Here’s everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, February 16th, 2026:
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Despite what you might have read from me over the weekend, the new Netflix animated series Strip Law premieres this Friday (February 20th), not last Friday.
If I were a politician, I would blame this error on a low-level staffer or some hapless intern. But the truth is that I entered the wrong date into my giant editorial calendar at Too Much TV world headquarters.
I apologize for the error, which I find to be incredibly embarrassing. But it is a reminder to me to triple-check everything before it goes out the door.
THE GLOBAL TV AWARDS
There are four days left to vote for your favorite non-English language programs in the 2nd Annual Global TV Awards. Last year's awards garnered around 60,000 votes and this year I've had just over 89,000 individual votes so far. I am hoping to crack 100,000 voters before it wraps for the year. Which I modestly think is pretty impressive for an awards event that has received zero coverage in the entertainment news press.
A MODERN-DAY VERSION OF 'THE NEVERENDING STORY'
Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to respond officially in the next couple of days to a story in Bloomberg that suggested the company might reconsider a recent offer by Paramount Skydance that sweetened its deal with added incentives and a financial penalty if the merger doesn't go through in a timely fashion.
If you want to get a sense of conventional industry wisdom on two offers, this breakdown from The Ankler's Sean McNulty provides a good overview with his take on the situation:
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WARNAMOUNT:
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PROS:
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Good for the movie business as both studios would continue high output.
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BAD:
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CNN under control of the people that brought you today’s version of CBS NEWS.
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Uncertain how HBO would work here.
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Massive layoffs abound:
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Merging 2 cable TV network divisions, 2 movie studio back offices, 2 TV production studios, etc.
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Lotta debt to service. We saw how that affected life at WBD in 2022/2023.
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NETFLIX BROS:
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PROS:
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Far fewer layoffs, although certainly some (no need to run 2 different streaming services operationally, smaller movie studio = fewer people, etc.)
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CNN is not involved/the cable TV people keep their jobs.
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A stable, global home for HBO.
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CONS:
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WB PICTURES would probably become a shell of its current self (sure, 45-day windows . . . but still no word on volume). This is very likely DISNEYFOX all over again.
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I will be honest, I find this take perplexing, even though I hear it from a lot of industry analysts. I am not sure why people believe Paramount Skydance would continue a "high output" of theatrical films under the Warner Brothers label, given the massive cuts that have to be made in order for the combined company to survive. And if you look at from a cold-hearted financial standpoint, cutting back on the WB film output is an easy way to cut spending in the short and mid-term. In fact, if you pay attention, David Ellison hasn't said that WB film output will continue at its current rate. He has said he expects to "eventually" hit its current rate and even release more films. But that word "eventually" is doing a lot of work here.
On the flipside, arguing that WB Pictures would become a shell of itself under Netflix ownership seems to be more about the industry's feelings about Netflix than it does about what the company might actually do. Unlike Paramount Skydance, Netflix would retain ownership of the fabled Warner Bros. Studio lot and the company seems to have decided that if it is buying WB, it is going to take advantage of the situation to retain a viable theatrical release business.
But analysts refuse to accept this, powered in part by their belief that a 45-day theatrical window is the same as shutting down the theatrical business entirely. I would argue the opposite. That 45-day window, combined with Netflix's compressed Pay-1 window makes it more likely that Netflix will continue the current theatrical output or even expand it in the mid-term. Because Netflix will be able to drive revenue both in the theaters and through its streaming platform.
I suspect we are also going to see Netflix using Warner Bros. IP in the same way studios used to use IP during the height of the DVD era. Streaming originals built on IP that is familiar, but not strong or popular enough to justify a full theatrical release. Streaming originals that become the equivalent of straight-to-DVD releases. Which might not be a sexy or even creatively exciting business model, but one that has value nonetheless.
I am also struck by how little attention is being paid to the parts of Warner Bros. that aren't the theatrical business. Netflix will also acquire the WB television production business, which is both profitable and has an extensive library. There is a lot of money to be made licensing that content, as well as producing programming for outside companies.
And I have yet to see anyone other than myself write about the horrific prospects of a combined Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. merger on the American cable TV market. The combined company would own a massive share of the available linear TV channel market and that means prices will go up because the company will have outsized leverage during carriage negotiations.
In general, I think industry analysts are stuck in 2016 when they think of Netflix and its business model. And they fail to see that - despite David Ellison's framing - the linear side of the Warner Bros. business is nothing like the one owned by the new spun-off Comcast subsidiary Versant Media Corp. So comparing them as if it were apples to apples is ludicrous. But it's also almost irresistible to journalists looking for an easy framing for their reporting.
What is going to happen? No one outside the Warner Bros. board knows right now. My best guess is that this Bloomberg story was floated to the board could say "Look, we reconsidered the offer. We did our due diligence. But we're sticking with Netflix." But I also wouldn't be surprised if that didn't happen.
The thing to remember is that there are legal constraints on what any of the three companies can say publicly during the merger process. So various interested parties leak info to journalists in hopes of framing their point of view in a way that helps them close the deal.
But seeing something in print doesn’t mean it’s entirely accurate or even reflects a scenario that is likely to happen. What you are reading is more often than not what the various parties want you to know. Because in any merger deal, public and investor perception can often have an outsized impact on whether the deal goes through or not.
MATT GROENING TALKS ABOUT 'THE SIMPSONS'
NY Times journalist Daryn King has a good interview with Matt Groening (gift link) ahead of the 800th episode of The Simpsons:
You named your son Homer — after your father rather than the character. That must have resulted in some interesting conversations.
When my son was really small and I was wheeling him around in a stroller, people would say: “Oh, what a cute baby. What’s his name?” I’d say Homer. And then they would laugh.
I wanted to make it up to my father that I had named this idiot after him. My father was nothing like Homer. He was really smart and athletic, and he was a war hero. He was a B-17 pilot in World War II. He made surfing movies in the ’60s and cartoons and was a huge inspiration to me.
The only thing that bothered him about Homer Simpson was if he was ever mean to Marge. There was an episode in which their car broke down in the desert, and Homer made Marge carry the flat tire back to the town. He said, “Homer should not have done that.” And he was really serious.
IS AI REALLY GOING TO TAKE OUR JOBS?
I think about the impact of AI a lot, because the assumption from many people is that at some point not that far down the road, machine learning will be able to replace any journalist at any job.
In fact, that was the premise of this piece from venture capitalist Matt Shumer last week. And it went viral in large point because it painted a fairly dystopian future for most white collar workers:
The experience that tech workers have had over the past year, of watching AI go from "helpful tool" to "does my job better than I do", is the experience everyone else is about to have. Law, finance, medicine, accounting, consulting, writing, design, analysis, customer service. Not in ten years. The people building these systems say one to five years. Some say less. And given what I've seen in just the last couple of months, I think "less" is more likely.
"But I tried AI and it wasn't that good"
I hear this constantly. I understand it, because it used to be true.
If you tried ChatGPT in 2023 or early 2024 and thought "this makes stuff up" or "this isn't that impressive", you were right. Those early versions were genuinely limited. They hallucinated. They confidently said things that were nonsense.
That was two years ago. In AI time, that is ancient history.
The models available today are unrecognizable from what existed even six months ago. The debate about whether AI is "really getting better" or "hitting a wall" — which has been going on for over a year — is over. It's done. Anyone still making that argument either hasn't used the current models, has an incentive to downplay what's happening, or is evaluating based on an experience from 2024 that is no longer relevant. I don't say that to be dismissive. I say it because the gap between public perception and current reality is now enormous, and that gap is dangerous... because it's preventing people from preparing.
Reading the entire piece is likely to leave you more than a bit depressed about our future. But before you decide your work life will soon be over, read this competing piece from digital marketing expert Ann Handley, who paints a less depressing future. And one I think it more likely to ultimately become the reality:
I just spent almost 2 years writing a book. Was it inefficient? “Yes,” Matt would say. “AI can do it faster.”
Listen: You are wrong, my friend. It was efficient. Because I was doing the work of figuring out what I actually think and how to help a reader and say it in a way that could come only from me. The friction between idea and expression, between intention and execution is not frivolous. That's where the thinking happens.
Matt would say: "But AI can help you think faster."
Mmm. Maybe.
Or maybe it helps you skip the thinking and arrive at answers that sound right but haven't been tested against the resistance of actually working through them.
See the issue?
While it's true that AI can replace some journalism, what it can't do is replace the process that it unique to you. AI might be better at crunching numbers (unless it makes some up), but it can't sit in a room and ask someone the question that will convince them to open up to you. It can't look at a television show and talk about the reason why it resonated with you in a specific way. Until AI reaches some level of actual sentience - not pretend humanity - people are always going to need journalists who can speak to their inner heart and not just spit out whatever machine learning predicts they want to read.
ODDS AND SODS
* If you are looking for a good book to read on President's Day, Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President tells the story of the assassination of President James Garfield in a way that leaps off the page as if it were a novel. And it's a great accompaniment to the recent Netflix miniseries Death By Lightning.
* Prime Video has ordered a second season of The Assassin.
* Dana Eden, an Israeli producer who was working on Apple TV's Tehran, has died unexpectedly during filming in Greece.
AND NEWS THAT DOESN'T SURPRISE ME AT ALL
The Guardian is reporting that two weeks after a trove of files revealed extensive – and inappropriate – communications between Jeffrey Epstein and recently named CBS News contributor and longevity expert Peter Attia were released, CBS has apparently decided to keep him on the payroll:
Although Attia is still on the payroll as a CBS News contributor, it’s not clear when – or if – he will actually appear on air.
When addressing her staff, Weiss had encouraged shows to book the network’s new contributors – but programs are not obligated to book specific individuals.
Attia has been keeping a low profile. He has not posted on X since his apology. He also has not posted any episodes of his popular podcast, The Peter Attia Drive, this month.
Mary Claire Haver, a menopause specialist, said her publisher had arranged an exclusive interview on CBS Mornings to promote her forthcoming book, The New Perimenopause. “But given their decision to retain Peter Attia, I’m making the decision not to go on CBS,” she said in her own Instagram post. “This is my way of saying no, I’m not going to stand for this.”
WHAT'S COMING TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH:
* Don't Hate Your House With A Property Brothers Season Two Finale (HGTV)
* Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model (Netflix)
* Unexpected Season Premiere (TLC)
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH:
* Love & Hip Hop Atlanta Season Premiere (MTV)
* Sommore: Chandelier Fly (Netflix)
SEE YOU EARLY TUESDAY!