The first slate of Apple TV+ shows would seem to have little in common — they range from a teen comedy to a sci-fi epic — but the company’s top entertainment programming execs say they are all about relationships.
They also worked hard to make this new streaming service fit with the rest of Apple.
Apple is seemingly taking a mixed approach to the way it will debut new Apple TV+ shows. According to the company, it will release three episodes of The Morning Show, one of its flagship series, when the service launches on November 1. After that, new episodes will debut every Friday.
That’s a change from Netflix’s approach of dumping every episode of a new season at once. It’s also a change from Apple’s plan for Dickinson, which star Hailee Steinfeld recently revealed will debut all 10 episodes straight out of the gate.
The first Apple TV+ reviews are out — and, broadly speaking, they’re not great. Critics generally slammed the marquee shows on the Apple TV+ slate. Anyone wanting to pull together a movie poster with positive pull-quotes would need to do some serious wading through bile to emerge with choice excerpts.
That’s a shame. And while it might seem easy to write off the bad reviews — based on the just the first few episodes of four shows, all shown to critics prior to the service’s launch — the poor reception might suggest deep-seated problems for Apple TV+. It sounds like a service that suffers from a lack of vision.
Remember that story about how the logo for The Morning Show, one of Apple TV+’s flagship shows, looked suspiciously like the logo for Elon Musk’s The Boring Company? It turns out that may have been a bad omen.
Ahead of Apple TV+’s November 1 launch, the first reviews are out for its star-studded newsroom drama/comedy starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell. And, well, they’re far from the blockbuster reviews Apple likely hoped for from its show that costs more than Game of Thrones.
Apple is apparently very confident of success for its Apple TV+ series For All Mankind. With a week still to go before Apple launches its streaming TV service, it is gearing up to shoot a second season of the big budget space race show.
Actor Joel Kinnaman revealed that he will be filming the second series simultaneously with the sequel to Suicide Squad. Shooting will commence in a couple of weeks.
Apple’s Amazing Stories TV series will contain the last acting performance by Oscar-nominated actor Robert Forster.
New details on the new series produced by Steven Spielberg were revealed this week including the plotline of the episode starring Forster which involves him getting superhero powers.
With just days to spare before the launch of Apple TV+, Apple has brought its TV app to Amazon streaming devices. This means that owners of the Fire TV Stick 4K, second-gen Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Basic Edition can watch shows from Apple’s streaming service and more.
Amazon has said support for other Fire TV devices will follow. That will include the likes of the Nebula sound bar, Fire TV Edition smart TVs, Fire TV Cube, and more.
Apple TV+ hasn’t even launched yet, but already investment gurus are seeing cartoon-style dollar signs in their eyes.
According to Morgan Stanley analysts, Apple TV+ could be a $9 billion-per-year business by 2025. That’s a whole lot of $4.99 sign-ups!
Apple TV+ and Disney+ both launch next month, but the iPhone-maker’s streaming video service will cost less.
Even so, Disney CEO Bob Iger says he’s unconcerned.
Apple has landed deals with Lee Pace and Jared Harris that will see the two actors star in the upcoming TV adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s novel Foundation.
The project got off to a rocky start earlier this year when co-showrunner Josh Friedman stepped down to go help James Cameron write the Avatar sequels. David S. Goyer has taken over as the lone showrunner and writer of the series which finally has some serious acting chops behind it too.
Disney is ready to tap into Verizon’s massive customer base to give it a massive influx of viewers for its upcoming streaming service Disney+.
Verizon revealed today that all of its customers will receive 12 months of Disney+ for free starting on November 12. The offer matches Apple’s own 12 free months offer for Apple TV+ to customers that buy a new Apple device.
At Monday’s premiere of See, star Jason Momoa called his role in the upcoming Apple TV+ series “challenging, beautiful” and his “favorite role to date.”
The Game of Thrones star, who attended the Los Angeles premiere with his wife, Lisa Bonet, praised the original premise of the fantasy show. “It’s a world we’ve never seen before,” Momoa said, “and in a world that everything has been done, this is something very new and fresh.”
Apple TV owners are being plagued by frequent TV app crashes under tvOS 13.
Arguably the most important feature of the set-top box, the TV app has become unusable for some under Apple’s latest software release. Both Apple TV and Apple TV 4K are affected.
Apple isn’t just taking on Netflix’s business with Apple TV+; it’s also challenging its philosophy for commissioning shows.
In a new article for Wired, Apple TV+ boss Zack Van Amburg says that the company is going on gut instinct for its new shows. That’s vastly different to Netflix’s famously data-driven approach to commissioning.
Apple signed Fargo writer and producer Monica Beletsky to a multiyear Apple TV+ deal. She reportedly will develop a new series exclusively for the upcoming streaming service.
Beletsky is also working on two films for Hello Sunshine, the production company owned by Reese Witherspoon, who stars in Apple’s exclusive news-biz drama The Morning Show.
This week on The CultCast: iPhone SE 2 is almost here! And its specs and price are surprisingly good… Plus: finally! Long awaited camera upgrades are coming to iOS 13; Apple TV+ finally lays out the details of their launch shows; and AMC’s new movie streaming is going to take on Apple Movies with a genius feature Apple can’t possibly match.
Our thanks to Belkin for supporting this episode. Belkin Cables are built to last and supported with a 5-year warranty. If you’re tired of broken burnt out cables, switch to Belkin, and save 30% off your order with code CultCast at checkout.
Apple this week premiered Dickinson, an original show coming to Apple TV+, at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York.
The half-hour comedy series based on rebellious young poet Emily Dickinson will be available November 1. It is the second show Apple has premiered this week following For All Mankind.
Emily Dickinson’s poems often dealt with death and immortality, and that’s reflected in the second trailer for Apple TV+’s Dickinson. She finds herself facing the personification of Death, as well as struggling to make her poetry immortal in a world of men.
Watch it now:
Netflix warned investors that the upcoming launch of Apple TV+ and Disney+ could generate “modest headwinds” when it comes to new subscriber growth. Despite the warning, Netflix shares surged in after-hours trading today after it reported better-than-expected earnings.
In a letter to shareholders, Netflix didn’t sound too worried about the upcoming streaming wars. The company pointed out that it’s already been competing against streamers and regular TV for over a decade now.
Apple TV+ is starting to stock up on new movies.
Apple has inked its second film deal with indie studio A24, which is already working with the iPhone-maker on Sofia Coppola’s next movie. The two companies are set to produce an adaptation of the critically acclaimed young adult novel The Sky Is Everywhere written by Jandy Nelson.
Apple this week premiered For All Mankind at the Regency Village theater in Westwood, California, ahead of its Apple TV+ debut.
The new space drama, from Golden Globe nominee and Emmy Award winner Ronald D. Moore, will be available on November 1. It imagines a world in which the global space race never ended.
Apple is so confident about its space-based drama For All Mankind that the show has reportedly been renewed for a second season even before the launch date.
This is one of the programs premiering with Apple TV+ next month, and many of the others debuting at the same time have supposedly also been picked up for additional seasons.
Apple TV+ will be available on Roku boxes when it launches next month.
Roku revealed this morning that the Apple TV app will be available on its platform starting today, allowing users to access their iTunes video library as well as subscribe to Apple TV channels right from their Roku devices.
Horrible Bosses star Jason Sudeikis will feature in a new Ted Lasso comedy series coming to Apple TV+. It will be the actor’s first regular return to TV since he departed Saturday Night Live in 2013.
Sudeikis’ character is an American football coach who heads across the pond to manage an English soccer team. His complete lack of knowledge of the game makes for hilarious viewing.
Apple just launched a website with details about all its upcoming Apple TV+ shows. The site is supposed to be for journalists, but serves as a one-stop shop for everyone to learn more about all the original programs available soon — many are scheduled for next month.