After a crazy week of Upfront news, tonight’s newsletter is a bit shorter. I need to catch my breath and I suspect all of you do as well.
Tomorrow, I’ll have a really fascinating interview with a couple of executives from Philo about their FAST channel business. As well as some reviews/viewing tips.
— Rick
‘The Pitt’ Is A Massive Success. But Maybe Not For The Reason You Think
A piece in today’s Hollywood Reporter that looked at the season-to-season growth of The Pitt is garnering a lot of attention in Hollywood circles.
The story uses ratings data from Nielsen to illustrate how much viewing for the show has risen from season one to season two:
The company's regular weekly streaming totals include all episodes of a series. For example, the 1.13 billion minutes of viewing for The Pitt from April 6-12 includes time viewers spent watching episodes from season one and earlier episodes of season two, in addition to the one that premiered that week. The new data isolates the totals for season two and shows huge improvements year to year, particularly through the middle of the season.
So, of course, across social media, Hollywood writers were arguing this success means the TV industry should move back to full writer’s rooms and extended season episode orders:
I think that a lot of this is wishful thinking on the part of people who are frustrated by the current state of television and want to use this as a lever to roll back the clock. It’s similar to the talk I heard after season one of The Mandalorian.
The argument at the time was that The Mandalorian was a success in part because the episodes were being released weekly instead of in a binge release. The problem was that lots of shows were released weekly and most of the time, audiences didn’t even realize the shows existed.
Having a full writing staff, etc. certainly makes The Pitt possible, especially in a fifteen week season. But at the end of day, The Pitt is a ratings hit for the same reason The Mandalorian was a hit. It is a very good show. Noah Wylie is not just a gifted actor, but a familiar, comfortable face for viewers. And having him star in a show that more than slightly resembles the iconic series E.R. certainly didn’t hurt.
And you also can’t rule out the absolute barrage of publicity that followed after season one of the show wrapped. Multiple awards, tons of interviews and features that kept the show fresh in the mind of fans. But all of that attention also prompted a lot of viewers who skipped season one to go back and see what they had been missing.
As an industry, we tend to conflate the production side of the business with what appears on the screen. A weekly release schedule no doubt helped The Mandalorian in the same way that a full-blown traditional television production approach made the success of The Pitt a bit easier.
But at the end of the day, what matters is what ends up on the screen. The Pitt is a hit primarily because it is a very good show. Reading anything else into its success is dangerous.
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$992 Billion in Art Could Change Hands. Why Are These 71,105 Investors Paying Close Attention?
Deloitte ran the numbers. They project UHNW art and collectibles wealth -- already at $2.5 trillion -- to hit $3.47 trillion by 2030.
The institutional world has been quietly preparing for this. Back in 2011, 25% of wealth managers surveyed offered art-related services. In 2024, 51%. Family offices now average a 13.4% allocation to art and collectibles. And it’s not just because they love art. It’s because they like the math.
These positions were built over decades through private dealer relationships most investors never had. The access just wasn't there.
Masterworks is changing that:
71,000+ investors
$1.3B deployed across 525+ artworks
29 closed sales
Net annualized returns like 16.5%, 17.6%, and 17.8%, not including those unsold.
Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.
Odds & Sods
Comcast spin-off Versant beat Wall Street estimates for Q1, as the company continues to get accustomed to being independent.
Samsung TV Plus has ordered its first scripted series, the four-part anthology series Unlikely Romances. It premieres Friday, June 5th on Samsung Television Network (STN) in the US and on the exclusive Dhar Mann TV channel across the US, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland. Here is the official logline: “Unlikely Romances is a heartwarming anthology series about love stories that happen where people least expect them. Set within the same city and shared world, each episode follows two people who, on paper, should never work as a couple, but when unexpected circumstances bring them together, they are forced to challenge their assumptions, confront what others expect of them, and discover that love often finds its way beyond labels, rules, and expectations.”
In his newsletter Decoding The World Through Data, Stephen Follows tracked the dialogue patterns in 64,332 films between 1940 and 2022, and found the average length of a single block of dialogue has dropped steadily decade after decade, while the share of micro-lines of one to three words keeps climbing.
I'm not saying that this year everything is upside down, but today PBS announced its A Capitol Fourth: 250th Weekend Celebration will air on Friday, July 3rd, instead of on the Fourth of July. It will feature Trace Adkins unveiling a new song, American Made, “celebrating patriotism and achievements of Americans.”
Subscribers of Charter Communications' higher-end Spectrum TV plans now have access to Warner Bros. Discovery's Discovery+ for no extra charge.
The 150-plus episodes of Doctor Who that aired from 2005 through 2022 — before the BBC's collaboration with Disney — are headed to AMC, where they will premiere on Thursday, June 11th. The episodes feature the Time Lord as played by Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker. No word yet on where the newer episodes will end up in the U.S. And if you don't have AMC+, they are running a special right now which gets you a year for $29.99.
Nickelodeon has ordered two more seasons of PAW Patrol and Rubble & Crew. That will bring PAW Patrol to its 14th and 15th seasons, while Rubble & Crew will now be back for Seasons 5 and 6. Each season will be 13 episodes.
The seventh and final season of the Tyler Perry series The Oval premieres Wednesday, May 20th on BET.
Season three of My Adventures With Superman premieres Saturday, June 13th on Adult Swim.
The Problem With Major League Baseball, In One Graphic
What’s Coming Tonight And Tomorrow
THURSDAY, MAY 14TH:
After The First 48 Season Premiere (A&E)
Black Sands Season Two Premiere (Viaplay)
County Rescue Season Three Premiere (Great American Pure Flix)
Fear Factor: 48 Hours Of Fear Series Premiere (Fox)
Interrogation Raw Season Premiere (A&E)
Killer Investigations Season Premiere (A&E)
Nemesis Series Premiere (Netflix)
On The Roam (HBO Max)
Soul Mate Series Premiere (Netflix)
Welcome To Wrexham Season Premiere (FXX)
FRIDAY, MAY 15TH:
Berlin And The Lady With An Ermine Series Premiere (Netflix)
Couples Therapy Season Premiere (Paramount+)
Death At The Dinner Party (LMN)
Dutton Ranch Series Premiere (Paramount+)
Lisa Ann Walter: It Was An Accident (Hulu)
Rivals (Hulu)
The Crash (Netflix)
The Last Woodsmen Season Premiere (Discovery)
The Wonderfools Series Premiere (Netflix)