☀️ NETFLIX’s Peter Rice Priorities

Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026.

Where, sorry about the sweep, L.A. — but congrats to the MILWAUKEE BREWERS for making their first World Series since 1982, especially after trailing in all 4 NLCS games.

• As you may recall, former CBS exec Kelly Kahl was behind a good 2024 doc about that 1982 BREWERS team called Just a Bit Outside, reliving a time with far more colorful athlete personalities — you can stream it here on TUBI.

Now, we see if the CLEVELAND GUARDIANS, up 2-1 over the TAMPA BAY RAYS, can close the deal this weekend (games tonight, weather permitting, and tomorrow at 8 p.m. on TBS / HBO MAX ad-free tier) to make for a Midwest classic World Series for FOX.

Although, like the BREWERS — the RAYS have never won a World Series either . . . so FOX has something to hang its marketing hat on and at least soften the viewership blow of losing one of MLB’s top TV draws in the DODGERS. (Cleveland hasn’t won since 1948.)

AND: A reminder for my sports biz folks, Friday is sports TV audiences report day down below in the Sports Media section, ranking the TV audience sizes from the past week — including:

• Exhibit #136 on why NFL MNF should never be solely in the cable TV bundle again.
• The power of a good NFL lead-in for something other than 60 Minutes, and why broadcast TV is highly beneficial for MLB.
• What happens when college football season gets good (hint: it beats that NFL game in the cable TV bundle).

OH: It’s creator deal week at DISNEY, as it set a “company-wide creative partnership” with DUDE PERFECT that’ll cover entertainment, sports, consumer products and experiences, which, while not quite as broad as DISNEY’s deal with Dhar Mann for 20 episodes of . . . something that will go . . . somewhere earlier this year, is pretty broad.

• No word on the financial terms here, but some DP library content will also be added to DIS+.
• This move is in addition DIS+/HULU adding the Las Culturistas pod non-exclusively, as Natalie Jarvey reported in Like & Subscribe, and the deal with PAVE for 2 #truecrime pods yesterday as well.

PLUS: Gotta love this quarterly scripted production spend chart for Q3 2026 from THR courtesy of data from PRODPRO, showing production spends across state localities (tough Q3 for New Mexico).

New York is also coming for California, boosted by broadcast TV work that has moved to NYC over the years!

Although, nice to see California also in the “+” column YoY by a meaningful spend number . . . even though the actual number of scripted projects filming took a hit.

THANKS!: To the folks at NETFLIX for the invite to check out the NYC premiere of La Bola Negra last night to kick off the NEWFEST film festival (schedule here).

An impressive, well-directed film with a heartfelt theme that ties together nicely in the final scenes. Plus, it’s fun to have “Los Javis” in town alongside “the Daniels” (the pic is directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi).

AS ALWAYS:

Connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like, or email me anytime at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com.

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