John Krasinski offered us a little ray of happiness at this difficult time with his brainchild, Some Good News. I loved the show and so appreciated the lengths people would go to put good out in a dark world. When he signed off for good with a lovely show acknowledging his SGN community two weeks ago, I was sorry to see it go, but lightning can only exist in the bottle for so long. So the shows many fans said goodbye. Only our goodbyes were premature, because John sold the show to CBS. Although John will stay on as executive producer, he will not host and a new host has yet to be selected. And his fans, myself included, are not happy about any of it.
A few of John Krasinski fans feel like they’ve heard some bad news…
On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the actor’s feel-good show, Some Good News, was licensed to ViacomCBS after a “massive bidding war.”But the announcement wasn’t met with entirely positive feedback. Many fans of the show—which was created to share positivity amidst the coronavirus pandemic— found the business transaction antithetical to the very spirit of the show.
And Twitter reacted swiftly.
“So he made 8 YouTube videos comprised largely of unpaid contributions from fans, sold the brand to a major conglomerate, and isn’t even going to make it anymore?” One fan tweeted. “Just cashed out? Does this rub anyone else the wrong way, kinda?”
Another fan wrote: “You are profiting off Some Good News!?! I bought you hook, line and sinker… believed you were just trying to bring goodness to light. Going from YouTube (free) to a pay service…so disappointed…sellout!!!”
“I can’t believe you sold it,” one disappointed fan tweeted. “It’s not about the good news, it’s about the profit.”
“This will lose the heart of SGN and become just another corporate money making watered down version of what it once was,” decried another.
Dustin at Pajiba wrote a good op-ed on this story over the weekend about John’s decision. There’s not much I can add to what’s already been said. The beauty of SGN was that very famous and important people came together out of the goodness in their hearts to help an embattled nation. Corporatizing any of it makes it just another manufactured program made-up of contrived feel-good moments and Ellen DeGeneres has a lock on that bs already. Selling the show removes its heart, period.
John and the SGN Twitter account tried to redirect the conversation by declaring that the show would still be available for free and on multiple platforms. But that’s not the point. The point was how touching it was to see our stories up there, serving as a beacon of hope. SGN acted as a virtual hug for those who needed it. All of the missteps and goofy dad moments during the segments were endearing because the show was some homegrown, thrown-together offering out of a den in Brooklyn. Now it will be a shiny, polished, overly orchestrated collection of schmaltzy moments and the host will be given multiple takes to cry for “realism.”
Photo credit: YouTube and WENN/Avalon
Good for him!
That is unfortunate, much like his beard.
does everything have to be monetized and capitalized on? isn’t there a point someone like john can say, “i’ve made enough. it’s enough.”
Meh, he has bills to pay.
I don’t think Jim, Jack Ryan, and soon-to-be Mr Fantastic is struggling to pay his bills.
I mean sure, it’s his choice to monetize his idea. But let’s not pretend it’s because he needs the money.
I think it would have gone a long way toward maintaining fans’ warm fuzzies had he donated at least part of the ad money and proceeds of the sale towards some of the charities highlighted during the run.
I highly doubt I will watch this, since the low budget charm was a big part of it for me and I liked John as a host. but I’m not mad about this at all. he came up with something that people really liked and he made money off of it. plus it brought people some happiness in a crappy time. good for him.
I understand why he did it, but doesn’t have to mean I like it. And I certainly won’t watch it.
My boyfriend and I started watching this show after seeing it mentioned on here and LOVED it. A few minutes a week to enjoy the good side of humanity and some wonderful and kind things people are doing for each other (the celebrities involved in the show included). I assumed he’d wrap it up at some point before this whole horror story ends, maybe because it would get too much and he’d want some time back with his family. I could totally understand that. Cashing in and selling out when they are already rich? That is a bad look.
Didn’t people volunteer their time for this or were they doing it so he could monetize it? Do they get a cut of this money?
There was no intent of putting more money in John’s pocket when this all started. At the very least, make a large donation to relief efforts.
Hmmm. I know it just looked like, “oh a guy in a suit just threw up some videos on YouTube” but I have some friends in production who have actually pointed out several things that made SGN probably cost considerable amounts of money to produce; and I’m sure John Krasinki put his own money into it. Like others have said, it was a bright spot in a dark time, and it lifted a lot of ppl up. If he’s going to profit because some networks went to war trying to buy it, I ain’t mad at it but that’s me.
I’m sure it was a lot slicker than it looked. I also don’t think the idea would work in different times than these. If he didn’t sell, somebody else would have pitched the idea to a network and profited. Perhaps he can donate some of the money and people will be happy. Not that he needs to do that, but it would be nice.
Eh, doesn’t surprise me. Remember his Oscar campaign for A Good Place? John has an “Aw, shucks” persona, but he’s a Hollywood power player. When I heard about SGN, I figured there’d be a profit angle.
Ugh, I meant “A Quiet Place,” of course. Got The Good Place on my mind, I guess : )
John Krasinski was also behind Lip Sync Battle. He did a fun piece on Jimmy Fallon and then it got driven into the ground!
Not shocked that it was sold cause celebs rarely do things that don’t have a chance of making them money, but changing the host sucks. John is why a lot of people watched no?
I thought it was pretty tacky and disappointing, too. I thought the show was great, especially the DIY of it. Why couldn’t they have left it on Youtube, even if he had to hand it off to someone else? I loved SGN and made me like John Krasinski a lot more, and this has just has brought me back to being “meh” about him, with a bit of an added eye-roll.
I have no problem with this. He doesn’t exist just to entertain the masses. Why can’t we just be grateful for what it was and move on?
Agreed. His job is providing entertainment to people. He did that for free—then it turned into a money-making opportunity. So what? He should value his time. As a pp said, the show actually required time and money.
+1
please yall, watch Some More News on youtube instead. it is the actual good channel krasinski ripped off and not very well at that.
That guy has to be pissed. CBS isn’t throwing money at him.
he (cody) seemed at least very disappointed on socials, that’s for sure. i love some more news, *i* got friggin pissed haha, its an excellent show that does not shy away. krasinkski’s sanitized ripoff is just…ugh.
cody worked for cracked for a long time, and it seems after the big cracked firing apocalypse, a lot of the writers had their ideas stolen and developed into other bigger projects by big studios without so much as a nod in their direction. its sad, and im sure absolutely infuriating to be practically helpless to fight for credit where credit is due. this kind of slimy behavior from big studios makes me mad as heck!
anywho! /end rant haha
What‘s the sudden surprise to everyone? It was a plan from beginning to end. Just like his whole nice guy schtick. Come on. He was never out there to be a do gooder, just like I don‘t believe Paltrow designed her website to share her knowledge. He saw a financial opportunity (Corona time), and he seized. The only thing that‘s annoying is how peeps keep finding him so charming. He‘s an opportunistic slimy- that is often a good recipe for success.
Usually celebs of the caliber he had on his show , steven Spielberg oprah jon Stewart etc and others do things like this either to promote something of theirs or for a good cause like lifting people’s spirits during a pandemic. I dont think they would’ve donated their time knowing he alone would be profiting off this unless he made a donation to a charity in their name.
SGN was the first time i could get through an interview with john, i always found him obnoxious and try hard in the past. I tried to give the benefit of the doubt that maybe that was how he shows hes nervous: talking too fast, too many jokes, too much name dropping; but now i think it was the sleazy salesman vibe he had that turned me off and his actions here show that wasnt too far off base.
A celebrity profits off of attention not just $, instead of seeing how he benefited from the press due to this seemingly altruistic show, he had to cash in- gross
Nailed it.
Yes! I‘ll see your sleezy car salesman characterization and raise you a frat bruh.
He made a heartwarming show to pass the time while everyone was under lock down. It took off, a big tv network saw money in it and made him an offer. He’ll probably be going back to work soon and has better things to do so why not off load it to someone else and make money during the process? People will come out of lockdown and forget about feel good stuff and the show with fizzle away. It’s all about business. Don’t watch it if you don’t like it.
I can’t stand watching him in this show. He seems so not genuine to me… like it’s all an act to be so likable and fun. Like it’s part of his branding strategy.
The show was filled with content provided for free by the public. Good luck getting submissions for the paid tv show.
“comprised largely of unpaid contributions from fans”
This is what bothers me about it. The bulk of the content was other people’s stuff, and other celebrities connecting in as a favor. I don’t mind them making a little money with ads or sponsorship or anything to pay those working on it, but to sell it via a “bidding war” is kind of icky.
If Gwenyth Paltrow crowd sourced a bunch of recipes and then sold it as a cookbook, we’d be out there with pitchforks.
I am not entirely sure why people are so mad about it. Good ideas are being sold and that is how movies, shows, plays, etc are made. He had a great idea and executed it perfectly. It’s life ended but it was just a matter of time this idea was going to be recreated, so why not with the appropriate credit to John? I mean in this strange isolation time he came with the best idea and the perfect execution of an online entertainment show while all other shows switched to simply delivering the same shows they did from their living rooms. Would it be better if someone just stile it and pretended like they came up with it? And should all these people also be mad about any of the art products they like? Because all of them start from the idea that is executed when it is sold.
Did you read why people are mad about it? You might as well comment on what they actually said. At the end of the day I don’t think anyone has to explain “integrity”, at the very least.
Not sure. I didn’t follow SGN, but I’ve liked several creations during the lock down and always thought some of the more successful ones would return as commercial ventures. Maybe Miley’s Bright Minded Talk Show, Leslie Jordan’s one man IG show, Swizz Beatz & Timberland’s Versuz music competition, DJ D-Nice’s Internet dance parties, etc. These professionals are innovating away from their normal creative platforms and I don’t really think they owe us more than they are already sharing, What they have created has value, and I don’t fault them testing that value in the marketplace. Now if John K owes the success of SGN in specific ways to his viewers and collaborators, he should share credit and $$ with those whose contributions will be used in the CBS version.
Does it feel good? No. Is it surprising? Hell no. What I find the most funny is that…these corporations can’t figure out how to be positive (a thing many people would tune back into instead of avoiding the news for) themselves?
SGN is audience tested and approved I guess. That’s my only thing like they could have done this themselves but they didn’t find being positive profitable.