Something significant happened on US TV yesterday - Stephen Colbert, host of the most-watched late night talk show The Late Show returned to The Ed Sullivan Theatre to do his show. For the past 15 months, thanks to the stupid virus, he had been recording the show from his home in South Carolina, and then they shifted production back to New York where he was filming from office space (potentially a storage area) in the building above The Ed Sullivan Theatre.

The episode seemed like a cultural turning point. It was treated like a Return To Regular Life party. I hadn't really seen anything like it - old friends coming together, hugging for the first time in over a year. It was the show saying that America has made it through to the other side of the pandemic.

That aspect felt a little hollow to me, a viewer in Sydney Australia where we haven't been as badly impacted by the virus. Yes, like many people, I've been working from home. But it hasn't drastically impacted on my ability to go out, see people, go shopping, etc. (Some of my fellow Australians in Victoria have had a different experience with a number of prolonged closures - this Colbert return may resonate differently with them).

One of the reasons why US talk shows work is that they represent stability. Every night Americans flip on the TV after 11pm and watch these shows. They are the background to the end of people's days. People fall asleep to these shows... They brush their teeth before bed with these shows on in the background... Mommies and daddies who love each other very much give special kisses to each other with these shows on in the background... They are a constant marker that the day has ended. As soon as Colbert and the twelve hosts all named Jimmy all retreated to present the show from their homes, disrupting the format, it completely shifted people's lives. It's a minor thing in the great scheme of it all - but the format changed and the world felt different.

Yesterday Colbert came back and it seemed like things are on their way back to normal.

Read more: NYT | Deadline

TeeVee Snacks

  • Everyone's favourite The Blacklist star Megan Boone is leaving the James Spader series after 8 seasons. Read: Deadline
  • A Beauty & The Beast musical prequel series is in the works at Disney+. Read: CNN
  • The Jon Bernthal American Gigalo TV series has been given the greenlight. Read: Deadline
  • 10 ViacomCBS has signed a deal with Football Australia to broadcast/stream all the Australian national teams and the FFA Cup matches broadcast across Network 10 and Paramount+. Read: WorldScreen
  • When Trevor Noah returns from a three-month break in September, it will be to a new-look Daily Show. The show will reportedly have a very different look and feel. I'd argue that this is much-needed. Read: Variety
  • The Apple TV+ one year free trial will be reduced to just three months. Now watch that churn rate as casual viewers decide whether there's enough content on Apple TV+ to keep the service. Read: The Streamable
  • RIP Manifest - cancelled by NBC after 3 seasons. Read: Deadline

Trailer Park

The Harper House debuts on Paramount+ later this year.

The Harper House follows an overconfident female head of a household, as she struggles to regain a higher status for herself and for her family of oddballs, after losing her job and moving from the rich side to the poor side of an Arkansas small town. To save money, they've moved into their inherited Victorian fixer-upper, the historic Harper House.

Dr Death debuts on Peacock July 15.

Dr. Death is based on the terrifying true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a rising star in the Dallas medical community. Young, charismatic and ostensibly brilliant, Dr. Duntsch was building a flourishing neurosurgery practice when everything suddenly changed. Patients entered his operating room for complex but routine spinal surgeries and left permanently maimed or dead.

The Tomorrow War debuts July 2 on Amazon Prime Video.

In The TOMORROW WAR, the world is stunned when a group of time travelers arrive from the year 2051 to deliver an urgent message: Thirty years in the future mankind is losing a global war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians from the present to be transported to the future and join the fight.

Breath of The Wild 2 comes to Nintendo Switch in 2022.

Beastars season 2 debuts on Netflix July 15.

Accepting his predatory instincts, Legoshi vows to become stronger for Hal's sake. Meanwhile, the herbivore killer is still on the loose.

Trollhunters: Rise of The Guardians debuts on Netflix July 21.

Arcadia may look like an ordinary town but it lies at the center of magical and mystical lines that makes it a nexus for many battles among otherworldly creatures including trolls, aliens and wizards. Now the heroes from the hit series Trollhunters, 3Below and Wizards, team-up in their most epic adventure yet where they must fight the Arcane Order for control over the magic that binds them all.

What's next? Tomorrow.