Here’s everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, February 20th, 2026:
PRODUCTION NOTES
Today's newsletter is lighter on TV and media news than normal. But there is a lot going on here at Too Much TV world headquarters. I'll be sending out a round-up of mini-reviews of some of this week's new premieres tomorrow.
BELIEVE ME, I WASN'T SURE I WAS GOING TO GET HERE
Today is the fifth anniversary of the Too Much TV newsletter and it seemed like a good time to reflect on the journey and what comes next. And to thank all of you for the support along the way.
This newsletter began as a weekly newsletter that was little more than links to what I was posting on AllYourScreens as well as highlights of stories from other places. I slowly began adding my own commentaries on the industry and at some undefined point found the story mix that worked best for both myself and my readers. Too Much TV evolved into what it is as I write this - 174,351 free subscribers spread across the world and a couple of newsletter providers. I've broken stories, driven conversations in the industry and found support from readers who have been kind enough to buy me a coffee or upgrade to a paid subscription.
This is a difficult time for anyone in entertainment journalism, even the biggest players. I was just reading a piece from Brian Morrisey at the Rebooting, who recounts this visit to one of the fixtures of journalism in Hollywood:
Instead, most publishers are focused on triage. They’re propping up old businesses that in their heart of hearts they know are in freefall. The experience of landing on a Variety webpage and being bombarded with dueling autoplay video ads, cookie consent banners, an “ad skin,” and a programmatic banner every paragraph or two, and you can’t help to notice what my fellow podcaster Troy Young has called “the whiff of desperation.” There is simply no future in that business, whether it’s in a year or three years. The playbook of arbing search traffic with what polite circles call “high ad density” is going to zero.
That's the challenge for all of the Penske Media outlets: can they drive enough revenue from FYC advertising, subscription products, live events and other non-journalism efforts to stay in business? I wish them well, but I am not sure that is a business I would want to be in right now.
Too Much TV is in a weird middle ground between the bigger outlets such as the Penske trades, The Ankler or Puck and a number of smaller outlets scrambling to survive. I suspect I am the largest solo journalist outlet in the industry. But to be honest, that doesn't always put money in my pocket.
Perhaps my biggest challenge right now is getting my work out in front of new readers. Once people read my work, they seem to like what they read. But without a marketing budget, relying on word of mouth or the occasional mentions from other journalists feels entirely too scattershot of an approach to build on.
Let me use the Global TV Awards as an example. I launched it last year inside the Too Much TV newsletter, almost as an afterthought and more than 60,000 people voted for their favorites. This year I launched a standalone website (somewhat at the last minute) and when voting ends tonight at midnight, voting looks as if it will cross 150,000 people. A number that was driven almost entirely virally, in part by fans of various shows that organized voting campaigns. Some streamers also mentioned the voting in their email blasts. But there was zero coverage in the entertainment press, for a variety of reasons that don't matter in this discussion.
Next year, the web site will be more robust, and I have already begun receiving outreach from streamers and global production companies interested in sponsoring or otherwise participating in the 3rd Annual Global TV Awards. It appears it is turning into an eventual secondary revenue stream, which wasn't my original intent. But it illustrates the power of the global television industry, which remains underappreciated by many people in Hollywood.
As for what comes next for Too Much TV, that continues to be a work in progress. I plan to focus on providing more value for paid subscribers, which I neglected a bit over the past year when I was battling some health issues. I am rolling out some additional content for everyone, which I think will be both useful for readers and also a way to build new business relationships:
* One new feature will be a bi-weekly "Too Much TV Book Club" feature that will appear in your inboxes on Friday. I'll spotlight a book I think will be of interest and include an interview when possible. If it proves to be popular, I can always expand it to weekly, but I want to be cautious on what I add to my workflow. And I'm exploring some ways of turning it into an actual book club experience with a reader Zoom call.
* If I were based in Los Angeles or somewhere on the East Coast, I would organize some live event or Meetup. I am not sure how many of you live in the Twin Cities - I suspect the number is pretty small - shoot me an email at
* Another goal for the upcoming year is to get out to more industry conferences. This in part a reaction to the collapse of the in-person Television Critics Association tours. But mostly, it's an opportunity to step away from my desk, network, grab some interesting industry interviews and build awareness for the newsletter. So far, I am mostly waiting to hear back about press credentials from places such as the Austin TV Fest. But I'll definitely be at StreamTV in Denver on June 16-19th. I'll announce other events as they are finalized. My bucket list event would be ContentLondon next spring. That is quite the stretch for me right now, but given my love of global TV, it would be a natural fit.
* I also wanted to mention that I am always available for podcasts, radio appearances or for moderating or appearing at conferences. I have done a couple of talks to high school and college classes recently and they are just a blast. I spoke virtually earlier this week to a class at a NYC area college and the questions were varied and especially astute. I am also interested in doing more of those.
* One problem I haven't figured out is building out a place for us to discuss TV and build a bit of a community. I really loathe the Substack Chat function and I also don't want to be tied to the Substack infrastructure. Slack feels too corporate somehow, although I am open to it. I know a lot of newsletters use Discord and that's a possibility as well. Let me know what you think, it's still a bit of a challenge for me.
* I am hopeful about acquiring a new TooMuchTV domain name, although this effort has turned out to be much more complicated (and expensive) than I had planned. But the goal is to move AllYourScreens content to that domain, along with the newsletter.
* Ads are coming to TooMuchTV. But just barely. Beginning on March 2nd, you'll begin to see a lone, modest ad in the middle of the newsletter. One ad, with no more than 100 words and/or a small image. I don't like ads either, but it will help pay for this newsletter. If you are interested in advertising in one or more editions, email me at
* And lastly, I am bringing back my Q&A email, but now it will come out on Sundays as the "Sunday Mailbag." Send me questions anytime throughout the week.
I just want to end this by saying thank you to everyone who reads this newsletter or who supports it in some way. You have helped give this journalist a fourth (or maybe 5th) career and I am well aware how lucky I am.
A CONFUSING STORY NO ONE SEEMS TO UNDERSTAND
I am highlighting this piece from Deadline only because it is the example in front of me. I have seen maybe a half dozen similar examples and in all of them, the journalist seems perplexed by what is happening with Paramount Skydance and the DOJ:
Paramount has cleared a 10-day waiting period after responding to a second request for information from the DOJ around its unsolicited offer for Warner Bros. Discovery.
The company said today that the expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act means “there is no statutory impediment in the U.S. to closing” the acquisition. Paramount, unusually, had moved on regulatory approvals without a deal in hand. WBD has agreed to a sale of its assets to Netflix.
Netflix is in the process of responding to the DOJ’s second request for information, which will be followed by a 30-day waiting period. Deadline understands that the waiting period for all-cash offers like Paramount’s is shorter.
This is a very in the weeds issue, but I will try and break it down as best as I can.
When two companies announce a merger, they remain two separate companies until they successfully complete a number of steps beyond just internally approving and signing the deal. Shareholders have to approve the merger, financing has to be finalized, and the deal must clear antitrust hurdles.
There are a lot of legally obscure steps involved in clearing anti-trust concerns, but one of the primary issues is that is called the "Hart-Scott-Rodino process." Basically, participants in any large merger valued at more than $200,000,000 must file paperwork with antitrust officials that would help regulators at the Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission determine if the merger would be a violation of anti-trust laws.
Once they file the paperwork, there is a 30-day waiting period before the merger can proceed. In that period, anti-trust enforcers can ask for more detailed information, in what is known as the "second request process." Companies do not want to happen, because that second request stops the merger clock until the questions are resolved. There are often extremely complex and expensive negotiations about that second request and what should be provided by the merging companies. Because the more information government enforcers get access to, the more likely they are to find something that might delay or even sink the merger.
Paramount Skydance's main antitrust lawyer is a man named Makan Delrahim. It's his job to get any proposed merger through the government anti-trust hurdles and he has experience doing just that. He was the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust when that Sprint-T-Mobile merger happened over state objections and he understands the complicated anti-trust process as much as anyone on either side of this deal.
Here is why that DOJ approval for Paramount Skydance's offer is so important. PSKY apparently spent millions of dollars fulfilling the second request items from the DOJ, even though the Warner Bros. Discovery board continues to reject the PSKY offer. Why would it do that?
All-cash offers have a shorter 15-day deadline for anti-trust complaints to be filed by the DOJ. And that clock starts ticking the moment the merger deal is signed. That accelerated timeline also makes it more difficult for state regulators to file a challenge to the merger. Not that that issue is an especially likely one, given the pace of case filed by state officials. Those cases typically take years to make their way through the federal courts and even if they won, it would be impossible to unwind the merger. The states would also have to prove not only that the merger broke anti-trust laws, but the DOJ was incorrect, which is an extremely high hurdle.
It's also worth noting that the last time state officials filed a lawsuit to block a national merger was in 2019, in an effort to block the Sprint-T-Mobile merger, despite a federal consent decree approving the deal. And as a reminder, that federal effort was headed by now Paramount Skydance antitrust lawyer Makan Delrahim.
This DOJ approval now allows PSKY to go to the WBD board and say "we have approval from the U.S. government, so this deal can close quickly." Of course, that doesn't include European regulators, but that is an entirely different issue.
As for Netflix, once it formally responds to the DOJ second request, the initial 30-day clock begins ticking again and if the DOJ is going to court to oppose it, it has to be done in that timeframe. So the short version is that this approval by the DOJ now makes the Paramount Skydance offer a much faster process than Netflix can accomplish. The big question is whether that will have an impact on the final decision by the WBD board.
WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE INTERVIEWED BY A CABLE NEWS NETWORK
Longtime Minneapolis television and radio host Jason DeRusha is a talented communicator and in full disclosure, has been a strong supporter of this newsletter. I've appeared a few times on his current radio show and he has a connection with listeners that is rare in the industry.
Jason ended up appearing on national news shows regularly in recent weeks to provide an on-the-ground look at what it's like during the ICE crackdown in Minneapolis. He wrote about the experience on LinkedIn and it's well worth reading:
PLAN OUT A HEADLINE: "Minneapolis is exhausted." "We miss being flyover country." "I'm not holding my breath." "We'll believe it when we see it." "Only in Minnesota would there be an accusation of an attack with a snow shovel." Each time I went on I thought about the message I wanted to get out - and the social media headline of each visit. What's the theme- what's the headline - what's my story. It's not clickbait - it's clearly communicating something that's important, but also making it friendly and usable for TV.
How did they find me? I have a huge web footprint. Website, instagram, facebook, etc. It was easy to find me and easy to contact me on a million different email addresses.
Jason is also very good at these TV hits and it is definitely a very specific skill. I have done a lot of radio, including a lot with overseas people wanting to discuss what it going on in the U.S. media industry. But not much TV, which remains a bucket list goal for me.
ODDS AND SODS
* CBS Studios has officially concluded a secondary internal review regarding the dismissal of actor David Del Rio from the hit legal drama Matlock. After revisiting the circumstances surrounding his October 2025 departure, the network has announced it will stand by the original decision to terminate his contract.
* Apple TV has announced that five races from its 2026 Grands Prix season will be livestreamed in IMAX theaters across the country. The IMAX deal will cover five events: races in Miami, Monaco, Silverstone, Monza, and Austin. They will stream in at least 50 IMAX locations.
* Former NBC News anchor Chuck Todd has written an interesting piece arguing we are entering a "bi-partisan period of reform." I really hope he's right.
HOSTING THE OLYMPICS: THE WORLD'S BIGGEST PARTICIPATION TROPHY
NPR's Linda Holmes decided to watch every sports at the Winter Olympics and apparently it was quite the experience:
Let us say up front that watching some of every sport at the Winter Olympics is not as challenging as watching some of every sport at the Summer Olympics. The Summer Olympics are a sprawling collection of activities, where you might see horses or swords or boats or surfboards.
The Winter Olympics still feel very rich, but they're a bit more focused. My own brain roughly sorts them into team sports like curling and hockey, figure skating, running on snow, going down a hill on snow, sliding down an icy track, and flying through the air in much the way I might if I went skiing or snowboarding, except it's graceful and on purpose, and you generally do not end up in the hospital.
And I found it all completely captivating.
I am a bit of an Olympics widow. I am at best a casual sports fan and I find most of the scoring associated with the events perplexing. Although I do enjoy curling, in part because it is a sport I can imagine myself participating in if I could skate. And bend down without falling over.
WHAT'S COMING TONIGHT AND THIS WEEKEND
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH:
* Dreaming Whilst Black Season Two Premiere (Paramount+)
* Everyone Has A Secret (LMN)
* Firebreak (Netflix)
* Pavane (Netflix)
* Portobello (HBO Max)
* Strip Law Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Last Thing He Told Me Season Two Premiere (Apple TV)
* The Orphans (Netflix)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21ST:
* Double Double Trouble (Lifetime)
* Shorsey Season Premiere (Hulu)
* The Stars Between Us (Hallmark)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22ND:
* American Dad! Season Twenty Premiere (Fox)
* BAFTA Film Awards (E!)
* Bar Rescue Season Premiere (Paramount+)
* History's Greatest Picks With Mike Wolfe Series Premiere (History)
* Tournament of Champions VII: The Bracket Reveal (Food Network)
SEE YOU THIS WEEKEND!