Chattanooga Times Free Press

Netflix embraces the here and now

- BY KEVIN MCDONOUGH Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin .tvguy@gmail.com.

Netflix takes a page from the HBO playbook, streaming a live comedy special on a Saturday night. The Chris Rock stand-up special “Selective Outrage” (10 p.m. Saturday) is a major move into live events for the streaming service that pretty much did away with appointmen­t TV and the very notion of a television schedule. You watched what you watched when you wanted to. Why wait?

When I first started writing about Netflix’s streaming service in 2013, I boldly declared that “There is no now now.”

That was then.

Last week’s Screen Actors Guild Awards were streamed live, not on Netflix proper, but on the Netflix channel on YouTube. There, it attracted some million and a half viewers intrepid enough to find them in an unorthodox venue. Next year’s SAG Awards will be streamed on Netflix itself, presumably live.

Until now, live streaming has pretty much been consigned to sports. Prime

Video paid a king’s ransom for rights to Thursday night NFL games. And while they weren’t watched by as many viewers as had seen them previously on Fox, they still brought a consistent­ly large audience.

According to Fox, more than 6 million viewers streamed the most recent Super Bowl. That’s a fraction of the total audience, but the most to have ever streamed the big game.

The timing of “Selective Outrage” is intended not only to tweak HBO. It’s Rock’s first standup special since his role in last year’s Will Smith Oscars debacle. And it arrives just a week before the big night, an awards ceremony that Rock hosted in 2005 and 2016. Rock has said that he was asked, post “slap,” to host the 2023 awards, but refused.

Viewers should note that last week’s SAG awards proceeded without a host and moved along with brisk efficiency. Jimmy Kimmel will preside over the Oscar ceremonies next Sunday.

› For those who can’t wait, and presumably can’t stay up late enough for the big show, there’s “Nickelodeo­n Kids’ Choice Awards 2023” (7 p.m. Saturday, Nickelodeo­n, CMT, MTV2, Nick Jr., TVLand, and 9 p.m., Nickelodeo­n,

TV-G) singling out kids’ favorites from the worlds of film, television, music and sports. Former NFL wide receiver Nate Burleson and dancer and social media influencer Charli D’Amelio will host.

D’Amelio’s presence is interestin­g in that kids know her not from Nick or any other television network, but from TikTok. That and other social media apps have grabbed all the young “eyeballs” that would have gravitated to Nick some 20 years ago. It would be interestin­g to find out how many of D’Amelio’s juvenile fans live in homes with parents who don’t even own a television set. Just writing the words “television set” seems kind of 20th century.

› Deep in debt and sensing trouble, promoters throw a huge bash to raise cash in a house belonging to an NBA star in the 2023 comedy “House Party” (8 p.m.

Saturday, HBO) starring LeBron James as himself. Released in January to middling box office and atrocious reviews, the movie is a reboot of a film from 1990 starring Kid ‘n Play.

The film’s poor reception reinforces the notion that reboots, when handled badly, not only fail to attract the audience for the original, they can deeply offend faithful fans. Makers of “Frasier” 2.0 take note.

› The “Barefoot Contessa” welcomes famous friends for free meals at her East Hamptons home on a new season of “Be My Guest With Ina Garten” (11:30 a.m. Sunday, Food Network, TV-G). Over the course of four episodes, she will break bread with ballerina Misty Copeland, singer Norah Jones, actress Laura Linney (“Ozark”) and actor and travel-show host Stanley Tucci.

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