Don’t Fear the Streamer

We’re just one week away from the start of September, which in most years signals the dawn of a new broadcast TV season. But while Nielsen will still restart its annual ratings clock in a few weeks, the ongoing WGA and SAG work stoppages — prompted by studios’ unwillingness to offer a deal that adequately addresses the very legitimate concerns of creatives — means the networks this fall will mostly be a vast wasteland of unscripted series, reruns, and imports from Canada and the U.K. It won’t all be awful: Smart planning by NBC suits will allow the Peacock to serve up about a half-dozen scripted originals, and ABC’s Golden Bachelor feels like the kind of idea that could be a breakout hit. Overall, though, fall TV as we’ve known it generally won’t exist this year. That makes the AMPTP’s decision this week to play games rather than stick to the hard work of negotiation all the more depressing.

As for this week’s Buffering, today’s newsletter has exclusive details about the new look for one of cable’s most enduring fall traditions: AMC’s FearFest. Not surprisingly, the supremacy of streaming is behind the changes. First up, though, some thoughts on the just-announced rollout of CNN Max. As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the closing days of summer while you can. —Joe Adalian

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Warner Bros. Discovery has been hinting for months that it planned to add live news to Max, and we now know exactly how and when that will happen. On September 27, the streamer will launch a digital-news hub combining a CNN-like 24-hour newsfeed (with live-news shows and coverage of breaking-news events) with access to news clips and a selection of CNN Originals library content (documentaries and series) similar to what’s currently offered by Max. The new offering will be called CNN Max, but it will not simply be CNN on Max. While a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesman tells Buffering at least three CNN U.S. tentpoles — Anderson Cooper 360, The Lead With Jake Tapper, and The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer — are set to be simulcast live on Max, a big chunk of the weekday offering of live news will be created specifically for CNN Max. As Variety first reported Wednesday night, CNN vets such as Jim Acosta, Fredricka Whitfield, and Jim Sciutto will anchor these live weekday updates. In addition, CNN Max is expected to draw on content and coverage from CNN International, a separate network offered by a few U.S. cable systems but mostly targeted to audiences outside of the states.

The launch of CNN Max will finally allow CNN to catch up to where many of its competitors have been for years. ABC, CBS, and NBC have long offered live-streaming news services via FAST channels and dedicated apps, while Fox offers hard-news coverage (but not Fox News Channel hosts) via FAST through its LIVENow from Fox service. CNN has also been in the FAST space for the last few years with CNN Replay (available on Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus), but that service mostly airs extended clips from recent CNN coverage. The issue with going direct-to-consumer for CNN has been the network’s contract with cable operators, who pay a premium in exchange for a certain amount of exclusivity.

CNN Max gets around those issues by creating a distant service — one with very strong CNN vibes but which isn’t CNN. To do that, the company will have to invest in creating unique programming (the shows anchored by Acosta or Whitfield, for example) and lean on CNN International (which also has its own limited infrastructure designed to serve global audiences). Mixing all of these elements together will hopefully be enough to mollify cable systems that might otherwise object. They’ll also likely be less upset since most cable systems also sell Max access to consumers (by selling HBO) and CNN Max is a feature of Max versus its own stand-alone platform (for now, at least).

For CNN die-hards (a shrinking number of consumers based on ratings, but still not an insignificant population), CNN Max probably won’t serve as an effective replacement. While CNN Max is expected to cut to the main CNN feed when there’s truly huge breaking news — think a terrorist bombing or natural disaster — if history is any guide, it’s unlikely CNN Max will be able to carry the exact same Election Night in America primary coverage as CNN proper next year. (I say “unlikely” versus “definitely” because a lot is up in the air, CNN is still working out details, and you never know what deals companies might strike with cable partners these days.) But CNN Max is already light-years more attractive to cord-cutters than the short-lived CNN+, which attempted to serve CNN superfans mostly with news analysis and commentary programs versus giving them what they really want, i.e., CNN without a cable package. CNN Max isn’t a cord-cutter’s dream, but it’s a lot closer than anything else that’s been attempted to date. It could also get current Max subscribers to open the app more often, perhaps even daily. That’s key, because the more frequently someone uses a service, the less likely they are to cancel it.

That said, Max will need to be careful about how CNN Max is integrated into the platform. In an interview with Variety, JB Perrette, president and CEO of WB Discovery streaming, told reporter Brian Steinberg that Max would be testing various features to make CNN Max more useful and dynamic to users. Some, including content tiles that change in real time to adapt to news events, could be useful. But Steinberg also says Max will test a function that will offer an onscreen notification of breaking news events when someone is streaming something on Turner Classic Movies or HBO. Trust me, Mr. Perrette: Nobody watching Casablanca or Euphoria on Max wants to have that experience interrupted by an alert telling them to watch CNN Max.

When it comes to seasonal celebrations, time clearly no longer has any meaning. Pumpkin spice lattes and other fall goodies are back at Starbucks as of this morning. Costco started stocking its aisles with Christmas decorations days ago. And while Halloween is still more than two months away, AMC has decided that September 1 is the right time to kick off FearFest, the channel’s decades-old annual spooky season programming stunt which, until now, has always started in October. But potentially premature petrification is not the only change brewing for AMC’s annual scream spectacular.

In yet another sign of digital’s dominance of the TV industry, FearFest — whose roots go all the way back to the 1990s when it was known as “MonsterFest” — is being taken over this year by Shudder, AMC’s eight-year-old horror-focused streaming sibling. The event is being officially rechristened as “FearFest, Shocked by Shudder” with the new name appearing both on-air as well as in all external marketing. But this is not just a simple rebrand: Shudder’s content team, including VP of programming Sam Zimmerman, has also taken over curation of the newly supersized event. AMC execs are still actively involved in mapping out the marathon of mayhem, but Shudder suits will serve as the key puppet masters of the next two months, integrating original content from their platform (V/H/S, Creepshow,The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula) with all the usual FearFest feature film chestnuts (Halloween, The Exorcist, Scream, The Shining). What’s more, for the first time in the event’s 27-year history, FearFest content will appear on other AMC-owned cable channels and streaming services with offerings tailored to appeal to viewers of BBC America, WE TV, IFC, Sundance Channel, Acorn, and ALLBLK.

Courtney Thomasma, executive vice-president of streaming for AMC Networks, tells Buffering the mash-up of FearFest and Shudder represents “a natural evolution” of the company’s recent efforts to tear down the walls separating its linear and digital offerings. With Shudder, “We have this in-house horror brand, and they are the experts in the space who live and breathe and sleep this stuff,” she says. So when Thomasma and her team were, as she puts it, “postmorteming FearFest 2022” and thinking about changes for 2023, it made sense to invite their Shudder colleagues into those meetings in the hope they could offer some good advice for how the franchise might evolve or even ideas for new kinds of programming. “But as we started workshopping both the content strategy and the positioning this year, we realized there was a great opportunity to just have the whole event presented by Shudder,” she says. It became “a really organic collaboration between the great minds at AMC, who have built out FearFest over the years, and the experts of Shudder.”

That, plus Shudder’s strong brand awareness among horror superfans, should theoretically help bring buzz and audiences to the AMC linear event. But perhaps even more importantly, AMC Networks execs are hoping that putting Shudder’s imprimatur on FearFest will allow them to promote both Shudder (and by extension AMC+) to the millions of normie cable viewers who still watch AMC and smaller channels such as WE TV or BBC America. “Our linear networks give us the opportunity to showcase [streaming] brands and content to mass audiences,” Thomasma explains, noting the company has already “been pushing the boundary more this year in terms of giving linear windows to streaming shows and figuring out ways that we can lean into synergy across the company.” Turning what has historically been one of AMC’s biggest annual events into a cross-promotional vehicle for the streaming side of the company feels “like the most natural, most obvious and best expressions” of that strategy, Thomasma says.

As for what cable and streaming audiences should expect to see over the next two months from the Shudder-fied FearFest, Thomasma says the goal is to make sure each AMC Networks platform serves up the right kind — and right amount — of programming for its target audience. “All of our linear networks and SVOD platforms will be participating, and each will have its own unique take, its own unique flavor,” she says. “We definitely didn’t want to just superimpose a generic horror offering across the board that could either diminish the Shudder curation or the main event on AMC.” So that means if you’re a Shudder subscriber (or access the service via AMC+), you won’t suddenly see your favorite weird, somewhat obscure thriller replaced by endless Walking Dead content. Similarly, while the AMC cable channel will platform some of Shudder’s greatest hits in September and October, it will mostly stick to crowd-pleasers and established network franchises (such as its recent Anne Rice universe series).

Some of the most innovative expressions of the “Shocked by Shudder” concept will be seen on AMC’s specialty networks. For example, WE TV, a network that draws strong ratings among Black women, will launch a new franchise during FearFest called “Fear After Dark,” featuring Shudder–produced films made by or revolving around Black talent, including the 2019 doc Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror and the linear TV premiere of Bomani J. Story’s well-reviewed 2023 film The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster(which will stream on Shudder and Allblk in late September). Similarly, IFC has already soft-launched a Shudder–curated late-night block called“Fear on Friday,” which focuses on the intersection of horror and comedy, while BBC America’s “Bloody Good Fear” will lean into supernatural and sci-fi-tinged frights on Sundays. “Each brand is sort of taking a unique way into the season,” Thomasma says. “I think it really reflects the breadth of programming available on Shudder and the diversity of programming in audiences for horror generally.”

While the September 1 launch date for FearFest represents a massive expansion for a franchise that until around five years ago didn’t usually get underway until mid-October, AMC Networks is taking steps not to overdo things on most of its platforms. While Shudder (and by extension AMC+) will go all-in on Halloween content starting next Friday — Shudder has always taken two full months to celebrate the high (un)holy days — the AMC linear empire will treat September as a sort of countdown to the main event. Indeed, as of now, FearFest content on linear networks next month will be limited to Friday nights and only on AMC and IFC.

Thomasma and Shudder’s Zimmerman are also being careful to not let Shudder’s takeover of FearFest change too much of what Shudder subscribers see on that platform. The AMC+ app — not Shudder proper — will be the digital home of FearFest, and Shudder still intends to program its own Halloween-themed content offering over the next two months. “We have had a lot of conversations with the editorial teams about not doing anything to dilute the great experience that Shudder has built over the years,” she says. “They have a very good understanding of their audience. Shudder can go about three categories deeper in terms of curation [than AMC+], and so users that decide to go into the Shudder Hub on AMC+ will still be able to experience all of that deep curation, while also getting all of the extra bells and whistles from FearFest.”

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