John Krasinski Defends Selling ‘Some Good News’ to CBS

John Krasinski recently broke his silence and clarified the reasons he sold his fledging feel-good web series Some Good News to ViacomCBS, a move which resulted in a backlash on social media and accusations of selling out. 

Last week, The Hollywood Reporter reported that ViacomCBS had won the rights to SGN after a “massive bidding war” with CBS All Access having the first window for new episodes before they move to a number of the company’s linear networks. Under the “rich deal,” Krasinski will continue to be involved as an executive producer, but he will not host all the new episodes.

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The social media backlash when the deal news broke was swift and was given further fuel when it was announced that CBS News was laying off up to 50 staffers. 

On Tuesday, speaking to his former Office co-star Rainn Wilson on his Instragram Live show Hey There, Human, Krasinski explained that SGN was never meant to be a long-term thing, especially with all his other acting, writing and directing commitments. “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,“ he said.  

Added Krasinski: “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.”

“I knew the two options were always going to be, I leave it off at eight in my office, which I would love to keep doing this show from my office forever, but it just wasn’t sustainable,” he explained to Wilson. “I knew I would need a partner coming on.”

Krasinski told Wilson that it was “insane” having “one of the biggest news programs in America, CBS News, saying they want to make it part of their permanent news cycle.” He added that he had “a lot of really fun stuff planned” for the series and will be involved as much as he can be. 

In March, Krasinski started the charmingly DIY-SGN while stuck at home during the pandemic lockdowns. Running for eight full episodes on YouTube, the series took time to highlight positive pandemic stories from around the world, as well as thanking front line healthcare and essential service workers. Krasinski also drafted famous friends for skits and musical numbers, included reunions of the Office crew and the original Broadway cast of Hamilton.

In two short months, Some Good News had garnered tens of millions of views, millions of followers on its various social media accounts and a great deal of positive press from around the world.