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 7, 2025.
Where I could hear AMC THEATERS execs enthusiastically applauding the . . . 30 minutes of hype content that took place before a minute of actual WWE wrestling took place on NETFLIX last night.
Although I’m guessing that’s kinda par for the course on WWE programming (I mean, 3 hours doesn’t fill itself), and unlike moviegoers — the sold-out WWE audience was definitely into all of it last night . . . including this guy 👇, who apparently is coming for my title as Chief WWE Correspondent around these parts. 😏
I’ll see you for our next in-person showdown at CINEMACON in Vegas to settle this matter in the desert once and for all . . . Rushfield. (NETFLIX, you want in on this?)
I had zero buffering or quality issues watching on my phone at the gym and then on my TV 👏, so this issue seems to be in the past.
Otherwise . . . yup, that was 3 hours of scripted wrestling entertainment! Though just something to note more than anything else — given all the mention of the history of wrestling and the WWE itself last night . . . it certainly was curious that there was no mention of Vince McMahon in the show as far as I saw, although I’m certainly not second-guessing that choice by any means. But that kinda says it all, really.
We’ll see what the viewer numbers bring this week — although the real numbers to keep an eye on will be starting in about a month or so from now once the initial hype and novelty are gone (i.e. I will not be watching 3 hours of wrestling every Monday night going forward —nor will The Rock and John Cena be showing up each week).
Weekly 3-hour WWE is a different beast from a Tyson fight or Beyoncé at a Christmas NFL game, although I’m probably more curious to see how the global numbers come in here overall (and what kind of data will be shared).
But today — see which advertisers NETFLIX enlisted for its first foray into live wrestling, what studios bought time, what NETFLIX chose to promote itself, how celebrity was mixed in and much more down below.
OVER AT THE GLOBES
AND: The Golden Globes did 10.1M viewers on CBS Sunday in preliminary VIDEOAMP numbers (no word on the NFL post-game lead-in size), up from 9.4M last year (although those were NIELSEN, with whom CBS is currently in a contract dispute).
NBC/PEACOCK got a massive 28.5M viewers for its final regular season SNF 🏈 game against the Globes, or almost 3x the viewership.
MAN: What were the odds of Deadline getting the inside track on how much Nikki Glaser was paid to host the Globes ($400k btw), an event owned & operated by its parent company? 🤯 Naturally . . . that #scoop was something that Deadline chose not to mention, but it did include this handy tidbit — ahh, so close!
“When contacted today by Deadline, representatives for Globes producers Dick Clark Productions had no comment on Glaser’s 2025 paycheck.”
Always nice when the representatives are in the company phone directory.
BTW: Clips from Nikki’s stop by Howard Stern on SIRIUSXM yesterday are here on YT for the inclined.
ALTHOUGH: Kudos to NYT’s Kyle Buchanan for the social post of the night. But ya know, it’s really all about awarding artistic achievement.
AND: If you want to know what the winners from that big board mean for the Oscar categories — check out Katey Rich’s great insight here in her Prestige Junkie column.
KUDOS: To Jeremy Strong for hands down the best look at the Globes . . . . and to Anne Hathaway’s Jersey roots coming out in having some fun with it in this post yesterday.
ELSEWHERE
AH: #BigTech’s “Oh we’re totally confident our businesses will stand up under government scrutiny in the new administration —why do you ask? 🥴” campaign continues . . . as UFC leader Dana White is META’s newest board member.
Tech investor Charlie Songhurst and FERRARI exec chairman and European investment exec John Elkann are the other 2 new additions.
OH: META is also dumping fact checking and will utilize its users aka “community fact checkers” to do the job, just like Elon does on X, and I mean, everybody loves the X user experience, right?
META is also bringing back political content so . . . yeah, not much of a question where Zuck’s head is at in 2025:
“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech, so we’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our polices and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
Not to mention, uh . . . do you know how much money we can save by eliminating all fact checking!? 🤑
P.S. Trump won by about 2.3M votes out of 155M votes cast.
Joe Biden won by 7M in 2020 out of the same number of total votes cast.
THEN: Who’s ready for Upfronts!? AMAZON announced that it will hold its event on Monday, May 12 at 6:30 p.m. this year — no word on what FOX or TELEMUNDO plan to do, which traditionally hold events in that Monday late afternoon/evening timeframe.
AND: Given this 👇 was about the midway point on the AMAZON line to get in last year — maybe send someone to hold your spot now (this year it’s at the much friendlier location of the Beacon Theater).
FINAL KUDOS: Goes out to The Ankler’s London Sanders and her team for putting on a jam packed week’s worth of great Ankler events and conversations on both coasts — with more announcements to come in the weeks ahead.
NETFLIX Ad Biz — Who Bought the WWE?
Alright, with the big WWE RAW debut (and at least 5, if not 10 more years ahead) comes our first round of intel around who NETFLIX got to buy ads, as well as what they chose to promote for themselves.
Plus — a couple of curious new deals to note at TKO/WWE itself (that new beer may need some help), The Rock’s curious new investment in the whole thing and more.
So, let’s dive in!
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