A TV Bloodbath

Oh my. Ahead of the upfronts, US broadcast TV networks have just cancelled a MASSIVE number of TV shows. Blood flows in the streets of Hollywood today.

Murdered at NBC:

Mr Mayor
Kenan
The Endgame

There's an interesting alternate reality where Mr Mayor was birthed as originally intended: a 30 Rock spin-off starring Alec Baldwin. Boy, would things have worked out a whole lot better for a number of people if that had happened....

Dead at The CW:

Charmed
Dynasty
Roswell New Mexico
The 4400
Naomi
In The Dark
Legacies

Worth noting with The CW, that network has cancelled a large volume of shows ahead of Paramount Global and Warner Bros Discovery selling off the co-venture. It is dramatically scaling back network shows as the business model changes for the network. In any other year, some of these shows may have seen another day. Perhaps all of them except Naomi - that show was terrible.

Multiple stab wounds at CBS include:

B Positive - Source: THR
Good Sam - Source: Deadline
How We Roll - Source: TV Line
United States of Al - Source: Deadline
Magnum PI - Source: Deadline

How We Roll was a mercy kill. It may be the worst 30 minutes of anything ever witnessed by my eyeballs.

Killed before it could walk:

The Early Edition reboot series, which was set to star Alice Eve as a woman who received the news a day early, has been terminated by CBS. The pilot was filmed, but execs weren't into it.

Of course, when a TV show falls, another will rise.

Greenlit for The CW:

Walker: Independence
The Winchesters
Gotham Knights

Yes, all three are based on existing IP. Independence is an 1800s set prequel to the current Walker (Texas Ranger) show. The Winchesters is a Supernatural prequel, and Gotham Knights is a Batman extension series of sorts using a lot of DC Comics Batman-related IP.

A Reality Bites revival series for Peacock

Helen Childress, the screenwriter behind Gen X cinema classic Reality Bites is working on a TV series version of it for Peacock. Original director Ben Stiller is not attached.

Childress was in her early 20s when she wrote the film about people in their early 20s. One cannot help but suspect that's why this film resonated. That was 30 years ago and Childress obviously isn't in her 20s anymore. Just a thought...

It's not TV if you aren't watching ads

In an interesting survey examining ad-supported streaming plans, subscribers reported less of an interest in signing up to HBO Max's ad-supported tier. 67% prefer paying more for it to be ad-free. Compare that to 20% who prefer to pay for no ads using Peacock.

My assumption: It's not so much about the quality of the content being interrupted by the commercials, but rather simply the value customers are placing on each streamer. For any real value to be derived from this research, it would need to be compared against customer intent: How does this allign with how big a priority is it to have the service? Would we also find that most customers very much want HBO Max, but Peacock is merely a nice-to-have at the right price point sort of product? I suspect the answer is very much yes.

A final Norm Macdonald special

As per sister-in-law Joyce Napier, the late comedian filmed an hour-long final special in his apartment prior to his death.

It turns out Norm left an hour of new material behind, recorded in his apartment during the lockdown. It’ll be a Netflix comedy special soon. So, we have that. Which is precisely what Norm wanted.

In the most recent episode of the (surprisingly very good) David Spade / Dana Carvey podcast Fly On The Wall, Spade recounted appearing at the memorial held for Norm Macdonald. He mentioned that the memorial was filmed, presumably by Netflix who staged the event for friends and family of Norm. He also mentions that Norm had filmed the special - the plan was to film a final special in a live theater, but COVID-related closures kept interrupting that plan, so he filmed it in an apartment.

Awkwafina is Nora From Queens has been renewed for a third season for Comedy Central. Read: Deadline
Don't expect a one-app destination internationally for Warner Bros Discovery content. A deal for BT Sports in the UK suggests multiple apps for the UK, at least. Read: THR
Somebody Feed Phil has been renewed for a sixth season at Netflix. Read: Variety
Grand Crew has been renewed for a second season at NBC. This is good news - I thought the show about an upscale African American wine-drinking friendship circle in LA was mostly pretty funny. Read: Deadline
Apparently Courtney Cox had a docu-series on Facebook Watch. Nine Months has been cancelled after four seasons. Read: Deadline
Archie Punjabi will star opposite Idris Elba in an Apple TV+ plane hijacking show called Hijack. Read: Deadline
Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Voight will star in Francis Ford Coppola's new movie Megalopolis - likely the legendary directors final film. Read: THR

The Orville: New Horizons debuts its third (likely final) season on Hulu June 2. FYI, Aussie viewers, the show will return to SBS VICELAND/SBS On Demand June 3.