☀️ PSKY’s New CA Exodus Threat: Follow the Money

Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.

Where POLYMARKET is paying current NBA player LeBron James $15M a year to endorse the ~~sports gambling~~ predictions app.

He’ll be promoting football betting, not basketball betting (don’t you worry, NBA) — because if there’s one thing LeBron James is a trusted source on, it’s the NFL.

That $15M is nearly 4x what he’s being paid to play in the NBA next year.
It’s also great news for the, uh, electric powerboat racing team that LeBron apparently owns? And yes, not that you need to ask at this point, but Tom Brady is also an investor in the sport — as is Will Smith, who joined LeBron at a race in Angola this weekend for his team, which is sponsored by . . . VISIT ANGOLA.
The electric powerboating E1 league heavily promotes its green / environmental cause support, and works “really hard” to offset the carbon emitted by things like, say, people flying PJs 🛩️ to attend races — and know that E1 only uses “air freight as a last resort” when flying the league and its very heavy machinery around the world for events.

BUT: No word on whether POLYMARKET or other sports gambling apps will support the new initiative being put forth by all major sports leagues calling on their sportsbooks business partners to put a lifetime ban on users who harass or threaten violence against players, and create a clear way to report evidence to the proper authorities.

Man, if only there was a way for the sports leagues and pro teams to, like, I dunno . . . make that a condition of doing business with them in the first place? Eh, whaddaya gonna do.
Oh, and I should note that it is about harassment against male athletes — women’s sports leagues like the WNBA weren’t included in the joint statement/proposal, because, as we all know, women aren’t harassed by fans online . . . especially in sports.

PLUS: SNL is adding 2 cast members this year — Grace Reiter (HBO’s The Chair Company) and filmmaker / comedian Saidah Belo-Osagie. As previously announced, Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman are both not returning to the show this season.

AND: Madonna will open the VMA’s in L.A. on Sept. 27 on CBS/MTV.

THEN: Bipartisan House members from California, Texas and Georgia have formed a Congressional American Film & TV Production Caucus to continue efforts to get a federal tax incentive program over the finish line.

AH: ROKU is adding 30 new streaming service bundle offerings for purchase on the platform, mostly involving STARZ and AMC+ in some capacity, and then a bunch of lower-tier streamers.

PLUS: A couple of interesting data points culled from the NETFLIX bi-annual data dumps (may the mid-year report rest in peace):

MEDIA PARTNERS ASIA reported that Japanese anime viewing hours are +39% over the past 3 years on NETFLIX.
Kids & Family viewing expert Emily Horgan released her latest report showing just how much NETFLIX kids viewing comes from PAR’s NICKELODEON library product — its live-action titles delivered 900M+ hours in H1 26 alone.
- NICK’s Henry Danger was the #2 most-watched title globally by hours viewed, only behind PAW Patrol, which also has a PAR affiliation. The rest of the insights are here.

SO: ESPN locked up Joe Buck for another 6 years for $108M, with an annual pay bump from $15M to $18M, according to The Athletic. This means he’ll also call ABC/ESPN’s two Super Bowl games in 2027 and 2031.

YAH: Former LAKERS owner Mark Walter is now officially dumping his ownership in CHELSEA F.C. in the U.K. as well.

AND: The college football shitshow continues, as the sport’s ruling body, the FBS, announced that correct instant replay protocols were not followed in the MICHIGAN vs. WESTERN MICHIGAN game on opening weekend — and that WESTERN should have won. But — MICHIGAN still gets the W because, well, that would involve re-opening the spreadsheet and changing the data and . . . that sounds time-consuming.

SIDE NOTE: The Athletic released a new study showing that the top 10 college football programs now have player payment roster payrolls between $40M and $55M a year. No word on the % of players getting diplomas in each program or GPAs.

WAKEUP Box Office Prediction

Ok, the big one is here — SONY’s Resident Evil is tracking around $40M on the pessimism side to $50M on the optimism side, or roughly around Weapons ($43.5M).

But some think $50M+ is in the cards . . . including me. Count me in for $49M to $53M.

THANKS!: To the folks at A24 for the invite to check out the Primetime premiere in NYC last night — where I gotta say, based on the underlying material, I wasn’t expecting as many laughs as I had during the film. The Robert Pattinson performance was also really great, as I expected.