Jess’s Take - Even on Streaming, Reality TV Rules the Roost (Somewhat)

 

Jess here, back with a new Jess's Take. Has it been over 2 years already since the last Jess's Take? 

Anyway, I'm back this time with an observation I recently saw on Netflix. Reality TV is ruling the roost.

Love is Blind

Going into its eighth season, Love is Blind follows equal numbers of men and women who hope to find love. For ten days, they are in pods where they talk to each other on speaker. They then go to a speed dating event, and the daters extend a marriage proposal when ready. Then, the engaged couples go on a couples retreat. Subsequently, they move into apartments and plan weddings, all of which take place within a month. 

The premise sounds very similar to Married at First Sight, except for the dating part. I also see similarities with The Bachelor franchise. Love is Blind makes me mourn for the days when scripted television ruled the roost with Orange is the New Black. 

Selling Sunset

Again, what's with all these reality shows and their mountains of spinoffs? So this show revolves around the Oppenheim Group and a group of real estate agents, similar to the Real Housewives franchise and Vanderpump Rules. 

It was quietly renewed for a ninth season on Netflix. 

Anyway, reality TV is ruling the roost on Netflix. 

Make sure to sound off in the comments below! 

Jess’s Take: The CW is Full of Woe, Can it Come Back?

Jessica here, back with another Jess's Take. 

Back in my podcast TV update, I went into detail of the CW canceling everything in sight. Here's a recap. 

The CW had canceled many shows from their lineup, including those with Netflix deals. Here are the following shows leaving the CW airwaves: 4400, Batwoman, Black Lightning, Charmed, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Dynasty, In the Dark, Legacies, Naomi, The Republic of Sarah, and Roswell: New Mexico, with Riverdale and Supergirl getting renewed for final seasons. One thing I am speculating with the whole slate getting canceled was nothing to do with ratings (although ratings on these shows were pretty much low the entire season, and 0.0 in the key 18-49 demographic on a regular occurrence doesn’t help matters), it has everything to do with the sale of the CW by network partners Paramount (when it was ViacomCBS) and Warner Bros. Discovery (before Discovery acquired WarnerMedia).

Let's start with January when Mark Pedowitz sent an internal memo to corporate headquarters about the sale. On January 5, word got out that Nexstar Media Group was negotiating with the two broadcast partners for a majority stake in the network. According to Variety, this was first reported in the Wall Street Journal. “Nexstar, based in Irving, Texas, is the nation’s largest owner of TV stations and the core affiliate group for the CW in major markets such as New York and Los Angeles.” – Variety. If you have not heard of the NewsNation channel, a recent news network, this is owned by Nexstar. The channel itself used to be known as WGN America.

In late June, Nexstar purchased the CW and now controls 75% of the CW, while Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount control the other 25%. This led to many cancelations on the network.

Fast forward to now, we have ratings from the now-Nexstar majority owned CW. And it's not exactly looking in the best shape. 

The highest rated CW show, All American is pulling in renewable numbers at a 0.13 with less than 500,000 viewers, but it has a successful Netflix deal on its side and a spinoff. Walker follows the spinoff closely behind with a 0.09, but skews older with 748,000 viewers. And that's in A18-49. The rest of the CW is closely behind in 0.0 territory. 

Realistically, I don't know if I can see the CW survive much longer in its current state, but with broadcast ratings down across the board, there has to be another way, and I'm not sure about the plans Nexstar has yet. 

And this concludes another installment of Jess's Take. Stay tuned for more installments. 

Jess’s Take: A Review of Wednesday, Episode 1 - Wednesday’s Child is Full of Woe

 

Jessica here, and I have returned. Recently, I started watching the new series Wednesday on Netflix. 

Jess’s Take - Not Caring About the 20-21 TV Season, Watching Some Anime, and Golden Globes Networkless

Hello peoples, Jessica here. It's been a while since I have written a piece on here. First of all, moderating Discord platforms can be pretty addicting. Plus, I am heading off to law school in the fall. Don't worry, I'm still here. And there's still TV to talk about.  

1. Why the 2020-21 TV Season is Boring Me Out

Sure, you got Walker on the CW plus a few bright spots, but is television worth talking about when everything seems to go fractional? The television landscape in general has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to the point where we've lost our sense of normalcy. Without that sense of normalcy, one tends to tune out from the television and try new things. 

2. Anime

Speaking of new things, time for me to make my first impression on an anime I've been seeing this season. There's one show I'm watching called The Saint's Power is Omnipotent. It looks to be a promising action anime, so I'll be watching more of it and give my take on it. 

3. Golden Globes Networkless

Speaking of Golden Globes, NBC decided not to air the awards next year, citing "lack of diversity" in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. This led to a lot of protests among celebrities including Tom Cruise threatening to give back all his Globes. But there's something NBC is not telling you - ratings have dropped 68% from the year before. You'll find the ratings report for that somewhere. But nonetheless, Golden Globes are pretty networkless at the moment. 

And that concludes Jess's Take. Let me know what you think in the comments below! 

Jess’s Take - 0.0, How Do You Do?

Hello peoples! Welcome to a new overdue installment of Jess's Take. This is an editorial piece that gives a commentary on what's going on in television and the world of pop culture. Believe me, a recent Friday ratings post has brought some light. 

If you haven't heard lately, I have been increasingly critical of the CW as of late that I have not brought up the entire network on the August TV update for the Pop Culture Cosmos and the PCC Multiverse. Part 1 is available on the PCC Multiverse, and part 2 is on the Monday episode of Pop Culture Cosmos. 

If you haven't seen the ratings for Being Reuben, you would know that a 0.0 has become commonplace. Being Reuben follows young Internet sensation Reuben de Maid who is chasing his dream to become a makeup superstar in the beauty community. But on the CW, it has not caught up. 

On the CW, it currently is averaging a 0.04 A18-49 and around 200,000 viewers. If you haven't heard, Taskmaster was canned after one episode after posting a heavily rounded 0.1 in the demo (a 0.05 to be exact) and 212,000 viewers. So my question is, why is the CW going through the trouble of running a show posting 0.0s regularly? The jury is still out on that.

Will the CW post 0.0 in the future for the fall season regularly? Too soon to tell. But this does not look good for CW Friday. 

What do you think about this installment? Let me know in the comments below!