🎬 Kimmel Crisis

👋 Good morning! The 2025 box office might be getting a surprise boost next month, courtesy of T-Swift. The megastar is secretly prepping some kind of mysterious theatrical event tied to her new album ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ dropping in theaters the October 3-5 weekend. Nobody knows exactly what it is, but considering her ‘Eras Tour’ film raked in $261.6M to become the highest-grossing concert movie ever, theater owners are probably popping champagne already.

Happy Friday, and welcome to The Dailies. Every M/W/F we beam the industry's most crucial updates straight to your inbox. Friend forwarded this? Make it official and sign up here.

TOP STREAMED
📊 This week’s top-streamed originals…

How last week’s releases are stacking up…

• 🏆 The 77th Emmy Awards: (CBS/Paramount+) Brought in 7.4M viewers on Sunday night according to Nielsen, up 8% from last year’s ceremony.

• 🤠 The Wrong Paris: (Netflix) Most-watched streaming movie this week with 2.7M views over its debut weekend per Luminate.

• 💔 The Girlfriend: (Prime Video) Scored 2.2M season views and 10.8M hours streamed in week one. A strong debut for Prime, on par with ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ S1 (2.2M / 11.8M in the same frame).

• 🖤 Beauty in Black: (Netflix) Tyler Perry’s series was the most-streamed series of the week. S2 opened big with 3.1M views and 21.2M hours streamed in week one, beating S1’s opening numbers (2.9M / 18.8M).

• 🍸 aka Charlie Sheen: (Netflix) A surprisingly large opening for the 2-episode docuseries, pulling in 6.8M season views in week one. Much stronger than ‘Beckham’s’ debut (3.1M), but not quite at ‘Harry & Meghan’s’ mega-hit level (12M).

Top-streamed chart (U.S.) Sep. 12 to Sep. 18. Data provided by Luminate.

CLOSEUP
🎙️ The Kimmel controversy explodes…

ABC suspended 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' indefinitely on Wednesday. The move came after backlash over Kimmel's Monday night monologue about the recent shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Here’s how things went down on Wednesday:

• Morning: FCC Chairman Carr floated possible regulatory action against ABC affiliates on a podcast

• Hours later: Station groups Nexstar (32 stations) and Sinclair (28 stations) announced they'd drop the show, with Nexstar saying it "strongly objects" to Kimmel's comments

• Throughout the day: Advertisers called with concerns; a third of ABC's 200 affiliates refused to air that night's episode

• By evening: ABC suspended the show entirely

The controversy has split viewers: Kimmel's defenders say he was doing satirical commentary and that pulling the show amounts to government censorship. Critics argue he misled viewers about the shooter's political leanings and say this violates broadcasters' public interest obligations, since airwaves are publicly owned.

Hollywood’s pushing back hard: Entertainment unions and guilds blasted the suspension as everything from "corporate cowardice" to "state censorship." 'Lost' creator Damon Lindelof pledged to boycott Disney until Kimmel returns, and many other industry figures have rallied behind the host.

The merger question: Nexstar's pursuing a $6.2B Tegna acquisition, which will require FCC approval. Critics point to this as a potential influencing factor, though Nexstar's chief communications officer insists the decision was made "unilaterally" with "no communication with the FCC."

Some see parallels to CBS's cancellation of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' in July, which came during Paramount's merger negotiations with Skydance. Others note the show's declining ratings (1.77M viewers vs. Colbert's 2.42M in Q2) may have made the controversy a convenient exit ramp.

Looking ahead… Disney executives met with Kimmel yesterday to discuss the show's future. Sources say the host hasn't been fired and the plan is to eventually bring him back.

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
🚨 Your friends are worried about you…

They've noticed you can explain the entire Paramount-Skydance merger but go silent when someone mentions "the Fed." You know which studios are bleeding money but not why your grocery bill keeps climbing.

Morning Brew speaks human. Business, finance, tech, world news—all translated from Corporate into English.

WIDESHOT
🎬 The Writers Guild, YouTube, and film financiers…

🤳 The writers' union is following its members to the world of vertical video. As traditional Hollywood writing jobs decline, the Writers Guild clarified Wednesday that "verticals" (those soap opera-style shows chopped into 1-3 minute phone episodes everyone's been talking about) are covered by their MBA (Minimum Basic Agreement). This means WGA writers can't write for apps like ReelShort and DramaBox unless producers sign union agreements, though most won't since these microdramas thrive on shoestring budgets. The guild even sent a cease-and-desist to one producer, EverBrite Studios, for soliciting members on LinkedIn. With the number of working writers down to 5,228 last year (the lowest since 2013), the guild is asserting control over a fast-growing market where jobs exist but union contracts are rare.

📹 YouTube just gave millions of creators free AI video tools. The platform unveiled its new AI-powered features at its 2025 Made on YouTube event this week, letting creators generate backgrounds, transform photos into videos, and add AI objects using Google DeepMind's Veo 3. While AI-generated content has been creeping into our feeds for a while now, this could be a tipping point. YouTube's creator economy has been steadily stealing viewership from traditional media, with the platform paying out $100B to creators between 2021 and 2024. If these creators start flooding feeds with synthetic content, it could normalize AI media for mainstream audiences who might not even realize what they're watching isn't "real."

📽️ Film financiers are done waiting for distribution deals. This year's fall festivals saw new buyers emerge as companies like Black Bear and Row K Entertainment launched their own distribution arms to release movies directly. Black Bear made headlines by "acquiring" 'Christy,' the Sydney Sweeney boxing film it had actually financed itself. With established buyers like A24 moving toward bigger-budget projects and many distributors having full slates, these financier-distributors are filling the gap in the $5-30M budget space that studios have largely abandoned. Row K's Christopher Woodrow called it "the most exciting opportunity" in his 20-year career, betting that both audiences and theater owners are hungry for more variety beyond what studios provide.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Disney has greenlit ‘Camp Rock 3,’ with the Jonas Brothers returning to star and Demi Lovato joining as executive producer. (more)

• Joseph Kosinski will direct Universal’s ‘Miami Vice’ movie, set for an Aug. 6, 2027 release with casting now underway. (more)

• A24 is making comedy ‘Jonty,’ starring Jesse Plemons and Cole Escola, directed by Lorene Scafaria. (more)

• Tiffany Haddish, Bella Thorne and Master P will star in New Orleans crime-thriller ‘Motion,’ which Haddish will also produce. (more)

• Netflix has picked up thriller ‘Blink of an Eye,’ reuniting the ‘Drop’ team with director Christopher Landon and Platinum Dunes. (more)

• Prime Video has greenlit ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ movie, with Jenny Han writing and directing to conclude the story. (more)

• Willow Smith, John Boyega and more join Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi in anime-inspired sci-fi film ‘Slime.’ (more)

• New Line has acquired a rom-com spec from Sas Goldberg and Ana Nogueira, with Jason Orley (‘I Want You Back’) set to direct. (more)

TV Development 📺

• Ben Stiller and Jessica Chastain will star in and executive produce Apple TV+ thriller series ‘The Off Weeks,’ directed by Michael Showalter. (more)

• Seth Rogen is reviving ‘The Muppet Show’ as a 2026 Disney+ special starring Sabrina Carpenter, planned as a backdoor pilot. (more)

• Bert Kreischer will star in comedy film ‘Homecoming,’ directed by Jeff Tomsic and produced by Monarch Media. (more)

• Martin Scorsese is directing ‘What Happens at Night,’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence for Apple and StudioCanal. (more)

• Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning are set to star in A24’s legal series ‘Discretion,’ adapted from a short story by Chandler Baker. (more)

• Natasha Lyonne and Matt Berry are co-creating and starring in Sky’s retro comedy adventure series ‘Force & Majeure.’ (more)

• Kit Harington will star in MGM+ and BBC’s four-part adaptation of ‘A Tale of Two Cities,’ set to premiere next year. (more)

Business 🤝

• Vernon Sanders is stepping down as Head of Global TV at Amazon MGM Studios, with no successor yet named. (more)

• Lionsgate will cut about 50 jobs, reducing staff by 5% in a new round of layoffs aimed at streamlining operations. (more)

• A former ‘Love Is Blind’ contestant has filed a proposed class action alleging inhumane working conditions and labor violations on reality TV shows. (more)

RELEASE RADAR
📅 This week’s new releases…

🎥 THEATRICAL

• A Big Bold Beautiful Journey: Romantic fantasy starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, directed by Kogonada ('After Yang').

• Him: Supernatural psychological sports horror from Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions, starring Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers.

• The Senior: Sports drama starring Michael Chiklis as a 59-year-old college linebacker, directed by Rod Lurie.

• Afterburn: Post-apocalyptic action film starring Dave Bautista.

📺 STREAMING

• Tulsa King: (Paramount+) S3 of the crime drama starring Sylvester Stallone.

• Black Rabbit: (Netflix) Crime thriller miniseries starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman.

• Reasonable Doubt: (Hulu) S3 of the legal drama starring Emayatzy Corinealdi.

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: 'Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle' should easily repeat at #1 with $23-33M after last weekend's record-breaking anime debut. Jordan Peele-produced 'Him' is shooting for a modest $15-20M opening (though it arrives with a dismal 32% on Rotten Tomatoes), while Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell's romantic fantasy 'A Big Bold Beautiful Journey' looks headed for single digits.

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments