John Krasinki has defended himself against allegations he sold-out by selling his web series Some Good News to CBS.
Krasinski announced last week that CBS would take over the show after he’d initiated a bidding war with the networks. This prompted angry fans to complain that he was “selling out” by moving it from its current free platform to the larger organization.
The show, which focuses on broadcasting good news, has been an instant hit and has generated lots of interest.
Krasinski argued that his decision was not motivated by money but purely a wish to keep the show going and to get it broadcast on a larger platform.
The A Quiet Place star defended himself while speaking to his former The Office co-star Rainn Wilson on his Hey There, Human live broadcast.
He claimed the sell-off was mostly due to his realization that he wouldn’t have the time to continue with the show after the coronavirus lockdown came to an end.
Current format of Some Good News was not sustainable
Krasinski explained that the current set up of putting out the show from his office was never sustainable and that he would have always needed to have drafted in some help at some point.
“I knew the two options were always going to be that I leave it off with eight in my office — which I would love to keep doing this show from my office forever, [but] it just wasn’t sustainable. So I’d need a partner coming on.”
He also pointed to a remark in the first episode when he said, “Why isn’t there a news show dedicated entirely to good news?” He then argued that now with CBS taking over, “we have one of the biggest news programs in America, CBS News, saying that they want to make it part of their permanent news cycle, which is insane.”
John Krasinki was delighted with what the show achieved in 8 weeks
He also spoke of how much they’d achieved in such a short time period, and he praised the community for making it happen.
“The fact that we were able to accomplish that – in eight weeks it went from not existing to now being on one of these huge news networks – is honestly one of the most amazing honors I’ve ever been able to pull off. And again, it was all due to the community and to the people.”
We can expect to see brand new episodes of Some Good News on the rebranded CBS All Access this summer, with the second run of installments shown on other CBS networks.
Mr. Krasinski is a very busy man, and this influenced his decision to offload the show; he is getting ready to shoot the third series of Jack Ryan, after a very successful second season.