🎬 TikTok Refugee Crisis

👋 Good morning! Apple TV+ has turned Grand Central Terminal into a living TV set—installing a glass cube where cast members from their hit series ‘Severance’ are performing as office workers trapped in a dystopian corporation. The actors sit at retro computers, seemingly oblivious to thousands of commuters passing by, perfectly capturing the show's eerie premise about employees whose work memories are surgically separated from their personal lives. It's a brilliant piece of guerrilla marketing that’s taking the internet by storm ahead of S2's premiere this Friday.

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:

• Los Angeles Fire Update

• TikTok Refugee Crisis

• DirecTV Takes a Swing at Sports

• YouTubers Cash In on AI

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

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Martini Shot 🍸

CLOSEUP
🎬 Los Angeles wildfires update…

The entertainment industry's facing an unprecedented crisis as wildfires have torn through Los Angeles over the past week. With at least 25 lives lost and over 12,300 structures destroyed, Hollywood's scrambling to balance its awards season with a community in crisis. Our hearts sincerely go out to the 150,000+ people who've been forced from their homes, including countless industry pros who've lost everything.

🏆 Awards Season Shuffle

Here are some updates to the industry's usual January celebrations:

• Oscar nominations are pushed to Jan. 23 (voting's extended through Friday)

• Critics Choice Awards are pushed to Feb. (exact date TBA), marking its second postponement

• Annual Oscar nominees luncheon is canceled for only the second time since 1982

• The Academy Awards ceremony, set for Mar. 2, remains scheduled as planned

Meanwhile, various guild nominations (WGA, PGA) are hitting the pause button for the moment.

🌄 Sundance's Show Must Go On

Despite the chaos, Sundance is sticking to its Jan. 23 kickoff. Even after one of their own leaders, Michelle Satter, lost her home in the Palisades, the festival's pushing forward with what they're calling a "mission to support artists."

The entertainment community has mobilized with unprecedented support:

Major Studio Donations:

• Disney & Warner Bros. Discovery pledged $15M each

• Amazon, NBCUniversal, Netflix follow with $10M each

• Sony contributes $5M

• Paramount, Fox, and The Recording Academy each pledge $1M

Beyond Financial Aid:

• Warner Bros. Discovery is supporting 1,300+ impacted employees with emergency hotlines, temporary housing, and meals

• Amazon has provided 145,000+ essential items and deployed AWS technology for emergency response

• CAA Foundation partnered with CORE and LAUSD to launch the SoCal Fire Fund

• Spectrum committed $1M in PSA airtime for relief efforts

These contributions represent just a fraction of the industry's response. Countless individuals and smaller organizations are making vital contributions that may not make headlines but are no less important. From crew members volunteering their time to grassroots fundraising efforts, the entertainment community has united to support those affected.

The bigger picture: Hollywood's never seen anything quite like this. We're watching an industry try to balance its biggest celebration season with one of its worst crises. Between schedule shuffles, relief efforts, and trying to keep the show going, it's a juggling act nobody was prepared for.

WIDESHOT
🎬 TikTok refugees, DirecTV, and AI training…

📲👨‍⚖️ A "TikTok refugee crisis" has erupted. TikTok's parent company ByteDance faces a Jan. 19 deadline to sell its U.S. operations or shut down, sparking a chaotic exodus of its 170M American users. In what's shaping up as a playful protest against U.S. security concerns, creators are flocking to other Chinese-owned platforms—ByteDance's sister app Lemon8 and RedNote are suddenly dominating App Store charts, with users dubbing themselves "TikTok refugees" and posting videos jokingly introducing themselves to "their new Chinese spies" on these platforms. While rumors of Elon Musk swooping in to buy TikTok's U.S. operations briefly stirred hope before being dismissed as "pure fiction," established players like Instagram, Snap, and YouTube are positioning themselves to fill the void. The fallout is particularly nerve-wracking for Hollywood, where TikTok has become the go-to platform for reaching Gen Z audiences, turning ‘Barbenheimer’ into a cultural moment and helping transform ‘Anyone But You’ from a modest rom-com into a viral hit. Studios are scrambling to figure out Plan B, but there's growing doubt that any other platform can capture TikTok's viral magic.

📺🏈 Now that Venu Sports is dead in the water, DirecTV's betting big on filling the sports streaming void. The satellite giant's new MySports package bundles 40+ channels from ESPN to Fox Sports for $70 monthly, launching in 24 major markets. That's pricier than Venu's planned rate but cheaper than full TV bundles like YouTube TV. The timing's charged: Disney's prepping a standalone ESPN service, Hulu + Live TV's merging with Fubo to create a sports streaming powerhouse, and major streaming platforms are making aggressive pushes into live sports. As traditional TV players scramble to nail their sports strategy, DirecTV's just the latest to take a swing.

📺🤖 YouTubers are cashing in on AI's hunger for training data. Content creators are striking lucrative deals with tech giants like OpenAI and Google, who are paying for exclusive, unused footage to train their AI video generators. It’s a fascinating twist in the AI training saga, especially after revelations that companies had been secretly using dialogue from over 53,000 movies and 85,000 TV episodes without permission. The practice offers a legitimate alternative to controversial data collection methods—while AI companies need massive amounts of video content to build their models, they're now creating proper channels to acquire it, addressing longstanding concerns about copyright infringement in both training data and AI-generated content. While YouTubers are turning their cutting room footage into gold, Hollywood's response to generative AI has been mixed: some studios are keeping their distance, while others dive in headfirst—Blumhouse is already testing Meta's MovieGen, and Lionsgate's partnering with Runway AI. It's a watershed moment that transforms unauthorized data scraping into a legitimate business opportunity.

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM THE DAILIES
Spots Are Filled— Missed Your Chance?

The Television Pitch Lab with Chris Amick is officially sold out, and we’re kicking off tomorrow evening with an incredible group of creators. Thank you to everyone who signed up—we’re thrilled to see you in class and can’t wait to get started!

While there are no spots available right now, we’ve received a ton of requests asking if more might open—or if this course will be held again in the future. If any spots open due to cancellations, we’ll notify waitlist members on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Join the waitlist below and be the first to know about any openings. 👇

LAST LOOKS
Development 🗒️

• Mubi re-releases ‘The Substance’ on Jan. 17, fueling its Oscar season buzz. (more)

• French director Éric Besnard is helming ‘Valjean,’ a prequel to ‘Les Misérables.’ (more)

• ‘Succession’ creator Jesse Armstrong is developing a financial crisis movie for HBO Films. (more)

• Faran Tahir will reprise his role as Raza from ‘Iron Man’ in Marvel’s Disney+ series ‘Vision Quest,’ a ‘WandaVision’ spinoff. (more)

• Ridley Scott shelved his Bee Gees biopic at Paramount over deal disputes but expects potential progress by September, focusing on his next project, ‘The Dog Stars,’ in the meantime. (more)

• Jared Padalecki is set to star in a CBS medical drama from ‘Walker’ showrunner Anna Fricke. (more)

• BAFTA Rising Star Mia McKenna-Bruce will lead Claire Denis’ next feature, ‘The Cry of the Guard,’ alongside Matt Dillon and Isaach de Bankolé. (more)

• Netflix has acquired ‘Anuja,’ an Oscar-shortlisted short film backed by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Mindy Kaling, and Guneet Monga Kapoor. (more)

• Rachel Maddow will return to hosting her MSNBC show nightly starting January 20 for the first 100 days of the Trump administration. (more)

Renewed & Canceled ✅ ❌

• ‘St. Denis Medical’ is renewed for S2 at NBC. (more)

Executive Moves 🤝

• Barry Diller takes over IAC leadership as CEO Joey Levin exits to lead Angi post-spin-off, marking a significant organizational shift. (more)

• Rashida Jones is stepping down as MSNBC president after four years, with Rebecca Kutler stepping in as interim president. (more)

• Warner Bros. Discovery adds SoFi CEO Anthony Noto and outgoing IAC CEO Joey Levin to its board. (more)

Other News 🚨

• The 2025 Sundance Film Festival has announced its jury members, including Celine Song, Daniel Kaluuya, Elijah Wood, and Reinaldo Marcus Green. (more)

• NBCUniversal will close Universal Kids in March, focusing on streaming family content via Peacock. (more)

• Alamo Drafthouse laid off 9% of its corporate staff and reduced venue-level employees as part of a corporate restructuring. (more)

• Prime Video scored its largest-ever NFL audience with 22.07M viewers for the Ravens-Steelers Wild Card game. (more)

• Receive 2 free months of running training by participating in the 2025 RunDot Project. (more)*

  _*sponsored

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest trends & viral moments

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

Seeking impartial news? Meet 1440.

Every day, 3.5 million readers turn to 1440 for their factual news. We sift through 100+ sources to bring you a complete summary of politics, global events, business, and culture, all in a brief 5-minute email. Enjoy an impartial news experience.

Join for free today!