Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024.
A COUPLE OF OBSERVATIONS ABOUT NETFLIX
* Tuesday opened with the news that beginning in January 2025, WWE Raw will move from USA Network to Netflix as part of a 10-year $5 billion deal. The deal also gives rights to Netflix to stream RAW as well as other related content in a number of Latin American countries. According to the federal filings, Netflix has the rights to bail out of the deal after five years or extend it an additional ten years.
This is certainly bad news for NBCU-owned USA Network, which has been using the RAW broadcasts as the linchpin of its schedule. But like other linear cable channels, USA has lost about 20% of its subscriber base in recent years. That smaller audience - combined with parent company Comcast's reluctance to fork over a big increase for the rights for a new contract - made this deal inevitable.
I read a few pieces today that somewhat mocked Netflix, snarkingly suggesting that company executives has always said they would never bid for live sports, but this deal shows they weren't being truthful.
I'd argue the opposite. Netflix executives have never said they wouldn't be interested in live sports. What they said was that they had no interest in getting into expensive bidding wars for programming it didn't own and that had limited replay value.
WWE Raw fits perfectly into the wheelhouse of what Netflix has long proclaimed it was interested in obtaining. It's not sports, per se. But it's sports-adjacent and also scripted in a way that provides a lot of opportunities to replays and repackaging.
And the deal will include a LOT of content over the project ten-year periods. Hundreds of hours and the WWE will be responsible for producing all of it. It is as close to a turnkey operation as exists in the sports entertainment world and WWE Raw is an established, known product.
There is also a lot of upside for both the WWE and Netflix in the deal. Rights deals in other global territories will be coming available in a few years, along with other WWE programming in North America. If this deal works for both sides, it's easy to see this become the starting point for a bigger relationship.
The WWE isn't really my thing. But I think Netflix's deal is super smart and a nice strategic move for both companies.
* In its shareholder letter, the company pushed back against some of the rumors that Netflix was going to buy a rival such as Paramount Global: "As our competitors adjust to these changes, it’s logical to expect further consolidation, particularly among companies with large and declining linear networks. We’re not interested in acquiring linear assets. Nor do we believe that further M&A among traditional entertainment companies will materially change the competitive environment given all the consolidation that has already happened over the last decade (Viacom/CBS, AT&T/Time Warner, Disney/Fox, Time Warner/Discovery, etc.)"
That being said, Sarandos has long talked about Netflix's desire to acquire the Paramount Pictures Studios facility. So if Paramount Global does get split into various parts (a scenario which is certainly possible), I suspect Netflix would love to acquire the studio facilities in a stand-alone deal.
* Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos thinks the studios should license more catalog content to Netflix: "I believe because of our our distribution heft and our recommendation system that sometimes we can uniquely add more value to the studio’s IP than they can. Not all the time, but sometimes it does, and we are the best buyer for it. I am thrilled that the studios are more open to licensing again, and I’m thrilled to tell them that we are open for business.”
A STORY I WISH I HAD BROKEN
If you want a solid example of the difference between doing reporting based on random tweets and doing the actual hard work associated with journalism, look no further than this piece in Variety from Jennifer Maas.
There had been stories popping up everywhere in the past few days, centered around tweets from Valerie Bertinelli complaining that she had essentially been "ghosted" by the Food Network. She revealed that she had not been contacted by the network about working on upcoming seasons of Kids Baking Championship and that the season is airing now was produced in 2022.
Those comments sparked the inevitable series of stories 1) recapping her comments 2) recapping supportive social media comments from other celebrities and finally 3) recapping Bertinelli's reaction to those comments.
But instead of merely writing another story that highlighted the various social media comments, Maas was able to get some insight into what might have happened. And while she doesn't reveal her source for the unsourced comments, it's likely someone associated with the Food Network. And the source didn't mind throwing her manager under the bus:
“Her deal expired, they opted not to renew it. They could have come to me with an offer just for ‘Kids.’ They never did. Simple as that,” Bertinelli’s longtime manager Marc Schwartz told Variety Tuesday.
According to insiders, the choice to not renew Bertinelli’s deal in 2022 was made by development execs that no longer work at the network: Former president Courtney White exited Food Network in March 2022 ahead of the close of the Discovery-WarnerMedia merger, followed soon by her replacement Jane Latman in December 2022. Betsy Ayala has been in the chief post since that time.
Bertinelli’s deal ended more than a year ago, and she has no projects currently filming or in development at Food Network. A source close to the situation says an offer was not made by the network for Bertinelli to continue as co-host on “Kids” because Food Network was led to believe that if it didn’t also renew her exclusive multi-series overall deal, Bertinelli would not accept an offer to continue on “Kids.” (Food Network opted not to renew Bertinelli’s overall deal amid budget cuts and mass layoffs across Warner Bros. Discovery in its post-merger consolidation.)
My hunch is that the end result will be a deal for Bertinelli to do more of Kids Baking Championship as a stand-alone deal. And the actress has been in the business long enough to know the best move was to complain about the decision, but not about the network. Don't burn bridges unless absolutely necessary.
A COUPLE OF VIEWING SUGGESTIONS
If you were a fan of The CW's previous DC-centric programming slate, then recent changes at the network have likely infuriated you. U.S. television fans have always had a weird attitude about most Canadian TV programming, assuming for some reason that if an American TV network licenses reruns of a Canadian show, the decision is driven by budgets and not quality.
But there are some really good Canadian shows airing right now on American TV. NBC's Transplant is a compelling medical series about Bashir “Bash” Hamed (Hamza Haq), a refugee from Syria who is struggling to re-establish his medical career in Canada while facing racism and the uncomfortable moments that come with trying to build a life in a new country.
And The CW has fully embraced licensing shows from Canada and elsewhere, and the decisions are certainly driven in part by costs. But it's easy to overlook the network has licensed some really great programming. The sci-fi series The Swarm came from Game of Thrones executive producer Frank Doelger and had been extremely successful in Europe and has been picked up for a second season. But when season one wrapped on The CW at the end of October, it had came and went without much notice. It was the same situation with Canadian comedies Run The Burbs and Everybody Else Burns.
Season three of the Canadian comedy Son Of A Critch premieres on the CW this Thursday and it might be one of the funniest family comedies on TV right now. It's glib to describe this series as a "Canadian Wonder Years," but it's also a pretty accurate description. It funny, sweet and the fact that it reflects what it was like to grow up in Newfoundland in the 1980s mostly just illustrates that random childhood angst is universal.
The first two seasons of the show aired on The CW over the past year and they can be watched for free on the The CW app. I recently spoke with series creator Mark Critch for an interview I'm posting tomorrow. In the meantime, check out the show, which certainly qualifies as a "hidden gem." And did I mention Malcolm McDowell plays the Grandad?
Check it out.
ODDS AND SODS
* I put together a list of where you can stream (or not stream) every 2024 Oscar-nominated film. I'll be updating the list as availability changes.
* Dicks: The Musical will be available to stream February 2nd on Max.
* Here is a rundown of the top ten global TV and streaming video stories you should know from today.
* If you've watched the season finale of Fargo, I'd recommend reading this spoiler-filled review from Wes Burdine, which takes a very different angle on the episode.
* Anne Hathaway got up and left a Vanity Fair photo shoot in solidarity with the Condé Nast union.
* The Weather Channel has ordered the new docuseries Rocky Mountain Wreckers, which will follow four family-owned heavy wrecking businesses across Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23RD:
* American Experience: Nazi Town USA (PBS)
* Father Brown (BritBox)
* Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees (Netflix)
* Kevin James: Irregardless (Prime Video) - [review]
* Love Deadline Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Open Wide (Netflix)
* The Winemaker Series Premiere (MHz Choice)
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24TH:
* A Real Bug's Life Series Premiere (NatGeo)
* Chrissy & Dave Dine Out Series Premiere (Freeform)
* Queer Eye Season Eight Premiere (Netflix)
* Rico To The Rescue Season Premiere (HGTV)
* Six Nations: Full Contact (Netflix) - [first look video]
* Tell Me That You Love Me Series Premiere (Hulu)
* The Jonathan Ross Show Christmas Special 2023 (Britbox)
SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!