Against all odds, and despite universally negative reviews, it can be officially reported Velma is getting a second season at HBO Max. Most predicted the opposite happening but the show appears to have its fans — especially where it counts at the top of Warner Bros. Television. And the biggest supporter might be the head of WBTV.
Pop culture commentator and content creator YellowFlash observed that the decision to renew Velma came from WBTV Chairwoman Channing Dungey, who was nominated for her position in late 2020 and started immediately the following year. Note that this period was when the company was still WarnerMedia, owned by AT&T, and made the audacious call to dump their theatrical releases on HBO Max.
Dungey’s input on that is debatable — if she had any — but her rise to power speaks volumes about the chaos at Warner that continues. As a producer, she only has four noteworthy credits to her name, chief among them being the cinematic adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire sequel story, Queen of the Damned — which was pretty awful all around.
Back to current TV ventures, Dungey is also one of the forces behind the new Night Court — which YellowFlash did not know about and that Richard Moll, unfortunately, is not part of — and the hit Ted Lasso. When it came time to justify a second season of Velma, Deadline touted it as “the most-watched animated series debut ever” for HBO Max.
Paying no mind to the number of viewers, some with YouTube channels, who freely admit they couldn’t make it through the first episode, Deadline fails to provide ratings or figures that prove Velma’s singular achievement means anything. “Where are the numbers for this show if they’re so proud of it,” inquired YellowFlash, who wants to see the Nielsens for weeks two and three.
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The baffled YouTuber doesn’t think the ratings can be good and can’t believe season two is coming when “the target audience…woke people hate this show,” as well, noting that “the target audience of this show hates it.”
There are positive reviews and videos out there favorable to Velma but they only garner a few hundred thousand views each, which doesn’t add up to a good fanbase for a show to rely on — “ask Batwoman,” rhetorically notes YellowFlash.
Again, Velma is largely considered unfunny and too cringe-inducing to attract an audience. “It’s up there with [The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power] so I’m kind of blown away by this. I have to say I didn’t see this one coming,” he added.
Regardless, the cartoon’s executive producer Mindy Kaling is getting more gigs. YellowFlash says, “Mindy Kaling is getting more work, by the way. Which is wild to me because she’s literally not talented. Her shows are not funny, but she’s apparently getting a bunch of work at Amazon as well.”
As the YouTuber mentions, Kaling has signed a deal with ROP’s maker, Amazon, to produce more shows with Dungey and the creators of the Max Original Hacks.
“Don’t know anything about Hacks. I know Mindy Kaling’s a hack,” YellowFlash mocked. “Maybe she should be on Hacks. This just blows me away.”
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The YouTuber sees the silver lining in Warner Bros.’s decision to renew Velma for a second season and Mindy Kaling signing a deal with Amazon.
“Well, I guess it’s going to give me a lot of content, so it’ll work out,” YellowFlash noted. “I mean, [Velma] has been so bad I’ve been able to make a ton of content on it because it gets worse even when the show is not on there’s s—t to talk about.”
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