A rightwing late-night show may have bombed – but the funding behind it is no laughing matter | Media | The Guardian

Four pilot episodes, each of which has been watched by the Guardian, were made of the rightwing chatshow. It was promoted by the Ziklag group, a secretive Christian nationalist organization, which aims to reshape culture to match its version of Christianity. In an email in 2022, Ziklag – which ProPublica reported spent $12m to elect Trump last year – urged its members to stump up money for the project, called the Talk Show With Eric Metaxas. 

"For too long, the late-night talkers on network tv have filled the airwaves with progressive rants and outright mockery of anyone who espouses traditional American values," the Ziklag email read. 

The Talk Show With Eric Metaxas, Ziklag wrote, will "change that forever". The email said the show needed $400,000 to $500,000 to film five pilot episodes, "which will be presented to digital distributors, networks and tv ownership groups"...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/oct/08/conservative-late-night-talkshow 

 

Kimmel controversy highlights ‘wildly dangerous’ consolidation of TV broadcasting

"This has been a problem at the FCC for quite some time. We've been concerned for decades about what happens when you allow media companies to become too consolidated and too influential," said Timothy Karr, senior director of strategy and communications at Free Press. 

 "They become beholden to political power because they have so many entanglements with government agencies regarding merger approvals [and] policy changes that they … soft-pedal their reporting when it comes to criticism of those in power," he added...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/sep/26/kimmel-controversy-tv-broadcasting-consolidation

Apple TV+ is getting its best fall lineup ever, here’s everything new - 9to5Mac

Apple TV+ is having a very strong year, and this fall's lineup will continue that trend. From major returning series like Slow Horses and The Morning Show to compelling new shows like Pluribus, and several high-profile movies, there's a lot coming. Plus, Apple likely has releases planned it hasn't yet announced. But as of now, here's everything new coming to Apple TV+ this fall…

https://9to5mac.com/2025/08/06/apple-tv-is-getting-its-best-fall-lineup-ever-heres-everything-new/ 

Shiny Happy People: A Teenage Holy War, Season 2 - Official Trailer | Prime video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKfEilxYpbM

 

Kirk Cameron's Pandering Culture War Puppet Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb_ULCQOvxQ

 

Putin BRUTALLY MOCKS Trump on LIVE TV PRE-INAUGURATION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXZGgPEghE

 

Outgoing FCC chair rejects TV bias complaints that ‘curtail press freedom’

"First, the FCC should not be the President's speech police. Second, the FCC should not be journalism's censor-in-chief."

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jan/16/fcc-rejects-tv-petition-jessica-rosenworcel

 

Russian TV presenter charged with violating US sanctions and money laundering | US news | The Guardian

"Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT's interference in the US elections," Simonyan quipped in response...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/05/russian-tv-presenter-charged-with-violating-us-sanctions-and-money-laundering

How streaming, mergers and other major changes are upending Hollywood (Tonya Mosley)

Nearly a year after the Hollywood writers' strike started, the entertainment industry remains in flux. Harpers journalist Daniel Bessner says TV and film writers are feeling the brunt of the changes.

Interview: 

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/25/1246886718/how-streaming-mergers-and-other-major-changes-are-upending-hollywood

Ted Cruz claims TV service’s diversity program is anti-white discrimination

A 2021 study by McKinsey & Company found that projects led by Black filmmakers are consistently underfunded and undervalued, and that the management ranks of the film and TV industries are disproportionately white. The study also found that the industries were losing out on billions of dollars a year because of racial inequities. 

This points to a clear need for programs — like the Diversity Development Fund — that seek out and invest in nonwhite filmmakers. But if Cruz has his way, the Independent Television Service would be barred from doing so...

https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/ted-cruz-television-nonprofit-diversity-program-rcna137027

Tucker Carlson finds a new booster: Russian TV - The Washington Post

The blustering American TV personality Tucker Carlson has lambasted the United States for sending too much aid to Ukraine, called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky "sweaty and rat-like" and given credence to Russia's baseless justifications for its invasion...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/25/tucker-carlson-takes-dubbing-debut-russia-show/

Gary Shteyngart: I Watched Russian Television for Five Days Straight - The Atlantic

…Next up, NTV introduces an American named John McIntyre who fought with the Ukrainians but then fled to Russia. He has been described as mentally unstable by fellow soldiers and commanders and was allegedly pushed out of the Ukrainian army for incompetence, but in Russia he is a prized asset…The program intimates that it was a right-wing Ukrainian battalion that caused the well-known massacres in Bucha and Irpin, and not the Russian soldiers whose campaign of rape, execution, and terror was well documented. 

"Are there people like you in the States?" the interviewer asks McIntyre. "There are many pro-Russian Americans," the young man replies. "American intelligence, they own the media machines. Most people watch CNN, but Fox has the most objective positions." 

"Their voices are getting louder!" an announcer on a Rossiya 1 newscast booms as older Germans are shown marching in a pro-Russia demonstration. "NATO out of Ukraine!" they chant. "U.S. and CIA out of Ukraine!" Afterward, an attractive young female correspondent brings cakes to Russian soldiers at the front. The war may be brutal, but, for Misha from Murmansk, it can also be sexy and exciting…. 

…Hence, Russia, a country of poor roads, decaying houses, and abysmal life expectancy, is not a nation of losers who lack achievement, but simply those upon whom fortune has not smiled. In other words: Don't blame Putin for the mess we live in…

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/07/russian-state-tv-putin-propaganda/674755/

Why is mainstream US TV spreading moral panics about affirmative action run amok?

In the Minneapolis public schools, fewer teachers of color are tenured than white teachers. State law requires that teachers be on probation until completing three consecutive years of work. So the new Minneapolis contract is serving a particularly important public purpose in a system where seniority and tenure would otherwise discriminate against people of color. The contract is leveling the playing field and helping insure that more teachers of color are in classrooms.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/15/dr-phil-tv-affirmative-action-america

‘They called her crazy’: Watergate whistleblower finally gets her due

Martha Mitchell, wife of Nixon's attorney general who ordered the break-in at the scandal's heart, was drugged and kidnapped…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/02/watergate-martha-mitchell-whistleblower-gaslit

Russian state TV launches stinging attack on Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion - Daily Record

Guests on a Russian state TV show were highly critical of the Ukrainian invasion, as one pundit likened it to the embarrassment the country suffered in Afghanistan...

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/russian-state-tv-launches-stinging-26441095

Michigan activist swallows mail-order abortion pill on live TV - mlive.com

"Nearly one in four people with a uterus will have an abortion by age 45, regardless of their political beliefs," Blackmore said in an email. "It's critical that this information reaches everyone."

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/01/michigan-activist-swallows-mail-order-abortion-pill-on-live-tv.html

2022 TV features explained: HDR, HDMI 2.1, VRR, and more - The Verge

… if you're in the market for a new TV right now, these are the terms you should be looking for when comparing products...

https://www.theverge.com/22884014/tv-features-hardware-screens-hdmi-hdr-vrr-oled-mini-led

Foundation on Apple TV+: David Goyer on Televising the Fall of the Galactic Empire (Sean Carroll's Mindscape podcast #172)

Science and storytelling have a long and tumultuous relationship. Scientists sometimes want stories to be just an advertisement for how awesome science is; storytellers sometimes want to use science for a few cheap thrills before abandoning it in the morning. But science is about ideas, and ideas can make for thrilling stories when done well. David Goyer is an accomplished screenwriter and director who has taken up a daunting task: adapting Isaac Asimov’s famous Foundation series for TV. (Available on Apple TV now.) We talk about the challenge of making a television version of a beloved series whose central character is a mathematician, and how science and storytelling relate to each other more generally.

David Goyer graduated from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He has written stories or screenplays for a number of well-known films, including Dark City, Blade, the Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, and Batman v Superman, as well as TV series such as FlashForward and Constantine. He has also directed and produced numerous films and shows. He has written novels, comic books, and video games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops. In addition to Foundation, he is currently working on a TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels. Episodes of Foundation are released every Friday; the finale of the first season will be available Nov. 19.
Interview: 

https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-s7jpz-10fec854

Say Your Prayers: ‘Midnight Mass’ Is Coming—And You’re Not Ready | Vanity Fair

Putting the fear of God into viewers, and everything that phrase suggests, is the central theme of the mysterious new Netflix series Midnight Mass, debuting Sept. 24. It explores what happens to residents of an island fishing town when a charismatic new priest (Hamish Linklater) arrives on its shores, bringing miracles and wonders with him. This being the latest from the creator of The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor, he also brings an unspeakable cost.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/09/midnight-mass-exclusive

Netflix just made it easier to find something new to watch - The Verge

Netflix is trying to surface more new shows in one place. The company announced that it’s going to group some of its content rows together into a tab called New & Popular. This section will only show up on TV devices and is rolling out widely after first being tested in April....
https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/5/21502772/netflix-new-popular-row-tab-tv-update