The technical ratings-nerd term for this is "holy shit": The World Cup final had more than 60 million combined viewers in the U.S.

Jesus rides beside me, never buys any smokes

My favorite stat here: Just the *top 2* shows (His & Hers, Bridgerton s4) and movies (War Machine, The Rip) got about 2% of all views in their respective categories. There were 8,193 listed shows and 9,177 listed movies in Netflix's data dump.

Forgot to share this yesterday, but: I took a look at Netflix's ongoing top-heaviness. Roughly 6% of shows and movies accounted for about half of all viewing in the first half of this year (and that's more or less the case going back a ways).

Here's the final word (finally, ~ 2 months later) on ratings for the 2025-26 season - 35-day numbers for the top 25 shows regardless of platform, top 25 network shows (including post-air streaming) and the top 20 network shows in adults 18-49.

Another snapshot of what’s happening in Hollywood. The administrator of a crew seniority roster has sent letters to a few thousand IATSE members telling them they’re slated to be cut from the list. The threshold? Working one union day in three years. www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

Hilarious on several levels, one of which is surely how well bringing Trump in would have gone over with the people that run the Open, who have not played their tournament at Trump's course in Scotland since he bought it.

Not sure how I'd quantify this across different media, but I'm reasonably confident Zendaya and Jon Bernthal will be the most watched actors in the U.S. and maybe the world this year. 1/x

And of course, OF COURSE, the skeletons of two cybertrucks are in one of the photos. Further supporting Brian's "no real friends" thesis.

"Scrubs" seemed to have the best handle on Sam as a character among the interns last season, so it makes sense Ava Bunn is now a series regular. I think the show could've kept Joel Kim Booster and X Mayo and found more for them to do, but if it's 12-13 episodes, also not shocked they're going.

I think of this often, that beyond the pals on both sides of the aisle, the TCA press tour, while flawed in countless ways, offered an apparatus for accountability in an industry that has become only more pervasive in our cultural lives and has no such apparatus for accountability today.

This kicks ass

News: Lewis Pullman joins Julia Garner in Apple TV's drama GUILTY CREATURES. W/ @rickporter.bsky.social www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/l...

An "Afterlife with Archie" series will premiere on Disney+ next year, with the creative team behind "Riverdale" and "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" making it.

Or, as it turns out, not let Argentina touch the ball for the entire game.

I think it was a good idea not to have halftime shows at the World Cup before now and it is still a good idea.

First W for England over France in North America since the Seven Years War

What an absolutely ridiculous game that was. I love it.

No defense innit

Ceci n’est pas un defense

Air Quality Index on my weather app currently just says "it looks like The French Connection outside."

lol at Ted Sarandos not so humble bragging away Netflix's season 2 issues: It's "because we launch our shows so big." (The Bloomberg story cited 5 shows out of dozens, at least, so valid sample size criticism there, but this is the most "I'm not mad" explanation)

Is this bad

Congrats to baseball's All-Star Game for holding onto about 3/4 its World Cup lead-in Tuesday.

So I guess I know what LA smog in the '70s was like after today in Chicagoland. Zoinks.

L.S. “Mac” Snackwrap

Streaming: not just for the youths anymore. Got my hands on some Nielsen data showing that shows inlcuding "The Pitt" & "Landman" got half or more of their viewing from viewers age 50 and up.

If I'm Spain on Sunday, I would simply not let Argentina touch the ball in the final 15 minutes of the game. (which is pretty close to the usual Spain m.o. I guess)

the World Cup final will be between two teams that Cape Verde played even through 90 minutes

Good heavens, Albiceleste

Golazo!

Streaming: not just for the youths anymore. Got my hands on some Nielsen data showing that shows inlcuding "The Pitt" & "Landman" got half or more of their viewing from viewers age 50 and up.

Telemundo & Peacock averaged 10.4 million viewers for the quarterfinals. Combined totals (Fox/Tele/Peacock) for the four games: England/Norway: 34.8 million Argentina/Switzerland: 29.95 million France/Morocco: 18.25 million Spain/Belgium: 17.17 million That's, uh, a whole freaking lot of people.

Hosts out, audience staying. The two Saturday World Cup quarterfinals had NFL-ish audiences on Fox, and the other two both beat the previous U.S. English-language high for the quarters.

A bientôt, les bleus.

I respect France's commitment to not working on a holiday.

Luv too: 1. get pitched on something not my beat. 2. point that out to the PR person pitching me. 3. have them ask me to connect them to a co-worker *every few days for 2 weeks* FOH. I'm not doing your job for you, and if can't search my pub's masthead in 2 weeks, then your client has a bad rep.

That was some beautiful futbol right there leading into Spain's second goal.

The first photos and teaser for "Crystal Lake" have the requisite ominous music and voiceover, a desperate Linda Cardellini (as Pam Voorhees) and some blood and whatnot.

I'm curious to see what the "life-sized, fully realized" version of the game board looks like. Beyond that, nah.

North Shore Sunday: giant bubbles at the botanic garden and Billy Idol with the oldest at Ravinia.

New at The Data Stream: Based on presentation and general vibes, I've been thinking the World Cup is part March Madness, part Olympics. How did that idea hold up when looking at the data? www.thedatastream.tv/p/summer-mad...

New at The Data Stream: Based on presentation and general vibes, I've been thinking the World Cup is part March Madness, part Olympics. How did that idea hold up when looking at the data? www.thedatastream.tv/p/summer-mad...

Two absolute bangers of very different kinds. Hey Jude!

as called on TV2 Norway:

Göööööööööööööööööl

ICE kills. ICE lies.

I love a fully topped Chicago dog, but really all I need is mustard, relish and onions. (Will also never turn down a cheese coney)

Into the DelCo-verse: Julianne Nicholson will play her "Mare of Easttown" character in season 2 of "Task."

New at The Data Stream: Emmy nominations by the numbers, including Apple punching above its weight again. Subscribe here for stuff like this in your inbox a few times a week: www.thedatastream.tv/?modal=signup