The Aussie TV network screwing up its brand with AI slop
On Sunday night Australian broadcaster Nine aired its annual Christmas With Delta special, which saw the singer this year joined by celebrities including Jon Bon Jovi, Cody Simpson, and Jordin Sparks.
It was a glorious in-studio TV throwback for those of us missing the spectacle and majesty of a 1993-era musical performance from The Midday Show. Which is to say that the whole show seemed pretty low-budget for a Sunday night prime-time special.
That low budget spirit was captured by an embarrassing animated opening sequence which was quite clearly created by AI and led to an astounding oversight where at 7pm on Sunday night Channel Nine broadcast this on its own network. Note the incorrect Nine logo:
The Nine logo, famously dumped by the network and revived because Australia missed its balls in the mid 00s, is unquestionably one of Australia’s most iconic logos. For Australian viewers, broadcasting the logo like this is like printing just the tip of the Nike Swoosh or the NBC Peacock without its feathers.
The correct logo, as found on Nine’s dedicated brand guidance website, looks like this:
It’s not really an issue that Delta only seems to have three fingers on one of her hands. But to balls-up the Nine corporate logo really is pretty embarrassing.
You can view the sequence in full over on YouTube.
The 2025 Bari Weiss experiment continues
With a very light news load yesterday, I opted not to send out an Always Be Watching newsletter. The only story that made me pause on that plan was the Bari Weiss / 60 Minutes / Inside CECOT story.
I’d hoped that by today, there’d be some great thought pieces or deeper reporting that I’d be able to provide a wrap-up of. But the only story really worth sharing is the Wall St Journal’s article from Monday that goes ‘Inside’ the decision.
Weiss’ public statement is that she felt that the story didn’t advance the story beyond reporting from other outlets done in the months prior. On the face of it, that’s a fair complaint, but it’s also hard to buy into that when that hasn’t been a guiding light for Weiss in other decision-making at CBS, in her role as a columnist, or in running The Free Press.
Instead, as WSJ alludes to, the decision is likely more connected with Trump criticising 60 Minutes treatment of him:
On Friday, Trump said at a rally in North Carolina that while “I love the new owners of CBS,” he was unhappy with “60 Minutes.”
“‘60 Minutes’ has treated me worse under the new ownership,” he said. “They just keep hitting me, it’s crazy.”
The Ellisons want to keep Trump on-side for easier approvals if they are successful in the bid for WBD.
I was interested in this from New York Times journalist Michael Grynbaum:
The most dysfunctional workplaces I have found myself in always involve a boss who regularly cancels meetings at the last minute or simply doesn’t turn up for them.
If you’re interested in seeing the segment, it was still a part of the program sent to Canada’s TV network Global. You can watch a video of it embedded in this post from Allison Gill:
Maybe showrunners should get streaming metrics data
Interesting quote from Joe Cappa, the creator of Adult Swim animated show Haha You Guys (which also streams on HBO Max), about being told that the show would be picked up for another two seasons:
I didn’t even know a second season was on the table. I definitely was very nervous. They actually told me last week that it was getting picked up for a second and third season right after I had surgery. I just woke up from hernia surgery and [executive producer Cameron Tang] called me 20 minutes afterwards. I was still really out of it and I wasn’t even sure if it was real.
The day before that, I was in panic mode. I was reaching out to people like, “Hey, is there any way we could promote this show or get it out so people know about it? “ Because I was just looking at IMDb numbers and it wasn’t ranked very high. There was really no way of measuring how well it was doing. Adult Swim really wasn’t giving me specific numbers. I was just very paranoid leading up to that announcement.
In a business where relationships are everything, it seems off to me that a showrunner is that in-the-dark about the success of the show.
News Desk
The Stranger Things final episode will run for two hours and eight minutes. Read: Variety
Kasey Moore has compiled a list of licensed Netflix originals that are set to leave the service in 2026. Some of these titles will be renewed. Read: What’s On Netflix
Chernobyl director Johan Renck will direct Netflix’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed show. Read: Variety
NBC has pulled The Office spin-off The Paper from the air, replacing its final episodes with repeat episodes of new comedy Stumble. Brutal. Read: Variety
Heated Rivalry’s fifth episode is one of only two TV episodes to have ever received a perfect 10 out of 10 score on the IMDB. The other episode to achieve that was Breaking Bad’s Ozymandias. Read: Forbes
Paramount’s animated The Last Airbender sequel film Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender is skipping a theatrical release and will debut on Paramount+. Read: Dark Horizons
With the pivot to video, Andru Marino argues that it is time to retire the word ‘podcast’ (as though the term hadn’t stopped being accurate a decade-plus ago when we started streaming them on our phones and not downloading to an iPod). Read: The Verge
US comedian/enemy of the people Jimmy Kimmel will deliver Channel 4’s annual Alternative Christmas Message on Christmas Day. Read: Deadline
Thomas Jane will play Dr “Bones” McCoy on the final episode of the final season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Read: THR
If you are curious how Avatar: Fire & Ash handled the kissing scene between the senior Sigourney Weaver and the then-teenaged Jack Champion, know that in real life it was just a peck on the cheek. Read: THR
Bill Maher said, in an interview with The Free Press, that Larry David is not his friend. I side with the guy not giving an interview to The Free Press. Read: THR
The release of 007: First Light has been delayed by two months. Read: Polygon
I don’t really like ‘worst of…’ lists as they are fairly reductive, but I do agree with several of the shows making it to the Variety list of the Worst Shows of 2025.
The Robert Mercer-funded Media Research Center says that late night talk shows got more liberal in 2025. Mercer is the Republican billionaire who was the chief financial support behind Beitbart. Read: Deadline
Trailer Park
If you haven’t yet gotten on board with the terrific Industry, know that it returns for season 4 on Jan 11 and you have enough time to blitz through the first three very watchable seasons of the show.
That’s the newsletter for the today. And there’ll be no newsletter tomorrow. I’m not sure what happens for Friday (Boxing Day) just yet.
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Just watching Candles by Candlelight from the Melbourne Sidney Myer Music Bowl, on Channel 9. It must be my imagination but I swear that David Campbell is channeling Caesar Flickerman.