The Apple TV app in MacOS keeps crashing

For months I've noticed that the Apple TV app on my iMac (Big Sur MacOS) keeps crashing. Well, it's the TV window that just disappears, when viewing a program, not the main app itself. When this happens there's no obvious way to solve the problem, including rebooting MacOS or logging out and back into iCloud. Although sometimes, after a week, it started working again.

I was tempted to cancel my Apple TV+ subscription, since none of the answers that I've already found on the Internet could solve this problem, but eventually I found a workaround on my own. Actually, I found two workarounds but one of them is extremely difficult so I'll mention only the easier one. Also, I think I've identified the trigger that causes the problem, as it hasn't happened as long as I don't press a certain button.

The trigger for this problem for me was pressing the "+10 second button" in the TV window app when I'm near the end of any video (which is a common thing to do to get past the credits.) If I press "+10 sec" when there's less than ten seconds remaining, there's a 50% chance that the app will no longer work. The moment I try to open any TV window, that window closes within one second. Reboots won't fix it, nor will re-logging into the iCloud service. Now, ever since I've stopped pressing that button, the bug hasn't reappeared. For testing purposes sometimes I do press that button and sometimes that triggers the failure. So it's most likely the cause of the problem.

I have two solutions, but one of them takes 15 minutes, involving Safe Mode, so it's not worth mentioning. The solution that works more quickly is as follows:

Step 1) Find the TV channel that contains the program you are trying to view. This does NOT work from the UP NEXT window, you have to go into the channel itself.

Step 2) Move the mouse over the lower right corner of the icon that contains a program that isn't loading properly. You will see a download button. Click on that button.

Step 3) Open the download window from the upper right corner of the main window of the Apple TV app. It looks like a downwards pointing arrow in a circle.

Step 4) Wait until the program has fully downloaded. Depending on your Internet speed, this may take a few minutes.

Step 5) When the window shows that your download is complete, double click on the item in the download window.

Step 6) The window will pop up and quickly crash again.

Step 7) Double click a second time on the same item. This time it should work. If needed, try a third and fourth time, though I don't think it has ever taken me more than two attempts.

I can't guarantee that my solution and my preventative measures will work for anyone else. But I thought I'd do the community a courtesy by explaining the problem, and my solution, and my preventative measure.