TV Talk: Strikes' impact, ‘Suits’ surge, ‘Babylon 5’ returns

It’s time to take stock of the impact of the “hot labor summer” that engulfed the entertainment industry with dual writers’ and actors’ strikes.

Across the country, including in Pittsburgh, cameras did not roll on productions from struck companies. That meant anticipated new seasons of “A League of Their Own” and “Mayor of Kingstown” did not begin production as planned, leaving local crew members without work.

For viewers, late-night shows have been in reruns. The impact of the strikes will become more pronounced next month. The Emmys won’t air as planned Sept. 18 — they’re moving to Jan. 15 on Fox. And scripted series that would normally return for new seasons – “NCIS,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Ghosts,” “Law & Order” – largely won’t because almost no new episodes were written, and little got filmed.

And, while that might seem like a big problem for already declining network ratings, this summer proved viewers don’t always hate reruns. Of course, if you never saw a series, then it’s not a rerun to you. How else to explain the phenomenal success of legal drama “Suits” reruns on Netflix?

“Suits” first aired on USA Network (2011-19), and, while it was successful, it wasn’t ubiquitous, which it became this summer as Netflix’s algorithm boosted it to set a new acquired series viewing record of 3.1 billion minutes viewed during the week of June 26, according to Nielsen. (Netflix has non-exclusive rights to the first eight seasons of the show with season nine available only on Peacock, where the entire run of the show also plays to a much smaller subscriber count.)

“Suits” topped itself with 3.67 billion minutes viewed during the week of July 3 and outpaced that chart-topping viewing record the week of July 10 with 3.69 billion minutes viewed.

The success of “Suits” underscores how important reruns of acquired shows are to streaming services. Sure, the presence of Meghan Markle as one of the stars of “Suits” prior to her marriage to England’s Prince Harry might have goosed interest. But Netflix’s promotion of the show on its home page surely was more important. The show had been streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video before moving to Netflix and Peacock; it never moved the needle on Prime Video.

Unlike streaming series these days, which can have as few as six episodes in a season, “Suits” routinely released 16 episodes in many of its seasons for a total of 134 episodes across its nine-season run. As Joe Adalian pointed out on Vulture.com, the tendency of Hollywood entities to produce so few episodes poses a “looming catalog crisis” for streamers’ futures. Netflix can’t get to billions of minutes streamed — a huge help when it comes to subscriber retention and reducing churn — on the backs of a show that produces half as many episodes per season.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Characters from the syndicated sci-fi series “Babylon 5” return in animated form in the direct-to-home video movie “Babylon 5: The Road Home.”

‘Babylon 5: The Road Home’

While there certainly were serialized TV series before the 1993-98 syndicated sci-fi drama “Babylon 5,” there weren’t many shows that were so well-plotted in advance. Look no further than “Lost,” which ultimately lived down to its title when it became clear its writers were making up the story as they went.

Even with cast changes he couldn’t have anticipated from the start, “Babylon 5” creator J. Michael Straczynski made all the pieces in his space saga fit together cleanly. “Babylon 5” never got the plaudits it deserved for its character arcs and smart storytelling. Efforts at follow-up movies and a spin-off series on TNT (“Crusade”) couldn’t sustain the franchise.

While a reboot has been in development at The CW for years, given the ownership change at The CW with an emphasis on inexpensive programming, a series order remains elusive.

But credit Warner Bros., which owns the property, for thinking outside the box and commissioning Straczynski to create a PG-13-rated, direct-to-DVD animated film, “Babylon 5: The Road Home,” now available on Blu-ray ($29.98-$39.99) and as a digital download ($19.99). (Warner Home Entertainment tried this once before with 2007’s direct-to-DVD low-budget, live-action “Babylon 5: The Lost Tales,” which seemed like it could be the first in a series but nothing more came of it.)

As stories go, “The Road Home” is pretty meh, standard sci-fi fare with a sappy, humanistic overlay (“love is the most powerful force in the universe”), a time travel adventure that sends former Babylon 5 space station captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) hopping through time and space, including visits to alternate timelines.

None of it will have meaning for newcomers — a news report attempts to give an overview of the original series’ story, but it had my head spinning and I watched the entire series! But, for “B5” fans, “The Road Home” gives a fan service-y chance to see favorite characters who largely sound the same and have the same bearing only now in anime form. New performers who replace “B5” actors who have died since the series ended – Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Jerry Doyle, Michael O’Hare – slide into the roles comfortably.

Perhaps most intriguing: “The Road Home” ends not in the familiar “B5” universe but in an alternate timeline where the Shadow War didn’t occur. Could this be what Straczynski intends to do in his proposed live-action reboot?

“The Road Home” includes an audio commentary track by Straczynski and Boxleitner as well as a 17-minute featurette, “Babylon 5 Forever,” featuring new interviews with cast members who returned to voice animated versions of the characters they once played on the live-action series.

Regional Emmy noms

As usually is the case, WQED-TV took home the most Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy nominations announced last week among Pittsburgh TV stations with 22 noms, but WTAE-TV (19) and WPXI-TV (17) followed close behind. KDKA-TV received 10 nominations, and AT&T SportsNet had 4.

The Big Three local stations each received a nomination for continuing coverage of the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment. WPXI, WQED and WTAE each received a nomination for overall station excellence.

Awards will be given out at a ceremony in Lancaster on Oct. 14. See a full list of nominees at natasmid-atlantic.org/2023-emmy-nominees.

Courtesy Nielsen

Nielsen found that viewing of linear TV (broadcast and cable) dipped below 50% for the first time ever in July.

Channel surfing

For the first time ever in July, linear TV viewing (broadcast and cable) fell below 50% of total TV usage, while time spent streaming via a television increased 2.9% in July compared to June. … CNN will make some changes to its lineup, including Abby Phillip taking over the 10 p.m. hour and “Laura Coates Live” at 11 p.m. on weeknights.