Netflix’s most watched
What do you think the most-watched show was on Netflix this year?
Tiger King? The Queen’s Gambit? No. It was Cocomelon.
Wait - what?
Streaming tracker Reelgood reports that in the US, Cocomelon topped the list ahead of popular shows like The Office (which has since left Netflix and will debut on Peacock). If you don’t know Cocomelon (and who isn’t across this, really?), it’s started out as a YouTube channel for preschoolers and features nursery rhymes and other kids songs.
I’d also note that this is based off the publicly available Top 10 lists that Netflix showcases on its platform. The data isn’t third-party verified.
Source: Variety
“Da plane” set to land again
Because the only good ideas are old ideas, Fantasy Island is coming back to television. The new series, set to debut midway through 2021 on Fox.
The new series is described as a modern semi-anthology series that delves into the “what if” questions, both big and small, that keep us awake at night. Each episode will tell stories about people who walk in with a desire, but end up reborn to themselves through the magical realism of Fantasy Island.
Read: Variety
25 years of Heat
The movie Heat was released into cinemas 25 years ago today. It’s a great movie. But… did you realise it was a remake of a TV movie? 1989’s LA Takedown. Michael Mann wrote it as a pilot for a TV series, but NBC opted against giving it the greenlight. Instead it aired as a TV movie.
That project was a mere rest stop on the long, winding journey that “Heat” took to the big screen. Mann first penned the screenplay in the late 1970s, inspired by the real-life relationship between a Chicago cop, Chuck Adamson, and a master thief, Neil McCauley. The script was long, 180 pages, and so ambitious that Mann wasn’t sure he could handle it; he offered it to the director Walter Hill (“48 Hrs.”), who declined. Mann kept revising the script through the 1980s as he found success on television, and when NBC asked if he had any other series ideas when “Miami Vice” was winding down, he determined he would adapt his mammoth screenplay into a series pilot.
Read: NYT
Amazon updates the Fire TV
If you own a Fire TV device, Amazon has finally gone ahead and updated the interface. The roll-out isn’t updating all devices immediately. For example, higher-end devices like the Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV Cube will have to wait until early 2021.
No word on when Amazon will finally update the Prime Video app. Surely that has to be on a product roadmap soon…
Read: The Verge
Tee-Vee Snacks
- Live-action puppet pre-apocalyptic sitcom Dinosaurs is coming to Disney+ on January 29. Read: Collider
- HBO Max will pull The Chappelle Show by the end of the year. Read: The AV Club
- Production on the new Tina Fey sitcom starring Ted Danson, Mr Mayor, has been shutdown due to COVID. Read: Deadline
- Fox’s Empire spin-off starring Taraji P Henson as Cookie is no longer going ahead. Read: Variety
Trailer Park
Yearly Departed debuts Dec 30 on Amazon Prime Video.
A 1-hour comedy special hosted by Phoebe Robinson starring Rachel Brosnahan, Tiffany Haddish, Patti Harrison, Natasha Legerro, Sarah Silverman, Natasha Rothwell, and Ziwe. The special serves as a funeral for the year 2020 where our comedians deliver eulogies about what we’ve lost this year including casual sex, TV Cops, wearing pants and everything in between.
Disenchantment returns to Netflix Jan 15.
Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer debuts on Netflix Jan 13.
Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry debuts on Apple TV+ in February.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 2 launches on Netflix Jan 22.
Everyone is Doing Great debuts on Hulu Jan 13.
What’s next?
