☀️FCC-Fueled Local TV Consolidation Hits Overdrive
‘Heat 2’ casting heats up / NBC gets NBA uptick / NETFLIX + John Wells / Job Board Tuesday
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 Tuesday, November 18, 2025.
Where let’s start today with a heads up to prepare for your Thanksgiving dinner table conversation.
In case you’re wondering why your grandparents are asking you if they should be on something called “the KALSHI” next week — be sure to thank CBS NEWS.
AND: NETFLIX set its replacement Jake Paul fight, taking on Avatar Anthony Joshua on Friday, Dec. 19, in Miami.
SO: Your first VF Hollywood issue from new editor Mark Guiducci is out.
As are the hot takes.
THEN: Here ya go.
ALSO: Jack White, Post Malone and Lil Jon are your respective NFL halftime show performers on Thanksgiving, so you finally have a reason to watch an NFL game on what’s generally the league’s most popular regular season gameday.
PACKERS vs. LIONS — Jack White
CHIEFS vs. COWBOYS — Posty
RAVENS vs. BENGALS — Lil Jon
YAH: A full month of NFL (and return of the fall TV season) propelled the Broadcast + Cable TV viewing share to almost match Streaming in October (thanks, TNF 🙄), 45.1% to 45.7% according to the latest Gauge report from NIELSEN. Here are your streamer shares of all TV viewing on NFL gamedays:
AMAZON: 6.2% share on Thursdays
PEACOCK: 2% share on Sundays
PAR+: 1.6% share on Sundays
NOTE: NETFLIX had an above-average 8.2% share of TV viewing on Sundays.
YOUTUBE, of course, still sits at the top overall . . . but remember this is for all YT viewing on TV (ex. YT TV), including for music, podcasts and Shorts — all forms of media that everyone else on this list does not have, and count music and podcast listening as “TV viewing” as ya like.
AH: Next up on the COSM / WB partnership — adapting the first Harry Potter pic to be shown in the custom COSM immersive environment in 2026 TBA. The Matrix and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
GOOD NEWS!: We’re spending taxpayer dollars to hire hundreds of people to speed up the visa process for FIFA World Cup ticketholders in 2026 (uh, but ones not from the shithole countries, right?)
YUP: If it doesn’t rain in Tehran (or surrounding areas) in the next 7-10 days or so, the city of 9M folks will have to begin to evacuate due to drought — it hasn’t rained in the country in half of its provinces in months, with some reservoir levels now around 9%.
Also affecting things — a policy of allowing water-hungry industries to be built in some of Iran’s driest regions. Now, what kind of an idiot country would do that? Those Arizona data centers still under construction are, uh, solar-powered, right?
THEN: Yes, Bezos couldn’t resist joining the fray for which #techbro is going to transform our lives with AI — taking a Co-CEO role at a company whose name embodies its modest aims, PROJECT PROMETHEUS. Eh, it worked out alright for him, so we should be just fine (Jeff, like, finished that story, right?) 👉☀️.
PROMETHEUS has $6.2B in funding (some from Bezos, but no exact sum was disclosed), is already employing about 100 folks and will focus on AI for the engineering and manufacturing sectors (i.e., how to make things with far fewer people).
PERPLEXITY, the AI search company that Bezos is also an investor in, got a $9B valuation in its last fund raise back in December 2024.
This is, of course, in addition to his other investments and involvement in companies like BLUE ORIGIN (rockets), PHYSICAL INTELLIGENCE (AI-powered robots), SLATE AUTO (EVs) and WAPO (“riveting storytelling”).
Hmm. AI, robots, EVs, media — now, who else has already been involved in all of those, too? Hint - he has 14 kids. Whomever picks up crochet wins!
PLUS: Add Peter Thiel’s fund to the list of folks selling off their stakes in NVIDIA this fall. He also cut his stake in TESLA by 76%.
OH: AMAZON joined the gang in issuing billions of new debt via a bond offering to finance, well, I think you get the gist by now — although some money was also earmarked to give bonuses to warehouse workers buy back even more shares of AMAZON.
FINALLY: This internet dunking on billionaire Bill Ackman’s dating advice to young men is too good not to include.
THANKS!: To TKO for the invite to be there for John Cena’s final RAW appearance, held at MSG last night on NETFLIX via his farewell tour, which concludes next month. Very fun to be there for this.
AND: This was pretty awesome too for the hometown crowd.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
