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👋 Good morning. A great controversy is gripping the land: where are Maui's nipples? Fans have looked upon Dwayne Johnson’s chest in the 'Moana' trailer and found it troublingly smooth. Some are convinced Disney airbrushed the areolas clean off, blaming a supposed studio rule against nipples in its movies. Johnson himself insists otherwise, swearing they're right there, just buried under tattoos and a whole lot of pec. The Dailies remains Switzerland on the matter of Nipplegate. See the evidence for yourself when live-action 'Moana' hits theaters today.
Anyway, welcome back. You've survived to Friday, so pour yourself a well-earned cup and let us handle the catching up. ☕️👇
TOP STREAMED
📊 This week’s top-streamed originals…
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 | Enola Holmes 3 NetflixFILM The week's top streaming movie across all platforms. It pulled 4.3M domestic views in its first 7 days according to Luminate, a steep 54% drop from 'Enola Holmes 2,' which opened to 9.4M in its first week. Netflix says the third installment racked up 20.7M views worldwide in its opening weekend. |
 | Elle Prime VideoSERIES The pilot debuted at 3.5M domestic views, while the binge-released season averaged 2.0M views per episode, adding up to 12.7M hours watched. A solid debut by Prime's standards, landing right in line with the streamer's recent YA series 'Off Campus' (1.9M views per episode and 13.2M hours watched in its first week). |
Top-streamed chart (U.S.) July 2 to July 8. Data provided by Luminate.
CLOSEUP
🏝️ Gen Z can’t stop watching ‘Love Island’…
The cast of ‘Love Island USA’ S8
Every night at 9 o'clock, millions of teens and twentysomethings put their phones down, cancel their plans, and tune in live. The conventional wisdom said streaming had killed appointment TV, especially for younger audiences lost to the algorithm. And reality TV, the genre that once owned the schedule, had faded hard, its share of top broadcast shows shrinking by two-thirds since the early 2010s.
Then along came 'Love Island USA', rebuilding appointment TV six nights a week. S8 had the biggest debut in Peacock's history, and this Sunday's finale should be the biggest night yet. The scale of it:
824M minutes viewed across the first three episodes, and 2.3B in the first two weeks (per NBCU), outpacing plenty of scripted tentpoles in the process.
Nielsen ranked it No. 1 across all of streaming for the June 1-7 week, with 59% of viewing from adults 18-34.
80% of viewers who started in the first two days watched at least 15 episodes, a retention rate that almost never happens with this demo.
S7's 2.2B social impressions made it the most talked-about entertainment series on TV, and S8 has kept pace, passing 1B video views in 16 days.
So how does it keep everyone showing up? Near-daily drops mean spoilers are everywhere, so viewers either watch live or spend their commute dodging TikTok. Fans vote in the app for their favorite couples and put others on the chopping block, giving viewers a real stake (they crashed the app this season, its own kind of rating). Recap creators on TikTok, Reddit, and Instagram rack up millions of views and keep the conversation going between episodes. And it’s even moved offline, with bars screening it next to the NBA Finals and World Cup.
The bigger picture: Streamers have long leaned on the binge model, releasing everything at once and losing subscribers who finish fast and cancel just as quickly. 'Love Island' flips that, and makes the subscription feel worth it to viewers, a nightly habit they keep coming back to. And it isn’t a one-off: 'The Traitors' and spinoff 'Beyond the Villa' are thriving too, more proof Peacock is building a whole slate around appointment viewing.
INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
Expense receipts shouldn't require a search party
Adam spent 20 minutes looking for a $36 receipt. His finance team sent three Slack messages. Someone made a sticky note.
Ramp would have matched it automatically the moment he swiped. Auto-coded, in-policy, synced. Nobody had to ask Adam for anything.
This is what finance looks like when it runs itself.
Your team can be Adam. Or they can not be Adam.
WIDESHOT
🎬 Live channels on Netflix, Television City, Meta’s AI…
🔴 Netflix is quietly turning back into TV. A recent slide in engagement has the streaming giant reportedly considering live channels, which would run continuous streams of certain programs or genres, plus bundling rivals like Peacock right into its app. It's a bit of an admission that the on-demand-only approach that turned Netflix into a verb might be hitting a ceiling. With shares down more than 40% over the past year and its US viewership share recently hitting a multi-year low, the company that spent a decade burying cable is now inching its way back toward, well, cable.
🏚️ Hollywood's landlord is running out of lots to lose. Hackman Capital is about to lose Television City, the storied Fairfax lot that has hosted everything from 'All in the Family' to 'American Idol' since the 1950s. Hackman ran up more than $357M in debt on the lot, and lenders are forcing a sale. Hackman bet big on soundstages during the peak TV boom, but with LA production now sitting near record lows, it's been losing the lots one by one (Radford, Kaufman Astoria, and Manhattan Beach among them). Radford is already headed to Netflix for a fraction of what Hackman paid back in 2021.
🎨 CAA and SAG-AFTRA are calling out Meta's new AI tool. Muse Image, which launched this week, lets anyone tag any public Instagram account, and generate new AI images from that person's photos. No permission needed, since every public profile was opted in by default. It's a similar move to OpenAI's Sora rollout last year, which sparked enough industry backlash to force a switch to opt-in (before the product died altogether). CAA called on Meta to make protection "the default, not the exception," while SAG-AFTRA deemed anything short of a clear opt-in "unacceptable."
AWARDS SEASON
🏆 Emmy noms are out. ICYMI here’s the rundown…
Nominations for the 78th Emmys dropped Wednesday morning, and while the headlines likely found you already, here are some of the bigger takeaways…
HBO Max dominated. The streamer topped all platforms with 122 nominations and owns both the most-nominated drama ('The Pitt') and comedy ('Hacks'). All while the Paramount Skydance deal inches toward the finish line.
Which makes Paramount's own showing a little awkward. Paramount+ walked away with one nomination total, a stunt nod for 'Tulsa King.' Taylor Sheridan got shut out yet again, even with buzzy seasons of 'Landman' and 'The Madison.' Not exactly new territory: across all his shows ever, Sheridan has nine Emmy nods, all below-the-line. Luckily for them, HBO Max's haul is about to be theirs anyway.
Apple TV keeps punching above its weight. A company-record 87 nominations and six series in the top program categories, including freshman breakouts 'Widow's Bay' (19 noms) and 'Pluribus' (18). Not bad for a streamer with a fraction of its rivals' viewership.
'Hacks' is now the most-nominated comedy ever. Its final season pulled 24 nods, breaking the record of 23 that 'The Bear' and 'The Studio' shared.
The Gen Z effect is (slowly) reaching the ballot. 'Dancing with the Stars' earned its first reality competition nod since 2016 after an influencer-heavy season brought in younger viewers and its best ratings in a decade.
And YouTube got a foot in the door. Kareem Rahma's subway interview show 'SubwayTakes' scored its first nomination in the short form category. 'Hot Ones' missed, but the Academy acknowledging creator content at all is the story here.
See the full list of nominations here. 👀
Looking ahead… Final voting runs August 17-26, the Creative Arts ceremonies happen September 5-6, and the main show airs September 14 on NBC and Peacock.
LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️
'Elsinore,' the Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman drama, is heading to Focus Features ahead of a fall festival debut and awards-season release. (more)
Reinaldo Marcus Green, the 'King Richard' director, is writing, directing and producing a Roberto Clemente biopic over at Teton Ridge. (more)
Paul Feig is set to direct the horror thriller ‘Detention’ for Blumhouse, Atomic Monster and Platinum Dunes. (more)
'Free Willy' is getting a fresh reimagining at Warner Bros. and AGBO, with Mary-Margaret Kunze and Jade Halley Bartlett handling the script. (more)
TV Development 📺
'Jupiter Island,' a new golf drama from 'Love Story' creator Connor Hines and A24, is getting a series order at Netflix. (more)
Isabel May, of '1883' fame, is starring in and executive producing 'Love Love,' a romcom for Amazon MGM from writer-director Joey Power. (more)
'The Retrievals' is bringing on Lila Neugebauer to direct its pilot and executive produce the upcoming Netflix drama. (more)
'Task' S2 is crossing over with 'Mare of Easttown,' with Julianne Nicholson reprising her Emmy-winning role as Lori Ross. (more)
Business 🤝
Fathom Entertainment is naming ex-Disney and MetaMedia exec Jason Brenek as its new CEO, taking over from retiring chief Ray Nutt. (more)
Netflix is poaching yet another YouTuber, signing the Stokes Twins and their 141M subscribers, with a video archive July 18 and a series in 2027. (more)
Netflix Podcasts is landing an exclusive deal for video versions of Vox Media's 'Unexplainable' and 'Switched on Pop.' (more)
Artists Equity, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's studio, is launching a scripted TV division, tapping Universal alum Griffin Zucosky as SVP to run it. (more)
Banijay is officially closing its $8B merger with All3Media, creating the world's largest independent TV production company. (more)
Kara Smith is getting promoted to Head of Drama as Amazon MGM Studios reshuffles its TV division, with three veteran execs on the way out. (more)
18M pounds lost: Experts say this is the future of weight loss, and it doesn't require GLP-1, diets or calorie counting. (more)*
*sponsored
RELEASE RADAR
📅 This week’s new releases…
🎥 THEATRICAL
Moana: Live-action remake of the 2016 animated hit, starring Dwayne Johnson and newcomer Catherine Laga'aia.
Evil Dead Burn: Sixth installment in the horror franchise, directed by Sébastien Vaniček and starring Souheila Yacoub, with Sam Raimi producing.
The Invite: Comedy directed by Olivia Wilde, starring Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton, expanding wide after its Sundance breakout.
📺 STREAMING
Little House on the Prairie: (Netflix) Reboot of the classic frontier drama based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, already renewed for S2 before premiere.
The Five Star Weekend: (Peacock) Drama starring Jennifer Garner, Gemma Chan, and Regina Hall, based on Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling novel.
🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: Projections for Disney’s live-action ‘Moana’ have slid from an early $85M down to a $45-65M debut, which looks shaky against a $250M budget and the franchise's worst reviews yet. For reference, 'Moana 2' opened to $139.8M just 19 months ago. 'Evil Dead Burn' is tracking at $15-30M, right in line with previous entries. Together the two should keep the summer above the $100M weekend mark before 'The Odyssey' arrives next weekend.
VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers
MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments
That's a wrap on the week. If a friend forwarded you here, don't just stand there in the glow of borrowed content, hit subscribe and make it official. 📧👇
Have a great weekend. We'll be back Monday.
-The Dailies Team