🎬 Caving to Streaming

👋 Good morning! Last week's FireAid Benefit Concert just revealed its staggering impact: over $100M raised for LA fire recovery. The six-hour spectacle, which drew 50M viewers across 28 broadcasters, saw Clippers owner Steve Ballmer matching every donation dollar-for-dollar. With performances split between the Intuit Dome and Kia Forum, it's shaping up to be one of the most successful benefit concerts in recent memory.

Welcome aboard the Dailies. As you sip your morning brew, we’ll get you caught up with the fast-paced world of Hollywood—no need to chase down a newsstand, we’ve got everything you need right here.

🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• What LA Really Needs (According to Industry Vets)

• Grammys Paradox

• Football Goes Hollywood

• Cable Holdouts Cave to Streaming

• Last Looks: 👀 Bite-sized scoops on developing stories/projects

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Martini Shot 🍸

CLOSEUP
📉 Even game shows are leaving LA…

As Hollywood's exodus continues, LA is also losing its grip on unscripted shows, long considered the city's reliable bread-and-butter productions. From competition shows to docuseries, formats that were once reliably "home-based" because they needed Hollywood's infrastructure are finding homes overseas.

Case in point: Fox’s game show ‘The Floor’ is shooting in Ireland—a pretty big departure for a format that typically demands permanent studios, local audiences, and consistent crew access. When even game shows are heading overseas, you know something is seriously shifting in Hollywood’s eco-system.

Some brutal numbers:

• Production hours in LA dropped 28% since 2022 (from 123M to 88M hours)

• More than 15,000 crew jobs vanished in two years

• Only about 30 Netflix productions remain in Los Angeles

The Tax Credits Catch

You've probably heard about Governor Newsom's proposed $750M annual tax incentive—more than double the current program—aimed at stemming the tide of runaway production to places like Georgia and New Mexico.

Take ‘Suits: LA’—it only returned to California from Vancouver after snagging a $12M tax credit. "There is zero percent chance we would have been in Los Angeles if those tax credits didn't exist," says showrunner Aaron Korsh. 

But here's the catch: once the show becomes a hit, it loses access to those same credits that brought it home. The current system excludes returning series, unscripted shows, and doesn't cover key costs like actor salaries or visual effects work. Plus, unlike competing states' offerings, the credits aren't fully refundable.

Industry veterans say stopping this exodus would require a complete overhaul of California's incentive program. While Newsom's $750M proposal is a start, experts point to six critical changes needed to truly compete with other production hubs:

• Make credits fully refundable (meaning if a production's tax credit exceeds its tax bill, it gets the difference in cash—competing states already offer this)

• Coverage for above-the-line talent costs (currently excluded)

• Support for visual effects work

• Inclusion of unscripted shows and game shows

• Higher credit percentages for TV series (above 30%)

• No annual cap on incentives

The bigger picture: Studios' top five filming locations for 2025-2026 are all outside the U.S.: Toronto, UK, Vancouver, Central Europe, and Australia. California barely made sixth place. Without these changes, LA risks becoming just a corporate headquarters while actual production happens elsewhere.

WIDESHOT
🎬 Grammys, Chiefs, & Fox’s new streamer…

📺🎵The Grammys just proved social media might be more valuable than TV ratings. Music’s biggest night just pulled off a fascinating paradox—while traditional TV viewership dropped 10% to 15.4M viewers, the show exploded on social media with a record-shattering 102.2M interactions. That’s more than even the Super Bowl’s digital engagement. The Trevor Noah-hosted event, clocking in at a marathon 3 hours and 45 minutes, still pulled impressive numbers, marking its third-strongest showing since 2020, despite scaled-back promo efforts due to LA’s wildfire crisis. For networks and awards shows, it’s a telling snapshot of entertainment’s future: while traditional TV metrics are showing signs of erosion, social media engagement is soaring to new heights. The battle for eyeballs isn’t just about who’s watching on the big screen anymore—it's about dominating TikTok feeds, Instagram stories, and Twitter trends as millions scroll through the show on their phones.

🎬🏈 The Kansas City Chiefs are joining the Hollywood game by launching their own production studio. The move comes as more major brands step into entertainment, with companies like Chick-fil-A and Starbucks already making content plays of their own. Their new Foolish Club Studios plans to create shows and movies for TV networks and streaming platforms, following the success of their Hallmark romance ‘Holiday Touchdown’ (a Chiefs-themed love story that became Hallmark's #1 cable movie of 2024). Named after the original team owners who were dubbed the "Foolish Club" for daring to challenge the NFL, the studio will focus on underdog stories both in and outside of sports. The timing's particularly strategic, using their Super Bowl spotlight this weekend to announce their Hollywood ambitions. For industry watchers, it's another sign that traditional studios are facing fresh competition—this time from brands who want to tell their own story, their own way.

🎯📺 Even cable TV's biggest holdouts are finally caving to streaming. Fox announced a late-2025 streaming service with their sports, news, and entertainment content, following ESPN's similar move—proving even the most bundle-dependent players can no longer resist streaming's pull. The streaming sports field is getting crowded: Fox's service launches as ESPN goes direct-to-consumer, Disney acquires Fubo TV, and Amazon and Peacock beef up their sports offerings. Meanwhile, a major power shift is underway: streaming platforms will outspend traditional broadcasters on content for the first time in 2025 ($95B vs. $91B), marking streaming's dominance in the entertainment landscape. Fox is keeping expectations "modest" though, targeting cord-cutters while trying to preserve their cable revenue.

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LAST LOOKS
Development 🗒️

• Sarah Michelle Gellar is set to reprise her iconic role as Buffy Summers in a Hulu reboot directed by Chloé Zhao. (more)

• Corey Stoll joins Apple and Mattel’s ‘Matchbox’ movie, the live-action film inspired by the iconic toy car brand. (more)

• Rhys Ifans will lead Apple TV+’s For ‘All Mankind’ spinoff ‘Star City,’ exploring the Soviet side of the space race. (more)

• Sony Pictures Television is taking over full distribution of ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy’ amid an escalating legal battle with CBS Studios. (more)

• TNT, TBS, and TruTV are shifting their unscripted strategy after losing NBA rights. (more)

• Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Peter Dinklage will star in road trip comedy ‘The Shitheads.’ (more)

• Samuel L. Jackson and Daveed Diggs are set to star in an Ernest Dickerson-directed hitman thriller. (more)

• Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired North American rights to Ira Sachs’ Sundance drama ‘Peter Hujar’s Day.’ (more)

• Zac Efron and Will Ferrell star in an Amazon MGM comedy about a courtroom hostage crisis, directed by Nicholas Stoller. (more)

• Tiffany Haddish, James Franco, and Christopher Meloni join the psychedelic stoner comedy ‘Toad.’ (more)

• Molly Gordon is teaming with A24 to direct and star in ‘Peaked.’ (more)

• Sony acquires most international rights to A24’s ‘Bring Her Back,’ the next horror film from ‘Talk to Me’ directors Danny and Michael Philippou. (more)

• Ethan Hawke is developing a remake of the classic western ‘The Gunfighter’ for 20th Century Studios. (more)

• Toni Collette stars as trailblazing NFL owner Georgia Frontiere in ‘Madam Ram,’ a QCode and LuckyChap podcast. (more)

• Heidi Klum is exiting ‘America’s Got Talent’ after 11 seasons, with Mel B returning to the judges’ panel. (more)

• Chevy Chase, Bruce Dern, and Joey Lauren Adams will star in ‘CATnip,’ a comedic thriller about a family battling a horde of feral cats. (more)

Renewed & Canceled ✅ ❌

• ‘How to Die Alone’ is canceled after S1 at Hulu. (more)

Business 🤝

• Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief strategy officer, is joining A24 as a partner to spearhead tech innovation. (more)

• Warner Bros. Discovery has named Ryan Gould and Bobby Voltaggio as Presidents of U.S. Ad Sales. (more)

• Paramount and Nielsen have ended their four-month standoff, striking a new multiyear deal to resume ratings measurement. (more)

• Sylvester Stallone has invested in AI-driven analytics platform Largo.ai, joining to support the company’s expansion in film, TV, and advertising. (more)

Other News 🚨

• Juliette Binoche has been named Jury President for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. (more)

• New York is sweetening its film production incentives, including a $100M pool for indie films. (more)

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The future of filmmaking is already here

From virtual production to AI-driven creativity, the industry is evolving fast. Stay ahead of the curve with the industry’s latest tech trends—all in one place. If you love The Dailies, you’re going to love this. 👇

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments

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