Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, November 17th, 2025:
THIS IS WHAT IS AT STAKE FOR THE BBC
The leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage said in an interview with The Telegraph over the weekend that the BBC’s programming lineup should not extend beyond current affairs or its BBC World Service output.
He said: “Do we think the BBC should exist and have a news function?," said Farage. "Yes, it deserves a chance to prove itself. Do we think the World Service has an important function? We do. But we just don’t see why the BBC needs to do entertainment, sport, all the other things. It should be there to do news."
The government is set to start work on the charter review shortly, with the current charter set to expire in 2027. That charter provides the framework for the current broadcast license fee, which provides funding to the BBC as well as other British TV networks.
In the Telegraph interview, Farage called for the elimination of the license fee and vowed to amend the royal charter to remove the licence fee if Reform UK were to gain power.
"If the charter’s been renegotiated, that may give us a problem for a couple of years. But our intention is pretty clear – that it’s unsustainable, as it currently is. It’s unacceptable in the way it behaves and that a licence fee of this measure is just completely inappropriate for an online world," he said.
"In practical terms, there’s a fair bit to work out, I accept. But the broad principles are accepted. It would involve a change to the law, the charter would have to be looked at again."
Of course, if the Right was so unhappy with the BBC News coverage, then arguing the BBC should be limited to producing ONLY news coverage seems disingenuous. Or maybe their complaints about editing weren't the real agenda here.
'60 MINUTES' CONTINUES TO WHACK TRUMP LIKE A PINATA OVER HIS ALLEGED MISDEEDS
At least for now, concerns that pressure from new CBS News head Bari Weiss to tone down coverage of the Trump Administration seems not to be an issue. Or if she is pressuring the newsmagazine, they are simply continuing to do what they do best.
Last night's show opened with a segment from Scott Pelley reporting that President Trump had granted a pardon to a billionaire felon after the felon's company enriched a Trump family business:
The next month, Changpeng Zhao applied for a presidential pardon. And shortly after the application, he was at the center of a blockbuster deal that put World Liberty on the map. Zhao is a citizen of the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf and in May, an Emirati fund put $2 billion in Zhao's Binance. Of all the currencies in the world, the deal was done in World Liberty crypto.
Austin Campbell: So it took World Liberty from being a small project that maybe was on the road map after the election, purely for the name, to being one of the largest stablecoins in the world in a single transaction. So, it vaulted them from small time to the big leagues.
The Emirates entrusted two billion to a currency that had been on the market five weeks. One source told us, "it wasn't strange. It was nuts."
ADVENTURES IN ARCHIVING
Adam "Mythbusters" Savage has a really fascinating interview with Paramount Global's Executive Director Chuck Woodfill, who is in charge of the company's vast archival collection. Just the number of various storage formats they've used over the years is astounding and all I could think of watching this video is that I could happily spend weeks looking at pieces of the collection.
But it's also a good reminder of the challenges of adapting vintage programs into a format useful for the streaming era. Even before you tackle the challenges of things such as clearing music, you have to deal with converting the old footage into a usable digital format, as well as correcting and repairing any damaged segments. No media company in the world has the budget to convert everything in their collection to digital, so archival efforts are always a work in progress.
The video is just crammed with the strange details that I love hearing about, including the fact that anything produced on acetate film - a period from roughly 1950 through the 1980s - needs to be stored at below freezing temperatures.
ODDS AND SODS
* Netflix has released the trailer for the upcoming film Wake Up Dead Man: A Knife's Out Mystery, which will receive a limited theatrical release on Wednesday, November 26th before premiering on the streamer Friday, December 12th. Here is a first look at the trailer. And here is the official logline: "Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns for his most dangerous case yet in the third and darkest chapter of Rian Johnson’s murder mystery opus. When young priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) is sent to assist charismatic firebrand Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), it’s clear that all is not well in the pews. Wicks’s modest-but-devoted flock includes devout church lady Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), circumspect groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), tightly-wound lawyer Vera Draven, Esq. (Kerry Washington), aspiring politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), town doctor Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), best-selling author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), and concert cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny). After a sudden and seemingly impossible murder rocks the town, the lack of an obvious suspect prompts local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to join forces with renowned detective Benoit Blanc to unravel a mystery that defies all logic."
* David Letterman's next interview on his Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman is Adam Sandler. The episode will premiere Monday, December 1st. Here is a first video look at the special.
* ICYMI over the weekend, The NY Times did one of its trademark soft profiles of Puck's Matthew Belloni.
* Bravo is celebrating 20 years of The Real Housewives franchise with The Real Housewives: Ultimate Road Trip, a series that will bring together past, present and the next era Housewives.
* Brat summer is over. It's time for a Springsteen recession.
* Jake Paul's planned Netflix bout with Gervonta Davis this past weekend was canceled, but he's already lined up his next match. Paul is set to face Britain's two-time unified heavyweight world champion and Olympic Gold medalist Anthony Joshua, sometime before the end of the year.
* Major local TV station owner Sinclair Inc. says it has been conducting merger talks for several months with rival E.W. Scripps. Scripps operates 60 local stations in 40 markets. It also owns the Ion broadcast network and diginets Court TV, Bounce and Grit.
* Bravo has ordered the new series The Real Housewives Of Rhode Island, which will premiere on the network next year.
TWEET OF THE DAY
WHAT'S COMING TODAY AND TOMORROW
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH:
* Epic Ride: The Story Of Universal Theme Parks (Peacock)
* Gabby's Dollhouse Season Twelve Premiere (Netflix)
* Gingerbread Land: The Biggest Little Holiday Competition Series Premiere (Food)
* June Farms Series Premiere (Prime Video)
* Selena y Los Dinos (Netflix)
* Street Outlaws: Locals Only Season Premiere (Discovery)
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH:
* Gerry Dee: Funny You Should Say That (Netflix)
* Thoughts & Prayers (HBO)
SEE YOU EARLY TUESDAY MORNING!