Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week!
The Golden Globe Awards returned to TV after a year in the doghouse with a ceremony that aired on a Tuesday and was a little bit disjointed but not without its moments. Jerrod Carmichael got a few zingers off as host and was daring at times but also a bit low energy throughout the show. Some of the speeches also went insanely long, especially early in the night before they started running long. The big winners were Abbott Elementary and The White Lotus. Abbott won Outstanding Comedy Series and also picked up wins for Quinta Brunson and Tyler James Williams. The second season of The White Lotus picked up where the Emmys left off with wins for Limited/Anthology Series and Jennifer Coolidge (who gave the night's most memorable acceptance speech). There was a surprise in the Drama category where House of the Dragon scored an upset win, topping The Crown, Severance, Ozark and Better Call Saul. There was also the first major award win for The Bear with Jeremy Allen White winning Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The numbers were down some from the last telecast in 2021, but not horribly so. This was NBC's last contractual year for the Globes but they seemed to not stick their foot in their mouth any further and they still got a fair number of stars to turn out despite early speculation that the industry might just abandon the awards so we'll see what happens to the telecast next year.
The day after the Golden Globes aired, the SAG Award nominees were announced (along with some of the other guilds). Surprisingly leading the pack was the final season of Ozark, which picked up nominations for Drama Ensemble, Jason Bateman, Laura Linney and Julia Garner. In this category, The White Lotus competed in Drama categories and received nominations for Ensemble and Jennifer Coolidge. Noticeably snubbed were Imelda Staunton for The Crown and all the Abbott Elementary actors except for Quinta Brunson. There were some dark horse nominations in the Limited Series categories with Steve Carell nominated for The Patient and Emily Blunt for The English as well as an "out of nowhere" nomination for Sam Elliott for 1883. The awards will air on Netflix's YouTube channel on February 26 after a long run on TNT & TBS. They will move fully to Netflix in 2024.
One of the many HBO Max shows that were purged has found a new life. Starz announced that it had picked up the second season of Minx, which had already deep into filming its second season when HBO Max cancelled it last month. The 70s-set porn comedy is probably a good fit with Starz and its brand of premium cable programming. Minx received strong reviews but couldn't break into any awards conversations. The Starz reprieve probably won't help matters on that front so we'll see if it can get a third season. I'm a little skeptical. It was probably fairly cheap to pick it up now. Doing a whole third season would be a tall order for a show that hasn't been able to break through.
#4 - MANY, MANY RENEWALS
The Television Critics Association Tour kicked off this week which meant we got lots of news about renewals, pickups and premiere dates. But coming off the holidays, there were renewals even from networks and streamers not at TCA. Since last Friday's post, renewals have included smash hits Wednesday on Netflix and Abbott Elementary on ABC. Fellow sophomore comedy hit Ghosts got a third season at CBS, which also renewed its top freshman show Fire Country. The CW renewed All American even as the network morphs into something completely different. Peacock renewed Bumper in Berlin while touting it as their top original comedy. Paramount+ renewed Criminal Minds: Evolution for a second season of the revival series. Finally, MGM+ renewed Billy the Kid and Netflix renewed Mo for a second and final season. After a month of cancellations and un-renewals, this was a busy week for scripted renewals.
#5 - SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
Here's a look at this week's scripted premieres!
Today: Apple TV+ has the fourth and final season premiere of Servant. The M. Night Shyamalan produced series was one of the early entries on the streaming service, premiering less than a month after the service launched. Despite going into its fourth season, it's never gotten a lot of buzz. Amazon drops all eight episodes of the second and final season of Hunters. The series had a lot of pre-launch buzz when the first season dropped in February 2020 but it seemed to be met with a shrug and now it's been almost three years so it'll probably come and go quickly in the public consciousness.
Sunday: A busy night of premieres is led by HBO's The Last of Us. The hotly anticipated series is based on the acclaimed video game and is created by the video game creator Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl's Craig Mazin. While video game adaptations have a mixed track record at best, there is a lot of high hopes for this one and it's clear a lot of money has been spent. It could be the next watercooler show in the same slot where The White Lotus and House of the Dragon thrived in the last year. Paramount+ has the premiere of the second season of Mayor of Kingstown, which has been in the news after star Jeremy Renner's serious snowplow accident a couple weeks ago. Showtime has the premiere of the second (and likely final) season of Your Honor, which was originally meant to be a limited series. The newly christened MGM+ (formerly Epix) has the third season premiere of Godfather of Harlem. The Hallmark Channel premieres The Way Home, starring Andie MacDowell and Chyler Leigh.
Tuesday: NBC has the premiere of the revival of Night Court. The original was a big hit for the network from 1984-1992 but that was a long time ago. The revival brings John Larroquette back alongside a new cast led by Melissa Rauch. Unlike some recent revivals like Will & Grace and Roseanne, I'm not sure there will be even the initial interest in this one.
Thursday: Speaking of revivals, Netflix has the premiere of That 90s Show, which brings back Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp in a series set twenty years after FOX's hit 2000s sitcom That 70s Show. Being on Netflix and with a more popular current IP than Night Court, this one could get more attention.
My pick for the week:
As I mentioned in my Top 10 Most Anticipated New Shows of 2023, I am excited for That 90s Show and hoping I don't get burned by it the way I felt after being excited for How I Met Your Father. The trailer looks good. I hope it captures the quirky fun of the original series. I will definitely check out The Last of Us because I'm sure it will be buzzy but I don't think it'll be my type of show. I will likely sample Night Court but I never really watched the original. And I did watch the first season of Hunters but don't feel super excited about the second season. Maybe I'll watch an episode and decide from there.
Check back next week for a new week of blog posts!
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