'Big Bang Theory' Sets Staggering Multi-Billion-Dollar HBO Max Streaming Deal (hollywoodreporter.com) 94
'The Big Bang Theory,' an insanely hit comedy show that ended its broadcasting run earlier this year, is now setting more records. From a report: In what is easily a record-setting five-year deal, HBO Max has secured the exclusive domestic streaming rights to The Big Bang Theory. As part of the deal with Warner Bros. Television, the multicamera comedy, created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, has also extended its syndication deal with TBS and will air on the WarnerMedia-owned basic cable network through 2028.
All 12 seasons of the comedy starring Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco will be available to stream for the first time ever on WarnerMedia-backed HBO Max when the direct-to-consumer service launches in spring 2020. (A formal launch date has not yet been determined.) Sources estimate that the deal, including both the streaming end and syndication extension, is worth billions of dollars. By comparison, HBO Max paid $425 million over five years ($85 million per year) to move mega-hit Friends from Netflix and onto its own platform. (Friends, like Big Bang Theory, is produced by Warners.) Further reading: Netflix Lands 'Seinfeld' Rights in $500M-Plus Deal After Losing 'Friends' and 'The Office'; and How 'The Big Bang Theory' Normalized Nerd Culture.
All 12 seasons of the comedy starring Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco will be available to stream for the first time ever on WarnerMedia-backed HBO Max when the direct-to-consumer service launches in spring 2020. (A formal launch date has not yet been determined.) Sources estimate that the deal, including both the streaming end and syndication extension, is worth billions of dollars. By comparison, HBO Max paid $425 million over five years ($85 million per year) to move mega-hit Friends from Netflix and onto its own platform. (Friends, like Big Bang Theory, is produced by Warners.) Further reading: Netflix Lands 'Seinfeld' Rights in $500M-Plus Deal After Losing 'Friends' and 'The Office'; and How 'The Big Bang Theory' Normalized Nerd Culture.
I bought the bluray discs ... (Score:3)
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You mean, when they got girlfriends. And you started humming What have I done to deserve this? from the early 90's.
New era beginning (Score:2)
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This show sucks (Score:1)
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I have no idea why people like this show. It sucks. It isn't even mildly enjoyable.
People like the show because they don't have your sense of aesthetics. Or another way to put it:
Different people like different things!
News at 11
Re:This show sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
> People like the show because they don't have your sense of aesthetics.
And people don't like the show because the jokes are fucking lame. [youtube.com] -- The Big Bang Theory - No Laugh Track 1 (Avoiding the Shamy).
When you NEED to rely on a laugh track you are doing your comedy wrong. Cheers was filmed in front a live studio audience and NEVER used a laugh track -- because the jokes were funny and the laughter was genuine.
Wisecrack has a good explanation why the show is shit. [youtube.com] -- The Big Bang Theory: What Went Wrong?
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Though if that show would have had the viewership and revenue of Big Bang Theory, they would have ruined that too...
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Yup, agreed, Community is funny!
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Can you prove that The Big Bang Theory uses a laugh track? They did film in front of a live studio audience too you know.
There are plenty of moments in the show that I didn't care for, but I've known people with these characters' traits in my local fandom scene. I've known min-maxing PhDs that are absolutely tops of their fields and are absolutely terrible at just about anything else. I've known living encyclopedias of fandom, even drafted one to a geeks-who-drink pubquiz to dominate the Star Trek night.
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They did film in front of a live studio audience too you know.
Which is why it seems so lame without the laughter. The actors were playing off the audience.
Any comedy that wasn't built for a live audience sounds borderline psychotic when it is removed. Pauses for laughter are strange and awkward when there is no laughter.
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Cheers ... lol ... go away dinosaur!
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Seinfeld being the exception to that rule.
But yeah, laugh tracks are mildly insulting. might as well have a caption that says "that was funny, laugh dummy!"
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When you NEED to rely on a laugh track you are doing your comedy wrong. Cheers was filmed in front a live studio audience and NEVER used a laugh track -- because the jokes were funny and the laughter was genuine.
The Big Bang Theory was also filmed in front of a live studio audience. According to Jim Parsons they didn't use a laugh track.
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I thought the story was that they filmed in front of a live audience, and then in post processing, added canned laughter wherever the audience laughed.
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> People like the show because they don't have your sense of aesthetics.
And people don't like the show because the jokes are fucking lame. [youtube.com] -- The Big Bang Theory - No Laugh Track 1 (Avoiding the Shamy).
When you NEED to rely on a laugh track you are doing your comedy wrong. Cheers was filmed in front a live studio audience and NEVER used a laugh track -- because the jokes were funny and the laughter was genuine.
Wisecrack has a good explanation why the show is shit. [youtube.com] -- The Big Bang Theory: What Went Wrong?
I have heard that claim about the laugh track before. Yes you are free to say that TBBT is shit because of its laugh track, and that a certain set of people don't like it for that reason. But that doesn't nullify the fact that a bunch of other people do like it regardless of what you perceive as a negative.
But the fact that you seem so rabid about it speaks volumes about you and your belief that TBBT must be crap as an absolute. I would suggest expanding on your world view and take to heart what I said
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So before you come down on a show for needing a laugh track remember that e
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I think the early seasons were pretty good. It definitely jumped the shark though, and the last 4 or 5 years, IMO, just rehashed the same tired gags over and over, which got more shallow every time.
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I was never a devoted watcher of the series but would watch if I had nothing else going on and it was on. I enjoyed it because it was mostly light-hearted and it was different from everything else that seemed to be on network TV (cop dramas or sitcoms about struggled m
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It sucks. It isn't even mildly enjoyable.
Whereas I would agree, from what little I saw, it was very predictable and the characters all so cliché and flat (plus laugh tracks in the 21st Century? Come-on now get with the times).
That said: different people like different things. Obviously lots of people like it because it was mega-popular; I just didn't watch it, but, was happy for everyone who did- I'm sure there are things I like that other people thought was awful.
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Actually, no laugh tracks. Shows are taped in front of a live audience. Here's a post where someone recounts her experience attending such a taping:
https://medium.com/@jennychen_... [medium.com]
Season 1 was pretty nice, at first. (Score:1)
It was when we started to notice, it was just sports jock writers going "Haa, haa! Neeerds!", that it stopped being fun.
For my two cents, ... IT Crowd or GTFO!
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There was one hot chick on that show, but we didn't see enough of her to make it worth the time to watch.
Count me in, too. Glad to meet a fellow Amy fan. I also wanted more Amy.
Never found it funny (Score:2)
The characters were never relatable or even funny. But the show made big bucks so there must have been a lot of people watching it.
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It's actually a well-known fact that this is the Most Watched Show that Nobody Actually Watches. Congress actually held hearings on this scientific paradox.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
This show isn't funny. The nerds on this show are the worst and most unrealistic nerds ever.
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So it's kind of like PBS, where people report that they watch it so that they'll seem smarter?
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While the show is supposed to be a sitcom, I can only conclude from your statement that you don't know anywhere close to enough nerds to be objectively qualified to make an assessment on how realistic the nerds on that show are... or else you live in a part of the country where only the most uninteresting nerds happen to live.
Have you ever gone to any major science fiction con? Absolutely *ALL* of those peculiar character traits can be found there.
While the characters on the show are certainly exagge
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The problem I have with the nerds on BBT is that they are all nerds in every aspect of nerd culture, whereas in the real world, nerds (like myself) tends to specialize. Nobody is a hardcore Star Wars + Star Trek + Dr Who + Spiderman + Batman + LOTR nerd, right? They tend to specialize into different subcultures and go all-in.
This show makes it seem like nerds are nerds in all aspects of their lives. Whereas someone like myself is obsessed with Star Wars and GI Joe, but has zero interest in comics or cosp
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Maybe nobody you know, but that's a far cry from nobody at all.
To be fair, some are. I won't argue that the characters are exaggerated, but it's a friggen sitcom for chrissake.
That's you. It's a bit narrow
It's cause it's not a show for or about nerds... (Score:2)
It's a show for people who like to laugh at other people for being different.
You know... insecure bullies seeking validation of their personal existence in the face of existentialist dread.
If the cast were say... Korean, the "punchlines" would be stuff like "Gangnam Style" instead of "Thundercats".
Snippets that an average person outside of a culture may have picked up by osmosis and will laugh at not because of some kind of humorous association but because of mere recognition of reference.
And because to suc
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Or for nerds like myself who can laugh at themselves when they identify with aspects of the characters. Because hey, we *are* different, and it *is* funny. If you can't appreciate that and laugh at yourself when you are the oddball, you're going to have a miserable life.
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The nerds on this show are the worst and most unrealistic nerds ever.
Agreed. That really bothers me the most about the show. Clearly whoever enjoys it, like whoever writes it, really has no clue what real nerds are like. Most nerds portrayed on TV are just goofy set pieces.
The most realistic nerds I have ever seen on a TV show are in The IT Crowd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] . It's not only funny, but I can actually relate with it.
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So... Which is it? (Score:2)
'Big Bang Theory' Sets Staggering Multi-Billion-Dollar HBO Max Streaming Deal
Sources estimate that the deal *snipped* is worth billions of dollars.
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He's probably curious whether they've set or estimated.
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One says "Sets" the other says "estimate"
This is what people want to watch? (Score:1)
SSRIs (Score:1)
SSRIs fit into the equation somehow.
Probably also Ritalin & Adderall.
There are so many SSRIs & amphetamines in the average waste-water treatment plant now that it's wonder we're not all zombies.
usurious parasites with BILLIONS of $$$s to burn (Score:1)
With a tiny fraction of that money - maybe not much more than a hundred thousand dollars - you could kick-start a talented group of nobodies into producing something insightful & worthy & watchable & [God forbid] possibly even moral & spiritual.
Plus it would have legit funny lines to laugh along with [for the absurdity of it all - you do remember what humor was, don't you? - or have the SSRIs decimated your ability to so much as chuckle?].
That these usurious parasites have this kinda co
Re:usurious parasites with BILLIONS of $$$s to bur (Score:4, Insightful)
You know what? If producing something "insightful & worthy & watchable & [God forbid] possibly even moral & spiritual" (most of which are deeply subjective and change person by person, but whatever) would pay an ROI, then it would already be happening with these dollars.
At the end of the day, it's not your money to spend and you just might be an outlier on the bell curve of what people want to watch. Nothing is wrong with being that outlier, other than when you want to influence other people's choices. Then you become as much of an asshole as you think these producers are for making things you don't want to watch over things you do.
TL;DR: Pot, meet kettle.
they have an INFINITE supply of $$$s to burn (Score:1)
In order to maintain their stranglehold upon the anti-culture, the usurious parasites will burn through stacks of money the size of which your mind can't even begin to grok.
At this p
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What on earth makes you say that. Basic economic theory, common knowledge of corporations and my real-world experiences all agree that's extremely unlikely.
my parents love this show (Score:5, Insightful)
my parents love this show and keep telling me i should watch it, it's sooooo funny. as a super nerd and outcast, i think they see me in the various characters, and see their popularity as some kind of validation of their son. i don't have the heart to tell them it's stupid garbage with some of the laziest, dimwitted writing of all time. referencing star trek and Dr. Who isn't INHERENTLY clever, and the show's writing falls into a lot of the same misogynistic traps that the type of socially stunted self-obsessed manchildren it portrays typically do.
i wish they had discovered Community instead.
Re:my parents love this show (Score:5, Insightful)
If anything, it adds insult to injury.
Newsflash: They're not laughing WITH me. I learned that long ago.
Nerd PSA (Score:2)
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i don't have the heart to tell them it's stupid garbage with some of the laziest, dimwitted writing of all time.
Because obviously the show being funny to them is just them misunderstanding what is objectively not funny.
i think they see me in the various characters, and see their popularity as some kind of validation of their son
Why not? The show highlights that awkward weirdos can be successful and lead happy lives.
Many nerds like the show because we see ourselves in those characters. Anyone who went to school at a science/engineering university knows someone like those guys. Obviously they compress characteristics of multiple people into one character so they get a bit exaggerated, but that is mostly a consequence of the for
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Don't forget the extremely offensive laugh-track they play to inform you when to laugh.
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I couldn't get into Community as a TBBT fan, and a nerd/geek. :/
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Crazy price tags (Score:3)
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Only if you don't own an antenna. The episodes are playing like 6 hours a day OTA through all the seasons except the latest. Over several networks, all of which seem to have syndicated it.
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the only way to stream it was to subscribe to CBS All Access.
I streamed it from VUDU. I purchased approximately 4 seasons.
Okay, but ... (Score:2)
All 12 seasons of the comedy starring Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco will be available to stream ...
[Also, if my submission about the upcoming season 3 of "The Orville" only being available on Hulu (instead of Fox) -- and my bitter disappointment about that move -- was flagged as SPAM, why isn't article? This one seems *way* more like a marketing plug.]
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While this is getting OT, I have some thoughts about the Orville moving to Hulu for season 3.
They have gone on the record as saying that the streaming platform will offer advantages that could not be met on a network. This sounds reasonable...
They have also gone on record as saying that international distribution licensing will not be affected. That's where it gets confusing.
How can they take advantage of what a streaming platform offers over using a broadcast network like Fox if they are still usi
This is highly offensive to me (Score:5, Interesting)
Rather, the construction "insanely hit comedy," which places an adverb before a noun adjunct, is inexcusable. It's like saying you had some "insanely chicken soup" for lunch, or you drive an "insanely race car."
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I find this highly offensive. No, not the show.
Rather, the construction "insanely hit comedy," which places an adverb before a noun adjunct, is inexcusable. It's like saying you had some "insanely chicken soup" for lunch, or you drive an "insanely race car."
Maybe the soup contained a level of chicken the speaker was not expecting (or the soup was very cowardly, although how you measure the bravery of soup seems unclear to me)?
Re: This is highly offensive to me (Score:2)
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I think they just missed an 's' out.
I smell a few bankruptcies coming. (Score:3, Insightful)
Massive deals... in a shark tank market... of artificial scarcity monopolies...
Yeah, everyone but the biggest fatcat(s) is gonna be corpses.
Only delayed by financial inertia.
If you're gonna mention WarnerMedia (Score:3)
You should also mention that WarnerMedia is now owned by AT&T, since we appear to be headed towards the consolidation of the media companies [wikipedia.org]. CBS is one of the small fry (along with Viacom and Hasbro), and likely to eventually be bought out by one of the big three - NBCUniversal, Disney, and AT&T. (I hadn't heard of Access industries until I looked up that wiki page).
Good news (Score:3)
The series will now be an HBO exclusive, containing the hazardous waste away from the rest of the media industry.
Last Episode (Score:2)
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This ain't right! (Score:2)
HBO Max has secured the exclusive domestic streaming rights to The Big Bang Theory
I already bought several of the seasons that are attached to my VUDU account. I've paid for them. They are mine to stream at any point in the future (for at least as long as VUDU exists, at least). How can they now claim to have "exclusive" streaming rights?
The best part about this show (Score:2)
The videos where people strip out the laugh track and it becomes clear what it is; a bunch of unfunny, uninteresting people with one super annoying jerkwad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] etc
A bunch of hypocrites (Score:2)
Every episode has sexist, racist and classist jokes, yet the cast and crew made sure they all signed a picture that they then put out on as much social media as possible because "They stand with Jussie".
Why? (Score:2)
I mean, it's amusing (truth in advertising: I haven't watched a single ep in at least 8 years), but any show that has to hit the laugh track hard to get a chuckle is fundamentally "not that funny".
I'd rather rewatch.. (Score:1)
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Interesting that your only positives about TBBT are Sheldon and Amy - Amy I'd agree with, but *Sheldon*? The first few seasons were ok, where Sheldon was oblivious to social norms and they got some laughs out of that. But then it changed, and Sheldon started knowing what he was doing but did it any way, which just comes across as him being a nasty person. Thats why I stopped watching.
Re: I'd rather rewatch.. (Score:1)
HBO has 140 million worldwide subscribers (Score:1)
So this 'multi-billion' dollar deal is about $20+ per subscriber? Probably more if they are giving discounts to places like hotels and counting each screen as a subscriber or whatever. Seems like too much to me.
I bet they raise their prices soon. And a bunch of people probably got some massive kickbacks paid for by the subscribers.
Summary contradicts headline? (Score:2)
Was the streaming deal multi-billion?
"Sources estimate that the deal, *including both the streaming end and syndication* extension, is worth billions of dollars."
I'm not sure what report this article is referencing? All the links seem to just be links to other Slashdot stories. I'd expect "from a report" to be a link to . . . the report?
Moving money from one pocket to another (Score:2)
Those showy numbers are meaningless and are just there for headlines. HBO Max is owned by Warner, or more accurately by AT&T which is the corporate parent of both Warner Bros Television and HBO Max. It's just shuffling money from one pocket to another.
The meaningful question is how much money some OTHER streaming company might have been willing to pay for the series. But we'll never know.