The TV Show

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay — and they're leading with a question nobody in late night wants to answer: what happens when you spend your final week trying to "kill it" instead of doing what made the show great? Stephen Colbert's finale gave Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, and Robert De Niro thirty seconds each, closed with green screen gimmicks, and ended with an 83-year-old Paul McCartney — who can't hit the notes anymore — turning off the lights on 11 years of television. Angelo, who hosted for over 30 years, gets unexpectedly honest about the ending he wishes he'd had. T...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea and Jay are BACK together to discuss The Crash, which follows Mackenzie Shrilla, convicted of murder after driving 100 mph into a wall and killing her boyfriend and his friend. And when cameras caught her father on film basically blessing his teenager's drug use, the internet — and Angelo — had thoughts. Are the parents victims of an unfair documentary, or are they exactly what Angelo says they are: in complete and utter denial? The gang debates where documentaries end and exploitation begins, bringing up The Jinx and Paradise Lost to make the case that...

Send us Fan Mail

Jay Black and Rhea Hughes are back — and filling in for Angelo today is Philadelphia sports media legend Glen Macnow — and they're leading with a number that should terrify every executive at Disney: The Mandalorian and Grogu is tracking at $80 million for its May 22 opening, which would make it the lowest-grossing Star Wars debut in franchise history (below Solo, the movie the whole industry agreed was a catastrophe). Disney has been flooding its streaming service with Star Wars for years, and audiences have simply burned out: are streamers so desperate for content that they...

Send us Fan Mail

Jay, Rhea, and Angelo are back... and Hollywood just got a lesson from its own past. Devil Wears Prada 2 opened to $77 million domestic and $233 million worldwide, proving that 125 million Americans over 50 — mostly women — will absolutely show up if you give them something worth watching. The question is whether the movie actually delivered: Angelo thinks Meryl Streep is chewing the scenery so aggressively she’s a structural hazard, Jay thinks she’s the only thing holding it together, and both of them agree Emily Blunt deserved a better movie than the one she got. Is this...

Send us Fan Mail

Jay and Rhea welcome Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist and author Mike Sielski to the show — and they're leading with a number that should terrify every sports league in America: Peacock lost $432 million in a single quarter, with cumulative losses now north of $11 billion since 2020. The gang breaks down the real culprit: younger audiences don't watch sports the way Gen X and Boomers did, and streaming kills the "channel-flipping" behavior that created casual fans in the first place. Meanwhile, NHL playoff ratings are surging on basic cable while the NBA ta...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back, and this week the conversation starts with a question nobody in Hollywood wants to answer: what happens to late night when the networks just... give up? Byron Allen didn't pitch a show to CBS. He BOUGHT the time slot. The gang breaks down what it means when a broadcast network stops programming and starts renting, Angelo predicts every late night show you know is already dead, and Norm MacDonald gets posthumously vindicated for telling us "Comics Unleashed" was never what it claimed to be.

THEN...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back — and this week someone finally said the quiet part loud. Sony chairman Tom Rothman walked into CinemaCon, stood in front of a room full of theater owners, and told them to their faces that THEY are the reason people aren't going to the movies. His three-word fix: longer windows, shorter pre-shows, cheaper tickets. The gang breaks down which demand would actually get YOU back in that seat — and Angelo finally gets his chance to go OFF on 30 minutes of pre-show ads.

THEN: Streamers are now rene...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss Bill Lawrence, creator of Shrinking, going online to say that the main storyline of the first three seasons is over, but that the show is continuing for a fourth season with a new storyline.  While refreshing that a show knows when to end a story after it's run its course (we're looking at you The Bear!), wouldn't this be the right moment to end the show?

THEN: The Boys are back and all of a sudden it looks like the bad guys might b...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the brand new SNL from the UK and how it's (so far) surpassing what we're doing in America.  Jay offers a theory as to why that might be (and why the superiority might not last much longer!)

THEN, Angelo is trying to find Project Hail Mary on a movie theater screen, but Super Mario Bros Galaxy is eating up all the screens!  Hollywood finally has a hit movie, both with the critics and at the box office, and now theater contracts for a ca...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to talk about the disaster at ABC as an entire season of The Bachelorette has been scrapped because someone didn't do their homework and decided to let a known abuser be the star of the show.  TMZ got the video of Taylor Frankie Paul exploding, and now $30 million of the network's money has imploded. 

THEN: after the success of Project Hail Mary, is Ryan Gosling now the biggest male star in the world?  The gang debates and then comes up with a list of undeniable movie...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the Oscars, something that only Jay seems really excited about (because he loved One Battle After Another).  Is the problem the movies themselves?  The selections by the academy?  Or something more fundamental: are movies just no longer the center of the pop culture universe anymore? 

Then, Reggie Dinkins has become the breakout hit of the 2025-2026 season and the whole gang watched it to decide whether or not it deserves that title.

All that PLUS: British Corner, a review of t...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss Rooster, the new show by unstoppable king of TV, Bill Lawrence, starring Steve Carell.  They've all seen it, so it gets the rare triple review.  But the big question is whether or not this is yet another disappointment in the post-Office career of Mr. Carell, or a rare bright spot.

THEN: The Amazing Race is getting sued by last year's main villain, claiming that the show and its producers defamed him through tricky editing.  The gang discusses whether or not any person on a "...

Send us Fan Mail

This was ALMOST an emergency pod: Angelo, Rhea, and Jay discuss the implications of the huge mega-merger of Paramount/Skydance and Warner Bros/Discovery, a union that will leave the new entity with EIGHTY BILLION WITH A B dollars in debt.  Can it survive?  Should it survive?  And what does it mean for all our favorite shows?

THEN, Scrubs is back, and it's good, actually.  The gang discusses other successful reboots, and of course, Jay's choice is one that Rhea and Angelo would've NEVER considered.

ALL THAT PLUS: British Corne...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the complete debacle of the BAFTAs, where a man with Tourette’s Syndrome screamed a slur during Michael B. Jordan’s time on stage and the powers that be DID NOT edit it out for broadcast. What could possibly be their thinking in this disastrous decision?  The gang is baffled but do their best to get to the bottom of it.

THEN Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show has done something very rare in today’s TV landscape: added viewers and young ones at that...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss Rose Byrne's phenomenal performance in the otherwise pretty terrible If I Had Legs I Would Kick You, and discuss the long legacy of great actors giving great performances in lousy movies.

THEN, Bill Lawrence has a new show coming out called Rooster, and the internet seems divided between excitement for a new show from the creator of Shrinking and Ted Lasso, and frustration that it looks like another show filled with his signature breezy schmaltz.  The gang talks about show creators who have an id...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the biggest controversy in TV this week: which Super Bowl halftime show to watch.  Now that everything is political, what singers we enjoy with our nachos has to be political too.  The gang discusses which performance was better and where the halftime show should go from here.

THEN: Piracy is back, with sales of the "superbox", a device you attach to your TV that allows access to all the streaming sites for free, booming.  Are the people who buy the superbox just thieves?  Or d...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the NFL's dominating ratings through the regular season and the playoffs...right up to the Conference Championships, which were down around 7%.  Will the lack of a big market team mean the ratings slide will continue or was it a momentary drop due to the bad weather last week?  

THEN, the gang talks about Markiplier's Iron Lung, a movie that he self-funded, self-distributed, directed, starred-in, produced, edited, and probably did the Craft Services on.  It made a staggering $21 million at the box office this pas...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the brand new Star Trek show, Starfleet Academy, and only one of them is really happy about it (hint: he's a huge nerd!). Is Academy the "Nu Trek" show worthy of the title of the new TNG?

THEN, the gang discusses Jimmy Kimmel's unprecedented shift from comedy to politics, something that late night has never really seen before.  Whether or not it's persuasive, it's certainly courageous!

All that PLUS: a review of Press on Amazon Prime, a discussion of the best TV...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the hottest new show on TV: Heated Rivalry and the bump in ratings that the NHL is seeing because of it.  Would a popular show about a sport make you interested in seeing that sport?

THEN, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck went on Joe Rogan's podcast... and it was good!?  How did that happen?  The gang discusses just how well the lifelong friends are able to break down the movie business and how good Joe Rogan can be when he gets out of his o...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss Sunday's Golden Globes and whether or not people actually care about awards shows anymore.  Other than One Battle After Another winning (thereby vindicating Jay), Sean Penn smoking, and Nikki Glaser's monologue, was there a single reason to watch?

Then, is a discussion of streamflation -- streaming prices jumped 20% in 2025 and at what point do we say "enough?"  What streamer is on the brink of cancellation for you?

All that, PLUS, a Harlan Corben mystery, a review of The Apartment from Keane Black...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss whether or not there is a SECRET 9th episode of Stranger Things and what makes for a good final episode of a show.  Were things better in the old days when shows would just... end?

THEN, there's a new Chevy Chase documentary on CNN and whoooo boy, does he come off as bad in it.  The gang discusses the documentary, jerks in Hollywood, and where, exactly, the line is when it comes to no longer supporting a star.

All that PLUS: a...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay take a look back at 2025 and pick out the best and worst shows of the year.  If you were looking for something to binge this New Years, they've got you covered!

THEN: Stranger Things is having an all-time run when it comes to interest and buzz this holiday season, with two volumes dropped a few weeks a part, and a finale that's set to air on New Year's Eve that has already sold out in theaters around the country.  Is this the future of how TV is go...

Send us Fan Mail

It's just Jay and Rhea this week and it's a *very* special episode: 16 movies in a tournament to find out the very best Christmas movie all time.  Whose bracket will you agree with?  Jay's or Rhea's?  You DON'T want to miss this episode!

MAKE SURE TO VISIT OUR SPONSOR: Steven Singer Jewelers!

The TV Show is a weekly podcast hosted by Jay Black, with regular guests Angelo Cataldi and Rhea Hughes. Each week, we dive into the new Golden Age of Television, with a discussion of the latest shows and...

Send us Fan Mail

In the wake of Rob Reiner's horrific death, Angelo, Rhea, and Jay celebrate his life and work by talking about the projects of his that they loved the most.  From This is Spinal Tap to a A Few Good Men to the moving "fan film" of The Princess Bride released during covid, the first half of the show is devoted to a man who made all of our lives just a little bit brighter.

THEN: It's the 20th anniversary of Jimmy Kimmel's "feud" with Matt Damon, which leads into a long c...

Send us Fan Mail

Rhea is back and she's just in time to join Angelo and Jay for a discussion about the latest developments in the Warner Brothers saga.  It looked like it was going to be Netflix buying the storied company, but then, like a villain in a movie, Paramount swung back in with a hostile takeover attempt!  Things are heating up and the gang breaks it down.

THEN, Mad Men made its debut on HBO, and, despite the technical glitches that made Zaslav's team look completely incompetent, it vaulted into the top ten mo...

Send us Fan Mail

It's just Jay and Angelo this week (with a special visit from Jay's two oldest kids) and they start off the show fuming mad at what ESPN is doing to the greatest entertainment on TV: The NFL Red Zone.  They keep shoving commercials into it and the question is: when will it finally be enough?

Then, it's a conversation with Jay's kids about Stranger Things Season 5 -- it was supposed to be a conversation with Angelo, but he just couldn't stomach a bunch of kids fighting monsters.  It's an amazing start to...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to get deep into Netflix's latest huge hit show, The Beast in Me.  It's an airport novel of a TV show, cranking on all cylinders, and the crew is united in their thoughts about it!

THEN, HBO is in trouble and their plan to save themselves is... to go back to being HBO!?  Five years ago, HBO rebranded from the Mercedes Benz of TV into something like a nice minivan as a way to compete with Netflix and it's backfired.  So they've decided to try to g...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to talk about dead celebrities: specifically, which celebrities have earned the most amount of money despite not being on this planet anymore.  Some are easy to guess, others are ones you wouldn't have thought of in a million years.  Listen and play along at home!

THEN: ESPN is buying MLB.TV, despite the fact that the NFL now owns 10% of ESPN, which means, as Angelo points out... that the NFL now owns a piece of the MLB, which is just nuts. Have the massive changes in...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the premier of TV's biggest event show in ages: Pluribus, a gigantic Sci-Fi show, with a huge budget and Vince Gilligan's name behind it.  Does it live up to the hype?!  What are some other shows that debuted huge and then fell off the map?

Then, the gang turns to Sydney Sweeney's disastrous Oscar bid, Christie, a movie that had the 9th worst wide debut of any movie... ever.  Is this it for her movie career?  Also, Sydney was obviously trying to pull a Monst...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the amazing ratings of an all-time great World Series and whether or not changes like the pitch clock have saved the decades-long decline of Major League Baseball.

Then, the gang discusses Reese Witherspoon's interesting comments about how the decline of the romantic comedy might be to blame for why young people today have a hard time dating.  

All that PLUS, a discussion of Sony's new approach to charging for streaming content, a review of Colin Farrell's new movie, The Ballad of a...

Send us Fan Mail

Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss the brand new hit movie on Netflix, House of Dynamite, and it's explosive, controversial LET DOWN of an ending.  Are audience's owed a satisfying ending?  Maybe not, but they're at least owed AN ENDING!

Then, it's a discussion of Taylor Sherridan's big bombshell of a deal with Peacock.  Why did Paramount let their golden boy slip away, especially considering the huge deals they just gave to South Park and the Duffer brothers?

All that plus, some of the best documentaries Angelo has...

Send us Fan Mail

We open with the headline everyone’s talking about: Saturday Night Live host Sabrina Carpenter dropping not one but two F-bombs during her performance. Was it an accident—or marketing genius? The crew recalls when saying that word on air could end your career (see: Charles Rocket, 1980) and marvels at how little anyone seems to care now. That morphs into a look back at TV’s most shocking live moments, including the Bud Dwyer tragedy, and a reminder that some things on television really can’t be unseen.<...

Send us Fan Mail

A moment that’s been 180 episodes in the making: the entire crew finally recording in person. We start the show with a heartfelt discussion about the passing of Diane Keaton, whose legacy sparks both nostalgia and debate. From Annie Hall to Baby Boom to Something’s Gotta Give, the crew unpacks what made her such an everywoman icon. Would a “modern Diane Keaton” even be possible in an era of Botox and CGI storytelling?

We then pivot to something far less wholesome.... Jared Leto. We dissect the flop of Tron: Ares and Leto...