Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, October 16th, 2025:
APPARENTLY I ANNOYED SOMEONE
My apologies for the lack of a newsletter yesterday. I logged in to my email before beginning work to find this in my email:
There were also hundreds of emails from every far right conservative pundit from Ben Shapiro and James O'Keefe to Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr. It took me hours to wade through the phishing attempts, unsubscribe from all the emails and I reset every password associated with my Substack account as a precaution. Clearly I annoyed someone, but I don't have any theory about who it might be.
I have everything cleared up now, but if they were trying to ruin my day, they did a pretty solid job of accomplishing their goal. Now, I'm back to the newsletter business. And it will be getting to you at a more normal time.
HAS APPLE ACQUIRED BROADCAST RIGHTS TO THE F1 RACING LEAGUE?
Apple Services Chief Eddy Cue is out doing a mini-tour of interviews, explaining various strategies of the streaming service formerly known as Apple TV+. He appeared on a podcast with Matt Belloni in which explained the reasons why Apple TV+ dropped the plus from its name (apparently the Apple TV box should now be called Apple TV 4k?) and on Wednesday he spoke with CNBC’s Alex Sherman at the Autosport Business Exchange NYC.
He spoke a bit about the Apple movie F1, but he declined to say if Apple had acquired broadcast rights to the F1 racing league, although it's known that Apple submitted a bid for the rights.
But he did speak a great deal about his desire to see Apple move more aggressively into live sports. Currently, the streaming service airs Major League Baseball games on Friday nights and has a package for Major League Soccer that allows subscribers to watch all MLS matches:
Cue said that there were a lot of things about sports broadcasts that he would like to fix, including blackouts, the need to subscribe to multiple services and issues with viewers accessing streams while traveling.
He said that the way that Apple TV broadcasts MLS, in which viewers aren’t blacked out and can stream games around the world, “fixed” some of those issues.
“If we want people to watch games, and we want all of sports to grow, some of these things need to be fixed,” Cue said, suggesting that leagues could demand all of its broadcast partners work together to enable features like picture-in-picture when multiple games are playing at the same time but on different streaming services.
The picture-in-picture is an interesting idea, but given that most of the major sports rights in the U.S. have recently been renewed for a decade or more, it's likely to be a very long time before we see the leagues consider the idea.
NBC NEWS GUTS DIVERSITY REPORTING TEAMS IN LATEST ROUND OF LAYOFFS
As had been expected, NBC News announced it was laying off about 150 employees ahead of the split with MSNBC. But while the reductions were expected, the big surprise was who was laid off:
NBC News eliminated its teams dedicated to covering issues affecting Black, Asian American, Latino and LGBTQ+ groups as part of its layoffs of about 150 staffers on Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter, a significant culling as the Peacock network separates from its sister news network, MSNBC.
The cuts mean that the verticals NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC OUT will no longer have dedicated teams bolstering their coverage. The verticals will continue to publish stories related to the specific groups and NBC News may ultimately retain up to five staffers who will contribute coverage on the verticals to the newsroom, according to one source, as the dedicated teams focused exclusively on these verticals are sunset.
So why were those teams targeted? Well, I'm sure this is just a coincidence:
NBC and its parent company, Comcast, have also come under federal scrutiny for their diversity-focused efforts. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to Comcast in February saying he would investigate the company for its promotion of DEI, alleging the company has “executives specifically dedicated to promoting DEI across the TV and programming
side of the business.”
ODDS AND SODS
* The KPop Demon Hunters Sing-Along event — a full-length sing-along version of the hit animated original film — is returning to theaters Friday, October 31st through Sunday, November 2nd. I saw the first go-round of this and it was a blast to be in the audience and watch a theater full of young girls singing and dancing.
* The Ankler's Lesley Goldberg has a really interesting breakdown (subscription required) of the costs and likely revenue for NBC from its many Dick Wolf procedurals vs. its new NBA deal. She has a lot of good details, although the only thing I'll add is that having live sports has an impact in local TV affiliates' willingness to pay ever-higher reverse retransmission fees to the network (that's money paid by local affiliates to the network for the rights to air their programming). The networks continue to raise and it's a contentious issue with the local affiliates. But having plenty of live sports keeps them much happier than having new episodes of a procedural. It's one reason why Sinclair and Nexstar ultimately folded when ABC threatened to pull all of the network's programming following their decision to not air Jimmy Kimmel Live! Neither station group was willing to lose the live sports that airs on ABC.
* Hulu's "Huludays" holiday viewing portal is now live and includes past Hulu originals, collections of Hallmark and Lifetime movies from years past, and curated holiday episodes of favorite series.
* A couple of days ago, I noticed that the Roku City screensaver was filled with billboards touting "D.L. is Coming." And my first thought was "Wow, what will D.L. Hughley be doing with Roku?" But it turns out the promos were for a special concert by Demi Lovato "Live From Roku City." So...she's doing a concert live from a fictional screensaver city? Okay....
* The limited series (aren't they all?) His & Hers premieres Thursday, January 8th on Netflix. Here is the official logline: "Set in the sweltering heat of Atlanta, Anna lives in haunting reclusivity, fading away from her friends and career as a news anchor. But when she overhears about a murder in Dahlonega – the sleepy town where she grew up – Anna is snapped back to life, pouncing on the case and searching for answers. Detective Jack Harper is strangely suspicious of her involvement, chasing her into the crosshairs of his own investigation."
* Pennsylvania's WPSU will stay on the air after a planned shutdown in 2026. The Penn State-owned PBS affiliate + NPR station will become part of Philadelphia's WHYY after a "public outcry of support."
* Netflix has renewed the animated series Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch for a second season.
* The stand-up comedy special Kathleen Madigan: The Family Thread, will premiere Friday, November 21st on Prime Video.
* MGM+ has given the greenlight to Bosch: Start of Watch, a prequel series that will explore the origin story of Michael Connelly’s legendary detective Harry Bosch. The series stars Cameron Monaghan (Shameless, Gotham) as rookie cop Harry Bosch and Omari Hardwick (Star Trek: Section 31, Army of the Dead) as veteran officer Eli Bridges.
WHAT'S COMING TODAY AND TOMORROW
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16TH:
* Culpa Nuestra (Our Fault) (Prime Video)
* Devil In Disguise: John Wayne Gacy (Peacock)
* Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage Season Two Premiere (CBS)
* Ghosts Season Five Premiere (CBS)
* Karen Pirie Season Two Finale (Britbox)
* Last Lands (Disney+/Hulu)
* Romantics Anonymous Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Starting 5 (Netflix)
* The Diplomat Season Three Premiere (Netflix)
* The Time That Remains (Netflix)
* War Dawgz (NET+)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17TH:
* An Intimate Evening With Adam Pally (HBO)
* Art & Science Collide (PBS)
* Boston Blue Series Premiere (CBS)
* Downey Wrote That (Peacock)
* Fire Country Season Four Premiere (CBS)
* Good News (Netflix)
* Her Life Is On The Line (LMN)
* Hollywood Hustler: Glitz, Glam, Scam (Prime Video)
* Mare Branca: The Surreal Story Of Rabo de Peixe (Netflix)
* Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV+)
* Other (Shudder)
* R.L. Stine's Pumpkinhead (Tubi)
* She Walks In Darkness (Netflix)
* Sheriff Country Series Premiere (CBS)
* The Chosen Adventures Series Premiere (Prime Video)
* The Guest Series Premiere (Paramount+)
* The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix)
* The Rainmaker Season One Finale (USA)
* The Thaw (HBO Max)
* The Twits (Netflix)
* Turn Of The Tide (Netflix)
* Turn Of The Tide: The Surreal Story Of Rabo de Peixe (Netflix)
* 27 Nights (Netflix)
SEE YOU EARLY THURSDAY MORNING!