Last week, a deal fell apart and now everyone's wondering when exactly the whole thing's going to end?
You might think we're talking about legal dunce George Clooney's effort to buy the studios of the actors' strike. But we're not.
We're talking about Jon Stewart leaving APPLE+.
The comedian who made THE DAILY SHOW a TV must-see was informed by APPLE TV+ that the upcoming season, the third season, of THE PROBLEM WITH JON STEWART was now going to have to endure censorship -- specifically APPLE products needed the Chinese marketplace so Jon would need to tailor his remarks -- apparently Howard Beele style -- to meet the whims of APPLE marketing.
We know Jon and we know he's not a mad man. So that may be why the Howard Beale role didn't work for him or maybe it was that APPLE failed to cast appropriately (Ned Beatty is a one of kind actor) in their come-to-Jesus moment.
Jon will now carry his show (probably with a different title) to a different streamer or network.
Jon will go on. He's a funny comedian, he's still a good looking man and he honed his political insights long ago.
No one in the industry is worrying about Jon finding a home.
They are seriously wondering if this is where struggling APPLE+ finally flames out -- as it should.
That's the industry. Not the entertainment journalists -- to a person, they're all either idiots or kiss-asses and can't do real journalism to save their lives. If they were capable of real journalism, they'd write about the free speech aspects of APPLE TV+'s decision and pursue that topic seriously and at length. But they're not serious journalists capable of real journalism which is why Harvey Weinstein and Leslie Moonves got away with abuse and assault of women for decades.
And it's why no serious journalism series has been done by any entertainment outlet about the under-performing APPLE TV+.
Next month will be the fourth anniversary of the launch of APPLE TV+ and it's disappointed from the beginning. It opened with fewer subscribers than predicted and with far less access across the globe than promised. Within a year, it was obvious that their business model was a failure but no one wanted had the guts to point that out. These days, the inability to point that out makes them all look like cowards.
Let's address some of the streamers problems. In cancelling Jon Stewart's program over free speech issues they created problems for themselves that we'll get to but let's note the obvious: Cancellations, for whatever reason, are the APPLE TV+ model.
Cancelled shows? SEE, SERVANT, TRUTH BE TOLD, AMAZING STORIES, HOME BEFORE DARK, LITTLE VOICE, THE MOSQUITO COAST, FOUNDATION, SUSPICION, ROAR, SHINING GIRLS, SHANTARAM, DEAR EDWARD, CITY ON FIRE. DICKINSON, PHYSICAL, MR. CORMAN, THE AFTERPARTY, HIGH DESERT, FRAGGLE ROCK: ROCK ON!, BEST FOOT FORWARD, AMBER BROWN, SURFSIDE GIRLS, LIFE BY ELLA, SNOOPY IN SPACE, DOUG UNPLUGS, WOLFBOY AND THE EVERYTHING FACTORY, GETTING ROLLING WITH OTIS, NOW AND THEN, HOME, GREATNESS CODE, TINY WORLD, BECOMING YOU, EARTH AT NIGHT IN COLOR, THE ME YOU CAN'T SEE, WATCH THE SOUND WITH MARK RONSON, THE LONG GAME: BIGGER THAN BASKETBALL, THEY CALL ME MAGIC, GUTSY, OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB, OPRAH TALKS COVID 19, THE OPRAH CONVERSATION, LOSING ALICE and CALLS. Included THE PROBLEM WITH JON STEWART and that's 45 cancellations.
And what got renewed? FOR ALL MANKIND, THE MORNING SHOW, SEVERANCE, PACHINKO, SURFACED, BAD SISTERS, SILO. MYTHIC QUEST, TRYING, ACAPULCO, LOOT, SHRINKING, BIG DOOR PRIZE, FRAGGLE ROCK: BACK TO THE ROCK, THE SNOOPY SHOW, SAGO MINI FRIENDS, SHAPE ISLAND, FROG AND TOAD, DR. BRAIN, THE RELUCTANT TRAVELER, MESSI MEETS AMERICA, TEHRAN
And they've renewed 22 programs.
In 4 years, they've cancelled 45 and only renewed 22. Those figures will increase shortly since over forty shows that have finished airing news episodes are classified as "pending" (the decision to renew or cancel has not been announced yet). the last time we saw renewal numbers that low, it was when NBC was destroying Thursday nights as they forced one unfunny single-cam 'comedy' after another on viewers who chose to run away to other networks.
They've only had one hit show: TED LASSO. And, guess what, they can't even decide what to do with it. It's among the over forty shows whose statues is "pending." The last new episode aired May 31st of this year and APPLE TV+ still can't figure to renew or cancel? Reality, the creators of the show have said it's over. APPLE TV+ can't figure that out? Do they not know how to read?
That would explain some of the crap they greenlit.
Last week, APPLE TV+ was thrilled with this news: "Apple TV+ made its second appearance on the Nielsen Top 10 streaming chart with The Morning Show season 3 episode 3. Viewership was up 21% over the week prior to 422 million viewing minutes, helping boost it to 10th on the streaming originals list." If only the show weren't such an embarrassment, they could crow. But it's from Jennifer Aniston and it's 2023 and she's from FRIENDS. Do we have to spell it out? A huge cast -- a huge main cast -- so few African-Americans. With FRIENDS, Lisa Kudrow embarrassed herself claiming the lack of African-Americans on the show was a good thing because the creators and writers weren't Black. Apparently that explains the lack of color among the various guest stars and supporting cast members of her 113 episode WEB TV as well?
Aisha Tyler played the only recurring African-American character on FRIENDS. For nine episodes, she played the part -- nine out of 236. She came on as one of the 17 female characters Joey had sex with but ended up with Ross. Anybody see the problem?
The six main characters slept with 85 different characters. Ross and Joey both slept with Charlie. So it's 83 characters that weren't Charlie. 83 sleeping partners in New York City and no African-Americans on that list.
It's not just that Aisha's character was only on nine episodes, it's that time and again, they had minor characters to cast as dates and they didn't consider African-Americans.
That's why we're so unimpressed and so not surprised that Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon would create a show -- one again set in New York -- with so little diversity. Even Sarah Jessica Parker knew that bringing back SEX AND THE CITY this decade meant injecting diversity into the show. And remember that this show is about a morning network program. Is CBS MORNINGS all White? We kind of remember Gayle King as the main host there and one of her co-hosts is Nate Burleson. ABC's GOOD MORNING AMERICA? The main host is Robin Roberts with co-hosts that include Linsey Davis and Michael Strahan. NBC's TODAY, in the first three hours, has Craig Melvin, Al Roker and Sheinelle Jones. There are other shows; however, the source material for THE MORNING SHOW is the non-fiction book TOP OF THE MORNING which zooms in on CBS MORNINGS, GOOD MORNING AMERICA and TODAY.
Interesting how a non-fiction book zooms in on programs that have plenty of on air African-American talent but when Reece and Jennifer decided to make a TV show, in all their blondness and all their Whiteness, couldn't see any Black people.
This season, season three, the two White women who produce and star in the show finally found an African-American anchor. Christine is played by Nicole Beharie and exists to be called "Aunt Jemima" on the show so that Jennifer and Reece can play caring and wise -- onscreen and in interviews promoting themselves as they celebrate what wonderful White women they are. Are we the only ones wondering if this shows original working title might have been KARENS? We're sure the only ones noting that the real praise, as ESSENCE recently pointed out, for the great job the costumers are doing with adding depth to the character of Christine and that no one's coming up with articles to praise the writing of the show's first African-American character.
And this is what APPLE TV+ is trying to build its future on.
It has no FIREFLY LANE, no BRIDGERTON, no THE NIGHT AGENT, no THE UPSHAWS, no ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, no GRACE AND FRANKIE, no SENSE8, no NARCOS, no RUSSIAN DOLL, no LUPIN, no THE BOYS, no GEN V, no REACHER, no CITADEL, no QUEER AS FOLK, no VAMPIRE ACADEMY, no THE OA, no POKER FACE, no MRS. DAVIS, no WOLF PACK, no THE HANDMAID'S TALE, no UNPRISONED, no ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, no THE OTHER BLACK GIRL, no DIFFICULT PEOPLE, no SHUT EYE, no LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE, no DEVS, no MINDHUTER, no KINDRED, no FUTURE MAN, no RESERVATION DOGS, no I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE WITH TIM ROBINSON, no BLOODLINE, no . . .
There shows come on and then they get axed and no group of people really complain because no one's really watching their offerings.
The streamer started streaming November 1, 2019. Four years ago, next month, it started. And it's got damn little to show for it including very few subscribers.
By axing the shows they have axed, they've also lost their cachet. Stephen Spielberg, Oprah, Chris Evans and so many more people were eager to work with them. But now the industry sees that not only can the streamer not make a hit, it's not interested in making hits. High profile projects are going elsewhere, not just John Lasseter's SPELLBOUND (moving over to NETFLIX) but John Lasseter's programming -- his deal with APPLE TV+ is over.
As WORLD SOCCER TALK's Kyle Fansler recently observed, APPLE TV+ and PARAMOUNT+ are "well behind other platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Max, which was formerly HBO Max."
And that's how they are going to be 'celebrating' their fourth anniversary of streaming on November 1st.