• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 27, 2023

I imagine some readers get tired of my byline showing up all over MediaPost, and I apologize for that, but as editor in chief, my most important role is making sure we make copy deadlines and publish relevant and important content for our readers. Basically, that means I'm often filling in when they're on vacation or otherwise out of pocket, and TV Watch columnist Wayne Friedman is on a well-earned one this week. So you're stuck with me.

On the upside, I began my trade reporting career covering TV, and probably look at it differently than Wayne does, so you may actually be in for a treat. Wayne does things Wayne's way, and I do things my way.

And when we originally conceived TV Watch, the goal was to watch -- and report on -- the news other people are breaking or otherwise writing about television. But analyzing it in a way for our readers, who are primarily people involved in buying and selling the medium.

And one of the first things I do when I get back into TV industry news coverage is to check one of my favorite tools for sourcing -- and indexing -- news of any kind: Google News.

So what's the biggest TV industry story in the current news cycle? If you had a Marjorie Taylor Greene space laser-ish conspiracy theory on your TV news bingo card, you've won!

According to a TV Watch analysis of the most-covered TV industry news stories of the past 24 hours, MTG's theory that her TV is spying on her ranks No. 1, by a margin of nearly three to one over the next-biggest story -- "The Price Is Right" leaving its long-running home on the Bob Barker Stage at CBS' Television City studio. (The show had been set there for 33 of the past 50 years.)

The Emmy Awards adding a special "75" to this year's statuettes in commemoration of its 75th anniversary ranked third, followed by a fourth-place tie:

• News coverage of the Parents Television Council's call for HBO to cancel "The Idol," citing its depiction of "torture porn," "sexual abuse" and the kind of general "depravity" that commonly goes into HBO hits.

• Roku's deal to live-stream the Formula E electric car race.

News about TV syndication conference NATPE planning a January 2024 return following its recent bankruptcy and obituary coverage about the passing of long-time Paramount Domestic Television chief Steve Goldman filled out the major 24-hour TV industry news-cycle coverage.