his problematic behavior with his crew and often underage cast.

And this was not some low-rent, difficult to trust production company. Maxine Productions was created in 2022 by Emmy Award-winning director and producer Mary Robertson, who produced award-winning documentaries such as Controlling Britney Spears, The Killing Of Breonna Taylor and Showtime's The Circus. Co-producer of the documentary would be Emma Schwartz, who spent a number of years working for PBS's Frontline before joining Maxine Productions.

So when I was asked to sit down for an interview last May for the documentary, I was pretty confident that the end results were going to be deeply reported and expertly produced. And from everything I know about the production, that is just how it played out.

I was originally told the documentary was headed for Max, which seemed like a great fit. Max does some true crime and controversial documentaries, but they are uniformly well-produced and prestigious. When I had spoken to producers earlier in the year, I was told it was likely to be released towards mid-late March.

The trailer for the four-part Dan Schneider expose was released two days ago, and much to my surprise it is now airing on Max's true-crime sister linear TV channel Investigation Discovery. And it's titled Quiet On The Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV.

The release of the trailer didn't evoke much of a public and/or industry response and I have a couple of theories for that. 

Unfairly or not, Investigation Discovery is not generally seen as a place to see highly-reported, hard-hitting investigative documentaries. There have been a few really excellent documentaries on the network over the years, but I suspect that many viewers have a mental image of what they expect to see on ID that doesn't mesh with what they'll see with this documentary.

But from a business standpoint, having the documentary air on Investigation Discovery instead of Max is a win-win. It'll provide a large audience for ID's linear channel and it will end up streaming on Max anyway. But just not as a Max Original.

And the trailer didn't help the framing of the documentary. The premiere date is a month out, so the network didn't want to give away anything major before that date. But the resulting trailer is really just a bunch of random teases that makes the doc look a bit low-rent.

I know it's all a tough balancing act and I have no doubt this four-part documentary will be explosive when it premieres. But what a disappointing launch.

On a sidenote, I'll have some interviews with participants and producers closer to the premiere date and a review once the embargo lifts.

ODDS AND SODS
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WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND THIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9TH, 2024:
* A Killer Paradox (Netflix)
* Alpha Males Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
* Ashes (Netflix) - [first look video]
* Bhakshak (Netflix)
* Couple To Throuple Series Premiere (Peacock)
* Joe Bob's Very Violent Valentine's Day (Shudder)
* Lover, Stalker, Killer (Netflix) - [first look video]
* Mama June Family Crisis Season Premiere (WE tv)
* Suncoast (Hulu)
* Super Bowl Greatest Commercials XXIII: The Ultimate Countdown (CBS)
* The Silent Service Season One - The Battle of Tokyo Bay Series Premiere (Prime Video)
* Upgraded (Prime Video)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10TH:
* Abducted Off The Street: The Carlesha Gaither Story (Lifetime)
* Love & Jane (Hallmark)
* Ninja Kamui Series Premiere (Adult Swim)
* The Accidental Influencer Series Premiere (Max)
* The Super Bowl Soulful Celebration 25th Anniversary (CBS)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11TH:
* Puppy Bowl XX (Animal Planet)
* Stupid Pet Tricks Series Premiere (TBS)
* Super Bowl LVIII (CBS)
* Tracker Series Premiere (CBS)

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH:
* Bob Hearts Abishola Season Premiere (CBS)
* Killer Performance Series Premiere (Reelz)
* NCIS Season Premiere (CBS)
* NCIS: Hawaii Season Premiere (CBS)
* Rock, Paper, Scissors Series Premiere (Nickelodeon)
* The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
* The Neighborhood Season Premiere (CBS)
* The Space Race (NatGeo)

SEE YOU THIS WEEKEND!