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A couple of niche things I want to get out of the way tonight.
I’ve had a couple of industry people reach out to ask if I have a group rate for the newsletter and I do offer one. So if you need four or more subscriptions for people in the office, email me and I’ll take care of you.
Also, I know a number of people working at smaller streamers read Too Much TV. I’m putting together a piece on media-related Black Friday deals, so if you will be offering anything that might be appropriate, send me the details.
And lastly, I plan to attend more industry events in 2027 and I am especially interested in participating in panels or moderating interviews. So as some of you are putting together schedules for next year, please keep me in mind.
As always, I can be reached at [email protected].
Skydance’s Streaming Subscribers Numbers Are Not Quite You Think
In its third-quarter results announced Monday, Skydance reported that Paramount+ ended September with 82.2 million subscribers, an increase of 600,000 from the previous quarter and 6% year over year. The combined figure of 203 million represents subscriptions across Paramount+, HBO and HBO Max.
But what does mean?
Well, it doesn’t mean as much as some of the entertainment trade reporting today would like you to think it does.
For instance, while an increase of 600,000 subscribers at Paramount+ sounds pretty impressive, there is a lot of reasons to suspect that much of that growth came from from former subscribers to BET+.
Paramount officially closed BET+ in late June of 2026 and while the company never publicly revealed the service’s subscriber numbers, it was estimated to be in the range of 3.5 million. And given that all of the BET+ original programming moved to Paramount+, it’s reasonably to suspect that a fair number of those 600,000 new Paramount+ subscribers came from people who had previously subscribed to BET+. But we have no way of knowing that, given that Skydance has opted not to provide any granular subscriber data.
And then there are the 203 million combined subscribers across Paramount+ and HBO Max.
We have no idea how many subscribers there are for HBO Max. And Warner Bros. Discovery’s final official streaming subscriber report for calendar 2025 was released on February 26, 2026, with its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results.
The company ended 2025 with 131.6 million global streaming subscribers, an increase of 3.5 million from the third quarter.
So based on that starting point 131.6 from the end of 2025 (which was reported in February 2026) and including 82.2 million subscribers from Paramount adds up to 213,600,000 subscribers. In today’s report, Skydance announced a combined 203 million subscribers. Which suggests that HBO and HBO Max might have lost some number of subscribers between the last reported numbers and today. Somewhere in the range of nine million.
But that is only a trend, and there is no way to determine whether the number has grown and then decreased since the end of 2025, or is the result of some change in reporting subscriber numbers or other unknown factors. But it seems likely that HBO Max did lose some substantial number of subscribers over the past three quarters. But we have no idea how many or why they left.
Of course, the entertainment press was filled with stories today touting the 203 million subscriber figure. Although without any context, it’s just a bunch of numbers which may or may not mean something.
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Your Fall Glow-Up: Two Drinks for Hydrated, Plump-Looking Skin
Cooler weather can leave skin looking dull and feeling dry. Pique’s Radiant Skin Duo brings a beauty upgrade to your fall routine: two delicious daily drinks that support hydrated, plump, luminous-looking skin from within.
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The beauty benefits come with impressive clinical evidence. In a clinical trial of B·T Fountain’s ceramides, skin hydration improved 25% by day 15. By day 60, hydration improved 37%, elasticity improved 36% and wrinkle depth decreased 8.2%.
Morning matcha. Afternoon beauty hydration. An easy ritual that fits into busy fall days while supporting skin that looks smoother and feels replenished. Your favorite daily drinks become a simple skincare habit worth keep
There Are No Small Roles, But There's Often Background
Longtime readers of the newsletter might remember Jon Hart the author of Man versus Ball: One Ordinary Guy and His Extraordinary Sports Adventures and its undeserved sequel, Unfortunately, I Was Available, which is available for purchase here.
He has contributed a couple of pieces in the past about his experiences as a background actor, including this piece about his five day stint on an Adam Sandler movie.
Jon is back with a piece on doing background on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Which turns out to not be all that marvelous
When I’m called back to set, they place me in front of Maisel’s lead, Rachel Brosnahan, and her strapping date, a doctor, actor Zachary Levi. I don’t want to be in the forefront, as I’m wet and not camera-ready. But let’s be clear: I don’t know if I’ll ever be camera-ready. Ultimately, production agrees. After they shoot a take, they replace me, explaining that I’m too tall and that I’m blocking Rachel. Instead, I’m placed in the way back, at the bar, ordering a beer—fine by me.
Actor Rufus Sewell, who plays an artist, is the star of the day. In our scene, Rufus stands atop the bar and recites a lengthy poem, which is actually portions of several different poems strung together. It’s an arduous soliloquy, and he must recite it verbatim while appearing inebriated. Frankly, it’s the toughest monologue I’ve witnessed in my BG travails. By my estimation, Rufus does it quite well. But, of course, I’m background and don’t count.
I highly recommend Jon’s book Man versus Ball: One Ordinary Guy and His Extraordinary Sports Adventures, in which he becomes a modern-day George Plimpton:
Man versus Ball follows Hart’s adventures around the country as he undertakes new missions, often with unexpected results. He becomes a pro wrestler, learning “fake” moves that all but land him in the hospital after a body slam went awry. He plays an entire season for a championship semipro football team, suits up as a U.S. Open ball boy for three years, and is an “amateur caddie” for a Professional Golfers’ Association tournament. After attending mascot school, he performs in a neon gorilla suit in front of several thousand fans at a minor league hockey game. He works as a vendor at several venues around the country, hawking concessions while fending off drunken fans. He even earns a bit of glory for himself, leading his roller basketball league in rebounds for two consecutive seasons. Feeling confident, he takes part in the World Cup of roller soccer, which is soccer on in-line skates. All this prepares him for his moment of truth: a race up the 1,576 stairs of the Empire State Building.
I don’t make anything off the sales on his books here, I’m just highlighting them because I believe they are worthwhile.
So if you are someone with a book, independent project or something else you’d like to get out into the public, reach out.
Tweet Of The Day
Odds & Sods
The true crime docuseries The Trials of Karen Read premieres Monday, November 23rd, 2026. Here is a first look at the trailer. And here is the official logline: “When Boston police officer John O'Keefe is found dead in a blizzard outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home, suspicion quickly falls on his girlfriend, Karen Read, who was one of the first to arrive on the scene. As details from that night emerge, other theories about what might have really happened that night come to light, dividing a small town and gripping the nation. Featuring exclusive interviews with those who were inside the house, along with O'Keefe's family and friends, and trial jurors, the series examines the story from the initial investigation through the years of tense courtroom battles that followed.”
The new Gwyneth Paltrow Video Podcast The Goop Guide, will premiere Wednesday, November 11th on Spotify and Netflix.
The Take premieres in select theaters and on Netflix Friday, January 15th, 2027. Here is the official logline: “Fresh out of the Army, former Captain Noah (Robert Pattinson) is trying to find his footing in civilian life, when charismatic master thief Christian Carter (Denzel Washington) recruits him to join his crew for the score of a lifetime: robbing the richest bank in Manhattan. The otherwise meticulous plan has just one hitch: Noah’s girlfriend Rose (Daisy Edgar-Jones) works at the bank as a teller. With time and love on the line, Noah must figure out who he can trust if he hopes to make it out of the heist alive.”
Darius Rucker: They Call Me Hootie, premieres Monday, November 16th on Hulu and Disney+. Here is the brief logline: “Rucker gets deeply personal about the cost of stardom, revealing his struggles with drugs and alcohol, the breakdown of his marriage and brushes with death. Through candid interviews with collaborators, friends and family, new footage from the road and in the studio as he records his forthcoming album and never-before-seen tape dating back to the start of Hootie & the Blowfish, the film traces the full journey of his extraordinary career, revealing a deeply personal story of ambition, resilience and reinvention.”
Season two of Prime Video’s Overcompensating premieres Wednesday, February 17th.
The Return Of ‘The Curse Of Oak Island’
Earlier this year, I was speaking with a publicist and we were discussing the near disappearance of set visits. She asked me what show I would most like to do a set visit for and I only somewhat jokingly said History’s The Curse Of Oak Island.
One of the challenges of being a critic is that you struggle to find something you can watch that you know you won’t write about. Not that there’s anything wrong with the show, but that the structure of it doesn’t lend itself to regular coverage.
I have tried all sorts of shows when I needed to relax my brain and honestly, most of them are kind of boring. Most of the treasure hunting shows are obviously not going to find any treasure. And at this point shows such as Finding Bigfoot are just exercises in watching people dressed in camo gear stumbling through the woods in the dark saying things such as “It smells squatchie out here tonight.”
I have been watching The Curse Of Oak Island since the first season and in recent years it’s turned into one of the few TV shows my son will sit down and watch me every week.
The big attraction of the show is that while I am not convinced any treasure remains on Oak Island (which is in Nova Scotia), it’s pretty clear there was SOMETHING there at some point in the past.
If you’re not familiar with the island, rumors of treasure have swirled around the island since the early 1700s. Some believed a story that suggested more than $2 million worth of treasure from Captain Kidd had been buried on the island.
In 1795, a man named Daniel McGinnis found a depression in the ground he believed might lead him to the treasure. Stories claim he and the two other men digging discovered a layer of flagstone two feet deep, with oak platforms discovered every ten feet after that.
McGinnis abandoned the dig, but a later expedition in 1802 continued down to about 90 feet, where they uncovered a large stone marked with strange symbols just before the shaft flooded.
A series of treasure hunters and full-fledged expeditions have attempted to the find treasure over the past 200+ years, including an expedition whose investors included Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
And he wasn't the only well-known figure that invested money in the treasure hunt. Actor Erroll Flynn invested in one dig, as did John Wayne.
But despite all of that activity - and a series of deaths - no absolute proof of treasure had been found.
And none of the seasons of The Curse Of Oak Island have uncovered actual treasure either, although the Laginas and their company have found a variety of artifacts that date to as far back as the 1200s.
If there were any treasure on the island, I suspect it is long gone. But the show is a fascinating mix of history and rumors about everything from the Knight’s Templar to the Lost Ark of the Covenant. So the show is a great mental palate cleanser, even if all the Laginas ever recover is a lot of random old boards and iron nails.
The new season of The Curse Of Oak Island premieres Tuesday, November 10th on The History Channel.
What’s Coming Tonight And Tomorrow
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH:
Big Bargain Holiday Showdown Series Premiere (HGTV)
Deadly Women 2.0 Series Premiere (Investigation Discovery)
Frontline: Coal’s Human Cost (PBS)
Get Huge: Looksmaxxing To Death (Hulu)
History’s Mystery Files Series Premiere (History)
Last One Standing (Netflix)
My Big Fat Fabulous Life Season Premiere (TLC)
The Curse Of Oak Island Season Premiere (History)
The Devil’s Plan: Dead Again (Netflix)
We Choose To Go To The Moon (PBS)
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH, 2026:
Alicia’s Law Series Premiere (Netflix)
Avedon (Netflix)
HumanLike: The Chimps of Fongoli (PBS)
Monsters Inside Me Season Nine Premiere (Discovery)
Rivals Season Two Premiere (Hulu)
Secrets Of The Dead: Finding America’s Fallen (PBS)
The Body Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Goop Guide Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Gospel Of Christmas (Netflix)
The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season Three Premiere (Prime Video)