Voyagers!
Masquerade (1983)

the penne opticon

Part 2 of my life as the Cancel Bear (below), plus a look at the week ahead, available now on The Data Stream. If you're a subscriber, you already have these in your inbox. Sign up here: www.thedatastream.tv/?modal=signup

And, at The Hollywood Reporter, I tried to pin down the last peak of monoculture.

Confessions of a Cancel Bear, Vol. 2 My three years as the internet persona that mauled underperforming TV shows.

Part 2 of the life and times of The Cancel Bear is now up! It’s about my 3 years playing the Bear on twitter and why my heart wasn’t totally in it even though the underlying work was fun. Subscribe to The Data Stream for more good stuff: www.thedatastream.tv?modal=signup

The Last Time Everyone Watched the Same Thing No one knew it at the time, but 2014 — more precisely, Ellen DeGeneres' star-studded selfie moment — marked the peak of a monoculture that no longer exists. The numbers show a long decay ever since.

I had been kicking around an idea for a long time that the 2014 Oscars - the one with the Bradley Cooper selfie - was the past peak of monoculture. I finally put it down in writing and I think the case is pretty solid.

Part 2 of Cancel Bear Confessions coming this weekend! It'll actually be about my time as the Bear, what I tried to do with TV by the Numbers in my tenure and why, for as much of a grind as it was, I kinda miss it. Signup link for The Data Stream in the post below.

This is great, from "Hold for cream cheese!" to the worthwhile critique of whether "The Pitt" is too beholden to Robby's point of view.

Gotta believe the first draft had "woe to those jagoffs who manipulate religion …"

Weekly numbers, April 6-12: Wolverines, Masters and astronauts And the streaming top 10s for March 16-22.

Wolverines, astronauts, things of that nature in the weekly numbers at The Data Stream. Check it out, and please subscribe (almost at 50 subs, which is cool - thanks to everyone who's already signed up!) www.thedatastream.tv/?modal=signup

‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’ Canceled After Five Seasons on NBC, Peacock The spinoff saw Christopher Meloni reprise his long-running 'SVU' character, Elliot Stabler.

"Law & Order: Organized Crime" is ...

done-done.

‘Scrubs’ Season Finale Refuses to Tie Up Loose Ends A guest turn by Rachel Bilson, a cameo by a fan favorite and other stories all point to a (not-yet-ordered) second season.

“Scrubs” hasn’t officially been picked up yet. It probably will be, and tonight’s season finale VERY much points to a lot more to tell, starting with the woman in the photo below.

She will LOVE watching video of the 1990s Premier League then. Far kicks for days on end

Odds are quite good that it will be renewed btw. It’s done well and I don’t think they’d have made a finale this open-ended without some sense that there would be more to come.

‘Scrubs’ Season Finale Refuses to Tie Up Loose Ends A guest turn by Rachel Bilson, a cameo by a fan favorite and other stories all point to a (not-yet-ordered) second season.

“Scrubs” hasn’t officially been picked up yet. It probably will be, and tonight’s season finale VERY much points to a lot more to tell, starting with the woman in the photo below.

CBS 2026-27 Schedule: ‘Ghosts,’ ‘Matlock’ Move to Midseason, ‘Cupertino’ Legal Drama Gets Fall Spot Two other new series, 'Eternally Yours' and 'NCIS: New York,' are also set to premiere in the fall.

And here's the CBS lineup for next season, if you're into that kinda thing.

‘NCIS’ Franchise Expands to New York, LL Cool J Returning as Sam Hanna Scott Caan will also star in the new series, the eighth in the franchise.

The NCIS-verse is now up to EIGHT shows (or nine if you want to be pedantic and include "JAG"), and three starring LL Cool J. "NCIS: New York" heading your way this fall.

Gee thanks, really needed to know that.

‘Stranger Things 5’ Drew 30 Million Viewers in Its First Four Weeks, Nielsen Says CBS' 'Marshals' premiere and Netflix's 'His & Hers' also had huge cross-platform audiences.

One more measure of how big the final season of "Stranger Things" was: It averaged 30.6 million viewers over 28 days, according to Nielsen.

"Haha suck it old media" I say with supreme confidence as I post a picture of a digital billboard in a place literally named after an old media institution.

Aw man.

Donna Lynne Champlin, Guest Star Extraordinaire: “I’m the Go-To Dick Wolf Middle-Aged Traumatized Woman” A candid chat with the ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ alum on being a working actor in a shrinking Hollywood: “There's not as much work and everyone’s fighting for the same gig.”

This, from my THR colleague David Canfield, is a lovely profile of a That Gal, Donna Lynne Champlin. You might know her from "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," and if you've watched a Dick Wolf show in the past couple seasons, you've probably seen her.

‘The Audacity’ Creator Looks for Humanity in Silicon Valley: “It’s the Only Way Forward” Jonathan Glatzer discusses the tech world setting for his AMC series and why a therapist is central to the story.

Had a long-ish talk with “The Audacity” creator Jonathan Glatzer about what he wants to do with the show and the mirror he hopes to hold up to the tech industry. Check it out (the show has grown on me as I’ve watched more, fwiw).

“Please, Father Dowling was my parish priest. You can call me …

[puts on sunglasses, adjusts miter]

“… Detective Pope.” [Metal version of “Ave Maria” crashes into the title card]

The week ahead, April 13-19: Apple's got 'Margo's Got Money Troubles' Premiere, finale and specials dates, plus the start of the NBA and NHL playoffs.

The email version of this morning's Data Stream week-ahead post failed to mention that "Scrubs" and "The Pitt" end their seasons this week. But the web version does now. Don't hold it against me and subscribe please!

Sid Krofft, Co-Creator of Mind-Blowing Kids TV Shows, Dies at 96 The puppeteer and his late brother Marty partnered on 'The Banana Splits Adventure Hour,' 'H.R. Pufnstuf,' 'Land of the Lost' and much more.

RIP: Sid Krofft, the puppeteer who teamed with his younger brother Marty to build an entertainment empire with trippy TV shows as H.R. PUFNSTUF and THE LAND OF THE LOST, dies at 96. www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/s...

Want a tale of the 2010s internet, when social media could still be fun and a pretend bear struck fear (or annoyance, at least) into the heart of Hollywood? Subscribe to The Data Stream for this kind of thing in your inbox. www.thedatastream.tv?modal=signup

Someone(s) stole my bank card number and used it mostly to buy Papa John’s and Domino’s. The bank shut it down quickly so only a minor hassle for me, but I’m left wondering why the thieves didn’t think a little bigger.

Confessions of a Cancel Bear, Vol. 1 The history of TV by the Numbers and how I came to run the site and its most famous feature.

For about 3 years I was the editor of TV by the Numbers - which also meant I was the person behind the Cancellation Bear. On The Data Stream today, I dive into the history of the site and how the internet-famous bear came to be, before I got there. Free post, but please subscribe!