Television during the pandemic
How the television world was affected by COVID-19.
The number of cases on the US continues to rise and the pandemic seems to not be trailing to an end soon. Through mid-March until today, if you watched at least five minutes of TV, you know that a lot of things changed. Many shows had to be adapted to the “new reality”, another shows “went on a vacation” and the scripted television programming had a major delay due the stay-at-home orders. I’m gonna walk through some of the changes we will probably never see again and how they affected (or not) a huge part of the TV shows all around the United States.
It’s pretty obvious that the pandemic had a major impact on the schedule of the channels. Not only the Spring schedule was changed but the Big Four of television (and CW), had to re-create part of the Summer and Fall schedule too.
Canadian shows started to be more requested, for example, Transplant from CTV was acquired by NBC.
FOX delayed most of it’s fall schedule (scripted shows that are not animated) to mid-season. They also acquired network premieres of LA’s Finest and Cosmos: Possible Words. The first, floating around after being turned down by NBC, and the second from the “sister but not sister” National Geographic.
CBS delayed the 32nd season of The Amazing Race broadcasting instead the new sports game show Game On! Survivor was unable to resume production so the network moved up S.W.A.T. to a fall premiere.
The CW announced that it would delay all original scripted premieres to a cycle beginning in January 2021 and “created a new fall schedule” based on acquisitions (Tell Me A Story — CBS All Access/ Swamp Thing — DC Universe/ Dead Pixels — UK’s E4).
The shooting of scripted programming was also very affected as the stay-at-home orders started to take place all around the world.
Disney+’ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier had it’s production in Prague suspended on March 11. Filming continued in Atlanta but had to be shutdown after two weeks.
NBCUniversal announced that they would suspend the production of 35 shows, even unscripted. The most affected was Superstore as the writers had to adapt it’s season finale making the 21st episode of Season 5 the end of what was supposed to be a 22-episode season.
On the same day, ViacomCBS announced that it would continue the production of One Day at a Time but without a studio audience. A week later, filming was suspended.
On March 13, Apple suspended all active filming and all production on series have been postponed indefinitely.
The same day, CBS Television Studios suspended the production of all series that are a part of the NCIS franchise. Bull, Dynasty, Nancy Drew, The Good Fight and Charmed were suspended on the next day.
Most of Eye Network’s production was already completed. If there’s a prize for the winner, CBS should win it.
On March 14, ABC Studios suspended the production of Empire (another show that had to adapt it’s season finale), Pose, American Housewife, Grey’s Anatomy and Genius.
Sony Pictures Television shutdown the filming of The Blacklist and The Goldbergs. The first one, using animated sequences inspired by graphic novels in desperate to complete the partially-filmed episode as a very premature season finale.
NBC had a loss and a win to celebrate on the start of April. New Amsterdam (medical drama) had to scrap a pre-recorded episode as it dealt with a “flu pandemic” attacking New York City. I’m sure the FCC is grateful for the decision. On the other hand, Days of Our Lives was (and still is) the only soap opera with new episodes every day since March 16. That was possible because NBC produces the episodes eight months ahead of it’s airing. It’s more than obvious that the peacock network is leading the ratings on the 1pm-2pm ET slot.
The only escape on this situation was to innovate. And that’s exacly what most of the big networks did.
Sesame Street saw it’s ratings reach the moon as “Sesame Street: Elmo’s Playdate” dealt with the pandemic. The show was strongly advertised by all WarnerMedia networks. Even CNN, which ocasionally showed a box above the logo with the ad. The show also held Town Halls in “partnership” with CNN talking about more serious themes.
Nickelodeon launched podcasts based on The Loud House, The Casagrandes and one about the animation studio of the network.
Apple TV+ launched a special episode of Fraggle Rock, “Fraggle Rock: Rock On”, filmed entirely using iPhones from the performers’ house.
NBC aired a Parks and Recreation special reunion produced remotely.
CBS produced a special episode of All Rise filmed from it’s actors’ homes using videoconferencing, depicting the in-universe version of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
On July 16, NBC aired a reunion episode of 30 Rock. The production was very criticized by the amount of promotion of the new streaming service from NBCUniversal, Peacock. Many affiliates refused to broadcast the episode.
Talking more about the unscripted programming, we have three categories. Suspended production, Modified production and New production.
On the first category, Sony Pictures’ Wheel Of Fortune and Jeopardy!, ABC’s The Bachelorette Season 16 (delayed), History’s Ancient Aliens, CBS’ The Amazing Race, Survivor and S.W.A.T. (as said before).
On the second category, Fremantle’s America’s Got Talent (NBC) and Family Feud (ABC), continued the production without an audience.
ABC’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire filmed eight episodes one weekend before the enforced shutdown of the production. The program was filmed with no one beyond staff present on-set, resulting the replacement of its “Ask the Audience” lifeline with “Ask the Host”. Jimmy Kimmel said that his experience on the radio helped him to adapt to the environment.
Also from the alphabet network, American Idol shifted to an at-home format beginning with its Top 20 round on April 26, with its contestants and judging panel conducting the program from their own houses.
CBS announced that the 22nd season of Big Brother is confirmed to August 5 (tonight!) and it will be an all-star season. The format is an isolated house itself but general precautions will be taken by production staff and contestants. Both groups are being tested and quarantined prior to entering the Big Brother house, and will also be tested weekly.
On the third category, the hit 90 Day Fiancé (TLC) earned a spin-off, 90 Day Fiancé: Self-Quarantined and it is by far the most successful show “born on the pandemic”.
FOX premiered Celebrity Watch Party, using the format of Googlebox from the british Channel 4. The show had 10 episodes and couldn’t match the expectations in terms of ratings.
“Are talk-shows without an audience good to watch?”. That’s the question that many talk-shows fans asked themselves when all the networks started to announce the measurements to contain the spread of COVID-19.
On March 11, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC), The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC), Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC)and Last Week Tonight (HBO), produced one last episode on the studio. On the next morning all four networks decided to scrap the studio production as New York City declared state of emergency and LA saw it’s number of cases explode.
The imediate solution found by the producers was to rerun old interview highlights but two days later, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Myers began to post videos on social media trying to “remake the show” but adapting it to an “at home” version. Even with the limited production, the “rebrand” was a success and the networks supported the idea of focusing on monologues and doing the interviews via videoconferencing.
Other shows like The Ellen Show (NBC), The View (ABC), The Talk (CBS) and The Late Late Show with James Corden (CBS), were on a scheduled break but also returned with the same format.
Focusing on special coverages now, the annual A Capitol Fourth (PBS) cancelled it’s live concert and instead broadcasted recorded segments with highlights from past editions. The live fireworks on Capitol Hill were broadcasted as always.
The Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spetacular (NBC) used the same format but didn’t relied on past editions. Some affiliates recorded special shows for their own use, not necessarily rebroadcasting the original national production.
New special programming was created too. When the iHeartRadio Music Awards was cancelled, FOX broadcasted on the reserved slot the iHeart Living Room Concert For America.
ABC aired on April 16 the Disney Family Singalong, featuring karaoke performances of Disney songs with celebrity guests.
The One World: Together At Home, creation of Global Citzen was also created in the middle of the pandemic and broadcasted all over the world. Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert were the hosts for the TV special. The event had approximately 8 hours, the first six, only broadcasted by MTV and other streaming services (YouTube, Twitch, Mixer…) and the last two, broadcasted all over the world and (almost) all over the US as FOX was the only one from the Big Four to drop out.
On May 2, Nickelodeon broadcasted a special and recorded version of its very own Kids Choice Awards. The show was scheduled to March 22 and it’s normally broadcasted live. This time, shortned and hosted by Victoria Justice remotely.
On May 16, the Big Four reunited together and broadcasted along with other streaming services a special programming for the Class of 2020, “Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020”.
The world would have ended if the news stations had to shutdown because of COVID-19. But how to keep providing information and on a certain way, entertainment for the society when you are in the middle of a global pandemic? It’s safe to say that all american news networks did an astonishing job given the conditions.
Television newscasts and news channels encouraged physical distancing on-set, remote work, and increased use of remote interviews in order to follow the CDC guidelines. Local newscasters began working from home in some cases, with a minimal number of staff remaining at the studio.
Let’s go through everything that changed following a simple timeline:
On March 11, the CBS Broadcast Center in NYC was closed for disinfection, forcing the CBS This Morning to change it’s studio for two days. At the time, the morning show was hosted at the same studio as the CBS Evening News in Washington, DC. The newscasts of CBS2 New York (WCBS-TV) were produced and anchored remotely.
On March 13, the CBS Broadcast Center re-opened and the shows came back to their original studios.
On March 15, a one-on-one debate between the democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden was held on CNN’s DC HQ as the original venue was situated in Phoenix, Arizona which had a big amout of cases at the time.
On March 17, Good Morning America (ABC) and the TODAY Show (NBC) started to have only one anchor on the studio, the others broadcasting remotely from home.
On March 18, the CBS Broadcast Center was closed again, but this time it was announced that it wouldn’t re-open until further notice. The CBS This Morning moved this time for the set of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS) in NYC. Two weeks later, after a huge spike of cases on the state, the show started to be produced and anchored remotely. CBSN programs started to be “tossed around” to different locations. CBS2 New York (WCBS-TV) newscasts were moved to Los Angeles where the sister network, KCBS-TV, hosted the New Yorkers.
On March 20, CBS2 New York (WCBS-TV) did its 5 p.m. news out of YES Network studios in Stamford. Something that I GUARANTEE you will never see again.
On March 27, FOX Business’ pundit Trish Regan announced her departure from the network amid critcism of a controversial monologue she did on the opening of her show on March 9, saying that “Democrats were exploiting the pandemic solely to blame President Donald Trump for it, and launch another round of impeachment hearings”.
As the pandemic advanced, the networks started to create and adapt the programming to increase their live coverage.
FOX News added a FOX News @ Night live segment at 1AM.
FOX Business increased the simulcasts with it’s sister, FOX News in order to minimize the amount of people on the studios, specially on New York.
ABC changed the name of it’s daytime third hour, GMA3: Strahan, Sara & Keke to Pandemic: What You Need to Know, a show completely focused on COVID-19.
After suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live!, ABC filled the slot with it’s long-running late-night newsmagazine, Nightline.
NBC’s affiliates extended their late-night newscasts to a full hour from March 16 to 27. The peacock’s spanish network, Telemundo, suspended the production of Titulares y Más (a sports program) as sports were suspended, extending the Noticias Telemundo (Telemundo’s version of NBC Nightly News). Un Nuevo Día (Telemundo’s version of the TODAY Show), Noticias Telemundo Mediodía and Al Rojo Vivo, earned additional time, using the slot originally made for soap operas.
It was inevitable that eventually correspondents, hosts and members of the staff got infected. CBS News’ correspondent Seth Doane tested positive and quarantined in Rome, Kaylee Hartung from ABC News tested positive and quarantined in Los Angeles alongside her colleague George Stephanopoulos. CNN’s anchors Brooke Baldwin, Richard Quest and Chris Cuomo also tested positive but hosted their shows from home.
The networks also had to not only adapt the programming, as almost all sports got abruptly cancelled, but also had to deal with a revenue loss obviously not expected.
Sports-focused cable networks had to change their schedules due to the lack of live programming, typically relying on reruns of classic events and other original programming, and cutting down on studio programming due to the lack of sports news to discuss beyond the pandemic’s impact.
CBS Sports and Turner Sports both pay $785 million per-year to broadcast the NCAA DI Men’s Basketball Tournament (March Madness). With the cancellation of the event, the revenue loss wasn’t only for CBS and Turner (commercial rights) but also for NCAA.
The NFL Draft 2020 was held online, via videoconferencing and broadcasted almost 90% remotely by ESPN and NFL Network in only one feed.
ESPN acquired reruns of recent editions of WWE events. ESPN2 organized an early reprisal of it’s annual ESPN8 on March 22 and on May 2 it aired again on the main channel.
There was also a lot of modified programming including an absurd amount of professional wrestling. WWE suspended the broadcast inside the arena but the events were still taking place as the athletes were regularly tested. The events were all held in Florida as the Governor Ron DeSantis issued an exemption to the state stay-at-home order for staff of a “professional sports and media production produced behind closed doors for a national audience”.
The PGA Tour restarted gradually and respecting social distance between the players. CBS’s broadcast had the lead commentator Jim Nantz and analysts Mark Immelman and Dottie Pepper on-site but the other commentators worked remotely.
The MLB annouced that the home team’s local broadcaster of every game had to create a neutral feed to be used by not only the away team’s local broadcaster but for the national broadcaster too (ESPN/FOX Sports)*. The commentators are allowed to broadcast on-site if respecting social distancing rules and if the game is at home (local broadcasts only).
The NBA and the NHL created “bubbles” to avoid as much as possible any contamination and another suspension of the season. Broadcasters were encouraged to send selected on-air personal to the bubbles. There was no announcement regarding the generation of a national/international feed for the games but it’s assumed that both leagues are using only one worldwide feed, forcing the networks who want more exclusive content on their broadcasts to be more creative. NBC also announced that it would try to not send more than three/four broadcasters to the NHL bubble.
Some broadcasters are also “creating fans” on the stand using videoconference or CGI. The NHL, using the fan sounds from it’s videogame series, EA Sports’ NHL 20 and NHL 19. The NBA, using giant videoboards erected on its courts at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Orlando, Florida to display mosaics of remote fans. FOX using the CGI technology to “put fans on the stands” on MLB games. ESPN decided that it wouldn’t follow the international pattern of soccer broadcasts and intentionally eschewed simulated crowd noise for its broadcasts of the MLS is Back Tournament. The Disney network is instead, placing more microphones on the field to capture an enhanced in-game audio.
Sports broadcasts also started to give more opportunity to the eSports world. The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series featured real NASCAR drivers and exceeded the expectations in terms of ratings on FS1. A subsequent event simulcast the following week on FOX surpassed it, making the network with headquarters at the 1211 Avenue of the Americas, the first ever to lead the audience ranking with an eSports event.
ESPN and the NBA organized an NBA 2K Players Tournament, and the MLS partnered with FOX to hold a televised FIFA 20 tournament, featuring MLS players and professional FIFA 20 players from the game’s esports circuit. In professional esports, ESPN2 broadcasted matches from the League of Legends Championship Series.
ESPN also announced that it had reached a deal for exclusive US rights to the KBO League baseball from South Korea for the 2020 season. All broadcasts are being produced and hosted remotely.
It’s safe to say that we will never see something like this again. Not only in terms of ratings but also in terms of changes in a very short time. This year will go down in television history as one of the greatest and worst of all time at the same time.
*Most home local broadcasters are creating a neutral feed and another “not-neutral”. The first one, they allow everyone, with the rights to broadcast, to use. The second one is broadcasted only by them.
