Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026.
Where it’s nice to see the “If you build it, they will come” prophecy extend beyond baseball to the WNBA!
The ATLANTA DREAM have sold out the 17k seats at the State Farm Arena for Game 3 of the WNBA Finals tonight vs. the GOLDEN STATE VALKYRIES — the team plays regular season games at the Gateway Center, which only has 3,500 seats (and yes, is the smallest venue in the league by a margin).
You can catch the game on PEACOCK tonight, or USA NETWORK or CNBC if you’re a TV bundle person (VERSANT sends a thank you).
YEAH: IMAX is making more moves to fill calendar gaps, dipping back into the Nolan well on Jan. 27, 2027, with a re-release of The Prestige from DISNEY, including 70MM.
YES: Glee is officially coming back in . . . some form, with . . . some sort of cast, this time on DIS+ / HULU (sorry, FOX). But zero details are available on what’s afoot.
THEN: NETFLIX set its next non-exclusive video podcast deal with Literally! With Rob Lowe, which will launch on Dec. 3. It also picked up a Rob Lowe: The Outsider “doc” that counts Rob’s managers as EPs, and is directed by Chris Smith (Tiger King). It’ll debut Nov. 24.
AND: Stephen Colbert will sit down with Kate McKinnon for a conversation at the NJPAC in Newark, New Jersey, on Dec. 5 to benefit the MONTCLAIR FILM organization. Tickets on sale here today.
AH: Larry Ellison does love debt — he opted to take on more debt on his ledger from banks to fund David’s WARNAMOUNT ambitions, backed with shares he owns in SPACEX, TESLA and PSKY as collateral this summer, according to the WSJ.
- This allowed him to avoid having to actually sell ORACLE stock to get cash to fund the deal — always better to play with other people’s money!
GOOD NEWS: Well, it’s nice to see Zaz enjoying retirement with his friends. It’s also good that I already canceled Bon Jovi off the Jersey list after introducing the PATRIOTS at the Super Bowl last year. #Bruce4eva
OH: Keep an eye on Roger Goodell there as well — the NFL’ s 32 EQUITY PE arm just set up a new investment venture with GENERAL ATLANTIC to “invest in businesses on the frontline of fandom, sports, media and technology.”
- No word on the size of the fund, but let the speculation begin on the new media investments, as it begins to look at reconfiguring its media rights situation at the end of the decade.
OH: SPOTIFY is launching paid subscriptions for podcasters to sell access to bonus episodes, ad-free episodes and/or other perks, according to Natalie Jarvey’s Like & Subscribe.
AS ALWAYS:
- Get in touch with me anytime off the record at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or on LINKEDIN here.
- AND: You can also subscribe to The Wakeup on its own here at the bottom of The Ankler subscription page if ya like, or sign up for the full Ankler subscription as well on that page to get all newsletters.
📉 Earnings Season
NETFLIX hits the mark on its financials, so why did it just lay off 1,000 people?
So, good news — everything’s just fine at NETFLIX!
It delivered or even slightly exceeded the Q3 financial forecasts it previously issued, and expressed great confidence in how the business is going — Ted said, “Our business and our business flywheel are working.” — so, um, yes . . . that’s why we just fired 1,000 people and 2 of our biggest creative executives.
Yeah, the C-suite fellas were spinning away on the Q3 earnings call yesterday to try and explain the dichotomy of their financial reporting with the week that was at their company, to what I’d call . . . middling results.
Ted also indeed followed up that flywheel comment with “We do need better execution in the U.S.,” which at least nods to the change in CCO and Head of Film roles.
The 6% layoffs are a bit more muddled — but here is plenty from the earnings report to further explain that move, and the overall state of the company.
So, let’s look at:
- What the Q3 numbers reveal about the health of the business.
- Why the stock was -6% last night, setting a new 52-week low price point just below $65 a share, and which main business line hit an eyebrow-raising hiccup.
- Where the big layoffs figure into what’s going on at NETFLIX overall.
- What’s ahead for 2027.
First, one of my favorite activities — parsing the quotes from the call to interpret what’s, uh, actually going on:
Don’t stop here
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