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What To Watch On TV: Girls Run The Weekend With 'Girls5eva' And 'The Girls On The Bus'
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• 15:12
(L-R) Paula Pell, Busy Philipps, Sara Bareilles and Renée Elise Goldsberry attend Netflix's "Girls5eva" Season 3 premiere at Paris Theater on March 07, 2024 in New York City.
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So you’re scrolling your favorite streamer, completely unsure what show to watch, right? It can feel like an endless void.
Let us be your guide.
Each week on AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show, we're joined by television critics who help parse through the biggest releases and tell us what's worth a binge.
Vulture’s Jen Chaney and Deadline’s Dominic Patten joined to discuss their top picks. This week, girls are running the TV world.
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Girls5eva
A '90s era one-hit wonder girl band is resurrected after a rapper samples their song. Now they’re booking gigs and attempting the biggest comeback in pop history. Grammy Award-winning musician Sara Bareilles stars as one of the group members along with Busy Philipps, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Paula Pell.
“The four principles...are fantastic, and the concept is amazing. This season, they're on tour and every episode is in a different city. And they're trying to build an audience and hopefully get to do a really big gig in the finale. It's just great, great fun. I just get so much joy from watching it.” -Jen Chaney, tv critic for Vulture
When & where: The series began as a Peacock original, but Netflix swooped in and picked it up, adding the first two seasons plus a brand new season three on the platform. All episodes are available now.
The Girls on the Bus
Another iconic girl group of ... journalists? Yes, and it’s loosely inspired by co-creator and journalist Amy Chozick’s memoir Chasing Hillary. The series follows four female journalists with very different backgrounds as they travel with politicians and compete for the latest scoop.
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“It is eminently watchable and gives you a real sense of both the drama and the banality that people go through, the eating bad food and hearing the same stump speeches over and over again.” -Dominic Patten, senior editor for Deadline
When & where: The first two episodes are available on Max. New episodes release every Thursday.
Listen to the conversation
Check out more picks from our critics this week, including Quiet On Set on Max, Manhunt on Apple TV+ and Apples Never Fall on Peacock.
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• 15:12
TV-Talk ‘Girls5Eva,’ ‘The Girls On The Bus,’ ‘Quiet On Set’ And More
TV Talk extra: Why we don’t see many new shows on cable TV channels anymore
Most cable network channels have experienced significant declines in viewership thanks to the advent of streaming platforms. You’ve probably noticed that major networks are relying on reruns and reality TV instead of new shows, which usually head to exclusive streaming catalogs. Is new programming declining due to the audience loss or vice versa?
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We talked with Eric Deggans, NPR TV critic and media analyst at NPR, and Doug Herzog, a former executive at Viacom who oversaw MTV, Comedy Central and other channels, about what they think has driven the slow demise of cable television. Here are their main takeaways:
- Young people have stopped watching traditional TV networks. They’re watching on their phone or other devices. Less viewers means less money for original programming.
- Many channels are pivoting to content that features things viewers can’t get as easily on streaming.
- Sports (maybe more specifically, football) are one of the keys in keeping broadcast networks alive.
- There are some cable channels that have a good amount of original programming including the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and AMC.
- Cable TV still generates more revenue from advertising – what happens to the industry when all the viewers are on streaming where there’s less of that money?
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• 18:01
The Slow Death Of Cable Network Television
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