☀️‘Hail Mary’ Enters Stratosphere, WB 0 for 2 in March
WB moves LEGENDARY pic again / CBS axes series / ‘Hannah Montana’ scores again for DIS+
Evenin! 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 SUNDAY, March 29, 2026.
Where it’s a tough day for DUKE fans out there and . . . probably a very happy day for most other college basketball fans, as DUKE’s men’s and women’s teams were both knocked out of March Madness today.
The men’s team in more stunning fashion — can’t beat the thrill of an unexpected buzzer beater. Well done, UCONN, on making your 3rd Final Four in 4 years on a play that’ll be remembered for years.
Listening to the complete arena silence right before this shot is pretty great.
THEN: A judge granted the temporary restraining order against the NEXSTAR/TEGNA deal that DIRECTV was seeking (among others).
The 2 companies cannot integrate their operations for 14 days, and there will be another hearing on Tuesday, April 7, to determine whether to issue a more damning preliminary injunction against the deal.
AND: NBC NEWS Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander is leaving the division after 20 years, although he’s likely landing a daily show at MS NOW.
WELL: Tiger Woods’ weekend at least, uh, started off on a positive note — his return to his TGL indoor golf league for the championship match got 989k viewers on ESPN last week, the 2nd biggest audience for the league to date since his appearance on the debut season in Jan. 2025.
THEN: Yeah, our AI future keeps looking awesome (and you say it doesn’t poll well in America? ):
According to the NYT, new studies indicate that many top AI bots are looking to be more like “Johnny Drama” than “E” in your entourage — often telling you that your actions were totally the right course when you ask them.
So, if you thought the social media-induced echo chamber we currently live in is bad enough . . . just wait til “Well, my chatbot thinks I should have totally left that trash in the park,” enters your conversations.
According to Fortune, ANTHROPIC’s in-development CLAUDE MYTHOS bot is “currently far ahead of any other AI model in cyber capabilities,” — aka hacking — and “it presages an upcoming wave of models that can exploit vulnerabilities in ways that far outpace the efforts of defenders.”
Essentially, if you thought cyber terrorism was bad now . . .
The 🍒 on top is that this discovery was made when a private ANTHROPIC document was found on a publicly searchable area. 🤌
REST IN PEACE: Goes out to a classic “that guy,” to use a Rewatchables term, as a man whose face is known to almost all Gen X’ers, James Tolkan, died last week at the age of 94. He actually served in the U.S. Navy before becoming an actor in the ’50s, and going on to play memorable roles in ’80s staples like War Games, Back to the Future and of course, Top Gun.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Project Hail Mary continued to soar, so my fellow 38%’ers took this one easily.
Well, technically, my fellow 56% contingent was correct on They Will Kill You, but 17% bears you get points too.
🎥 THE BOX OFFICE
