☀️ Platforms Sound Alarm on AI Slop Threat 🚨
‘Feud’ #s show ABC affiliate quandary / NETFLIX, Millie reunite / COMCAST layoffs hit XFINITY biz
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, September 25, 2025.
Where who says people don’t watch late-night TV shows on TV?
Oddly, it always seems to me that many of the people who say that kind of stuff fall into the older demos who still also pay almost $100 a month to subscribe to cable TV packages, so I’m not sure who the joke is on there.
But regardless — Tuesday’s big JKL show got 6.3M viewers on ABC in preliminary NIELSEN numbers (not BIG DATA + PANEL numbers, which come later), despite the show not being available to 23% of the U.S. population.
That’s well over 3x the show’s Q2 average of 1.8M viewers.
Obviously, the biggest regular episode ever of the show.
Just as a recent comp: The Emmys had 7.4M this year to Jimmy’s 6.3M, and that show was carried in 100% of the country — it also didn’t air at 11:35 p.m.
YES: The monologue is up to 19M views on YT.
NO: A “view” does not equal a “viewer” on linear TV:
A YT “view” means anyone who watched more than 30 seconds, that’s it.
That number is also global, vs. ABC’s U.S.-only number.
AND: The 6.3M on ABC is an average minute audience over the entire hour of JKL on Tuesday, including the Glen Powell and Sarah McLachlan segments, meaning the monologue viewership itself was likely notably higher.
SO: Did more people watch the moment on YOUTUBE? Sure, especially since 23% of the country had no option to watch it on linear TV.
But just keep in mind it’s not apples to apples.
BTW: His monologue from last night is already up to 3.8M views on YT in 10 hours.
AND: I also have some interesting numbers below on what those Family Feud shows did last week in JKL’s late-night slot, which . . . yeah, we’ll see how long NEXSTAR and SINCLAIR hold out.
BUT: Ya gotta love KALSHI being KALSHI — there was $1.3M worth of action put on this market 👇 on Tuesday — not really sure why “cast” was in there . . . but I’m shockingly not always dialed into the nuances of the gambling predictions expert crowd.
ALSO: South Park satirized KALSHI and POLYMARKET last night too — and yes, there was (at least) one KALSHI
wagermarket set up for that as well, which got $1.5M of action.
HUH: The original Laguna Beach cast is doing a reunion special on . . . THE ROKU CHANNEL. 🤔 The big principals (LC, Kristin, Stephen, Lo) and others will be involved.
YUP: DELTA is now adding YOUTUBE content to your in-flight viewing options, which I’m sure the featured creators will be paid for. Uh, right?
MAN: The Trump administration still can’t seem to try and spin Brendan Carr’s comments last week hard enough.
First, Brendan later insisted that his uh, mobster pic-inspired comments on a right-wing pod last week were not a threat.
Now, JD Vance is pulling out the ol’ chestnut of calling them “a joke on social media.” Keep digging, fellas . . . maybe something will stick eventually!
HOWEVER: Most signs are that Trump is going to use the looming U.S. government shutdown lever coming in about 6 days to enact the layoffs in departments Trump doesn’t like that he didn’t get done with Elon in Q2 — note that Democrats and Republicans / The White House don’t even seem to be talking at the moment.
SO: I’m gonna venture that there may be a pivot from “the Kimmel narrative” very shortly (although it’s always there to revisit in an emergency), even if NEXSTAR and SINCLAIR continue to say “no thanks” to the increased ad money for their stations this week. 👍
ESSENTIALLY: As some media companies (and others) have used a more robust RTO policy come 2026 as a “natural” layoff lever, ahem — the Trump administration may very well do the same with the shutdown lever.
AND: AMAZON PV is adding the video versions of the New Heights pod to the platform.
OH BOY: CLOUDFLARE, which powers 20% of the world’s internet traffic according to the company, is rolling out tools for publishers (or any site) to block GOOGLE’s AI Overviews from including their links/article information — but still make the links searchable in regular GOOGLE searches, according to The Information.
GOOGLE currently doesn’t give sites the option of not being included in AI Overviews, but being included in regular search. It’s all or nothing.
The new code trick is not legally binding (i.e., GOOGLE can still find ways to work around this if it chooses) . . . but certainly sets the stage for some intriguing conversations.
⛳️👏: Goes out to CNBC’s Steve Kovach for succinctly putting the shell game AI investment news that’s been coming out of Silicon Valley (and propping up our stock market) over the past week and beyond in the right lens. Eh, closed-loop business investment theses always work out, right?
Give me a full head of hair and my Case Logic CD folder, and I could swear I’m in 1999!
AH: ORACLE just issued another $18B in debt via a new bond offering to help pay for all of these new data centers in that investment loop. So, what’s another $35B of debt from WBD, amirite?
While ORACLE has many contracts from partners already set to build the data centers (i.e., it isn’t raising money to build them on spec), obviously, this is all predicated on AI demand hitting projections in the near to mid-term future, and then some.
Also — some of those AI companies don’t actually currently have all of the money they’ve promised to ORACLE and others.
MOODY’S and S&P both have ORACLE on negative credit watch due to its now over $150B worth of debt.
OH: INTEL is now also looking to APPLE to become an investor in its business to try and save its fortunes, just as it did to NVIDIA — so . . . INTEL is basically auditioning for the Sonny Bunz role in Goodfellas — I’m sure it’ll work out better, naturally.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
We’ve got 2 potential strong showings at the box office this weekend.
First up — the movie that’s gonna ruin Mike & Pam’s career at WBD has finally arrived. And it’s tracking to open to about $20M / low $20Ms seems to be the consensus.
But some optimists believe PTA diehards could push this 2h 40m pic closer to $30M, so where do ya’s land?
NEXT: We have Gabby’s Dollhouse coming to the big screen from UNI/DWA.
In H1 2025, the TV series had the most views of any kids’ TV programming on NETFLIX globally across the 11 seasons available on the service (including a new one added in H1), according to kids viewing data virtuoso Emily Horgan:
Ms. Rachel got to #5 on that H1 2025 list with just one season of 4 episodes, FWIW.
Gabby seems to be tracking around $15M / mid-teens to maybe $20M if you’re an optimist.
FINALLY: Let’s round out the top here with a couple of great Robert Redford stories from Ethan Hawke last night — reminding us of the importance of prioritizing generosity to the next generation in this town.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
