Cordkillers 429 - The Wigcher

DC puts two big names in charge. There are NO NEW STREAMERS?!?! The Witcher S4 will change actors, but not Witchers? All that and more on Cordkillers!

This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: Star Trek: Lower Decks (310), The White Lotus (201), Miami Vice (317)

Next week: Twenty-Five Twenty-One (101), The White Lotus (202), Miami Vice (319 - Red Tape)

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CordKillers: 429 - The Wigcher
Recorded: October 31 2022
Guest: None

Intro Video
The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself

Primary Target
How James Gunn & Peter Safran Landed Top Spots At DC Studios
James Gunn and Peter Safran Give DC Studios and David Zaslav Bold, Brash and Slightly Risky New Guardians
- James Gunn and producer Peter Safran have been named Co-Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers of DC Studios starting November 1st. They replace Walter Hamada and will report to Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Like Dick Cheney getting the job of Vice president because he was advising President Bush who to pick for Vice President, Gunn and Safran were advising Zaslav on who should take over DC and then ended up getting the job.
- After he winds up existing commitments, aka Guardians 3 coming May 5th, Gunn will be exclusive to Warner.
- They will inherit “The Flash,” which has wrapped, and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which is currently in post-production. A Batman script is due with a 2025 target date and then there's the question of Superman.

How to Watch
No New Streaming Services Will Launch in 2022
- In January 2007 Netflix launched its streaming version of its service. In May the online video platform Grouper became Sony's Crackle. In October 2007 Hulu launched.
- Things were somewhat quiet until 2014 with the launch of CBS All Access and HBO Now. 2018 brought us ESPN+. And then 2019 began the plus avalanche with Disney+, Apple TV+ and BET+. 2020 saw Peacock and HBO Max, 2021 brought us Discovery+ and the conversion of CBS All Access to Paramount+.
- And along the way there were constant smaller launches like Crunchyroll, Shudder, BritBox, and more.
- Which brings us to 2022. Gammawire notes that even when you consider services with less than 1 million subscribers, no major streaming services have launched in 2022. And there are no announcements for new services in 2023.
- You've been wondering when it would end. Looks like it has. We are at peak services. Time to start the Deadpool.

What to Watch
Liam Hemsworth will play Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher’s fourth season
- Season 3 of The Witcher is coming next year and Netflix says it will make a season 4. Except without Henry Cavill. Liam Hemsworth has been cast as Geralt of Rivia in season 4. While no reason was given, Cavill has said he plans to play Superman again.

Guardians of the Galaxy Kidnap Kevin Bacon in ‘Holiday Special’ Trailer, Coming in November
- There's a trailer for the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special coming November 25th to Disney+. It was directed by James Gunn and stars Kevin Bacon. The plot seems to be the crew tries to capture Kevin Bacon to give him to Starlord to cheer him up about Gamorra.

Future ‘Doctor Who’ seasons will air on Disney+
- Next year's Doctor Who specials coming in November will be exclusively on Disney+ everywhere outside the UK and Ireland. The three specials will be the first of the return of Russel T Davis and will lead into new regular seasons starring Ncuti Gatwa taking over as the Doctor.

'Knives Out' Director's New Murder Mystery Gets a First Trailer
- There's a trailer out getting enough buzz that it's worth asking if this might be Peacock's first hit. Poker Face is a series from Rian Johnson. Natasha Lyonne stars in the 10-episode mystery of the week series. She plays Charlie, who has the ability to tell if people are lying. There's a ton of stars in it too including Adrian Brody. It comes to Peacock January 26th with 4 episodes then goes weekly.

Eyes On:
Brian: Werewolf by Night
Tom: Happiness
On the Lookout: The White Lotus

Front Lines
ESPN Sells Controlling Stake in X Games to MSP Sports Capital, Which Wants to Expand Digital Livestreaming of Events
- ESPN sold its controlling stake in the X-Games to private equity firm MSP Sports Capital. MSP will take over day to day operations of the games. ESPN will keep a minority interest. ESPN and ABC will continue to air the X Games. ESPN founded the games in 1995 to bring a new audience for emerging sports to the channel.

Disney wants to use your viewing history to personalize your park experience
- Disney CEO Bob Chapek told the Wall Street Journal that Disney is working on a way to tailor your experiences based on how you use its other products. Chapek said, “If you’re on Disney Plus, we should be aware of what happened, what you experienced, what you liked, the last time you visited a park, and vice versa. When you’re in a park, we should know what your viewing habits are on Disney Plus.”
For example, he said if you rode Pirates of the Caribbean at the park, you might get special Pirates of the Caribbean programs that show up on your Disney+. Chapek wouldn't say when this might happen, cryptically saying the company is “putting the arms and legs on it right now.”
- This isn't about expanding data collection. Disney already knows this stuff about you. The question is, are you OK with Disney using what it knows?

NBCUniversal Is Becoming “Fairly Indifferent” As To Whether Programming Goes On Streaming Or Linear TV, CEO Jeff Shell Says; Theme Park Success “Defies Logic A Little Bit”
Comcast Tops Q3 Estimates Despite Tough Comparisons With Tokyo Olympics, Cord-Cutting And Volatility In Sky Markets
Peacock Pacts With Hallmark for Branded Streaming Hub
- Comcast announced Peacock has around 15 million paid subscribers and 30 million monthly active users across paid and free. NBC president Jeff Shell says he is “fairly indifferent” as to whether programming airs on linear TV or on Peacock. They say they see broadcast and streaming as just delivery mechanisms for programming. A good thing too as the cable subscribers continued to fall at parent company Comcast, down 540,000 to a total of 16 million.
- Starting November 2, Hallmark Media will have a hub on Peacock for content from Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Drama. Content will include live linear streams and on-demand of movies and drama series.

Amazon and Google make peace over smart TV competition
- Google regularly includes terms in its licenses for Android and AndroidTV that prevent manufacturers from making devices with non-Google versions of Android. Amazon's FireTV OS is based on Android. So TCL, Xiaomi and HiSense all were prevented from making TVs with FireTV since they made Android TVs. Protocol reports that Amazon and Google have come to an agreement and now HiSense, Xiaomi and most recently TCL, have announced TVs that run FireOS.

Netflix's animated Sonic series "Sonic Prime" arrives with 24 episodes open December 15th.
Rakuten's Viki will carry a large portion of Tencent's dramas outside of China.
Servant has a trailer out for its fourth and final season coming to Apple TV+ January 13th.
Pluto TV Tripling CBS On-Demand Content Including ‘Criminal Minds,’ Will Add ‘Frasier,’ ‘Cheers,’ ‘Star Trek’ and More on Linear Streaming
- Paramount is adding more than 6300 episodes of classic TV shows to FAST service Pluto. New channels for Cheers, Frasier and Star Trek will arrive along with loads of on demand options for shows like The Brady Bunch, Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, and Andy Griffith.

Variety reports that season 2 of Severance on Apple TV+ will add Gwendolyn Christie, Alia Shawkat, John Noble and more to the cast.
Deadline's sources say a series called Vision Quest will pick up the story of Vision from the end of WandaVision.

Dispatches from the front
Hey Bryan, Tom, and Bryce (possible guest)

I remember back in the olden times, in the before-days, of Netflix bragging about their 40+ distribution centers that would ""get your movie to you, basically the next day"" that binging wasn't even a glimmer in a customer's eyes or mentioned by the swarms of podcasters, Youtubers, and internet shows that Netflix paid to read ad copy. That they named their company Net-FLIX and not NetTV or NetShows or NetSeries or anything like that would give us the customer the impression that Netflix was anything other than where one could get movies and not TV series to sit and watch as if you were some sort of alcoholic binge drinking TV shows. Binging is an accidental byproduct of Netflix offering up all the back catalog on DVDs and got supercharged when Netflix started to stream back catalogs.

On another note, patreon has continued to deliver me the RSS feed despite the fact that had been paying at a 75¢ per episode and got purged. I didn't realize that I was affected by the purge until you mentioned it last week. Not sure how many weeks I missed, but I have rejoined being one of your bosses.

-Sean



Sorry Brian, I agree with Tom on the Netflix discussion. I don't feel that the "brand" of Netflix is binging. It's a side effect of having such a large catalog. There are many things that Netflix doesn't drop as a binge. Many of the Korean dramas and animation are week to week. I also don't think if they decided some titles are hybrid release and some a full drop would impact the brand.

- Russ

Hello Killers,

Trying not to be too long-winded with this one! There were a couple things I found interesting that I'd like to hear your opinion on. The first one is that Apple recently officially announced that they will be releasing Blu Rays for most of their shows in the UK. There have been some Apple TV+ Blu Rays with some availability earlier this year, and Defending Jacob was officially released on Blu Ray, but this is the first time Apple TV, or any streaming service I can think of really, has publicly announced that the majority of their slate will be available on Blu Ray. Notably absent is Severance, which I would really like to watch without a subscription. (I also find it slightly amusing that these shows will be available to purchase in physical form, but not on another Apple service: iTunes.)

-Amar

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