☀️Cable TV Now Basically Down to 5 Networks
NETFLIX orders more 'Peaky' / Nikki Glaser goes HULU / 'Kill Bill' gets theatrical event
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 Thursday, October 2, 2025.
Where for anyone eagerly waiting for the revamp of the APPLE Vision Pro in . . . 2027 (cue the sound of scrolling right past this item), I’m afraid APPLE has shifted the internal resources to try and make APPLE smart glasses a thing (we going with iGlass on this one? 🤔).
Between this and OPENAI starting its own SORA AI slop video platform after META announced its effort (Vibes) — Zuck is really becoming a Silicon Valley original idea trendsetter! 20 years later.
BTW: Much like your GOOGLE searches, META will now use whatever you tell your META AI bot to sell you ads, in case you thought your conversations with your new BFF were somehow even remotely not constantly being mined and listened to.
Zuck shared in May that META AI had 1B+ in monthly users globally.
AH: Welcome to the world, HULU! It’s finally getting the call up to the big leagues and replacing the STAR brand in DIS+ internationally on October 8, coming with a new DISNEY UI refresh as well.
C’E POSTA PER LE: Italian tech company BENDING SPOONS, which recently made a deal to take VIMEO private, is in talks to buy AOL from YAHOO for $1.4B (and yes, that’s You’ve Got Mail in Italian).
AND: Elon apparently just was told about and definitely did not watch found an animated series from . . . 2023 on NETFLIX that features a trans character, and is now telling people to cancel their NETFLIX, uh, 2 years later. Ya know, uh, before any damage to our youth really takes hold. Well, the “Hey, just focus on running TESLA” thing had a good run.
This just as TESLA sales had their 🤏 first monthly increase of the entire year in September in countries like France and Denmark, and an overall +7% bump in Q3 sales globally (Trump’s ending of the U.S. electric credit this week likely helped nudge sales in the U.S.). Ah man, so close!
FINALLY: A rest in peace goes out Jane Goodall — someone who dedicated her life to doing a lot of good for a lot of people and animals, and helping us all learn a lot more about this planet we’re on and its inhabitants.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
#DoublePollDay!
The Taylor Swift Showgirl event seems to be tracking anywhere from $30M to $40M-ish. As of yesterday, there were already $20M of pre-sales for the weekend, and again, remember that all tickets are $12.
A24’s Smashing Machine has seen quite a dip from earlier tracking out there, now looking more like $8M to $12M.
But A24 has been buying the hell outta TV sports ad breaks — will the UFC and WWE fans show up (along with the Safdie crowd which . . . would probably make for a fun photo), and what size does that look like?
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
Cable TV 2025 is a sad, sad place
The folks at NIELSEN are releasing some new weekly reports with their new BIG DATA + PANEL metrics 👏.
And, ok, yes — this isn’t breaking news — but looking at where things stand for the average linear TV audiences on cable TV networks in the final week of September 2025 . . . wow.
The cable bundle has really meaningfully become, as predicted, just sports and news.
More accurately — the cable TV bundle is just ESPN, 3 cable news networks and one lifestyle network on a given evening.
Elsewhere, primetime audience viewership numbers are more brutal than I expected — across the board. Let’s dive in.
The following is from Sept. 22 thru Sept. 28, and just centers on live/same-day audiences (no delayed viewing).
PRIMETIME AUDIENCE AVERAGES
NEWS NETWORKS
FOX NEWS: 2.45M
MSNBC: 853k
CNN: 538k
SPORTS . . . meaning ESPN:
ESPN: 2.7M
FS1’s average was 62k 🫣
ALL OTHER CABLE NETWORKS AVERAGING AT LEAST 400K VIEWERS IN PRIME:
HGTV: 492k (49k are under 50 years old)
ALL OTHER CABLE NETWORKS AVERAGING AT LEAST 350K VIEWERS IN PRIME:
FOOD: 383k
HALLMARK: 378k
TLC: 367k
fin
SO:
In a world with about 60M folks subscribed to / getting most name-brand cable TV networks as part of the TV bundles they pay for each month — only 1 general entertainment network had over 400k viewers on a given night . . . and 4 general entertainment cable TV networks had more than 350k viewers total during the last week of September.
That’s about 0.6% of people paying for cable TV watching one of the top 4-rated non-sports or news networks on a given night.
Of that, the vast, vast majority of those people are over 50, and mostly over 55.
AND: Remember, the median age for those 3 big cable news networks getting all of the viewers is in the upper 60s.
FOR THE (very sad) RECORD:
9 networks averaged a primetime number from the 300k to 400k viewers.
89 networks averaged less than 150k viewers in primetime.
MTV, FREEFORM, E!, PARAMOUNT NET, TNT and VH1 all fell in this category.
You have to go to #139 on the Top 200 Cable Network Programs for the week to find something that isn’t sports, or something on FOX NEWS or MSNBC.
That something was the Adventures Love Birding movie on HALLMARK Saturday night.
There were just 4 other shows on the Top 200 Cable Network Programs list that were not news or sports last week:
TLC 90 Day Fiancee (#158)
TLC Sister Wives (#172)
DISCO Deadliest Catch (#187)
TBS Big Bang Theory (#198)
FINAL NOTE: CNN doesn’t make the Top 200 list until #189 (Kasie Hunt’s show)
BROADCAST SNAPSHOT
A brief list of average primetime brodcast network viewers for the week outside of the big 4:
TELEMUNDO: 1.05M
UNIVISION: 976k
ION: 597k
ME TV: 493k
THE CW: 489k
The biggest scripted TV show on the Top 250 list for broadcast and cable in live/same-day viewing last week?
High Potential on ABC at . . . #57.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Kinda puts the notion of an affiliate agreement standoff in a new light — and why CHARTER felt so confident standing up to DISNEY 2 years ago (when presumably these numbers were not even this bad).
Outside of ESPN’s 2.7M average viewers in primetime (heavily boosted by MNF), the DISNEY networks with the next biggest audiences in primetime last week were:
FX: 159k viewers
NAT GEO: 149k viewers
It’s kind of 🤯 to think about the billions of dollars in revenue and profitability these non-news and ESPN networks still generate each quarter. Ad buying habits are incredibly hard to break.
Granted, the digital ad environment has its drawbacks:
Your ads can be easily scrolled over or clicked off after 5 seconds, or generally have to be 15 seconds in nature for ones that you can’t skip.
Who knows WTF creative content your product is appearing in front of, or next to.
NIELSEN’s GRACENOTE content data business cited in a new industry poll that 32% of media buyers think that CTV is not very effective as a way to reach customers.
But if digital’s competition for audience scale on the vast majority of cable TV networks is an audience of like 150k people in primetime in the entire U.S. — well, there’s a reason the Upfronts revenue keeps decreasing significantly for anything “not sports” every year and going to digital/social or CTV.
Sure, you can buy across several networks under a given WBD or PAR portfolio to up those reach numbers — although keep in mind most of them reach less than 50k folks under 50 years old in primetime each night across the entire U.S.
Finally, anyone wanna guess what all of these numbers look like in 2 more years?
ALSO IN MEDIA
Add SPOTIFY to the list of platforms opening its ad inventory to the AMAZON DSP programmatic ad buying platform, furthering its “one-stop shopping” capabilities for ad buyers. /Variety
☀️ WAKEUP in L.A.
I’ll be out for the Bloomberg Screentime conference later next week. I’m not doing a full West Coast week, but will be in town a bit before and after, so if anyone wants to try and meet up or if you’ll be at the conference — drop me a note, seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
A FEW THINGS
BLACK BEAR set a January 30 release date for its Jason Statham pic Shelter.
DISNEYFOX has the Sam Raimi pic Send Help and BRIARCLIFF’s Good Luck, Don’t Die, Have Fun are both already on the date. /THR
This is now BLACK BEAR’s 3rd pic set for theatrical release.
LIONSGATE is releasing a Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair event in theaters on Dec. 5, putting together both films and including a never-before-seen, 7½-minute animated sequence.
There will also be 70mm prints of the film. /Deadline
SEARCHLIGHT is setting David Harbour to co-star with Pedro Pascal in Behemoth! from writer/director Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Andor). Not much is known, other than it revolves around a cellist and plans to shoot this year. /Deadline
NETFLIX set the cast for Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Again? sequel pic, including Taraji P. Henson, Jill Scott and Richard T. Jones. /Variety
IN THE EXECUTIVE SUITE
PARAMOUNT hired former MATTEL and DISNEY exec Josh Silverman as Prez of its Global Products and Experiences, reporting into Jeff Shell. His office will be above the Top Gun bar going up on the lot (to be clear — that’s a joke, but PARAMOUNT should also totally do that). /THR
RANGE promoted Kevin Hussey (Film/TV) and Mariam Rastegar (Digital) to Partner, and promoted 10 other folks. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
NETFLIX orders more Peaky Blinders
Yes, the show will live on at NETFLIX and the BBC after the upcoming movie, as 2 more 6-episode seasons have been ordered from Steven Knight.
It’ll be set in 1953 and center on a new generation of the Birmingham Shelby family as the city builds its way out of WWII damage.
No word on a timeline, but the movie is expected next year . . . so this will be a minute. Cillian Murphy is also an EP on this new iteration. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
HULU is getting Nikki Glaser’s next comedy special, continuing the streamer’s crusade to be the place for standup. Her last 2 specials were at HBO.
This one will be shot in her hometown of St. Louis this month and is set to debut sometime in 2026. /THR
CBS set an Everybody Loves Raymond cast reunion special for Nov. 24, produced by FULWELL (which also did the Friends reunion). /Variety
APPLE TV+ extended its Peanuts deal through 2030. /THR
PAR+’s SHO series The Chi will end with its 8th season. /Deadline
AMAZON is developing a YA series based on the book The Lying Game. Suzanne Heathcote (The Thursday Murder Club, Killing Eve) is adapting with Ted Gold and Susan Rovner set at EPs.
It centers on 4 childhood friends reunited to confront a deadly secret that got them thrown out of boarding school. Ah, that brings me back . . . wait, I’ve said too much. 😳 /Deadline
DIS+ is developing an Afterlife with Archie series based on the comic book series with a script-to-series commitment from writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, with BERLANTI PRODUCTIONS producing.
It imagines what Riverdale would be like once overrun with flesh-eating zombies. /Deadline
IN SPORTS TV RATINGS
🏈 COLLEGE FOOTBALL
10.4M viewers: ABC for ALABAMA vs. GEORGIA in primetime
8.5M: NBC for OREGON vs. PENN STATE in primetime
7.7M: ABC for OLE MISS vs. LSU at 3:30 p.m.
4.3M: ABC for NOTRE DAME vs. ARKANSAS at 12noon
4.1M: FOX for USC vs. ILLINOIS at 12noon
All numbers from FOS
🏈 NFL
23.8M: CBS for RAVENS vs. CHIEFS at 4:30 p.m.
17.8M: FOX various regional games at 1 p.m.
13.5M: CBS various regional games at 1 p.m.
7.5M viewers on NFL NETWORK for the VIKINGS vs. STEELERS at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, the 2nd biggest int’l game audience in the U.S. for the network.
⛳️ PGA
NBC/PEACOCK: 3.2M viewers for the Ryder Cup on Sunday for the exciting final round . . . which did not excite viewers — it was -8% vs. the 2021 event (last one in the U.S.) and the lowest Sunday round of the 2000s.
Remember this number even has the NIELSEN BIG DATA + PANEL bump.
NBC had 3M viewers, so figure 200k on PEACOCK.
Being up against NFL does not help, but that’s not really new here.
If you were forwarded The Wakeup, get it as part of your subscription to The Ankler:
🏦 STOCK NOTES
ANGEL +33% ($7.76) Uh huh.
REDDIT -12% ($202.60)
FUBO -6% ($3.90)
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
AMAZON TNF: NINERS at RAMS
ESPN MLB Wild Card round — 3 deciding games in a row
BRITBOX Karen Pirie season 2
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
PAR+ Landman season 2 trailer — PREMIERES NOVEMBER 16
HBO MAX Armed Only With A Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud doc trailer — Story of a video journalist killed in Ukraine, powerful spot and reminder about the realities behind the footage you see on social and the news networks from war regions. PREMIERES OCTOBER 21
A24 Pillion teaser trailer — IN THEATERS . . . at some point.
NETFLIX Starting 5 season 2 trailer — PREMIERES OCTOBER 16
HULU The Kardashians season 7 trailer — PREMIERES OCTOBER 23
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
Ok, you really need to blame SIRIUSXM for me including one Soundgarden song in each of the last 3 months. But “Fresh Tendrils” is another song that just doesn’t get enough light. And I will move onto other genres for #TBT in October!
If you need some new tunes:
Email me anytime at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or connect here on LINKEDIN.
— SEAN MCNULTY
@SeanMcNulty on BLUESKY
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM