TV Talk: Peak TV peaks; broadcasters receive regional Emmy recognition

Almost every week in this space, I include a list of TV, cable and streaming series that have been renewed or canceled. Last week, there were only cancellations, no renewals. That’s unusual, but it may become more the norm rather than an outlier.

For years, Wall Street prized streaming over everything else. Media companies adapted by making their streaming services a priority with hefty budgets for adding new streaming series and diminished budgets for broadcast and cable, most noticeable in an increased reliance on lower-cost unscripted shows for linear outlets and fewer expensive scripted programs.

Never mind that the streaming services were not making money, as long as they continued to grow the number of subscribers, Wall Street didn’t care. It was bound to be unsustainable.

Earlier this year, Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in a quarter and everything changed. Even before the subscriber loss, Netflix had begun belt-tightening, often canceling series after just two or three seasons in favor of always having something new for subscribers.

After that bad quarterly report, Wall Street suddenly cared about streamers turning a profit.

To achieve that, streaming services have to tighten their belts. Waves of layoffs hit Netflix. David Zaslav, a bottom-line-oriented executive in his years running Discovery Networks, now brings that same approach to the newly-formed Warner Bros. Discovery, canceling CNN+ along with a $200 million proposed J.J. Abrams series for HBO, a “Wonder Twins” movie for HBO Max and plans for HBO Max original series in six countries, including Greece, Iceland and Turkey.

Just this week, Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cable network TBS canceled comedy “Chad” and won’t air the show’s completed second season, presumably preferring to take a write-off.

“I think the world has changed,” Zaslav told Variety earlier this month. “And it’s not about how much, it’s about how good.”

That suggests Peak TV, the phrase coined by FX president John Landgraf in 2015 when he predicted this course correction (though it took six years longer to materialize than Landgraf expected), has finally peaked.

It appeared to peak when the number of new shows declined from 532 in 2019 to 493 in 2020, but that turned out to be a pandemic hiccup as the number of original scripted series rocketed up to 559 in 2021.

The final number for 2022 may actually go higher as consumers will continue to feel the effects of Peak TV for another six months to a year, but after that, the number of original scripted series made for TV, cable and streaming is likely to decline, especially if the American economy remains wobbly.

In the meantime, the most confusing aspect of consuming a streaming series is figuring out its release schedule.

Netflix is sticking to binge releases (except when it breaks a season in two as it did with “Stranger Things 4” in an effort to retain subscribers for at least one more month) but the other streamers are either mostly going with weekly episode drops (Disney+, Apple TV+, Peacock, HBO Max) or a confusing hodge-podge of binge and weekly releases (Hulu, Amazon’s Prime Video).

“I worry sometimes that the audience might get confused and not know that multiple episodes are coming,” Landgraf said in February during an FX press conference as part of the Television Critics Association virtual winter press tour. “I’m just trying to sort the best thing to do in each case for each individual show as much as I can. But there’s no way to avoid the fact that it’s a little bewildering, frankly, the different releases. And the sheer number of releases are hard to keep track of for you, for me, for everyone.”

Pa. film tax credit bumps up

With last week’s passage of Pennsylvania’s 2022-23 budget, the cap on film tax credits that draw big-budget Hollywood productions increased by $30 million from $70 million to $100 million through at least July 1, 2025, which will allow for better planning for TV/streaming series that are expected to run for multiple seasons.

The new budget also includes a $5 million carve-out for Pennsylvania-produced independent film projects.

Regional Emmy recognition

The Mid-Atlantic Emmys announced its 2022 Silver Circle Society and Gold Circle Society inductees, who will be honored at an Oct. 1 ceremony in Philadelphia.

Retired WTAE-TV weekend sports anchor Guy Junker, retired WPXI-TV operations manager Rick Minutello and WQED-TV supervising producer Minette Seate will join the silver circle, recognizing individuals who have service in broadcasting for a minimum of 25 years.

WQED-TV lighting director and studio technician Frank Warinsky joins the Gold Circle Society, honoring those with 50 years or more of industry experience.

Kept/canceled

Apple TV+ renewed the winning comedy “Loot” for a second season.

Hulu renewed “Only Murders in the Building” for a third season.

HBO canceled “Gentleman Jack” after two seasons.

Channel surfing

Former CBS series “Blood & Treasure,” which aired its first season in 2019, is finally back Sunday for its second season, but now it’s available only on streaming service Paramount+. … Episodes of “Leverage” spin-off “Leverage: Redemption,” which co-stars 2018 Carnegie Mellon grad Aleyse Shannon and premiered in July 2021 on what is now free, ad-supported streaming service Amazon Freevee, now also air at 9 p.m. Monday on over-the-air network Ion (WINP-TV, Channel 16). … Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum will star as Zeus in Netflix’s modern reimagining of Greek mythology in the eight-episode live-action series “Kaos.” … Fred Rogers Productions partners with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for family events themed to its series of shorts, “Through the Woods.” The event includes nature walks, episode screeners, crafts and more, Saturday at Laurel Hill State Park in Somerset, Aug. 20 at Point State Park and Sept. 10 at Racoon Creek State Park (1-3 p.m. on each date).