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THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 3/5/21

Here's a look at my Top 5 TV News Stories of the week!

#1 - GOLDEN GLOBES RESULTS
The Golden Globes aired on Sunday and there were good things and bad things. The good things were a lot of the winners. Pretty much every win in the TV category was either my vote or one I was quite pleased with. This includes a big night for The Crown with wins for Drama series, Emma Corrin, Josh O'Connor and Gillian Anderson. Jason Sudeikis had a well-deserved win for Ted Lasso as did Anya Taylor-Joy and her series, The Queen's Gambit. Schitt's Creek didn't have a huge sweep like it did at the Emmys but it won for Comedy series and Catherine O'Hara. So the wins were great. The show itself and the ratings were not. The show was plagued by technical issues after the Emmys did it almost flawlessly while Amy Poehler and Tina Fey were very disappointing after their great turns in the past. Whoever had the idea to have them host from different coasts instead of in the same room should be fired. The ratings were also dismal as it crashed 68% from last year. I'm sure a (hopefully) more normal ceremony in 2022 will be up some but I'm not convinced this isn't still a general trendline for awards shows even disregarding the pandemic.

#2 - "THE SIMPSONS" RENEWED FOR SEASONS 33 & 34
FOX's animated staple is going nowhere despite the ownership changes at the network and production company. The Simpsons, which will air its 700th episode this spring, will return for at least two more seasons taking it through Season 34 and over 750 episodes. The iconic series was rumored to be in jeopardy of moving to a Disney property after corporate realignments but it's such a "legacy" show for FOX and the linear network does not seem to be in any hurry to get rid of it. The network is leaning hard into animation with more and more continuing to be added and renewed.

#3 - "SUPERMAN & LOIS" RENEWED
After just one episode, the CW renewed Superman & Lois for a second season. This is not surprising. I'm actually a little surprised it didn't just get renewed with the rest of the CW slate even though it hadn't aired at that point. Maybe they were just making sure it didn't completely crash and burn? Or maybe they wanted to give some good PR for it after the premiere? It had a decent start for the network and decent DVR attention even though it didn't have as fast a start as fellow newbie Walker.

#4 - ALL STAR CAST FOR "ROAR"
After the unceremonious un-renewal of GLOW on Netflix, the creators have moved over to Apple TV+ and announced an all-star cast for a new project called Roar. The project is a female-driven anthology and will feature Nicole Kidman, Cynthia Erivo, Merritt Wever and Allison Brie. Maybe this could have been for Netflix if they hadn't pulled what they did with GLOW. 

#5 - CONSTANCE WU RETURNS TO TV
Less than two years after her social media meltdown at the renewal of her show Fresh Off the Boat on ABC, Constance Wu is already back on TV as she will join Chris Pratt for Amazon's Terminal List. Now to be fair, a high profile Amazon project is different than a weekly ABC sitcom but it's just funny to see Wu back in the medium she seemed so desperate to leave.

Check back next week for a new week of blog posts!

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