Homecoming Brings the Next Beyoncé Revolution to Netflix

Netflix has worked hard to try to attain stature in the entertainment industry on par with its more established competitors. We barely made it out of an Oscar season where Netflix fought and clawed (and spent and spent) to make sure that their big movie — Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma — would contend for major Academy Awards in a way their roster of movies never had before. And it worked: major nominations and some big wins followed, and now you’d be foolish to assess the coming year’s Oscar prospects without considering what’s on the way from Netflix.

This is similar to what the streaming platform had already done in the medium of television, where shows like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black almost immediately shot them into the ranks of prestige TV. It’s a safe bet that if the other TV channels are doing something successfully, Netflix is looking to compete.

So after HBO captured the world's attention when it world-premiered Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade in 2016, it makes a whole lot of sense that Netflix would make damn sure to secure the rights to Homecoming, Beyoncé’s new concert documentary that is poised to be the center of the entertainment universe when it drops (at least until the next episode of Game of Thrones).

WORLD PREMIERE: While Homecoming: A Film by Beyonce won’t be the next Lemonade in that it’s not a full visual album, but rather a documentary focused on her 2018 Coachella set, it will be the next Beyhive freakout. It also fits comfortably in Netflix’s concert documentary wheelhouse, seeing as they’ve already got films like Lady Gaga’s Five Foot Two. But if the online reaction to Beychella was any indication, people are going to be off-the-charts into this one. Streaming on Netflix

SEASON PREMIERE: Despite the fact that it won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Competition in ten of the award’s first twelve years of existence, The Amazing Race doesn’t pull in nearly the audience numbers of CBS’s other longstanding reality shows Survivor and Big Brother. When the show cast BB faves Jessica and Cody in their previous season and fan engagement went way up, somebody got the bright idea to cast the current season, premiering tonight, with a bunch of Big Brother and Survivor faves. Among the most anticipated returnees: BB fan-favorite blondes Janelle and Britney, Survivor’s Rupert Boneham, and its super-team of sarcastic brunettes Corinne and Eliza, and Race’s own faves like Team Fun (Becca and Floyd) and social-media stars Tyler and Korey. It’s like all-stars plus, and if it succeeds, you can bet the other series will do the same. 9:00 PM ET on CBS

SEASON FINALE: In the 4th season finale of The Magicians, the gang faces off against two dark gods inhabiting their friends’ bodies, with those friends’ lives on the line. Season 4 hasn’t always been the best about keeping its ensemble together, which is where the show is at its best, but things seem to be manuevering into place for a powerful finale. 9:00 PM ET on Syfy

SERIES PREMIERE: The new PBS docu-series Breakthrough: The Ideas That Changed the World will follow the stories of innovators throughout the years through six visionary leaps forward. 10:00 PM ET on PBS

ALSO TONIGHT

• Survivor airs one hour with TWO Tribal Council eliminations this week, as a season that had a REALLY rocky start has finally hit its stride after last week’s insane free-for-all at Tribal. 8:00 PM ET on CBS
• The Real Housewives of New York City are back with the conclusion of the big, drunken Berkshires bacchanal, plus LuAnn really starts to push it with Bethenny, which ought to end well. 9:00 PM ET on Bravo
• This week's Riverdale sees Jughead investigating a tainted batch of fizzle rocks infiltrating the community (naturally), while Archie continues his boxing career. 8:00 PM ET on The CW

Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.