Television Renewals, Cancellations, and Streaming Trends

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host, Steve Megatron Phillips. This episode,

I'll be flying solo. However, Mike the Birdman

Dodd will be back next week for a couple of loaded

topics. One of them has to do with extra and

introversion and states of anxiety and how we

kind of cope with... these certain aspects of

our life. And the following one will probably

be, these may be intertwined, I'm not really

sure which one's gonna be first and second. However,

there'll also be one on games that we're hoping

for in relation to franchises for open world

concepts. So, if you want to send feedback for

those, go ahead and send it to feedback at alteredgeek

.com or on the various social media channels

at Altered Geek or myself at FCP21. So, without

further ado, we're going to get into the episode

talking about television. So, in talking about

TV, it's kind of nice to know what you're getting

into. I subscribe to Renew Cancel TV Newsletter

just because I'm kind of curious what's going

to be coming just fresh from the pipe on their

site. And I kind of keep track of things. So

some of the shows that I was kind of surprised,

this one was particularly funny, Brooklyn Nine

-Nine. I'm not one that watches this show. However,

I thought it was interesting that as soon as

it was canceled by Fox, NBC picked it up for

season six. Which just goes to show that they

realized they could have had a hit on their hands

and they didn't and plus I really Don't know

of any good shows that NBC has other than the

blacklist That that I have watched other than

maybe Saturday Night Live or something So yeah,

it's it's kind of an interesting twist for them

to do that. Of course the blacklist got renewed

SNL of course got renewed for 44 season, which

is crazy Lethal Weapon got renewed for season

3 and I was a little surprised with the season

finale I'm like, okay, what are they gonna do

with this and then the news came out that they

were Replacing the the lead actor and I was like,

oh Really and It kind of threw me for a loop

And I guess that Fox said it wasn't their choice

to recast, although the actor that plays Riggs,

Clayne Crawford, apparently was not the greatest

person on set, not only in terms of safety of

his being a director, but... In terms of his

disposition on set and so Warner Brothers sent

it from down on high because we know how the

Warner Brothers likes to Stick their nose in

everything which is why they're their film universe

is so Much of a mess and why they had the turnover

of directors and everything else They anyways,

they sent this from a pie to Fox saying to replace

him. So they've replaced him with Stifler from

American Pie or Sean William Scott. And I don't

know what to think about that, but honestly,

to see the actor change after two seasons of

getting to know the personality and enjoy the

dynamic between Riggs and Murtaugh, I'm not thrilled

with the recasting. I would have been happier,

not saying I'd be happy, but I would be happier

if they had just killed off Riggs completely

or sent him on his way to Texas and then just

never had him come back or had him come back

as a guest. The entire idea of recasting him

just doesn't really sit well with me And I think

that's it's not even the same difference as like

recasting roadie from Iron Man to Iron Man 2

To me this is a little bit worse because you've

gotten used to the one actor so if you're jumping

in at season 3 You're gonna be like that's not

rigs. You know I don't know it just doesn't sit

well with me the whole the whole thing I get

it. You know you shouldn't reward behavior but

the same token you can't expect the show I mean

look at two and a half men they dragged it on

without Charlie Sheen for an additional like

two to three seasons and it got progressively

worse as it went on I mean they were pretty formulaic

up until that point but it got pretty bad towards

the end of just how terrible the show was so

I see lethal weapon not really lasting past season

three honestly If it does, I'll be surprised,

but usually my television radar is pretty on

point. But yeah, I'm not, I'm not excited about

it by any means. And then they kind of talked

Gotham doing a revamp for its next season and

final season. Although they're pushing Gotham

and the Orville season two, or season two of

the Orville and season five of Gotham to 2019

releases, along with like... possibly Star Trek

Discovery, so I don't mind the show. It's gotten

pretty decent, although I hate the fact that

they can't name Batman or the Joker or make the

Joker look like the Joker. I guess they had to

do the purple hair and make the character be

different and kind of call him by his other name

because they can't use it legally, just like

the entire bat embargo with using Batman's name.

the CW universe. I mean, they finally name -dropped

Bruce Wayne this season in Arrow, but still,

it's another one of those goofy WB things. So,

going back to some of the information, Last Man

Standing, this has been one of those ones that's

been kind of debatable on whether it's gonna

get picked up or not. ABC killed it off, didn't

give it a seventh season, despite having great

ratings. Some attributed that to his political

nature, some of them attributed it to the fact

that they were doing away with the multi -camera

type of setup on ABC. Regardless it had gotten

shopped around so they they tried to get it picked

up and I think it was CMT or country music television

channel they tried to get it picked up on WGN

Which I didn't even know was still a thing They

finally got around and Fox has revived the show

for season 7 In the event they can get some of

the actors back now Nancy Travis, I believe is

on another show and some of the other Actresses,

I know Hector Elizondo is on another show at

the moment so It'll be interesting to think everybody

back and bring the show back and kind of keep

it going that was a show I really enjoyed and

Didn't feel bad about watching in front of my

family or anything. It was pretty clean for the

most part But yeah, I'm glad that it's coming

back There were a lot of other shows that got

Revived or renewed Magnum PI is getting a reboot

at CBS not surprising I'm kind of surprised I

zombie got renewed for season 5 to be honest

because they've had such the large gaps between

seasons That it's made it difficult to follow.

I mean granted. I don't watch it anymore. I kind

of Cut off a lot of shows But yeah Now getting

into the freshly cancelled, this is what kind

of throws me They cancelled scorpion which I

thought was a pretty good hit on CBS as far as

I knew like I don't watch it, but I Know a lot

of people enjoyed it Kevin can wait got cancelled.

I'm not surprised about that in the slightest.

I my wife and I when we started watching season

2 The series had gotten way too lowbrow and stupid

for season two. They tried to pull like a King

of Queens thing with it and almost made it worse

than King of Queens, which is hard to do. But

because they brought back the actress that played

his wife on King of Queens to be his business

partner and they had less of the family dynamic

that I enjoyed from season one. They killed off

his wife for season two. The plot lines were

very dumb in season two. So I could very much

see why it got canceled and I wasn't surprised.

I mean they even had Adam Sandler guest starring

on it occasionally. And Adam Sandler's wife actually

was playing the wife of somebody else in the

show and it was kind of... I don't know. The

show really didn't get any better with season

two which is interesting. Alex Inc., the first

television show about a podcaster, got canceled

by ABC. Now, it seems like a lot of these shows

are getting canceled, and I'm a little sad about

Alex Inc. Yes, it wasn't the greatest show or

greatest written program, but I enjoyed the cast.

They were all very likable. I enjoyed what they

were doing with it. I enjoyed the fact that it

was chronicling a podcaster who happens to be

loosely based off of the owner of Gimlet Media,

which is a huge podcasting company, and I think

they just sold a second show to another television

station as well, but I was kind of surprised

to see Alex Ingo by the wayside, which is kind

of sad for... the fact that it was about a podcaster,

his family, and about being an entrepreneur,

and they kind of name dropped Shark Tank stuff

in it. I don't know, I really enjoyed the show,

and I'm kind of sad to see that it's not coming

back. I've gotten to this point where I enjoy

family shows, like where there's shows about

a family, so like I've even gone back and watched

the new Roseanne that's in Hulu, and I really

enjoyed that. Because it still pokes fun at things

it still plays with the humor from the original

show, but it's updated Same reason why I like

Fuller House and Girl Meets World It was revival

with the original cast kind of playing into everything

I Mean they're even having a Murphy Brown revival,

which I wasn't a fan of the original But I may

check out the new one just because it focuses

on news media But yeah, I I don't know, I'm a

little sad for some of the shows that are leaving

and I'm happy for some that are coming back and

mostly the ones that have to do with family drama

type stuff that's more in tune with real life

or a facsimile of it. But yeah, a lot of shows

got cancelled. Inhumans got cancelled and Law

and Order True Crime got cancelled. It kind of

makes me Not really want to pick up any new shows

for the most part because you really it's televisions

in this weird state of flux right now where Shows

may get cancelled and you may not know why And

then there are shows that they get renewed and

you're wondering why But it looks like And this

is since that report that I read, anyway, that

at least since, and I know I just listed it,

but I opened up something that just popped up.

But it says that iZombie actually did get cancelled

by the CW, which I wasn't really surprised. I

was kind of surprised when I read the initial

that it got renewed because the show really wasn't

getting any better. Although I liked the cast

that They they had these sporadic like off times

and then they would air at the weirdest times

in the spring and in summer which They used to

be in the fall. So I don't know and then they're

also Killing off a couple of their other shows

like crazy ex -girlfriend and Jane the Virgin

because you know, they gotta make room for like

Sabrina and Some of their other shows to bring

it on like charms reboot There's yeah TV I just

don't I just don't know I Mean like even even

another sci -fi related program the expanse after

three seasons got canned before it could hit

season four I've never seen it but again You

know, I thought sci -fi was kind of back in with

having Star Trek Discovery and the Orville and

and things of that nature Metropolis got cancelled

again not surprised because it was supposed to

follow the story of Lois Lane and Lex Luthor

and not have Superman like or Clark Kent or anything

like I don't know I don't get it with a lot of

the The the prequel series that they're having

on DC Comics property? I would rather just start

at the beginning and kind of just keep going.

So what are some shows that you guys are sad

that got cancelled in recent years and some that

you wish would get picked back up by another

station or revived or ones that you're like,

how did this continue? Why did this continue?

Kind of like Agents of Shield, it's still continuing.

But, you know, if something like Cash Cab can

get renewed, you know, then it kind of makes

you wonder on some of these things. Lost in Space

obviously got renewed. But yeah, so, I don't

know. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what

you guys say in the comments area. This is kind

of... weird territory with television right now.

It's almost as volatile as movies, in a sense,

because there's so many of them out there. So

many movies, so many television shows, and a

lot of them are reboots anymore that are coming

back. So it's getting to that point where I'm

almost ready to sign off on certain TV things.

However, that being said, DC is launching their

new endeavor, the DC Universe membership platform.

It's an unlimited access to exclusive original

series, so they're gonna have Titans. will be

exclusively on DC Universe's streaming, basically

like their own version of Hulu Netflix type of

thing. So they're gonna have Titans on that exclusively,

Doom Patrol on that exclusively, Swamp Thing,

Young Justice Outsiders, which is season three

of Young Justice, and then Harley Quinn are all

going to be plenty represented on the new DC...

Streaming app and I'm kind of wondering where

we're gonna go from there I'm wondering how many

of the shows are gonna actually go to TV after

this If they're gonna try and sell their you

know, basically CBS all access of DC programming

I Think we could eventually see another Batman

series come on, but it would be held exclusively

by DC Universe And this is just a prediction

but I could see them doing this with like a live

-action Batman or Batman Beyond Where they control

it exclusively that's run by them exclusively

because they don't want any other company even

if they have their hands in it like CW I don't

think they want anybody else's hands in it other

than their own when it comes to Batman which

is really weird because they're okay with throwing

Superman in a show, but Batman is like too Too

difficult for them to to get their hands on it's

just it's a weird scenario So I don't know It's...

It's gonna be interesting to see how much of

their library they pull from elsewhere now if

they started putting like the old DC animated

universe the DC animated films Some of their

live -action stuff and they they moved it off

the other platforms and put it on DC universe

I could see this thing going big In developing

new series that they may not necessarily have

Available currently like you could you could

see, you know a Martian Manhunter series or you

could see You know whether it's animated or not

a Green Lantern series We I mean we have the

flash we have green arrow. I don't see after

these shows run their course on the CW I don't

see them adding more to the lineup there I see

more of it hitting this DC Universe platform

and I think that's pretty much the future of

everything coming out at this point because Cable

channels have had to revamp and change into this

new platform or streaming platform style so people

can have it on the go so that you have to sign

up for their Alacart service, which it's funny

because I was dying for an Alacart service back

in the day. However, when I meant Alacart, I

meant I would be willing to pay for cable if

it was like 15 bucks and I could get, you know,

you know, basically a dollar a channel or get

12 channels and then you get to choose which

ones I want. And then now they kind of do that

with local channels or your base, ABC, NBC, CBS,

CW, Fox, and then you get a few other stations.

But now we're at the era where we've got DC Universe,

we're gonna have Disney flicks, we're gonna have

Hulu, we're gonna have Netflix. You know, there's

Puriflex, there's Amazon, just a multitude of

other services. So it's getting, this television

landscape has transformed so much over the last

several years. Again, CBS All Access, another

one I forgot about. But I mean, you get to watch

everything that they've produced and that's the

fun part. It's just. paying the $10 a pop every

time you want one of them. However, the only

benefit of that is you get all of their programming,

all of their stuff, and you gotta consider nobody

buys DVDs or DVD box sets for seasons anymore,

or films for the most part. I mean, I buy the

occasional Blu -ray, depending on the film, like

if it's Star Trek or something, where you're

gonna see the difference. But otherwise, I don't

really buy movies anymore, so I just watch them

on streaming. So what do you guys think? Let

me know in the comments area. So until next time

Steve Megatron signing off and Get altered get

geeky with the author