Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Wednesday, July 8, 2026.

Where, yeah, this chart certainly screams confidence in the country’s direction (note there was no large bump from 2016 to 2020).

Enjoy your oil prices for those late summer vacations, America!

AND: Your Emmys host will be Mariska Hargitay this September, as noms are announced this morning. 🤞 Catch a live stream of analysis with Prestige Junkie’s Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen at 11:30 a.m. ET here on The Ankler’s YT page.

• Here are your Variety and Reality category nominees announced earlier this morning.

WELL: If you have $32M and a long-held desire to live in the house in Pasadena used as the Wayne Manor exteriors in the 1960s Batman series — I have good news for you.

ALSO: The U.S. vs. BELGIUM World Cup game hit 42M viewers on FOX in prelim NIELSEN & ADOBE numbers. This is bigger than anything except for the Super Bowl and Conference-level NFL playoff games (the ones before the Super Bowl).

• 30M on FOX
• 5.3M on TELEMUNDO
• 6.7M in streaming, predominantly on PEACOCK . . . which once again is seeing bigger Spanish-language audiences than on linear TV.
  • This is the biggest U.S. soccer streaming audience to date, but MEXICO games have beaten it.
  • Note that this is not a NIELSEN number but from ADOBE ANALYTICS, whose methodology is, well, I’ll just say, still a bit unclear.
• Final numbers will arrive later in the week.
• There are a couple of new developments of note in the U.S. TV/streaming rights for the next 2 men’s World Cup in the Sports Media section down below today.

OH: ANTHROPIC is planning to double its NYC workforce to 1,000 folks this year and is leasing space in a building at 330 Hudson Street in Hudson Square, near DISNEY’s new NYC headquarters.

THEN: AMAZON is issuing at least another $25B worth of debt in a new U.S. bond sale (AI costs, amirite? 🙄), which the company says will be the last one . . . for the year, which has 5 months left. The company has already issued $54B of bonds in the U.S. & Europe, and $10B in Canada this year alone.

• AMAZON has a CapEx target of about $200B for the year.
• This is how much debt #BigTech has raised over the past year and a half to fund AI spending.

TODAY IN GUNS AND CIGARETTES

Just a couple of items from the U.S. government of note this week.

FIRST: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is considering a proposal to let licensed gun dealers ship to in-state buyers who pass an online background check (currently you have to go to a store to get your gun) — a policy that would benefit a certain GrabAGun #realname online gun sales business.

• Troubling on its own. But also when GrabAGun went public when merging with a SPAC run by . . . yes, Don Jr, who now sits on the company’s board. #DrainTheSwamp?
• Don Jr.’s spokesperson said he has no role in the process, and the company CEO said he had no idea the potential change that would intensely affect his business was coming.

THEN: More good news for smoking this year! It seems the C.D.C.’s Office on Smoking and Health has been shut down for a year now due to #DOGE cuts in 2025, and its Tips From Former Smokers ad campaign has essentially gone dark.

This, as tobacco companies gave millions to political organizations related to the Trump administration. The NYT reports that people who ran help lines to quit smoking in several states said that calls for help have plummeted since the TV ads ended.

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📊 NETFLIX Film Chart Insights

An active week on the NETFLIX charts during the holiday week, as the July 4 weekend theatrical movie biz headwinds also hit NETFLIX’s big debut.

Plus, initial results from the Louis C.K. special, a bit of a dip in WWE RAW in Q2, a good news / bad news week for the John Cena / Eric André pic and more. Let’s dive in.