Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, September 15th, 2025:
PENSKE MEDIA CONTINUES TO SHED JOBS, ALTHOUGH THEY WON'T CONFIRM IT
It can be a challenge dealing with media relations contacts at private companies. These companies are generally private because that means they don't have to publicly discuss revenue or losses or any of the other metrics public companies are legally obligated to disclose.
But even in the universe of private companies, wrangling the slightest bit of information out of the fine folks at Penske Media Corporation (PMC) is nearly impossible. Its not that you'll hear a "no comment" or some vague non-response that is the norm at many private companies. Most press requests are just ignored. Which I suppose serves their purposes, although it can frustrating for anyone attempting to cover the company.
I have written maybe a dozen pieces about changes at PMC in the past year or so and have managed to receive one response to my many requests for comment. The company won't provide a comment even when it would result in positive coverage, which I find perplexing. On Friday, it filed a lawsuit against Google (see below) and not only would the company not provide a comment. From what I can tell, none of PMC's outlets have even written about the lawsuit.
And then there was today, when I heard word that some people had left both The Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone. PMC is radio silent on the moves, and I have learned by painful experience not to wait for confirmation from the company before posting a story about PMC. Unfortunately for me, Oliver Darcy's Status beat me to the story, so I'll just pass along what he reported earlier this evening:
"Declined to comment?" I'm shocked!
Obviously, we have no publicly disclosed reason for the cuts, although I just had one of the people let go insist their layoff wasn't connected to PMC's recent decision to force all of its employees to return to the office at least four days a week. That move was seen by many employees as an effort to reduce payroll without technically laying off employees.
While I haven't spoken to anyone else yet, it's worth noting that Rolling Stone just posted eight new job listings, although none of them are for a TV critic. There is, however a listing for a Culture and Travel Reporter. And given the other titles for the open positions, I think it's fair to describe the changes as "cutting some of the more expensive staff."
On a side note, I am curious as to the severance pay that came with these layoffs. I spoke to a couple of people who had recently lost their jobs at other Penske outlets who complained to me the company had changed its severance policy in the past year. According to these sources, until the end of 2024, it was typical for exiting PMC employees to receive two weeks of severance pay for each year worked at the outlet. That policy changed this year to one week per year, although I also heard that might be adjusted depending on the employee.
Also today, NBC News announced it was hiring former Hollywood Reporter Senior Editor, Film as its Senior Hollywood Reporter for digital:
We are pleased to welcome award-winning journalist Rebecca Keegan to NBC News as a Senior Hollywood Reporter for digital, based in Los Angeles.
Beginning today, Rebecca joins us from The Hollywood Reporter, where she broke news on major moments in entertainment, such as the #MeToo movement and the “Rust” shooting. She’s profiled major figures, including Ben Affleck, Lupita Nyong’o and Steven Spielberg, and had the first exclusive interview with Jonathan Majors after his sentencing.
She previously reported on Hollywood and film for Vanity Fair, the Los Angeles Times and Time, and she is the author of several books, including “Young Frankenstein: The Story of the Making of the Film” (co-written with Mel Brooks) and “The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron.” She is currently working on a book about the Coppola family.
In 2024, she was named the Los Angeles Press Club’s Print Journalist of the Year, recognized for her coverage of a film training program at San Quentin prison and her in-depth profile of “Jane Doe 1” in the Harvey Weinstein trial.
In her new role, Rebecca will use her deep entertainment industry expertise to publish exclusive, enterprising and analytical reporting for NBCNews.com and all platforms. She’ll work closely with entertainment Correspondent Chloe Melas, the L.A. bureau and beyond.
Please join us in welcoming Rebecca to NBC News.
It also appears that Arts and Culture Critic Lovia Gyarkye has left THR (she is off the masthead and her last published story was from August 4th).
All of these moves are just the latest in a series of contractions at various PMC-owned outlets that suggest either a retrenchment at the company or on ongoing need to reduce spending. In the past eighteen months, PMC has laid off a number of people across its titles, sold the Austin TV Festival (ATX) back to its founders and also sold TV Line and BGR (aka Boy Genius Report) to Static Media. There are also ongoing suggestions from sources I've spoken to that PMC might also be shopping IndieWire around to several companies who had unsuccessfully bid for TV Line.
PMC is a privately-held company and there is no way to know what the company's bottom line might look like. But the online news business across the board has suffered from slumping ad revenue and rapidly declining search engine traffic. In fact, the core of Penske's lawsuit against Google is built around its contention that revenue from advertising and affiliate links has dropped substantially since the end of 2024.
And while PMC has insisted in the past that its live events business has "never been healthier," people I have spoken to recently on the studio side report that there is less money available for these events across the industry. At the same time that PMC is facing increased competition from digital rivals such as The Ankler and Puck.
As always, if you have something to add to this story or a tip to pass along anonymously, you can email me at
GOOGLE EXEC INSISTS USERS ARE DEMANDING BRIEF, AI-POWERED SNIPPETS SCRAPED FROM NEWS WEBSITES
Late Friday, Penske Media Corporation (PMC) filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Google. The lawsuit claims that Google is using its search monopoly to force publications to hand over content. Not just for search engine results, but in order for Google to scrape the content for it's contextual summaries provided by AI Overviews.
Google's vice president of government affairs and public policy Markham Erickson was asked about the lawsuit Monday at Wired's AI Power Summit, and this was his response:
So, I don’t want to speak about the specifics of the lawsuit, but I can speak to our philosophy here, which is, look, we want a healthy ecosystem. The 10 blue links serve the ecosystem very well, and it was a simple value proposition. We provided links that directed users free of charge to billions of publications around the world. We’re not going to abandon that model. We think that there’s use for that model. It’s still an important part of the ecosystem.
But user preferences, and what users want, is also changing. So, instead of factual answers and 10 blue links, they’re increasingly wanting contextual answers and summaries. We want to be able to provide that, too, while at the same time, driving people back to content, valuable content, on the Internet. Where that valuable content is for users, is shifting. And so it’s a dynamic space. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that we have an overall healthy ecosystem.
THIS PROFILE OF JUDD APATOW IS WHY I LOVE COMEDY
Since my earliest years, I have been a comedy fan. Growing up in Southern Indiana, I was listening to albums by Robert Klein and Victor Buono when other kids were begging for some Black Sabbath. I stayed up late in elementary school to watch The Tonight Show and always knew somehow I would be involved in the industry. I spent all of my twenties as a touring stand-up comic and the only reason I stopped was because I took time off to take care of my ailing mom. I love everything about comedy and I wonder sometimes where I would be if I had continued performing.
While it's extremely unlikely I would ever have become Judd Apatow, he is type of comedian and writer I would loved to have to talent to become. And while most celebrity profiles tend to be carefully curated snoozefests, this extended profile in The Atlantic provides a fascinating warts and all look at a honest-to-God comedy legend. And parts of his story do really resonate with me:
The more time Apatow spent around comedians and writers in L.A., the more he began to think he wanted to be in comedy—but not as a stand-up. “I was such a fan that I was very aware of how good people were,” Apatow told me. “I knew how funny Andy Dick was and Ben Stiller was and Jim Carrey was.” Walking away from stand-up, “there was probably a little part of me that died,” Apatow said, but it made space for something new, too.
And while my parents weren't divorced, this certainly rings true, although I don't know if it's a healthy response:
That feeling gave rise to the conviction that he had to learn to take care of himself—through comedy. “I built this obsession that I thought would free me at some point,” Apatow told me. “I had a very clear thought my whole childhood, which was: This will pay off. One day, people will be interested in this. It’s almost maniacal.”
But for all of this talent, Apatow also has a reputation for being a bit....feisty. A trait which I share, although not of his extinction-event level of rage:
But when the same experience happened—“almost beat for beat”—with the cancellation of his 2001 television show, Undeclared, Apatow was livid. That same year, he filmed a pilot for North Hollywood, starring Segel with the up-and-comers Amy Poehler, January Jones, and Kevin Hart, which got scrapped before it even aired. “That became the fuel,” he told me. He just kept thinking, “You’re wrong. I think all these people are great. All these writers and directors are so strong. Let’s just try to prove everybody wrong.”
When Undeclared was canceled, Time magazine had just named it one of the 10 best television shows that year. Apatow sent a framed copy of the article to the chair of the Fox Television Entertainment Group, who also happened to be the man who had canceled The Ben Stiller Show. The note said: “I don’t know if you just fucked me in the ass again or you just never took it out in 1992. Merry Christmas, Judd.”
I certainly have burned bridges in my career. But never quite at that impressive level.
TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS
* President Trump is making his second visit this term to the UK next month and Channel 5 is marking the trip with a special entitled Trump Vs The Truth. The special will include "an uninterrupted reel of untruths running over several hours. The statements will be punctuated by brief text-based fact-checks, offering viewers the truth behind the tweets, speeches and soundbites." I can't imagine an American network airing something like this.
* The HBO Original documentary short The Devil Is Busy premieres Tuesday, September 23rd on HBO. Here is a first look at the trailer. And here is the official logline: "The Devil Is Busy takes viewers on a daylong journey with Tracii, the determined head of security at a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta, Georgia as she works to ensure the safety of women seeking abortions in the face of new restrictions and persistent protests. The film follows the routines of the staff who continue to provide a range of medical services, including preventive screenings, checkups, and reproductive healthcare, in an environment where clinics often face daily threats of danger."
* Pat Crowley, a Golden Globe winner who starred in the 1960s sitcom Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, died Sunday in Los Angeles, two days before her 92nd birthday.
* HBO Max has acquired One Day in October, the scripted series that is based on real-life accounts from the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
* The theatrical animated film Smurfs will premiere Tuesday, September 16th on Paramount+.
* The stand-up special Matt McCusker: A Humble Offering premieres Tuesday, October 7th on Netflix.
SUPPORT THE BACK INDIE MEDIA DRIVE
As I mentioned in an earlier email, Too Much TV is part of a September Back Indie Drive, in which 30+ independent publications are taking part. Each one is run by a creator-model journalist who’s building something sustainable, bold, and deeply needed in today’s fractured media environment.
Every day this month I am going to quickly highlight a publication from the campaign list and I hope you'll check them out. Supporting independent media has never been more important and there are truly some talented journalists on the list:
Subscribe for free here. And click here to financially support this publication.
INFOGRAPHIC OF THE DAY
This is a slide from the Hub Research "Decoding The Default" report, based on a survey conducted among 1,600 US consumers with broadband, age 16-74, who watch at least 1 hour of TV per week. I'll be writing more about these results tomorrow.
WHAT'S COMING TOMORROW
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH:
* Dancing With The Stars Season Thirty-Four Premiere (ABC)
* High Potential Season Two Premiere (ABC)
* 100 Day Dream Home Season Seven Premiere (HGTV)
* Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story (Netflix)
* The Chrisleys: Back to Reality Season One Finale (Lifetime)
* The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season Sixteen Premiere (Bravo)
* Top Guns: The Next Generation Series Premiere (NatGeo)
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17TH:
* Acapulco Series Finale (Apple TV+)
* America’s Got Talent Season Twenty Finale (NBC)
* Family Law Season Four Finale (The CW)
* Gen V Season Two Premiere (Prime Video)
* Human (PBS)
* Matchroom: The Greatest Showmen (Netflix)
* MasterChef Season Fifteen Finale (Fox)
* Next Gen Chef Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Nova: Human (PBS)
* Sin City Rehab (HGTV)
* The Ba***ds Of Bollywood Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Morning Show Season Four Premiere (Apple TV+)
* Summer I Turned Pretty Series Finale (Prime Video)
SEE YOU EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING!