Why the TCAs Were Canceled (Again)
- The Television Critics Association (TCA) summer press tour has been canceled due to financial constraints and changing media landscape.
The latest example of cost-cutting and consolidation in Hollywood? The canceled Television Critics Association (TCA) summer press tour.
On Wednesday, the TCA's board of directors informed its members via email that the next big installment of the twice-annual media event has gone the way of, well, quite a few other TCAs in recent memory .
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"We regret to inform you that after much discussion and negotiation, there will not be a traditional TCA press tour this July/August," the email read.
Often referred to simply as "The TCAs," the press tour is a twice-a-year event in which TV and streaming platforms present their new (and occasionally returning) shows to a ballroom full of critics and reporters. Executives, show creators and cast members charm from the stage in what is essentially one continuous weeks-long press conference, broken up by food and drinks — lots of food and drinks. Journalists from all over the country (and beyond its borders) attend. Or at least, that's how it used to be.
What happened? Well, that question verbatim is a heading in the TCA leadership's email — and here are the bullet points that followed, in the board's own words:
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Conversations about organizing summer tour have been ongoing since the summer of 2024.
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Every network, studio, and streaming platform was contacted about presenting, and the TCA Board met with all in February. We left the meeting hopeful that the summer tour was happening.
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In early March, we had commitments for six days of presentations.
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Later, most of those networks told us the tour was not financially viable for them.
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Additionally, we had interest from other networks, streaming services, and industry organizations about participating. Ultimately, all told us they could not afford the cost of tour.
Why is this happening? We're glad you asked because, yes, that is the literal headline for the next list of bullets in the TCA board's email. Their direct answers:
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The systems that once supported tour, in Hollywood and journalism, have changed.
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Networks have consolidated into just a few companies and cut publicity staff.
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There are considerable costs for those presenting panels — the hotel and AV are expensive for the networks. The TCA Board reduced some of those costs by half, but that was not enough.
The TCA Awards will still take place, the board wrote, though they will be "reimagined." The awards are typically fairly glitzy — a nice opportunity for critics and reporters to dress up and hand out to trophies to the just-enough celebrities in attendance .
No summer TCAs follows no winter TCAs: January/February's installment was also scrapped for financial reasons (though the Los Angeles wildfires would have canceled the tour anyway). Unlike so many of the communications professionals reporters gladhand with at the tours, TCA board isn't spinning here — sadly, the event is no longer financially viable. Frankly, it's no longer relevant enough to be. That's no knock on membership, it's just the reality of the current media landscape .
Hosting a day at the TCAs can easily (and conservatively) cost a network or streamer in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. You've got to fly in talent (and their plus-one, and not in coach!), book top-notch accommodations and car services, and pay the makeup artists. And God forbid you host a party — just double your bill now.
But there's a hidden cost that is huge, even if it can barely be calculated. Oftentimes, a network will have to shutter a day of summer production for a fall TV show to shuttle everyone to TCA, which has taken place in Pasadena in recent years (and before that, Beverly Hills). Pausing production costs big money, and it throws off the whole eight-shooting-days-per-episode schedule for your typical TV drama (five days for a comedy).
Back in the day, all of this was worth it. TCA was the best way to get all of the country's spread-out TV critics in one place at one time. Remember newspapers? Every city had at least one of those, and every paper had at least one critic — so the networks brought the mountains to Mohammed. These days, such a large percentage of entertainment journalists live in southern California, a source pointed out. Networks can (and do) host their own press days on their own lots at a far-lower price tag.
The returns on investment have diminished quite a bit in the internet era. The source said "the snark" that has emerged in the social-media age can make a simple Q&A a real problem.
As a second network source told The Hollywood Reporter, "We would put our executives up on stage for a Q&A just to get berated with questions. They would say everything wrong, stumble on one thing, and that's the headline."
Good luck getting them to keep paying $600,000 for that , which is the TCA budget the first source recalled having at his disposal one year.
You know what else ruined a whole bunch of good things? COVID. The COVID-19 pandemic killed the in-person TCAs for a while, and networks, like your own office job, pivoted to Zoom. Though those aren't free — it can still cost low six-figures, the source said — they're a lot cheaper. (If from set, it's a 45-minute break from production and hair and makeup are already in place.)
Though the virtual TCAs sucked for the media, they were good enough for the channels and streamers hosting them. As one person told THR for this story, it was "the same interviews at a fraction of the budget."
And that's the bottom line.
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