Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, January 10th, 2025:
PRODUCTION NOTES
In an ideal world, this newsletter would have gone out at the normal time Friday evening.
But to be honest, as I started working on it, I just decided that I needed to step away from the keyboard for a bit. It's been a rough couple of days for any of us who either live in the greater Los Angeles area or know someone who does. There are so many stories of loss and despair and after I heard from a couple of people I know who had lost everything in the wildfires, I found it challenging to stay focused on the newsletter. I can't imagine the mental health challenges being experienced by those who are directly impacted by the wildfires. All I know is that it's going to be a difficult road in the months and years to come.
BTW, if you would like to donate to some of Hollywood's working class people who have lost their homes and personal belongings in the wildfires, I have this continually updated page of GoFundMe campaigns to choose from.
THE FUTURE OF HOLLYWOOD
It's been an incredibly challenging five years for Hollywood's working class. A pandemic, dual strikes, productions moving into other states and overseas, and now the impact of massive wildfires in the greater Los Angeles area.
It's still way too early to have a clear idea of how many people who are employed in the entertainment industry will be directly impacted by the fires - in part because many of the wildfires are still a long way from being contained. But I think that some range of the high hundreds is probably a good guess.
The next couple of years are going to be incredibly tough for them. It's not just the expected issues such as somehow replacing everything from clothes to housing. Or the very real frustrations of dealing with insurance companies and local bureaucrats. Los Angeles already had an expensive and tight housing market and now thousands of people are going to be looking for a place to live. Prices are likely to soar and that will impact everyone either renting or looking to buy a home.
And when it's time to rebuild, there are going to be a dizzying number of challenges. Existing zoning and environmental laws make any kind of development difficult. And given that some of the areas most impacted included homes that can't be rebuilt the same way under existing rules, well, it's going to be contentious.
There are just a wide variety of issues that are going to crop up during the rebuild. Before the wildfire, it was a challenge finding experienced contractors. Imagine how difficult it's going to be to find an honest contractor when there are also hundreds of well-financed celebrities competing for the same help? And if there is indeed a crackdown on undocumented workers, the size of the workforce is going to be even more reduced.
I plan to write more about this in the coming weeks. But I will say that while I appreciate the financial support being offered up by the various studios and media companies, I would like to see them come together to create a task force dedicated to rebuilding the affected parts of the area and ensure their employees can continue to live and work in California. That means using their legal teams to push local municipalities as well as the state to pass new laws and guidelines to make it easier to rebuild and expand the housing supply for the future.
Hollywood is facing an extinction-level problem unless the industry comes together to protect their workers.
THE WIDE RANGE OF AD-SUPPORTED STREAMING EXPERIENCES
Now that nearly every major streamer has an ad-supported option, what does that mean for viewers?
Sherwood News watched programs on all of the major ad-supported services and tracked the ad load for each program. And if you've ever watched one or more of the services, you won't be surprised to learn that Netflix has the lowest ad load among then platforms examined:
Anyone who has watched the ad-supported version of Paramount+ will find this description of the experience sadly familiar:
Taylor Sheridan’s CIA thriller “Lioness” had 18 ads — the most ads overall in the shows I watched — across five ad breaks during its 50 minutes.
This is the show I was watching that gave me ad fatigue. Perhaps it would have felt different if they just grouped all the ads into two longer ad breaks, as each one pulls you out of the world of the show.
One thing that struck me about the ads shown for both “Lioness” and “Landman” (another Sheridan show) was the sheer number of Paramount-owned brands in the mix. “Landman” had only two ads out of its 14 that were not Paramount house ads. “Lioness” had only two non-Paramount advertisers out of its 18 ads. I kept seeing lots of ads for “Yellowstone” merch. It made me wonder why I wasn’t seeing real brands in these ads.
This is a great comparison and you should read the entire piece. I've written before about the viewing experience on some of free FAST platforms such Pluto TV and Tubi. And like the SVOD ad-supported platforms, the viewing experience and ad load varies widely from service to service.
VENU SPORTS, WE HARDLY KNEW YE
It was too early on a Friday to be considered a news dump, but Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney announced this morning they have decided not to move forward with the launch of the sports-centric streamer Venu Sports.
This decision is a costly one for the three media companies. They reportedly have spent a collection $200 million preparing the service for launch, along with an equal amount to buy off rival sports streamer Fubo TV.
I suspect you could write a business school tell-all book laying out what went wrong over the past year. But at the end of the day, this failure all came down to hubris.
Executives at the three media companies apparently believed they could cut themselves a sweetheart deal that would allow them to license their sports content as well as sports-connected linear channels without making the same package available to rivals. And that led Fubo TV to file a lawsuit against the companies and win an injunction to postpone the launch of Venu.
That lawsuit was resolved earlier this week when the three media companies just threw a lot of money at the problem. But with Direct TV/Echostar now promising to file a similar lawsuit, the likely extended delay of the service's launch made the process problematic.
However, it's also important to note that the other factor that led to this decision was the overall business environment has changed substantially in the past year since Venu was announced. Disney decided to move forward with the launch of the beefed up ESPN SVOD service, which seemed like a counterintuitive choice given the simultaneous plan for Venu. Warner Bros Discovery has continued to move more live sports coverage to its streamer Max, as it also lost the rights to the NBA after the current season. The upsides of Venu - including the opportunity to add subscribers numbers to the included live linear TV networks - was offset by the increasingly wonky explanations for why there was a need for Venu at all.
The biggest loser in this decision is likely Fox, which doesn't have a viable alternative streaming option for its US live sports rights. I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see them try and partner up with another media company who already have a viable streaming service.
ANOTHER HARD-HITTING PIECE OF JOURNALISM FROM VARIETY
TWEET OF THE DAY
WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND THIS WEEKEND
FRIDAY, JANUARY 10TH, 2025:
Ad Vitam (Netflix) - (first look video)
Alpha Males Season Three Premiere (Netflix)
Bill Maher: Is Anyone Else Seeing This? (HBO)
Black Warrant Series Premiere (Netflix)
Farmagia Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
Goosebumps Season Two (Disney+) - (first look video)
I May Be A Guild Receptionist, But I'll Solo Any Boss To Clock Out On Time Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
My Best Friend's An Animal Season Premiere (NatGeo)
My Fatal Social Following (LMN)
The Apothecary Diaries (Crunchyroll)
Welcome To Japan, Ms. Elf! Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
SATURDAY, JANUARY 11TH, 2025:
I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
Polar Opposites (Hallmark)
Sakamoto Days Series Premiere (Netflix)
StuGo Series Premiere (Disney)
Terror Comes Knocking: The Marcela Borges Story (Lifetime)
Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Crunchyroll)
UniteUp! -Uni:Birth- (Crunchyroll)
SUNDAY, JANUARY 12TH, 2025:
All Creatures Great And Small Season Premiere (PBS)
Miss Scarlet Series Premiere (PBS)
Rogue Heroes Season Two Premiere (MGM+)
The Bear Lake Murders (Lifetime)
The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You (Crunchyroll)
The Red Ranger Becomes An Adventurer In Another World Series Premiere (Crunchyroll)
The 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards (E!)
MONDAY, JANUARY 13TH, 2025:
Baylen Out Loud Series Premiere (TLC)
Diddy: The Making Of A Bad Boy (Peacock)
Death By Fame Season Premiere (Investigation Discovery)
Moonshiners: Master Distillers Season Premiere (History)
Singles Inferno Season Premiere (Netflix)
St. Denis Medical Spring Premiere (NBC)
The Curious Case Of.....(Investigation Discovery)
SEE YOU ON MONDAY!