Apologies for the lateness of today’s email send. I got distracted by eating breakfast with one of your fellow Always Be Watching email subscribers. Thanks for the pancakes, Mike.

There are a whole bunch of TV revivals/reboots currently on the air. Joe Adalian at Vulture has taken a look to see which of them are/aren’t working. What surprises me in thinking about these is that CBS, a network who has a much older audience who are more likely to lean-in towards nostalgia and the familiar, is the network with the two shows that are less than a sure thing to return for a second run - Murphy Brown and Magnum PI.

George RR Martin had let the world know that the Game of Thrones spin-off was to be called The Long Night. But, it appears HBO said no. Martin on his blog:

“HBO has informed me that the Jane Goldman pilot is not (yet) titled THE LONG NIGHT. That’s is certainly the title I prefer, but for the moment the pilot is still officially UNTITLED. So… mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa,” Martin wrote on his Not a Blog. My favorite part, outside of one of the world’s most famous authors having an old-fashioned blog (his “current mood”: alien face busy), is “not (yet) titled,” like he’s taunting HBO for not making the official announcement yet. Martin then listed off all the things he can’t tell us.

In praise of closing credits:

When people think of Fox News, it’s the evening opinion-driven line-up that people think of first. Fox News are adamant that there is a line between their news and opinion - but surely the opinion havers on air should still maintain some level of journalistic difference? So, when Sean Hannity got up on stage at a Trump rally, it became a pretty big deal.

“Fox News does not condone any talent participating in campaign events,” the 21st Century Fox-owned cable outlet said in a statement. “This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.” A spokeswoman for 21st Century Fox referred an inquiry to Fox News.  

In a statement released on social media, Hannity said “When the POTUS invited me on stage to give a few remarks last night, I was surprised, yet honored by the president’s request. This was NOT planned.” And he said he had not meant to tar any Fox News reporters in the room with the same brush as others.

Speaking of the US midterms, there is no more valuable a voice in US political punditry than Triumph The Comic Insult Dog. This segment from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is pretty standard Triumph material (which is to say laugh-out-loud funny), but the Lion Ted Cruz business at the end was outstanding. Bravo, puppet dog.

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The coverage has already kicked off as I type this, but if you’re looking to watch the midterms, Deadline has this rundown on where to watch it in the US.

Everywhere else, I’d recommend watching CNN International, which is carrying the CNN US coverage.

For Australian’s specifically, you’ll find the ABC covering the midterms throughout the day. SBS will have the PBS coverage from the US on its main channel and SBS VICELAND through the afternoon. And then there is also this guide from local TV enthusiast (and good dude) Remy Numa:

The Purge will be back for a second season.

And finally…

It’s termed the ‘Race that stops a nation’ - The Melbourne Cup was held yesterday with 1.84 million people tuning in to the horse race. While the ratings were up on last year, it’s still representative of a major decline of people interested in watching the horse race each year.

Cross Counter was the winning horse, defeating 23 other horses on the field - including Irish horse The Cliffsofmoher, who broke its shoulder during the race and was subsequently killed on the race track.

I hear that the fashion by the race track this year was spectacular.