THE number was released to the media recently for the tenth consecutive year. Yes, the eagerly awaited “official” annual tally for Peak TV, the barometer of the number of adult-oritented scripted TV series estimated to have aired on broadcast TV, cable TV and streaming services in a calendar year. For the record, 2021’s NUMBER was … Read more
One of the few bright spots of this horrific new year has been the meteoric rise in the popularity of WORDLE, an online word guessing game which has exploded in a manner of months to more than 300,000 daily players, per the New York Times, myself included. The object of WORDLE is to guess a … Read more
Yesterday I very briefly caught a display ad on a trade site that signaled that my former colleagues at Sony were very quietly making available weekly episodes of THE GOOD DOCTOR and S.W.A.T. to local television stations in the fall of 2022. These days, the repeats of any television program being made available to over-the-air … Read more
When the viewership figures for this past weekend’s NFL wild card games are released later today you will note all the sizzle points will reference “total audience”. Although each licensee directs viewers to a primary linear network, each of them used additional networks or platforms to augment their total reach. Some media pundits call this … Read more
Ten years ago this month I was hired for what some accurately called an inevitability. I was given the chance to head programming and scheduling for GSN, otherwise known as Game Show Network. In the impeccable words of yet another prematurely departed colleague, the eloquent David Lyle, it was akin to putting Dracula in charge … Read more
No one close to me died yesterday, thank G-d, so I could move on to something else. And, thankfully, JEOPARDY! has moved on from its troubled 2021 to a stellar start in 2022 both ratings and zeitgeist-wise. Now under the supervision of Michael Davies, who moonlights as a very passionate soccer (ahem , “football”) fan … Read more
I always thought Groundhog Day was a welcome winter event. not to mention a hilarious movie. When it normally arrives on February 2nd, it typically signals that winter has reached its apex, with Punxsatawney Phil, everybody’s favorite rodent who has never earned a dime from Disney, either seeing its shadow and signaling winter has six … Read more
One of the most fascinating developments of pandemic-era television has been the exponential growth of FAST channels, both in terms of adoption and relevance. While the majority of industry attention has been toward the holy war being waged by trillion-dollar tech and media companies with tentacles in SVOD and PVOD and eight and nine-figure investments … Read more
The entertainment world lost other comedy star yesterday, this one far too young and soon. Bob Saget, just 65, was found dead in an Orlando hotel room hours after he did a stand-up act. For who was arguably the quintessential sitcom dad for Gen Xers (and even fringe boomers like myself who couldn’t srop binge … Read more
As the new year starts and the Warner Discovery merger moves toward completion current “business daddy” (God, I love John Oliver!) AT&T released some information yesterday touting how successful HBO was in 2021. For a service that already boasts the brilliance of such series as SUCCESSION, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM and yes, LAST WEEK WITH JOHN … Read more