Ask Matt: To Stream or Not to Stream, ‘Tony & Ziva,’ and More
Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, it’s the most frequent complaint, but there’s always closed-captioning. Check out this story for more tips.)
One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to [email protected]. Look for Ask Matt columns on most Tuesdays.
NCIS Fans Aren’t Happy About a Streaming Spinoff
Question: I read your column every week and hope you can help, not only me, but thousands of others. We have watched the NCIS shows, all of them, from the beginning. All of them were on CBS. Now we are older and many of us do not have streaming, which is what the new Tony & Ziva spinoff will be on. Why can’t it be on CBS like all the others? The people I have spoken with all feel very dismissed and disappointed in the franchise’s decision. We were looking forward to the new show and find we can’t watch it. Many of them are so angry that they are rethinking watching the other NCIS shows, especially Origins. I hope the Powers That Be can be respectful of the people who don’t have streaming and make NCIS: Tony & Ziva available to us. — Michelle
Matt Roush: Now that the Tony & Ziva show is getting more attention in advance of the Sept. 4 premiere, I’m hearing this a lot more frequently — not so much the boycott threat (sigh), but the genuine frustration of those who won’t or can’t get on the streaming bandwagon and are feeling excluded by the corporate decision to produce the spinoff as a streaming exclusive. You’d have to be really out of the loop not to have seen that coming, but as has been said many times in this column and other places, the industry as a whole is leaning into streaming as TV’s future, even at the expense of their legacy networks. I haven’t watched NCIS: Tony & Ziva yet, but I imagine the creative freedom will allow the show to be a bit spicier than the CBS norm (not unlike the current Criminal Minds: Evolution, which has aired three seasons since transitioning to Paramount+), but the real answer to “why” is that programs like these add to the streamer’s value, although at the risk of angering longtime franchise fans, which is obviously and understandably the case here.
And while I’m not in the habit of giving false hope, I’d bet that at some point in the future, most likely during the next off-season or when enough time has passed that Paramount has reaped the full benefit of the show’s streaming potential, that CBS will offer Tony & Ziva to the show’s fans in a linear weekly broadcast. Why wouldn’t they? (Streaming series getting a network showing is still rare, but it happens, including on CBS with Tulsa King and more recently on ABC with Paradise.) And while this may not be what people want to hear, for those who really want to see this, you don’t have to be a forever subscriber to a streaming service to sign up for one show — maybe wait until the series has wrapped in late October — and then cancel after watching. (And if, for whatever reason, you can’t set up your TV for streaming, you can watch on a computer or other device.) The bottom line is that streaming isn’t going away, and this won’t be the last time this sort of dilemma presents itself.
Questions from a Streaming Convert
Question: I find little of interest in network TV. My favorites are Will Trent, High Potential, Ghosts, and the NBC Thursday night lineup (although Found will no longer be part of it). Streaming series, on the other hand, are so entertaining. Do the streamers put as much worth in the ratings/viewership as the networks seem to? This week I learned two of my favorites, Resident Alien and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, will be ending after their 4th and 5th seasons respectively. Stranger Things is entering its final season. It got me wondering why these decisions are made: monetary, cast members wishing to leave, or popularity? Alan Tudyk is brilliant on Resident Alien. The cast of Strange New Worlds are engaging even where the episodes could be better. I dread hearing the news someday that Hacks, Shrinking, Poker Face, and Only Murders in the Building will be ending.
Question: Does the airing of some streaming shows on network TV, such as Paradise, create enough interest to get viewers to subscribe? I didn’t watch Paradise on ABC, imagining the amount of editing needed. Then there’s the issue of how much time passes between streaming series’ seasons. How much longer do we have to wait for The Morning Show? Are For All Mankind and Mare of Easttown coming back? So many shows, so many questions. — Adrienne O, Vernon, N.J.
Matt Roush: Lots of questions, and also quite understandably, some confusion about the division between streaming and network/cable series, which could easily be mistaken for a streaming series if that’s where you watch them. Case in point: Resident Alien, which is a Syfy (or this year, USA and Syfy) original, and whose cancellation seems to me to be more of a casualty of NBC/Universal/Comcast’s erratic handling of its dwindling stockpile of cable originals. (This season began airing episodes on Fridays at 11 pm/ET, which is hardly a vote of confidence.)
In the bigger picture, it’s an inarguable fact that many streaming series not only produce fewer episodes per season but also have more limited runs. With Strange New Worlds, my favorite Trek series of the streaming era, a five-season run may have been the original plan and isn’t that far off the norm. And as successful as Stranger Things is, given how old the kids are getting and how long it has taken to deliver this final season, is there really a desire to keep that going much longer, at least in this format? Nearly every show without an NCIS or SVU in its title comes to an end eventually, and in the best case, the companies and the creators will agree on an endgame. Right now, happily, there’s no end in sight for Hacks, Shrinking, and Only Murders — and I’m hoping for news soon of a Season 3 renewal for Poker Face. Regarding a show like Paradise getting a second window on ABC, that felt to me more like a strategy to increase the show’s exposure — which may have paid off with several Emmy nominations — than to draw eyeballs to Hulu.
Finally, the other truism about streaming is that the long wait between seasons can be unbearable, especially in those instances where you binge-watch a show in a day or two and then have to wait a year or even multiple years for the next season. It took two years, but the wait is almost over for The Morning Show, which returns Sept. 17. Not sure when we’ll see For All Mankind, which finished its most recent season in January 2024. But it will be back. Not so, at least not yet, with Mare of Easttown, which not only wasn’t a streaming exclusive (it aired on HBO) but was a limited series which has yet to spawn a sequel.
Questions from a Streaming Holdout
Question: With all of the pay services out there, how can they all make money? Other than megahits, do shows really make more money on pay services than they do on broadcast or cable channels? I have watched certain shows for years, but once they move to a pay service, I am not going to follow them there. Doctor Who, for one, and another is Star Trek. I am not going to pay for a service so I can watch one favorite show. TBH I do have cable TV, which can be expensive, but if I were to add pay services and ditch cable, I imagine the prices would be similar, and I would miss the cable shows I watch. Plus, with cable, I can record a show to watch later. I enjoy reading your column. Keep up the good work. — LD
Matt Roush: Some of these questions may be better addressed by a business reporter, but from my layman’s perspective, it’s obvious that some streamers (which is how I interpret “pay services” here, as opposed to legacy premium cable like HBO and Showtime) are more successful than others, but all are supported by companies that see value in digital distribution of programming, and investing in programming is key to gaining subscribers. There’s also a bit of a misperception that by cord-cutting from cable, you’ll no longer be able to record shows. Portals like YouTube TV and Fubo have cloud recording capabilities and offer many, though not all, cable as well as broadcast and local channels. (And if a show is streaming, you don’t have to record it — although there are instances of streamers canceling and removing original shows without a trace, so no system is perfect.) It’s not entirely an either/or proposition.
And streaming is still an evolving industry, as we’ve seen when streamers like HBO Max, Disney+, and Hulu offer bundles for consumers, which feels an awful lot like cable. So, to simplify the situation greatly, there’s no cheap way to get access to all of the shows you want to watch. It sometimes feels like the Wild West when I talk to friends who jump from streamer to streamer, canceling and adding platforms depending on what’s on and when. This is the world we live in now.
Don’t Ordinary Folks Want to Be Millionaires, Too?
Question: One of my favorite game shows is Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Will we ever see it return on a regular basis with regular contestants instead of celebrities? — Gloria A.
Matt Roush: I miss the original format as well, but ABC’s prime-time version is probably going to stay focused on celebrities playing for charity for the foreseeable future, much like the network’s ongoing Celebrity Family Feud, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, and Celebrity Jeopardy! franchises. When the Millionaire pairings are good, like Matt Damon and Ken Jennings, I still really enjoy it. Though something is lost when you have to be famous to sit in the hot seat. Maybe if the show goes back into daily syndication, we’ll see everyday players back in the game.
Please, No Yelling!
Question: I’m just curious: Do you ever yell at TV shows like I have been doing at Stick? All of the actors are good, and Marc Maron and Owen Wilson are great, but the storylines have been so predictable that I’m struggling to really enjoy what should be a light, feel-good story. Apple TV+ has been great with Shrinking, Severance, and of course Ted Lasso, but this just feels like the writers phoned this one in. — Tom
Matt Roush: I believe I used the words “eye roll” and “proudly cornball” in my initial review of Stick, so while I don’t remember yelling at the screen while screening this show, I’m pretty sure I groaned more than a few times. Which didn’t keep me from recommending the show, which I found mostly charming, thanks largely to the winning performances. And I might also have just been in the mood for a feel-good show, all things considered. It’s no Ted Lasso, but as I said at the time, Stick is a show Ted Lasso would likely endorse.
And Finally …
Question: Why was Norah O’Donnell removed from anchoring the weekday CBS Evening News? She was the ONLY woman on legacy broadcast news as an anchor. She reported from previously silent sectors such as the military. No explanation was given. We are back to all men. I no longer watch ANY legacy news. — Bonita
Matt Roush: As usual, ratings played a factor, and CBS has been stuck in third place in the evening-news race for almost as long as I can remember. Among other challenges at CBS News, restructuring CBS Evening News remains an ongoing process, and I imagine the current two-person anchor team won’t be a permanent solution. When Norah O’Donnell signed off, she took the high road and a positive spin that this would free her up to do more long-form work on distinguished shows like 60 Minutes and the great Sunday Morning, which has since come to pass. But it wasn’t lost on anyone that by giving up the anchor chair, it once again became (with some weekend and other exceptions) an all-male enclave.
That’s all for now, and because I’ll be away for some of August, the column won’t be appearing every week for a while. But remember, we can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to [email protected]. (Please include a first name with your question.)
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