Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week!
It was a busy week for TV news with TCA days and investor calls for several high profile networks and streamers. But perhaps most notable was three final season announcements for beloved shows and it all happened on Thursday. With its fourth season dropping today, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was renewed for a fifth and final season at Amazon and that season is already in production. There was also the news that Atlanta will end after four seasons on FX. Its third season returns after a very long hiatus on March 24. Finally, the one-time Netflix phenom Stranger Things was renewed for a fifth and final season. The fourth season will premiere its first half on May 27. All three series have been beloved and Emmy contenders/winners so they will leave a big hole for their respective platforms. The good news for fans of these shows is that there is still one more season for each beyond the current one, but the end is in sight. Other non-final season renewals this week included The Gilded Age on HBO, Halo ahead of its premiere on Paramount+ and How I Met Your Father for a 20 episode second season on Hulu.
The big takeaway from Paramount+'s news avalanche this week is that they love Taylor Sheridan. They can't have his flagship show, Yellowstone, on the streamer due to an old deal with Peacock but they can do everything else possible. That includes ordering more episodes (not technically called a second season) of Yellowstone prequel 1883, greenlighting another prequel called 1932 (another one, 6666 is still in development) and also giving Sheridan two more shows in the non-Yellowstone universe, joining the recently renewed Mayor of Kingstown. The two new shows are Lioness, which will star Zoe Saldana and Land Man with Billy Bob Thornton. He is the Greg Berlanti of Paramount+ and you can bet they're still trying to find a way to get the ratings behemoth Yellowstone onto their service.
Following a year that saw gains in the ratings throughout the NFL season, it ended with the Super Bowl attracting 112.3 million viewers, a big increase from last season's Super Bowl which hit its lowest numbers in over a decade with 96.4 million viewers. The Rams-Bengals matchup seemed on paper to not necessarily be a great matchup with Cincinnati being a small market and the Rams being a team that Los Angeles seems to have ambivalence towards (Los Angeles did not come in the Top 10 for cities watching the game). But it was a closer game and it came at the end of an NFL Playoffs season that saw more close games than ever before. Although it was not a record viewership, the NFL looks to be back on track.
#4 - "FARGO" IS COMING BACK
Amidst a lot of FX news on Thursday was the announcement that Fargo will return for a fifth season. There was not much detail except that the new season will take place in the "upper midwest" in the year 2019. Fargo was a critical darling for its first three seasons but the fourth season of the anthology, starring Chris Rock, failed to break through the way the others have. We'll see if the fifth season can be a return to form.
#5 - SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
Here's a look at this week's scripted premieres! A busier week with the Olympics coming to an end this weekend.
Today: There are a few high profile streaming shows debuting or returning today. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel returns to Amazon for its fourth season and it will be releasing two episodes a week instead of a binge release. Last seen in December 2019, the Emmy winner makes its long-awaited return and has gotten a lot of promotion. Also returning is Space Force, which has been re-tooled and launches its second season on Netflix. The first season, which debuted in May 2020, was heavily hyped with Steve Carell re-teaming with The Office showrunner Greg Daniels, but it was largely considered a disappointment by fans and critics. We'll see if it can get any of the momentum back, I doubt it. A new premiere is Apple TV+'s Severance. The workplace psychological/sci-fi/thriller has gotten solid reviews.
Sunday: Epix premieres a horror/sci-fi show, From, which may have gotten more attention if it was on a more prominent platform than the little-seen Epix.
Monday: There are two new broadcast premieres. NBC has The Endgame, yet another thriller in the vein of many former Monday 10pm shows like The Blacklist, Blindspot and The Enemy Within. It doesn't have The Voice as a lead-in and there have been diminishing returns for shows like this on NBC so I'm not super optimistic about this show's chances. The CW spins off All American with All American: Homecoming. The mothership has been one of the CW's most reliable and strongest performers so a spinoff makes sense.
Wednesday: FX premieres the fifth season of Snowfall, which has gotten a pretty small amount of attention over the years for being a show already in its fifth season now.
Thursday: NBC welcomes back Law & Order twelve years after it was cancelled following a 20 season run. NBC is billing it as its 21st season and several original cast members are returning. Given the surprisingly potent debut of Law & Order: Organized Crime last April, there should at least be some initial interest in revisiting the series that started it all though I'm not sure it will top Organized Crime's debut.
My pick for the week: It's easy, it's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It was my 2020 Outstanding Comedy Series winner and my Most Anticipated Returning Show for 2022. I can't wait to watch the fourth season. I'm also quite curious about Severance, which has gotten strong reviews. Although I'm not quite as interested in it, I'll probably also check out The Endgame and I'm sure I'll give good old Law & Order a try too. And I really didn't like the first season of Space Force but I still may at least give it one episode to see if it's gotten any better.
Check back next week for a new week of blog posts!
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