Our national stockpile of trashy television is safe. Whew!
So say the execs at more than a dozen ringleaders of the remote control, who told Variety that their programming pipeline will flow smoothly — even though the pandemic punched huge holes in TV-production plans.
How are they doing it?
This weekend, Discovery is compressing its summertime hit Shark Week into a 2-day-long marathon.
It’ll feature fan favorites from years past. (Did you know the first Shark Week aired in 1988? For the love of Jaws, we’re gettin’ old.)
OK, OK, don’t get your sweatpants in a wad.
Stacked episodes of E!’s “Botched,” a show about plastic surgery that went, um, as well as the title suggests, are up 40% from before the Bad Times.
Hungry for somethin’ else to binge watch? Kathleen Finch, chief lifestyle brands officer at Discovery, told Variety that the Food Network’s viewership is going bananas: “I have enough ‘Chopped’ episodes to go well into 2021!”
…because people are spending a LOT of hours zonking out in front of the tube. Time spent on streaming platforms was up 34% in the beginning of March, and total TV usage wasn’t far behind.