The Taylor Sheridan hits keep coming. “Landman” secured 14.6 million global multiplatform viewers in its first seven days across Paramount+ and its linear premiere, TheWrap has exclusively learned. Based on households, this marks the biggest global premiere week ever for a Paramount+ original.

Additionally, in its second week, “Landman” reached 2.4 million domestic households, a 60% increase from its previous week. This metric was found by comparing the first day of “Landman” Week 1 to the first day of Week 2. These numbers are based off of internal data from Paramount+, which measured average minute audience for the show’s first seven days, as well as all linear plays of “Landman” (the linear metrics, which were not broken out separately, were measured by VideoAmp).

This continues a massive fall season for MTV Entertainment Studios, 101 Studios and Bosque Ranch Productions. It all started with “Yellowstone” — the second half of Season 5 scored 21 million viewers in the United States in live plus three day viewing, making its return the most-watched installment of “Yellowstone” to date. Its premiere night alone saw 16.4 million viewers in total, according to VideoAmp, marking a 3% increase from Season 5, Part 1.

That was then followed by “Lioness” Season 2, which scored 12.4 million viewers globally across all platforms. This number accounted for viewing on Paramount+, where the series premiered on Oct. 27, as well as its linear preview, which happened the week of Nov. 10, and reflects internal global data from Paramount.

From Sheridan and Christian Wallace, the drama stars Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, the titular landman at an oil company in the boomtowns of West Texas. The series seeks to be a “modern-day tale of fortune-seeking in the world of oil rigs,” according to a press release for the series, and is based off the 11-part podcast “Boomtown” from Imperative Entertainment and Texas Monthly. In addition to Thornton, the series stars Demi Moore, Jon Hamm and Michael Peña, who appears in a guest role.

New episodes of “Landman” stream every Sunday exclusively on Paramount+.

The post Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Landman’ Sees 14.6 Million Global Multiplatform Viewers in First 7 Days, Biggest Debut for a Paramount+ Original | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.

And you all might be thinking: Who are you kidding?

For all the world, I imagined this year’s Power Women Summit to happen in the afterglow of a different outcome in the election.  

If you’re like me, maybe you wake up every day with a strong desire to stay in bed. To NOT reach for your phone. And think: Are we in December? Is the election over?

So – OK. And however old or young you are, the setbacks come as a surprise. It can’t be normal that women in this country don’t have reproductive freedom, I can’t accept that. It can’t be normal that women in Afghanistan can no longer speak aloud in public. It can’t be normal that women face arrest and torture in Iran for showing their hair. And yes, Kamala Harris lost the presidential election to a convicted felon, leaving us to wonder if a woman can ever rise to our highest office.

I’ve been re-setting my expectations for a long time, expecting that the world would come around to a reasonable middle ground in which we just treat one another as equals.

So I’ll tell you what I tell myself, and what I do not.

I’m not going to tell you to be resilient. Though we have to be. I’m not going to tell you to be fearless. Because our fear is not misplaced. The present moment is not what we expected. The future is uncertain. But today is a day of support, of alliance, of optimism. It’s a day to put a first foot in front of another foot. Just today — we are going to continue walking on our path. With confidence. And with pride. 

And there are so many leaders at the Summit to lift us up. Twenty-three-year-old Jordan Chiles, an Olympic champion who led the US gymnastics team in Paris to a gold medal, is opening the event and talking about discipline. Disappointment. And triumph. I’m excited to hear from Stacey Abrams, the political trailblazer who helped flip Georgia to the Democratic Party in 2020 and will speak with Laura Dern about climate change. We will hear from some of our top directors and showrunners, producers, writers, stylists. And two sisters, Dakota and Elle Fanning, will be our spotlight conversation. 

Today is a feast for the spirit.  

We cannot win the fight for equality without setbacks. Advocating for change means being reminded that not everyone is ready for it. It’s OK. We’re on our feet. We’re on the path. It was only 104 years ago that women won the right to even vote. That battle took 70 years.  

So we keep going. We’re not angry. We’re not defeated. We’re not discouraged. We have our eyes open. We’re prepared. And we’re just not going away. The Summit is here to remind us of that.

I’d like to thank sponsors including: South Coast Plaza, Loeb & Loeb LLP, Lionsgate, Whalar, Paramount Global, CLEAR, Universal, Hallmark Media, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros. Discovery, FX, Yahoo!, Searchlight Pictures and NBCUniversal, and the Shari Redstone Foundation. 

Thanks to our staff and our community and university partners. 

Onward to the Summit! 

The post Power Women Summit: Advocating for Women When It Feels Hard appeared first on TheWrap.

The Season 4 finale of “Only Murders in the Building” brought in the show’s biggest weekly audience to date.

As the Season 4 finale debuted Tuesday, Oct. 29, on Hulu, “Only Murders in the Building” brought in 599 million minutes of viewing time during the interval between Oct. 28-Nov. 3, according to Nielsen. The show outpaced its previous viewership record of 590 million minutes, which it notched in August 2023 during the Season 3 rollout.

“Only Murders in the Building” was the No. 6 most-watched show on Nielsen’s streaming originals list for the week, outpacing “Tulsa King,” which brought in 585 million minutes viewed on Paramount+, as well as “Special Ops: Lioness,” which scored 576 viewing minutes on Paramount+.

“Only Murders in the Building” did not crack the overall top 10 list, however, which was dominated by “The Lincoln Lawyer,” which took the No. 1 spot on the list with 1.45 billion minutes of viewing time on Netflix.

Behind “The Lincoln Lawyer” was “The Diplomat,” whose Season 2 debut on Oct. 31 boosted the series to reach 1.08 billion viewing minutes on Netflix during the week, coming in at the No. 2 spot on the overall most-watched streaming list. Nielsen data shows that viewers ages 50 and over made up 71% of the show’s viewership for the week.

“Lost” came next with 967 million viewing minutes across Netflix and Hulu, coming in at No. 3 on the overall most-streamed list and No. 1 on the acquired TV list. “Family Guy” scored the No. 4 spot on the overall list with 906 million viewing minutes on Hulu, while Tyler Perry’s “Beauty in Black” took fifth place in its second week with 833 million minutes viewed on Netflix. “Beauty in Black,” which was the No. 3 most-watched original series, saw success among Black audiences, who made up 63% of its audience.

Notably, “Agatha All Along” came in at the No. 10 spot on the overall top 10 list, and came in at No. 5 on the streaming originals list with 744 million viewing minutes on Disney+ — ahead of “Only Murders in the Building” — as it debuted its final two episodes.

The post ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4 Finale Scores Show’s Biggest Weekly Audience Ever With 599 Million Minutes appeared first on TheWrap.

All of this is to set up the fact that Max possibly has its third runaway hit of 2024 with “Dune: Prophecy.” The sci-fi series is a spinoff of the massively popular “Dune” films that ruled the box office over the past several years. That audience clearly carried over, helping lift the show’s first episode to the top of the streaming chart this week.

“Dune” has a ways to go to match the magic of Max’s other two big hits. In fact, the series missed the chart last week, its first week on air. That’s likely due to the fact that it debuted on Sunday, the final day of our viewership tracking. Still, we’ll keep tabs on it here in the Weekly Wrap Report.

Rising two spots up to second this week is “Cross.” The crime thriller appears to be a sleeper hit for Amazon Prime Video. No. 3 is “A Man on the Inside,” a new Netflix comedy series. Ted Danson, no stranger to hit comedies, stars as a retiree hired by a private investigator to go undercover in a retirement community.

Up next is a double-shot of Taylor Sheridan. “Tulsa King” comes in at No. 4, one week after its season finale aired, followed by “Special Ops: Lioness.” Both shows are on Paramount+.

Netflix claims the next three spots, starting with two takes on the Hallmark holiday movie genre. “The Merry Gentlemen” debuts at No. 6 this week as one million households watched in the first five days it was available. Up next is “Hot Frosty,” at No. 7 for the second consecutive week.

After the warm and fuzzy holiday vibes we have “Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy,” a documentary bound to make you rethink some of those Black Friday purchases.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” slid this week, from No. 3 all the way down to No. 9. After making more than $1 billion at the global box office, there may not be many people left who haven’t seen the latest MCU film.

Finally, Netflix’s long-running “Karate Kid” sequel series “Cobra Kai” is No. 10.

The linear chart has lately been a three-way battle between “Yellowstone,” “The Voice” and “Tracker,” but this week all three were bested by “The 58th Annual CMA Awards.” The celebration of country music showed that live award shows still have some magic when it comes to drawing viewership.

“Yellowstone” comes next, followed by “The Voice,” then “Tracker.” We’ll see how that trio shakes out next week. Meanwhile, “Dancing with the Stars” aired the semi-final for Season 33 on Nov. 19, helping it take No. 5 this week.

CBS’s “FBI” comes in at No. 6, followed by NBC’s “Chicago Med.” “Wheel of Fortune” closes out the chart, taking the three final spots.

The Wrap Report provides an exclusive first look at the most watched movies and TV series from the past week across both streaming and linear television sourced from viewership trends collected from Samba TV’s panel of more than 3 million households, balanced to the U.S. Census.

The post Max Scores Another Streaming Hit With ‘Dune: Prophecy’ | Chart appeared first on TheWrap.

A month into the season, the NBA’s ratings are down 28% on ESPN through Nov. 21. Meanwhile, the ratings for its games on TNT are flat at 1.8 million viewers per game, while ESPN is slightly behind at 1.77 million viewers per game. This comes after every major studio fell over itself vying for the rights to air NBA games this year, resulting in a $76 billion total deal.

What’s behind the league’s popularity decline? While it is tough blame any one factor, analysts say the NBA has too many regular-season games and lacks continuity, with players changing teams more frequently and teams changing uniform designs more often, which has confused and turned off some fans. The NBA’s social justice focus, starting with Black Lives Matter, made the league a target for conservative pundits and turned off right-leaning viewers. And the league and its players have shown a penchant for not valuing the regular season enough — coaches are still resting star players for long stretches to save them for the playoffs — which has further hurt fan engagement.

The ratings drop has been conspicuous — and potentially worrying — considering the NBA signed its 11-year, $76 billion TV deal this past summer. The new deal, which nearly triples the annual revenue the league brings in from its current contract, will see the league remain on Disney-owned ABC and ESPN, plus bring games to Amazon’s Prime Video and NBCUniversal, starting next year.

The NBA ratings decline comes amid a broader decline in cable TV viewership which is also affecting other sports, including college football and NHL. And Wall Street analysts said it’s too early to panic.

“All of these media partners have entered into long-term deals with the NBA, and I’d say they’re all very excited about the path ahead and the trajectory of the league,” MoffettNathanson senior analyst Robert Fishman told TheWrap. “And so any sort of short term ratings blip is really not what they’re focused on.”

Still, the networks bet big on basketball, and the ratings dip means the cost to acquire viewers is going up. The increasing premium placed on sports rights and live entertainment helped spur a bidding war for the NBA’s TV packages. At the same time, the rise of streaming added new deep-pocketed bidders to the market — ultimately leading to Amazon securing its NBA package for $1.8 billion per year.

The NBA’s acceptance of Amazon’s offer led the league to reject Turner’s bid, a move that severed a 38-year relationship with the network. That caused Turner parent company Warner Bros. Discovery to sue the NBA. The lawsuit was settled earlier this month, with WBD retaining rights to a few international markets and being able to license its popular “Inside the NBA” show to ABC starting next year. But WBD’s stock price took a hit when it lost the NBA and caused Wall Street analysts to speculate whether the company could prosper without it.

While it’s only been a month, the rating dip may well not be a blip. The NBA’s ratings have been heading in the wrong direction for several years now. ESPN’s first-month ratings are down 7% compared to the 1.9 million viewers the network averaged during the 2016-17 season. And the drop-off is even more severe than that, considering Nielsen started including out-of-home viewership from places like sports bars in its ratings in 2020. In other words, the ratings are beefed up compared to a decade ago — and the NBA still can’t match its past performance.

Why the new media partners should care

The ratings dip matters because it means the cost to acquire a viewer is rising for the league’s media partners.

Heading into this season, the NBA’s new deal averaged $12.12 per viewer. The networks are paying an average of $6.40 per viewer for Disney’s package to $25.45 per customer for Amazon’s package, according to Guggenheim research shared with TheWrap.

On average, that means the NBA’s new media partners are paying more than three times what the media partners for the National Football League pay per viewer.

The NFL’s most recent deal, signed in 2021, pays the league $110 billion over 11 years. It includes CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN and Amazon as media partners. (Netflix also signed a deal with the NFL in May to broadcast two games on Christmas, starting this year. Each game cost the streamer $75 million.)

That “doesn’t necessarily mean [the NBA] is a bad deal,” Michael Morris, an analyst at Guggenheim Partners, told TheWrap. “Maybe the NFL is just a complete steal.”

It means, however, that if the NBA’s ratings continue to decline, its media partners will have to find ways to offset the increasing cost to acquire viewers.

“As ratings decline and the relative cost per viewer goes up, the pressure on generating additional revenue is greater in order to get the expected return on these rights investments,” Morris said.

Here, the media partners may have different strategies. ESPN and NBCU could look to double down on their sports betting operations in order to make more money from NBA viewers. Amazon, on the other hand, can leverage its expertise in online shopping to drive sales — a Lakers fan who is watching a game on Prime Video could easily be hit with an ad to buy an Anthony Davis jersey, for example.

But if the ratings continue to slide, networks will have to get more creative than that to make this new NBA deal look anywhere close to as good as the NFL’s.

The big issue

What is going on? Ethan Strauss, a sports and culture writer who covered the Golden State Warriors and now writes about the NBA on his House of Strauss Substack, believes the “core issue” behind the falloff is simple: How does the league make the players try harder? That “seems like a question you wouldn’t even be considering 15 years ago or even 10 years ago,” Strauss told TheWrap. “And it seems like it’s so mundane that you should be able to solve this problem.”

But it hasn’t been solved. Player effort and availability has been a thorn in the side of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for years now. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich popularized a trend dubbed “load management” during the 2010s, where teams rest their star players during the regular season in order to keep them fresh for the playoffs. The NBA has tried to curb load management by adding games-played incentives to contracts and barring players who haven’t played enough games from being eligible for major awards. But the trend has held strong.

Before the start of the season, Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid said he planned on never playing the second game of a back-to-back (where teams play games on consecutive nights) ever again. And Clippers star Kawhi Leonard has routinely sat out games, despite being healthy, during his career.

This, Strauss said, has delivered an unmistakable message to fans: The league and its players don’t value the regular season. And fans have responded by not tuning in as much.

“There’s just too much awareness that an individual game really doesn’t matter — that an individual game is one out of 82 and it’s important not to get injured, and it’s important to be there for the postseason,” Strauss said. “So you pick your spots.”

This should be a bigger concern for Wall Street analysts and league partners, he said, because it makes it less likely casual fans will tune in during the playoffs, when ratings are scrutinized more closely.

As Strauss put it: “It’s hard to get people to tune in for the season finale if they haven’t watched the show to that point.”

Other potential factors

There are other factors that are potentially pushing down ratings.

Social Justice: The NBA has been the most outwardly pro-social justice league among the three main sports in the U.S. The league allowed players to replace their last names on jerseys with phrases like “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe” after the death of George Floyd in 2020. The NBA also canceled games after players boycotted the death of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man who was shot and paralyzed by police, after cops attempted to arrest him for breaking into the home of a woman he allegedly sexually assaulted. More recently, the league has tried to move away from social justice issues and be less political, although stars like LeBron James and Steph Curry publicly backed Kamala Harris for president. But the league’s pivot may have come too late. Strauss said the NBA’s social justice focus made it a “woke pinata” for conservative pundits to bash and simultaneously turned off some right-leaning viewers.

Too Much Inventory: There are too many games for fans to care about, many league observers have said. “There’s too much of it and it’s too available. [There’s] Nothing special about it,” Bill Simmons said on “The Town” podcast last month. The NBA’s 82-game season stands in stark contrast to the NFL’s 17-game season, which makes each regular season football game an event.

Style of Play: All NBA teams shoot way more three-pointers than they did a decade ago — something that’s been a byproduct of Curry’s revolutionary shooting range. Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal said earlier this month that is bad for fans, though, because not //not? Or now?// every player can shoot like Curry. Now, “everybody’s looking at the same thing” when they watch an NBA game — a ton of long shots being jacked up.

Lack of Continuity: The NBA has made it hard for casual fans to follow the game in recent years because of added “noise,” as Strauss said. Teams now have several alternate jerseys and court layouts, and teams are not relegated to wearing lighter color jerseys at home anymore — making it hard for fans to tell which team is playing at home or on the road when watching on TV. Players also change teams more frequently than in decades past. And last season, the NBA added an “in-season tournament” that awards a trophy and cash to the winning team — a move that devalues its actual championship. The overall lack of continuity complicates matters for fans and makes it harder to follow the league.

Dearth of American Stars: Three of the top five players in the league, according to most experts, were born outside the States: Nikola Jokic (Serbia) of the Denver Nuggets, Luka Doncic (Slovenia) of the Dallas Mavericks, and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) of the Milwaukee Bucks. The league, in this sense, has been a victim of its own success in its multi-decade push to make basketball a global game. Non-American stars, for one reason or another, haven’t connected with American viewers as much as homegrown talent.

“A lot of people are under this illusion that you could become more international while being just as resonant domestically,” Strauss said. “I don’t think that’s the case. It’s actually a trade off. And some of what we’re seeing [with ratings] is that trade off.”

The post Why the NBA’s Ratings Are Down Big — and Why Its New Media Partners Should Care appeared first on TheWrap.

And when combined with the overall grosses dating back to the release of “Wicked” and “Gladiator II,” the domestic box office has gained more than $680 million over the past 10 days. At the end of October, the year-to-date total was 12% behind last year’s pace. Now it is roughly 7% behind.

It’s an astonishing turn of events from six months ago, when movie theaters were facing the worst start to the summer box office in decades.

“It’s an extraordinary result,” said Daniel Loria, senior vice president of The Boxoffice Company. “Cinemas nationwide responded to consumer demand by allocating 75% of all showtimes in the United States to ‘Moana 2,’ ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II,’ according to our data. These blockbusters should enjoy a healthy theatrical run throughout the holiday season and this weekend’s success bodes well for a strong year of moviegoing ahead.”

While there aren’t any “Avatar”-like films in December that could help completely close the gap from 2023, the continued grosses from the three November releases, combined with Christmas titles like “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” should help theaters close the 2024 box office on a high note.

For now, there’s plenty to dig into from this historic weekend for the movie industry. Here are the big takeaways.

There’s nobody like Disney

Last year, when Disney’s 100th anniversary film “Wish” fizzled out to a $31.6 million five-day opening, the Thanksgiving weekend box office only reached $173 million overall. “Moana 2” alone has eclipsed that with $225.5 million over the past five days, passing “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” for the highest Wednesday-Sunday launch in U.S. history.

With a $389 million global start and no family films coming out for the next three weeks, “Moana 2” is certain to become the third $1 billion hit this year. The other two? “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which were also Disney releases.

The past three years have shown with “Top Gun: Maverick” and the “Barbenheimer” craze that other studios are more than capable of supporting the box office. But no studio or franchise has shown the ability to provide the consistent tentpole support that Disney did in the mid-to-late 2010s. After a bumpy 2023, the studio led by CEO Bob Iger is back to delivering multiple megahits, and it’s clear that if the box office is ever going to get back to its pre-pandemic highs, it will need Disney to keep up this high standard.

Streaming helps theaters

The National Association of Theater Owners has maintained that streaming and theatrical don’t have to be at odds, and breakout sequels have proved this. After “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” had a modest theatrical run in 2019, it spent several years building a fanbase from streaming audiences on Netflix that turned out to the tune of $690.5 million worldwide for the 2023 sequel “Across the Spider-Verse.”

For “Moana 2,” which will eclipse its 2016 predecessor’s $643 million theatrical total by next weekend, the power of streaming is in full effect again. With more than 80 billion viewing hours, “Moana” is the most watched movie on Disney+. Over the past five years, it has become a film that is near and dear to countless kids and teens, who made up 40% of the sequel’s audience this weekend.

Without Disney+ keeping Moana and Maui fresh in the minds of families, this sequel probably still could have been successful. But it never would have blown past the $125 million five-day Thanksgiving record held by “Frozen II” by nearly $100 million.

“Wicked” is unstoppable

“Moana 2” was a box office tsunami, but “Wicked” was able to surf on that huge wave rather than get drowned by it. Over five days, the musical grossed $117.5 million, and its Friday–Sunday total of $80 million is just a 28% drop from its $112.5 million opening weekend.

With minimal overseas support — its $262.4 million domestic total comprises 73% of its $359.2 million total so far — “Wicked” won’t end up as one of the top grossing films worldwide. But for American theaters, it’s a windfall, and there’s no sign it’s going to stop.

Because while “Moana 2” will continue to dominate the charts through family turnout, its audience metrics are not quite as strong as “Wicked.” CinemaScore grades came in at A- for “Moana 2” and an A for “Wicked,” and while overall positive scores for both films nearly identical on PostTrak — 89% for “Moana 2” and 90% for “Wicked” — a bigger percentage of the opening weekend audience for “Wicked” gave it the highest rating of “definite recommend” at 80% compared to 64% for “Moana 2.”

Among the films currently in theaters, “Wicked” has the best chance of persuading moviegoers outside its core audience to give it a try based on audience buzz. At this pace, the musical has a chance at a $500 million domestic run — and Universal’s decision to hold singalong screenings at Christmas shows just how confident the studio is in its ability to leg out.

“Gladiator II” is quietly humming along

Paramount’s R-rated contribution to the Thanksgiving bonanza may not have put up the huge numbers of its family friendly counterparts, but “Gladiator II” deserves its laurels nonetheless.

As expected, Ridley Scott’s legacy-quel is quietly drawing in moviegoers looking for something more intense than the musical offerings provided by Disney and Universal. It made $44 million over the extended weekend to bring its total to $112 million domestic and $320 million worldwide, putting it on pace to earn between $450-525 million worldwide.

What’s notable about this weekend is that “Gladiator II” continues to bring out an age-diverse audience, with 52% of this weekend’s crowd under the age of 35. Paramount insiders told TheWrap last week that they anticipated weekend demographics to steadily skew older as Gen X and Boomer audiences who saw the first “Gladiator” in theaters turn out in later weeks. But that hasn’t happened yet, as a new generation is discovering how exciting sword-and-sandals films can be.

Don’t be afraid to counterprogram

The past two weekends haven’t shown signs that moviegoers are turning out to theaters for a double feature like they did for “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” last year. But the market is still supporting three tentpole movies that are attracting different audience segments.

Perhaps the biggest and most encouraging lesson for studios: As long as the movies are well received and don’t have significant core audience overlap, there’s room for more than one big-budget title in theaters at any given time of the year. Amid the uncertainty of the past three years, distributors have tended to give each other’s four-quadrant movies wide berth from each other to avoid competition.

These blockbusters should enjoy a healthy theatrical run throughout the holiday season and this weekend’s success bodes well for a strong year of moviegoing ahead.

— Daniel Loria, The Boxoffice Company

With more films expected to arrive in theaters in the years ahead, there will be less breathing room. But that’s not something anyone should fear. Universal’s decision to move the release of “Wicked” a week back to gain word-of-mouth from a weekend free of “Moana 2” paid off big, and now both films are off to the races.

Next year, Thanksgiving should bring another weekend of riches to studios and theaters alike. Universal will be back with “Wicked — Part II” the weekend before the holiday while Disney will have another sequel with “Zootopia 2.” (The 2016 original grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.) Meanwhile, Paramount and Angel Studios will aim where those studios aren’t with Glen Powell’s take on Stephen King’s “The Running Man” and the animated faith-based musical “David.”

The post 5 Lessons Learned From a Record-Smashing $426 Million Thanksgiving Box Office | Analysis appeared first on TheWrap.

“We thought if we could take this big business trend and couple it with our personal passions and interests, we could make something special,” Fitzgibbon, who is now CEO of the company, told TheWrap as part of our Office With a View Q&A series.

That idea led to a brand that has over 160 million followers across social media, 13 million monthly streams and over 5,000 creators in its roster. It’s also a brand that’s blown up in the FAST (free ad-supported TV) space, partnering with major streaming services such as YouTube TV, Roku and Sling TV. It has has expanded past Tastemade proper, launching Travel, Home and Espanõl hubs. That’s an impressive TV footprint for a company outside of the traditional Hollywood ecosystem.

Tastemade is the second company Fitzgibbon, Perez and Kydd founded together following the Santa Monica-based Demand Media. Founded in 2006, that company grew from six people to 600 before it became publicly available on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011. When it came time for the trio to look for their next project, Fitzgibbon felt drawn to the intersection between Silicon Valley and entertainment, an area that fascinated him from “a pretty early age.”

“It’s really the combination of those two worlds that has always gotten me the most excited, which is how is technology informing new media, and how will it define what media is to come? I’ve always been at the center of those two things,” Fitzgibbon explained.

Though Tastemade as a brand found its following through social media, that passion for tech and entertainment led the brand to launch a 24/7 linear streaming television network with its first distribution partner — YouTube TV — in 2018. The partnership happened in the early days of the streamer when YouTube TV’s subscribers were in the hundreds of thousands rather than the millions.

“It was really successful. It was essentially, the birth of a modern streaming cable network,” Fitzgibbon said.

Over the years, Fitzgibbon witnessed various competitors try to apply the economics of television to the digital space as well as the doomed pivot-to-video strategy that haunted publishers during this time period. But of the many media brands that emerged in the 2010s, Tastemade stands in a rare position. Not only is it still around but it’s still growing and has found a relatively strong foothold in the FAST TV space.

“There haven’t been that many long-standing pure play video companies out there that are successfully reaching audiences and creating original content for this new world like Tastemade,” Fitzgibbon said.

Here’s why adapting to be “everywhere” customers are is so fundamental to Tastemade’s philosophy and how this major name in the FAST space is looking at an industry that grew by 30% in 2024 alone.

It seems like Tastemade is fairly streamer and network agnostic. What goes into that approach?
It’s core to the philosophy. We were always the team that was a pure play video company. It started back in 2012. As every new digital platformer at that time started to add video into their platforms, we were always first. We started on YouTube, really. At the time, that was really the only game in town, but Snapchat Discover launched. Then we were one of only 20 channels that was available when Facebook Watch launched.

Tastemade was also always first on the streaming side … In early 2015, Apple TV used to only have six apps on it. Tastemade was added to that platform, which we were thrilled about.

That was really where we started to try to get to the television, but we always had that in mind. It wasn’t really until 2018 where we stood up a programmed network similar to what you see in cable.

Why do you think that you’ve been successful in this space where others have flamed out?
Our focus on video meant that’s all we ever wanted to be. We were building our modern version of what had come before. We really liked the Food Network, the Travel Channel, HGTV. These are all things we grew up with, but we wanted to build a modern take on those. Because that’s what we were always set up to do, that sort of protected us from some of this [pivoting danger].

It’s also the love of the categories. We weren’t coming in saying, “Hey, we’re going to exploit this moment in time or unique opportunity.” We love these categories. It’s fun to come to work every day if we’re thinking about food. We’re happy to talk about where people are traveling. We really do love home and design. Those are just things we like to think about and talk about. When you’re coming in from that angle, the audience knows it, and hopefully it’s showing up on the screen.

I would also say we were always attempting to do something slightly more premium. There was a lot of stuff on the internet that maybe was not being done with as much TLC as we were willing to do. And things on TV aren’t always the best either, right? … We’ve always tried to take that authentic approach, feature talent that’s authentic and allow that talent to be themselves.

As someone who has been connected to the influencer space for so long, how have you seen it evolve in recent years?
In the very beginning, particularly as it relates to brands, they were trying to strike deals with the people who had the biggest followings. That was the easiest metric people would use to try and track. I think over time people found out that maybe that worked for a while, but then it became a little less interesting. You start to see some trends towards smaller influencers, maybe even micro influencers, because they had the real engagement with their audience … That’s been one trend in that space, and I think it’s been a healthy one in spreading some of the opportunity and wealth amongst all of the different influencers.

We were sort of born working with talent out the gate. That’s something we continue to do with brands. Brands come to us every single day, and they want to engage with Tastemade and Tastemade audience. But we can also help them activate with other creators and influencers in the community, which we do all the time. Obviously, we have talent that appears on our shows, some of which we discovered on YouTube way back when.

How are you looking at the FAST space these days?
We’re very excited about it. It’s the fastest growing part of our business. We launched in 2018 with our first channel, Tastemade. We now have four channels that are available in the U.S.: Tastemade, Tastemade Home, Tastemade Travel and Tastemade in Espanõl. Our audience is growing very nicely, up 40 to 50% this year.

It enables us to offer our brand partners something different than we’ve historically been able to offer them. We would work with them on social to create sponsored content. Now that we have streaming television networks we can offer them to buy ads to go along with that. So now, when a brand or partner comes to work with us, we can really offer them that kind of one-two punch of everything that was great about working with us on social, but now they can run spots on our streaming network or partner with us.

What is the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?
Very early in my career, I had a great boss. Her name is Dawn Graham, and she told me, perception is reality. For me, that’s been super helpful, whether it’s trying to empathize with the other person’s point of view, or maybe I’m negotiating with someone and I’m really trying to understand how are they perceiving this situation … There have been many different times where I’ve pulled upon that.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The post Tastemade’s Prominence in the Foodie FAST Space Comes Down to Being ‘Everywhere’ Consumers Are appeared first on TheWrap.

Last week, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) projected a deficit of $2 billion for the 2025-26 fiscal year in its annual fiscal outlook, a massive improvement from the $68 billion deficit the Golden State faced this past year. The budget is expected to be balanced with minor changes.

But the outlook beyond next year is a “little more precarious,” legislative analyst Gabriel Patek told reporters. “There’s really no capacity for new commitments, because we do estimate there to be these pretty significant operating deficits in the subsequent years,” Patek said.

Robert Rivas, speaker of the California Assembly, joined Patek in calling for fiscal caution.

“We need to show restraint with this year’s budget, because California must be prepared for any challenges, including ones from Washington,” Rivas said in a statement. “It’s not a moment for expanding programs, but for protecting and preserving services that truly benefit all Californians.”

Nevertheless, legislators and Hollywood stakeholders said they’re still confident they can usher the proposed tax-incentive expansion through the five-month budgetary process in 2025.

“We will need to convince our colleagues in the legislature that an increase in the tax program will not be a net negative on the budget,” Hollywood Asm. Rick Zbur told TheWrap. “Every dollar we spend as part of a tax credit brings back tax revenues because we are keeping job activity in California. Losing those jobs will have a net negative on the budget.”

Zbur said that while there will be plenty of negotiating and persuading necessary to expand the film and TV tax program, he doesn’t feel it will clash with the call for frugal choices in Assembly budget talks.

California’s relative budget stability was a major reason why Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last month he could support a more than doubling of the state film and TV tax credit program from its current cap of $330 million to $750 million. But the LAO’s report was released before Donald Trump won the election and announced details on tariffs he wants to enact on Canada, Mexico and China.

Trump’s proposed tariffs that would add 25% to all goods from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on Chinese goods. China and Mexico accounted for 40% of all of California’s imported goods last year, according to the LA Times.

California isn’t the only state debating film and TV tax credit programs. Earlier this month, the Louisiana House of Representatives voted to eliminate its production incentives entirely as part of a larger package proposed by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry that would eliminate all of the state’s tax programs and replace them with lower corporate tax rates.

Following the House’s approval, hundreds of film workers showed up at the state capitol in Baton Rouge to urge the Louisiana Senate to restore the incentive program. The Senate did so, though they lowered the program’s cap from $150 million to $125 million in the final package approved by the legislature.

Newsom’s proposal would top the $700 million program offered in New York and make California’s the second largest incentive program in the country behind Georgia, which has no cap.

Dozens of states have introduced tax incentives to develop their own film industries, though the actual economic benefit of those programs has been brought into question. In its most recent annual report, the New York Department of Taxation and Finance found that expanding its film incentive program from its previous cap of $420 million created a net loss for the state, generating just 31 cents in revenue for each dollar spent.

Newsom, Zbur, and other proponents of the California expansion, which include Hollywood unions like Teamsters 399, argue the expansion is necessary to keep California as the country’s top state for production — and to remain competitive not just nationally but internationally.

Major blockbusters like the current box office hit “Wicked” are being shot in London. And productions that aren’t currently eligible for California incentives, like reality TV and game shows, have fled the state for more favorable tax credits elsewhere.

This has exacerbated the financial strain on California entertainment production workers who have seen their savings depleted by last year’s 191-day double strike, with many of them struggling to find employment over the past year. The most recent quarterly report from FilmLA found that the number of on-location shoot days in Los Angeles County in Q3 2024 sank 36% below the five-year average, driven primarily by a steep decline in reality TV shoots.

“An expanded film and television incentive program has implications in the budget, but it works both ways because it is not a set of expenditures,” Zbur said. “The film tax credit will result in fewer tax revenues coming in from the entities receiving them, but it will result in more tax revenues coming from the increased jobs and economic activity that will be retained.”

The post Hollywood Legislators Still Confident in Tax Credit Expansion Despite Caution Over California Budget appeared first on TheWrap.

“Dancing With the Stars” concluded its 33rd season with a ratings bang.

Tuesday’s finale of “Dancing With the Stars” brought in 6.36 million viewers on ABC — the biggest audience the ballroom dancing show has seen since its Season 29 finale in November 2020, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures.

The finale episode also drew a 1.14 rating in the key broadcast demo among adults 18-49, ranking as the show’s highest demo rating since the Season 29 premiere in September 2020. Tuesday’s episode further pulled in the show’s biggest demo viewership for a finale in seven years, since May 2018.

As five couples performed their final dances in the hopes of winning the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy, the finale saw a record-breaking 32 million votes as fans backed their favorite pairs.

In addition to scoring both its biggest total and demo viewership since Season 29, the Season 33 finale posted double-digit gains when compared to last season’s finale, increasing its total viewership by 16% and its demo viewership by 70%.

The “DWTS” finale excelled in other key demos as well, pulling in a 1.27 rating among adults 18-34, a 1.61 rating among women 18-49, a 1.9 rating among women 18-34 and a 0.65 rating among men 18-34.

Tuesday’s finale boosted ABC to win the night amongst its broadcast counterparts, with “DWTS” outpacing “The Voice” — its closest broadcast competitor — by 226% as the NBC show brought in a 0.35 rating. The “Dancing” finale also ranked as the highest rated regularly scheduled primetime entertainment telecast since NBC’s “This Is Us” finale, which brought in a 1.28 rating in May 2022.

Season 33 of “Dancing With the Stars” averaged a 0.77 rating, ranking as the No. 1 entertainment series among adults 18-49 for the first time ever.

As the final five couples — Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong; Danny Amendola and Witney Carson; Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson; Ilona Maher and Alan Bersten; and Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold — took the stage for the last time this season, Graziadei and Johnson were crowned as Season 33’s winning couple.

The post ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Season 33 Finale Scores 6.36 Million Viewers, Biggest Audience Since 2020 appeared first on TheWrap.

ScreenShare, a data partnership between Screen Engine/ASI and TheWrap, tracks the Top 10 most-mentioned entertainment options every week and whether each has gained or lost momentum compared to the prior week. The chart lives on the Data & Analysis page of the WrapPRO Members Hub.

The Wicked Witch of the West has won at the box office, with “Wicked” making $114 million domestically its opening weekend and reclaiming the No. 1 spot on this week’s ScreenShare Top 10. “Moana 2,” opening this week, sails into the No. 2 position while “Yellowstone” dips two spots but remains in the Top 3. Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II,” conquering $55 million domestically in its opening weekend, rose four spots to No. 4 during the week of its premiere. A week after its release, the holiday film “Red One” moves up to No. 5.

“NFL Football” comes in at No. 6 while “Deadpool & Wolverine” holds its position at No. 7. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” moves up to No. 8 during the week of its disc release while “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” returns at No. 9, a month after its highly anticipated release. Sony Pictures’ “Venom: The Last Dance” reemerges to round out the Top 10.

Weekly Top 10

The post ‘Wicked’ Tops ‘Moana 2’ and ‘Yellowstone’ as Title Consumers Are Most Excited About | Chart appeared first on TheWrap.