Here's a look at the Top 5 TV news stories of the week!
Surprising news arrived on Thursday morning that Ryan Seacrest is leaving Live! after six seasons. The longtime American Idol host will depart this spring when Idol switches to live shows in Los Angeles (Live! tapes in New York City). Seacrest has been co-hosting the morning show with Kelly Ripa since Michael Strahan's surprising departure (and subsequent drama with Ripa). Of course, before Strahan it was Regis Philbin and before Ripa, it was Kathie Lee Gifford so there have been a lot of incarnations of the show that started as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. The next co-host will be Ripa's husband, soap and Riverdale star and frequent guest co-host Mark Consuelos. The show will be rebranded Live with Kelly and Mark and it seems like this could be the final destination for Ripa's revolving door of co-hosts. I have to think the real life couple will stay on the show for as long as it runs in its current incarnation or until they are ready to be done. Seacrest will continue to host Idol among his myriad of other jobs including New Year's Eve hosting.
A close Super Bowl showdown between two #1 seeds meant high ratings even by Super Bowl standards. The title game tilt between the Chiefs and Eagles delivered 113 million viewers, the best for a Super Bowl since the Patriots overtime win over the Falcons in 2017 and the third best in history. This was welcome news for the NFL after several years of still big, but lesser ratings since it peaked with the all-time highest rated Super Bowl (2015's game between the Patriots and Seahawks). The starpower of Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Andy Reid and more meant FOX had a winner on its hand. Buzz was been mostly solid of FOX's coverage while the commercials and Rihanna's halftime performance had a more mixed response, though the latter led to some fierce online debates.
While FOX had great news for its Super Bowl ratings, the news was not so great for the Super Bowl lead-out. FOX choose to give the lead-out to reality show Next Level Chef. Reality shows like The Voice and Undercover Boss have been huge hits out of the Super Bowl, but Next Level Chef was more like CBS's quickly forgotten The World's Best a few years ago. The second season premiere delivered 15.5 million viewers. Obviously that's an easy series high for the show. But it ranks among the lowest post-Super Bowl ratings of all time, well below the last regular lead-out - the premiere of The Equalizer in 2021 (NBC chose to continue the Olympics last year). Perhaps FOX should have tried one of their many new midseason scripted offerings? I know it could have been just as bad, but at least a new show would have gotten sampled.
#4 - "POKER FACE" RENEWED
In news that should surprise no one, Peacock has renewed Poker Face for a second season. The Natasha Lyonne case of the week show has gotten tremendous critical acclaim and seems to helping Peacock finally have its moment along with fellow buzzy new series, the reality show The Traitors. The Columbo-inspired Poker Face may finally be the show the streamer needs to get its originals kick-started though we never know if it's really doing as well as it seems. There's no word yet on when a second season will air as it likely depends on Lyonne's and creator Rian Johnson's availability.
#5 - SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
Here's a look at this week's scripted premieres!
Today: Apple TV+ has the premiere of the retro futuristic dramedy Hello Tomorrow! starring Billy Crudup with the first three episodes. This show has been in development for a long time and Crudup is an Emmy winner for Apple's own The Morning Show, but buzz seems to be limited on this one. Amazon has the second and final season premiere of Carnival Row. The fantasy drama starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Develigne last aired way, way back in August 2019. It didn't make much of an impression then and it's hard to imagine that changing three and a half years later.
Sunday: ABC has the premiere of spy drama The Company You Keep after the season premiere of American Idol. The series is Milo Ventimiglia's first project since the end of This is Us and has gotten a fair amount of promotion from ABC. NBC has the fifth season premiere of Magnum P.I., which it rescued from cancellation from CBS with a two season pickup. They are going to try to use it to jump start their Sunday night lineup.
Wednesday: FX has the premiere of the sixth and final season of Snowfall. It is pretty surprising that this is the sixth season for a show that I feel like has never had much buzz.
Thursday: Netflix has the third season premiere of teen drama Outer Banks, which is a popular title for the streamer with the teen crowd even if it's mostly ignored by older viewers and the critical community. Peacock has the second season premiere of Bel-Air, which didn't really break through last season though Peacock is in a stronger position now than it was a year ago.
My pick for the week:
There is a lot more to choose from this week than last week. I will go with The Company You Keep because I'm always interested in spy dramas even though shows like this (Undercovers, Whiskey Cavalier) often end up disappointing me. I'm also interested in Hello Tomorrow! even though I don't really have a sense of what kind of show it is and reviews have been tepid. I also will sometimes watch Magnum P.I.
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