John Krasinski has explained why he sold his DIY at-home series Some Good News to ViacomCBS after receiving backlash from fans on social media.
The Office star began his Some Good News series on YouTube in March to share good news stories around the world during the coronavirus pandemic, and it was announced last week that he had sold the series.
“I was only planning on doing eight (episodes) during quarantine. I have these other things that I’m going to be having to do very soon, like Jack Ryan,” Krasinski said Tuesday during an Instagram Live chat with his Office co-star Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute.
“More than that, writing, directing and producing — all those things — with a couple of my friends was so much, and I knew it wouldn’t be sustainable with my prior commitments,” Krasinski added.
“I knew the two options were always going to be, I leave it off at eight (episodes) in my office, which I would love to keep doing this show from my office forever, but it just wasn’t sustainable,” he explained. “I knew I would need a partner coming on.”
Krasinski said that now he has “one of the biggest news programs in America, CBS News, saying they want to make it part of their permanent news cycle, which is insane.”
“The fact that we were able to accomplish that in eight weeks. It went from non-existing to now being on one of these huge news networks, and it’s honestly one of the most amazing honours that I’ve ever been able to pull off and, again, it was all due to the community and the people,” he said.
Krasinski said they have “a lot of really fun stuff planned” and that he’s going to try to be part of it whenever he can.
“I’m going to host a couple episodes and bring on a different community of people. We’re really, really excited about it,” he said.
Wilson said that Some Good News was “exactly what the country needed” during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Dude, Rainn, that means so much to me and thank you for saying that,” Krasinski said. “And thank you for being a part of it twice, by the way.”
Krasinksi said he’s received “amazingly kind notes about how much that show meant to everyone.”
He added that Some Good News also “meant no more to anyone than me” and said that working on the show was “probably the most emotionally fulfilled I ever felt in my entire life.”
Krasinski aired his final episode of Some Good News last week, but now there will be a weekly Some Good News series produced by Comedy Central Productions without Krasinski as the main host. He will have a recurring presence in the new series.
Last week, fans of the at-home series took to Twitter to call Krasinski a “sell-out” after news that he sold the series spread.
“Could not be more excited and proud to be partnering with CBS/Viacom to be able to bring Some Good News to so many more people,” Krasinski said during the announcement of the partnership. “From the first episode, our goal was to create a news show dedicated entirely to good news. Never did I expect to be joining the ranks of such a historic news organization as CBS.”
The series will premiere on CBS All Access and then come to other ViacomCBS platforms at a later date.
More details of the new Some Good News series are currently unknown.