Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025:
PRODUCTION NOTES
Even in the flushest of years, December is an extremely slow time for the entertainment news business. And in a year where production has slowed and both networks and studios are providing even less access to coverage, it's a scramble for outlets to find things to write about. Which is why you'll see a lot of "new" stories such as "The Golden Girls: Where Are They Now?" and "An Oral History Of Ten Speed & Brown Shoe."
However, nothing fills up an empty editorial calendar better than the annual "Best Of" pieces that will start showing up in the upcoming days. Editors love them because they will generally keep readers happy and most TV critics will at least reluctantly embrace the idea because they get to talk about the year's ten "best" shows one more time.
But I can't help feeling like most of these pieces are not much more than performative self-congratulations. Nearly all of the lists will be similar to each other - in the case of 2025, the top ten list will likely be topped with either The Pitt or Pluribus. And while the order of the remainder of the shows will vary a bit from list to list, you'll see the same titles on most of them. Except for the one ringer choice that most critics add in order to shake things up and be distinctive.
If 2025 has delivered any message to the television critic industry, it's that we are mostly interchangeable. Some of the most talented critics in the industry lost their jobs this year and networks/streamers seem more than happy focusing on encouraging hot takes from influencers and delivering "exclusives" to their editorial partners.
For the last several decades, the primary role of TV critics was seen as highlighting the best television has to offer and top ten lists were part of that mission. But at a time when content discovery is the biggest challenge for most viewers and TV critics continue to struggle to define their place in this new world, top ten lists feel dated and almost quaint. Yes, The Pitt is great and not everyone has watched it. However, it just seems as if there are more useful ways to highlight the year that was.
That includes putting together lists of great shows that somehow slipped past audiences this year (which is something I am doing), or highlighting the best titles of the year in specific genres. Anything that might put unfamiliar titles in front of viewers and make our opinions more valuable to readers.
Yes, I realize that a lot of this is driven by editors looking for easy clicks. But if you are one of the newly independent TV critics forced to do your own thing, you should be thinking of less predictable ways to recap the year in television. TV critics need to find new approaches to the what we do if we want to remain integral to the industry. We have an expertise that has value in the entertainment journalism marketplace, if we can figure out how best to highlight it.
And on a related note, I will be talking more about the 2nd Annual Global TV Awards in the coming weeks. Last year's inaugural effort resulted in more than 80,000 people voting for their favorites. And the awards also received a fair amount of attention from streamers, especially the smaller international ones who struggle to break through into the cultural zeitgeist.
This year will bring the launch of a dedicated web site in a couple of weeks and an increased effort to promote the awards. So if you have a show you think deserves some attention or you are a streamer with shows you believe should be mentioned, please reach out to me.
YOUTUBE LAUNCHES 'SPOTIFY WRAPPED' RIVAL 'YOUTUBE RECAP'
For the last several years, I find myself writing about my surprise that none of the streamers have bothered to do their version of the virally popular "Spotify Wrapped," which offers users a recap of their listening habit for the current year. Hulu has attempted their own very limited effort, but it's basically just a collection of general factoids and in the end, it isn't especially enlightening.
But this year YouTube has joined the annual recap movement with "YouTube Recap," a look at what YouTube video you consumed in 2025.
At least for me, it feels like a very fun and accurate glimpse of my viewing habits:
On the other hand, Spotify's Unwrapped has struggled a bit in the past couple of years, since it fired the guy whose job it was to focus on creating the most individual Unwrapped possible for each user. Last year's Unwrapped received a lot of social media complaints from users. Which likely explains why this year's version included a number of new features, including "thank you" videos from a number of artists and an estimate of your "listening age" based on what you streamed in 2025.
I have to admit that Spotify seems to have nailed that feature. I have very eclectic listening habits, and my Unwrapped tells me I listened to more than 10,000 different songs in 2025. It also tells me that my listening age is 38, even though this is the album I listened to most this year:
ODDS AND SODS
* Speaking of music, if I was a millionaire and could afford to buy a small radio station somewhere, this is how I would program it.
* CBS has ordered second seasons of Boston Blue and Sheriff Country.
* Season three of The Night Agent premieres Thursday, February 19th on Netflix.
* Season 30 of Worst Cooks In America premieres Sunday, January 4th on the Food Network. Hosted this season by Chefs Jeff Mauro and Tiffany Derry, the cast includes Lisa Barlow (The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City), Downtown Julie Brown (MTV VJ), Val Chmerkovskiy (Dancing with the Stars), Reza Farahan (Shahs of Sunset and The Valley: Persian Style), Amara La Negra (Love & Hip Hop: Miami and Univision’s Desiguales), Ryan Lochte (Olympic swimmer), Manila Luzon (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Romeo Miller (rapper/actor), Beverley Mitchell (7th Heaven) and CT Tamburello (The Challenge and The Traitors USA).
* Tom Whithall lists the 52 things he learned in 2025.
* Hulu has renewed Chad Powers for a second season.
* The theatrical film Roofman is getting its streaming premiere Tuesday, December 9th on Paramount.
* The New York Times has sued the Pentagon, arguing that the Defense Department’s new reporting restrictions infringed on the constitutional rights of journalists.
* Comcast's board formally approved the Versant spin-off yesterday, and new shares of the company will begin trading in January. Today the new company will hold its inaugural investor day and I'll have a look at what execs have to say on AllYourScreens later today.
* Girl Taken, the Paramount+ UK original previously known as Baby Doll, is set to premiere Thursday, January 8th on Paramount+. The series "follows the story of twin sisters Lily and Abby, whose lives are shattered when Lily is abducted from their quiet rural English town by beloved local teacher Rick Hansen. After years of abuse in captivity, she escapes, only to discover freedom brings its own challenges."
READER FEEDBACK
"This was an excellent excerpt—looks like I'll be reading Jon's book during this holiday season!
And I'm really digging the WSQK pop-up radio station. Real ads can often get grating, but something about fake ads is almost comforting, for whatever reason."
--Joey H
"My son knows who Jethro Tull is because he was brought up properly."
--Joe L.
TWEET(S) OF THE DAY
WHAT'S COMING TODAY AND TOMORROW
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3RD:
* Cheap A$$ Beach Houses Series Premiere (HGTV)
* Christmas In Nashville (NBC)
* Christmas In Rockefeller Center (NBC)
* My Secret Santa (Netflix)
* Oh. What. Fun (Prime Video)
* The New Years Series Premiere (Mubi)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5TH:
* A Christmas Cookbook (Lifetime)
* Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (Disney+)
* Jay Kelly (Netflix)
* Jingle All The Way To Love (Lifetime)
* Owning Manhattan Season Premiere (Netflix)
* Reflection In A Dead Diamond (Shudder)
* Selling Manhattan Season Premiere (Netflix)
* Sicilia Express Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Spartacus: House Of Asher Series Premiere (Starz)
* The First Snow Of Fraggle Rock (Apple TV)
* The New Yorker At 100 (Netflix)
* The Night My Dad Saved Christmas 2 (Netflix)
* 2025 National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony (Great American Family)
* Twelve Dates 'Til Christmas (Hallmark)
SEE YOU EARLY FRIDAY MORNING!