After a few scheduling conflicts, I made my HuffPost Live debut today, to talk about fall TV and a trio of my recent Adweek stories. First I spoke about Fargo, which as I wrote this week is the best TV show you’ll see this fall.

I then talked about The Walking Dead, and why AMC should prepare to end that show, even though they probably won’t.

Finally, we talked about Tuesday’s news that Donald Trump is going to host Saturday Night Live on Nov. 7, and why he is spending so much time on a network that cut professional ties with him in June.

We covered a lot of ground, and I look forward to returning to HuffPost Live soon.

Is Fargo the Best TV Show of the Fall?

Should AMC End ‘The Walking Dead’?

Donald Trump to Host ‘Saturday Night Live’

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Ever since Breaking Bad went off the air, AMC has been desperately searching for the next Breaking Bad. Now the network hopes it has found it…with their new Breaking Bad prequel, Better Call Saul, which paneled today at winter press tour.

As I wrote at Adweek, Vince Gilligan, the creator of both Breaking Bad and its spinoff, says the sky’s the limit when it comes to Breaking Bad characters popping up on Better Call Saul — well, everyone except Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul).

“Walt and Jesse don’t show up in Season 1. But everything else is on the table,” co-creator Peter Gould told reporters at today’s press event. “We want this thing to stand on its own.” (Also, as the AMC panel pointed out, Jesse Pinkman would have been in middle school during Better Call Saul’s first season.)

Before introducing the Better Call Saul panel, AMC president Charlie Collier talked about the “dramatic change” facing in the network, and why AMC is now operating in “a Live + 365 environment” (do advertisers know?).

No, Walter and Jesse Won’t Be in ‘Better Call Saul.’ But Anyone Else Could Turn Up

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Just nine months ago, USA President Chris McCumber was talking to me about his network’s push into comedy, and preaching patience. Looks like his patience has worn thin, because USA announced that it is retreating from comedy and refocusing on drama, while AMC has pulled the plug on almost its entire reality slate as it, too, opts to concentrate on what it does best. As I explained at Quartz,

Those surprising moves were in part explained by a Wall Street Journal report that the US top 40 most widely distributed cable channels in 2010—USA and AMC included—have lost an average of 3.2 million subscribers, or more than 3% of their distribution, during the last four years, as consumers have starting “shaving the cord” by opting for smaller, cheaper bundles of channels.

Intent on not being shaved out of existence, networks are refocusing on keeping their core audiences happy, rather than trying and attract new viewers. “In an environment of exploding content options for viewers,” AMC said in explaining its decision, “we have decided to make scripted programming our priority.”

Both networks damaged their core business by taking their eye off the ball, and their sudden retrenching should also be a red flag for E! and Bravo, which are both branching into scripted series for the first time.

Cable networks will save themselves by focusing on what they do best 

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Here’s a clip from my segment:

Thankfully, they didn’t include the portion where my earpiece shorted out, just as I was being asked a question by someone remotely. Oh, the fun of live TV!

‘Squawk Alley’: Why Sunday is TV’s Hottest Night

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The Atlantic took notice of my Quartz piece on why all the best shows air on Sunday nights, and republished it. Two times in one week!

Why Sunday-Night Television is So Good 

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Homeland. The Good Wife. The Affair. The Walking Dead. Mad Men. Masters of Sex. Veep. Game of Thrones. When you think of the best (and most Emmy-nominated) shows on TV, almost all of them air on Sunday nights. As I wrote at Quartz,

It seems counterintuitive to pit all of TV’s best series against one another, as anyone who’s tried to program a DVR on Sundays can attest. But there is in fact a method to the networks’ madness, and five reasons why Sunday night’s quality TV overload exists—and won’t be going away anytime soon.

Through Nielsen numbers crunching (charts!), research and a great chat with Showtime Network President David Nevins, I came up with five very strong reasons — some of which surprised even me. Here’s one: airing on Sunday night is more important than being watched on Sunday night.

While many of the Sunday shows have drawn record audiences as mentioned above, it’s also true that premium cable networks like HBO and Showtime aren’t beholden to advertisers. So those executives don’t have the expectation or urgency that viewers need to tune in “live” during their shows’ initial Sunday night airing. “I always say, it doesn’t matter to me whether you watch it on Sunday; I’m fine if you want to want until Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday,” said Nevins. “You wait much past then, you’re going to miss the conversation.”

Five reasons why Sunday is TV’s best night

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It’s almost time for The Walking Dead’s Season 4 premiere, and unlike in previous seasons, international viewers in more than 125 different countries will be able to watch within 24 hours of the U.S. debut. As I wrote at Quartz,

Previously, the show’s international air dates lagged behind The Walking Dead’s US showings by a week. But FIC was no longer willing to sit by and watch as the show’s rabid fans pirated the latest episodes. “We want to prevent the spoilers for sure, we also want to make sure [international viewers] get the best version of the show—not some pirated version,” Fox International Channels’ chief marketing officer Liz Dolan told The Wrap. “But we also want them to get it super fast.”

Now, no country is safe!

‘The Walking Dead’ wakes up and fights piracy by releasing global versions earlier

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After I’d recovered from last night’s riveting Breaking Bad series finale, I finished up this Quartz story about the daunting task ahead of AMC:

But despite the stellar ratings, AMC is now in the same position HBO found itself after The Sopranos finale aired back in 2007. With no other clear-cut heirs to Tony Soprano’s throne, the network stumbled for a couple years (with poorly-received shows such as John From Cincinnati, Hung and How to Make it in America) before finally bouncing back with hits such as Game of Thrones and critically-acclaimed series such as Girls, Veep, Boardwalk Empire and The Newsroom.

With Breaking Bad now completed and its other media darling, Mad Men, about to start its final season (more on that later), AMC has hit a similar run of bad luck.

I have my concerns about AMC’s “everything old is new again” approach to its programming slate. We’ll have to see if they can avoid HBO’s post-Sopranos funk.

Now that ‘Breaking Bad’ is over, AMC looks to break good with another show

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