☀️NBC Ratings Test: NBA ’25 vs. Scripted ’24
Shane Gills calls NETFLIX home / PSKY post-WBD lawsuit options / 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, January 13, 2026.
Where it was a good run, NFL Wild Card weekend games! But, yeah, last night was just . . . oof on ABC/ESPN.
GOOD NEWS: A group with ties to Trump is going to pay millions to air an ad after the national anthem on NBC during the Super Bowl next month, touting Trump’s “achievements” . . . in case you thought you’d be getting a break from anything. Plan your group viewing conversation in advance, accordingly.
OPENAI is also returning to the big game with a 60-second spot, according to the WSJ. Thirty seconds costs in the neighborhood of $8M, but guessing there is a 🤏 discount if you double your time.
AI ad spending on good ol’ stuck-in-the-past linear TV was +43% YoY in 2025 according to ISPOT, hitting $334M.
AND: Zootopia did so well in China that the government called Bob Iger over for an in-person visit on Friday to discuss that Act 3 plot twist 🤯. Ok fine, it was to express China’s support of DISNEY investing more in the country — something Iger said the company “will continue to expand.”
BUT: Ted Sarandos made the better choice by flying to Jersey after the Globes to mark the closing yesterday of NETFLIX’s deal for the “Mega Parcel” at its impending 289-acre, 12-soundstage Central Jersey home . . . very near my family’s home in NJ. Ted — no hello? There’s a great bar to watch NFL playoff games very close by!
YAH: Who had NINTENDO Switch as the first platform that DISNEY would be ending the HULU app on? If you watch your HULU via the Switch, you’ll have to go to DISNEY+ to watch HULU as of next month . . . as DIS begins the end of the HULU app throughout the year.
YUP: February will be Trevor Noah’s last hosting of The Grammys.
OH: Dan Wakeford is no longer Editor-in-Chief at MCCLATCHY’s US Weekly after about a 2-year stint. That followed a year-ish as EIC at The Messenger, and a year as Editorial Director at EW.
AH: Jay Penske’s latest business move? Suing GOOGLE for ad market manipulation.
ALSO: Your latest economic indicator — ALDI is opening over 180 stores in the U.S. this year.
YUP: December ’25 U.S. inflation remained at 2.7%, still notably above the Fed’s target goal of under 2%.
SVOD services said hold my beer — video subscription service inflation was +19.5% YoY. 🤣 (note that includes gaming subscriptions as well . . . but, ya know).
BUT: I guess we’ll see if Trump’s rumblings of capping credit card interest rates at 10% for a year among the major banks fall into the Hollywood tariff bin . . . or the regime change in Venezuela bin. Always nice when Trump and Bernie Sanders see eye to eye on issues!
How’s this for a chart (other good charts in that link too)? Really, the economy is going great! I don’t know what everyone’s complaining about.
OH: Don’t worry, California — FL’s Fischer Island may now be the country’s most expensive single zip code . . . but Newport Beach is still its most expensive city in America overall, with 6 zip codes in the Top 100 Most Expensive according to Property Shark.
L.A. was tied for 2nd with Greenwich, CT (each had 4 of the Top 100).
NYC had 3.
CA also had 61 of the top 100.
None of the Top 100 were outside of the coasts, HI or a handful of Southwest zip codes.
AH: SONY’s ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE is entering the 2020s . . . and the 2010s for that matter — no more paper slip ordering sheets 😢. All ALAMO food/drink ordering is moving to phones across the famously “no talking/no texting” theater chain.
OH: Just as with search, APPLE took another step to put its AI backbone/SIRI in GOOGLE’s hands as well. That 2035 anti-trust trial is gonna be a hoot!
THEN: The PGA is definitely over the whole LIV split under new leader and former ESPN bigwig Brian Rolapp — Brooks Koepka has been approved to rejoin the PGA next month, and the door is open to other LIV defectors . . . until Feb. 2, when it will close again.
Koepka will also make a $5M charitable donation and be ineligible for a large portion of potential earnings in the PGA (the tour’s Equity Program) as well as the FEDEX Cup bonus program this year.
Given Koepka cleared about $165M from the Saudis at LIV, he seems to be ok with that.
PLUS: It’s New Job Board Tuesday down below — lotta Comms roles among the mix out there to start the year! Then again, with what’s ahead in our industry this year, that tracks.
NBA on NBC ’25 vs. NBC Entertainment ’24 — Who’s Bigger on Tuesdays?
Now that we’re well through the first tranche of NBA on NBC Tuesday nights and turning the calendar into 2026 — how do the 🏀 audiences look compared to the NBC scripted/The Voice programming a year ago that it replaced?
Sure, that NBCU $2.5B a year NBA check still has a long way to go — but here’s how the Tuesday numbers shook out in 2025 on the whole.