We recently started a new feature about the streaming tallies. "What People Are Streaming" and "What People Are Streaming" and "What People Are Streaming" are the features from previous weeks.
1) Are these tallies accurate?
These tallies are what the streamers themselves post. Ava and C.I. have regularly reported at this site on streamers inflating their own totals -- especially back when they refused to provide any support for the claims. They've done that for many, many years.
We are not presenting these totals as anything more than what the streamers themselves are reporting.
William G. Huber e-mailed to say that the feature is a success. Why? "It's forced PEACOCK to stop listing MAJOR PAYNE and LIFE OF THE PARTY in their top ten week after weeks as they had done for months now." Yeah, that was questionable. William argues, "Now that they know it's being watched and recorded, they finally find new things to put in their top ten instead."
2) Who came up with the idea for this feature?
Stan, Ava and C.I. Stan's explained this at his site -- most recently in "THE SUNSHINE BOYS, streaming, SO HELP ME TODD" -- but here's the basic: FIREFLY LANE comes out and, per NETFLIX, is a hit and makes their top ten but The Water Cooler Set ignores it and months later list all these 'hit' shows that never got the streaming numbers that FIREFLY LANE (or another female led series or film) did.
They've long discussed that. The week they started this feature, MADAME WEB had debuted on NETFLIX and it reached all the way to number one most streamed. It was savaged while playing in the theaters -- so much so that the box office might have been impacted. The film had real problems that impacted the box office -- see "MADAME WEB -- The Autopsy (Stan, Ava and C.I.)" -- but some of those problems (no rousing, stand up and cheer ending) wouldn't impact streaming numbers the way they might turn off potential audiences. Since the film had been savaged so, Stan, Ava and C.I. decided to start up the feature.
3) Why do you only identify the star if it's a film?
First, TV shows have multiple leads these days. We're not going to get into a fight over it or try to do a rotating list. If the film is PRIVATE BENJAMIN, you will see "(Goldie Hawn)" next to the title. That's also how you know it's a film -- we note the actor. Some streamers -- HULU, for example -- do not do a list of top streamed films and a list of top streamed series. By doing it the way we're doing, you should know what is a TV series and what is a film.
4) Why are you including this or that?
The biggest complain on this from readers has been that we have included MAX. We've got a ton of e-mails talking about what a lousy streamer it's become since WB was bought out by the trashy people who force Chip & Joanna down everyone's throats. It's gone from strong films and strongly written series to cheapo 'reality' garbage. Films like BATGIRL have been buried and will never see the light of day. MAX is clearly the most hated streamer among our readers. Not a problem, we don't like MAX either.
You won't see it this edition and you won't see it included again unless readers e-mail stating that they want it (a lot of people wanting it).
Laverne C. e-mailed to complain about the inclusion of streamers like MGM+. She feels that they shouldn't be included. (She's not alone in feeling that way but she did note it was okay to quote her.) Why doesn't she like MGM+? "It's not that I don't like it," she explained in her e-mail, "I just don't see it as a real streamer. I subscribe to it through AMAZON and they frequently have films I want to see. However, they've stopped with making all the James Bond films available and that just underscores how useless and empty it is as a supposed streamer. NETFLIX serves up original content non-stop. It's the gold standard of streamers. Something like MGM+ or that hideous MAX? They are really just worthless."
Similar complaints were made about STARZ with people expressing the belief that anytime the streamer has a series worth watching, they axe it. The three most cited examples were NOW APOCALYPSE, MAGIC CITY and MINX.
We get the point. We'll stop including them. It's correct that they aren't real streamers.
We are aware that if you take out NBC programming, the same can be said of PEACOCK; or take away CBS programming from PARAMOUNT+ and you've got the same problem; also if you pull ABC and FOX programming from HULU, you've got the same problem.
But that programming isn't being pulled and it does allow them to offer more content at their services.
Let's note that the only streamer offering a daily soap opera is PEACOCK with DAYS OF OUR LIVES -- that show no longer airs on NBC. And let's note that because Beverly brought it up in her e-mail where she wondered, "Why do they keep trying this daily program like a talk show or a court show but none of them try a daily soap opera?"
The above is all interesting but the biggest complaint from readers is the next one
5) Paid services.
Carolyn e-mailed, "When you started this site 19 years ago, one of the things I liked best, as a college student on grants and loans, was not feeling left out of the conversation. Ava and C.I. refused to cover shows that weren't airing on broadcast TV or on a free streamer. That's changed since the pandemic."
It has changed and the reason for that is that Ava and C.I. never intended to be reviewing and reporting on TV for almost 20 years. None of us expected this site to be around that long. And we had announced that we'd be shutting down after the November 2008 elections. What changed?
September 14, 2008, Ava and C.I. wrote in a TV feature article:
Fringe debuted on Fox last week and re-airs tonight. It's a
roller coaster ride that, if you don't pay attention to what's actually
happening, will move quick enough to keep you entertained. If you pay
attention, you'll most likely be repeatedly outraged.
When
we shared that judgment with a writer for the show, we were asked to
wait until the mid-season to review the show (changes are promised --
don't believe it). We're more than happy to wait because the fringe was
what really interested us. Not the show, not the writing, the fringe.
Or, as some might call it, the lunatic fringe.
And with that promise, we ended up going past November 2008. I'm not complaining, by the way, they were the ones -- Ava and C.I. -- most wanting to be offline. Elaine has also wanted to close shop for years now.
They were so busy, Ava and C.I., that they agreed to review Fringe
after the mid-season started. Which would be 2009. It didn't even hit
them when they agreed to it.
And they couldn't do 20 years with the same focus week after week.
With the streaming report, we're last in the article each week -- what we watched. So some may miss it. But we do note programs we watch on FREEVEE and TUBI and PLUTO. And this site has repeatedly plugged PLUTO over the years precisely because it is a free streamer.
Equally true, PARAMOUNT+ is 'free' is you've got a WALMART membership (grocery delivery or pick up) and PEACOCK is free if you are a subscriber to INSTACART. With various cell phone plans you can get NETFLIX, DISNEY+, HULU, ESPN,, PEACOCK or some combination of more than just one of those.
If TUBI or CRACKLE or PLUTO did a top ten (or fifteen or twenty) at their site, we'd gladly note it.
Ava and C.I. anticipated this criticism which is why PBS was added to the streamers being covered in the streaming report.
So to Carolyn and others making this critique, we hear you and we agree with you. But we're limited and what we can do. We'll continue to explore that and we'll continue to include PBS as well as include any films or shows we catch on PLUTO or another free service -- if enough of us caught it that week for it to be in the top ten.