The Streaming Wars Are Finally in Full Swing—And the First Casualties Are Coming Into View

emember Apple TV+? You know—the subscription streaming service that spent months hyping The Morning Show, its just-OK drama starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell, only to see that flagship program outperformed by its flamboyantly weird, anachronistic comedy about Emily Dickinson? The service that spent $15-$17 million per episode on a show whose first few episodes consisted mostly of Jason Momoa stomping through the (admittedly beautiful) wilderness? The service that launched way back at the beginning of November, before we all got distracted by the impeachment hearings, the umpteenth Democratic debate and, most of all, the arrival of Disney+ less than two weeks later, with its big new Star Wars show and its archive of the most popular animated, superhero and sci-fi movies of the past several decades?

OK, yes, I’m being a little hyperbolic about our ever-shrinking collective memory. But to anyone who spends less time immersed in the art and business of television than, say, a TV critic, the Apple TV+ news cycle must have seemed remarkably short. Though a small yet vocal Dickinson fandom did assemble (guess what they call themselves), none of the initial series on the service that seemed designed to bring in larger audiences—The Morning Show, Momoa’s goofy See and the competent alternate-history Space Race drama For All Mankind—generated much excitement. In fact, all three are still dropping new episodes weekly, to little fanfare. Meanwhile, Disney+ boasted that it had signed up 10 million subscribers by the end of its first day. Since then, The Mandalorian’s Baby Yoda has become the year’s most adorable breakout character.

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