We’ve noticed lately that our current worldview is perhaps best captured in the portrayal of Tommy Norris, the lead character of Taylor Sheridan's show “Landman,” which is currently in its second season on Paramount+. Brilliantly brought to life by actor Billy Bob Thornton, the combination of “he has seen it all” delivery, along with each new plot development registering as “what fresh bit of hell is this,” is just pitch-perfect. The show works in large part because Sheridan has acknowledged that he wrote the lead role specifically for Thornton to play.

For our money, “Landman” is the best thing on television at the moment. And it’s not even close.

Aside from a strong cast and an even stronger production in every aspect, the show seemingly captures much of the life around the oil business, which is at the very heart of life in East Texas, throughout the region known as the Permian Basin. The majestic, vast panorama shots showing the endless flat brown horizon dotted with countless oil wells and the ruthless business dealings that play out around them do bear some strong similarities to the current state of the broadcast television business.

At least to us, anyway.

Take this rumor that came across our desks yesterday: Could the CBS Owned and Operated Stations be up for sale?

Sure, it would be easy to dismiss this as implausible at best. However, thinking about the idea further underscores why it might be more possible now than ever before.

The roots of this fantasy seem to lie in the idea that CBS and its owner, Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, would want to unload its standalone, non-CBS-affiliated stations—namely, the ones in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida (WTOG) and Seattle, Washington (KSTW). The most likely buyer for those two stations was said to be the Fox Television Stations group, led by CEO Jack Abernethy.

The idea certainly makes sense. Fox would gain an instant duopoly in both markets, where it already owns at least one station (WTVT in Tampa and KCPQ in Seattle). Paramount would be picking up some cash for properties that don’t really fit with the rest of the CBS-owned station group.

But this forecast gets a little cloudier when you consider Paramount’s move in Atlanta last year. The state capital of Georgia is where CBS suddenly moved its affiliation from Gray-owned station WANF to what was then the other standalone station in the CBS/Paramount group, WUPW—now known as CBS Atlanta. Couldn’t CBS replicate the same idea in Tampa and Seattle?

Sure, but standing up a successful new local news operation in those markets is neither an easy nor a cheap proposition, as CBS discovered in Atlanta.

And that’s where this larger idea about connecting the CBS O&Os with the FOX O&Os begins to make more sense. The idea that we have heard from multiple sources is that combining the local news operations in the major markets where both groups have stations that produce a ton of local news would be very attractive from a financial standpoint. The high cost of acquiring local news each day (think Helicopters, Live Trucks, and “feet on the street”) could be significantly reduced while still producing distinct news presentations for each station.

(Or not, as the case might ultimately be.)

The way that might work would be for the FOX-owned stations to provide “operating services” to the CBS-owned stations via a “share services agreement” that has been common in duopolies in other markets for quite some time. CBS would retain ownership of the stations and their FCC licenses so that this arrangement wouldn’t require federal approval.

The other version of this idea would be for Paramount to sell the CBS O&Os to FOX outright, but that, of course, would require the FCC to finally make good on the kind of deregulation that Nexstar and the NAB are pushing for, so it can close on acquiring TEGNA. If FOX acquired the CBS stations group outright, it would create a “quadopoly” of four different owned stations in places like New York City and Los Angeles, while delivering a significant chunk of cash to Paramount’s CEO, David Ellison, to further fund his pursuit of the Howard Stern-esque goal to become “The King of All Media.”

Again, we stress that this is all speculation, that is just a notch above wishful thinking. That said, we know that FOX stations CEO Jack Abernethy is a smart and aggressive executive who gets things done. We wouldn’t ever bet against him when it comes to making a deal.

Even in the current, crazy and uncertain climate gripping the broadcast television industry. Which, come to think of it, is not unlike the oil business, at least as it is portrayed in “Landman."

To quote that show’s Tommy Norris: “A wish in one hand, is shit in the other. See which one fills up first."

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