The world has been drastically changed by the COVID-19 coronavirus as it’s swept across the globe infecting 5.6 million people and killing over 350,000. It’s been a challenging time for many, as unemployment rates skyrocket, stay-at-home orders keep families stuck inside, and even simple trips to the grocery store can look like a disaster movie. There has rarely been a time when we’ve needed good news so much, so one celebrity stepped in and made a splash unlike anything we’ve seen since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Office and Jack Ryan star, John Krasinski, posted the first episode of Some Good News on March 29th, probably completely unaware that it would take off to the extent that it did. The show gained rapid popularity with its truly inspiring stories, cool guest stars like Oprah and Steven Spielberg, and Krasinski’s heartwarming events such as online graduations, proms, and weddings that saw him bring together hundreds and thousands of people online during a time of social distancing.
However, after nearly two months and eight episodes later, the beloved host announced recently that he’s sold the show to CBS for an undisclosed sum. This didn’t go over well with its emphatic viewers who took to the internet to roast and belittle Krasinski for what they perceive to be selling out. Of course, he remains a busy man who will be resuming work on his various other projects soon, so Some Good News was unlikely to have ever been something he’d be able to keep up full-time anyways.
While speaking to Rainn Wilson during an Instagram video chat via Soul Pancake, Krasinski opened up about his decision to sell the show, saying:
Well it’s funny, it was one of those things where I was only planning on doing eight of them during quarantine, because I have these other things that I’m going to be having to do very soon like Jack Ryan and all this other stuff. But more than that, it was something that writing, directing, and producing with a couple of my friends was so much [that] I knew it wouldn’t be sustainable with my prior commitments.
I knew the two options were always gonna be that I leave it off with eight in my office—which I would love to keep doing this show from my office forever, [but] it just wasn’t sustainable. So I’d need a partner coming on. And it’s funny, in the first episode I said, ‘Why isn’t there a news show dedicated entirely to good news?’ and now we have one of the biggest news programs in America, CBS News, saying that 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 not existing to now being on one of these huge news networks—is honestly one of the most amazing honors I’ve ever been able to pull off. And again, it was all due to the community and to the people.
If you’re worried you’ll never see John Krasinski on the series again, however, fear not – he’s confirmed that he plans to be a part of things as often as possible and that he’ll absolutely host the show from time to time. And that’s definitely some really good news.