Jennifer Aniston didn’t ask for a fancy car or lavish gifts to celebrate her rise to fame on “Friends.”
During an appearance on the “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard” podcast, Aniston, 56, discussed the practical gift she once asked for from NBC.
“Another time I said, ‘Will you please give me a washer and dryer?’ and [NBC executive Warren Littlefield] wrote that down on a napkin,” Aniston said, laughing.
Shepard, slightly caught off guard, asked, “As part of your negotiation?”
Jennifer Aniston said she asked NBC for a washer and dryer instead of luxury gifts during her “Friends” success.(James Devaney/GC Images)
Aniston clarified it wasn’t part of her contract — just a lighthearted request during her early success on the hit sitcom.
“I just kept hearing that all these actors were getting cars and getting these things once they got hired,” she said. “And ‘Friends’ had happened, and we were, I don’t know, at the Upfronts for something.”
While other Hollywood stars were getting luxury perks, Aniston just wanted a little help with her laundry.
“Actor treats,” Aniston agreed, nodding to the industry tradition of over-the-top gifts for talent. “These elaborate, very expensive gifts,” she explained. “And [Littlefield] was like, ‘Well, what do you want?’ And I was like, ‘Really?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah.’ And I couldn’t think of anything. I was like, ‘I need a washer and a dryer.’”
The podcast host asked, “Did he deliver?” and Aniston confirmed that the NBC executive did at the time.
The actress starred in the hit sitcom for 10 seasons, from 1994 to 2004, along with Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc.(Getty Images)
The actress starred as Rachel Green in the hit sitcom for 10 seasons, from 1994 to 2004, along with Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc.
Last year, Aniston admitted that she’s glad the show was filmed when it was, because the cast didn’t have to deal with any criticism on social media.
“It was in the ’90s and 2000s, and we had a luxury of there not being social media or the internet, so we were so isolated and protected,” she explained in a conversation with Variety.
Last year, Aniston admitted that she’s glad the show was filmed when it was, because the cast didn’t have to deal with any criticism on social media.(Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
She continued, “You weren’t faced with what people are commenting and ripping you apart or whatever. It was really an innocent time, where we could roam about the world a lot easier.”
“But again, there weren’t phones. It’s not like hundreds of screens telling you what it is.”
“It’s so strange to even think that it’s 30 years old,” she said. “Because I remember the day that it was going to premiere on television, on NBC: Matthew Perry and I were having lunch somewhere, and we knew Lisa was getting her hair colored. So we ran into the hair salon, and I snuck up – she was in the sink – and I took the nozzle from the guy that was supposed to be doing it and just started washing her hair. It definitely flew out of control, and that was unfortunate. But the excitement we had, it feels like yesterday.”
Stephanie Giang-Paunon is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to stephanie.giang@fox.com and on Twitter: @SGiangPaunon.
This is one of those rare weeks when every streaming platform comes to play. It’s premiere-palooza out there. Honestly, there were almost too many shows to mention. You’ve heard of series that hit all four quadrants — this week’s lineup covers the entire spectrum of streaming television.
I’m talking chills, thrills, laughs and family feuds. From Hallowicked origins to another entry in Taylor Sheridan’s never-ending TV empire… from the first family of reality TV to a romantic comedy that’s both spicy and sincere — there’s something for every mood, every screen, and every couch position imaginable.
Let’s hit “Play.”
It: Welcome to Derry
Stephen King’s world of It continues to expand — and somehow, Pennywise just keeps getting creepier. The dancing clown has always had a chokehold on American horror pop culture. Sure, Jason stalked you. Freddy invaded your dreams. But Pennywise? He knows your fears — and smiles through razor-sharp teeth while exploiting them.
I mean, really — a killer clown who preys on kids, lures them with balloons, and lives in the gutter? That’s childhood trauma in cinematic form.
It: Welcome to Derry takes us back to where it all began. Set in 1962, the series serves as a prequel to the hit films and follows a Korean War vet named Leroy, his wife Charlotte, and their son as they relocate to Derry, Maine — a picturesque little town with a stomach-turning secret.
The show connects directly to the 2017 and 2019 It movies, keeping that eerie mix of nostalgia and nightmare. Expect flickering streetlights, echoing laughter in the sewers, and a slow, suffocating dread that builds until you’re checking the corners of your room at 2 a.m.
Bottom line: Welcome to Derry isn’t just another cash-in on King’s mythos. It’s a return to the origin of fear itself — and it’s streaming this week on Max.
Nobody Wants This– Season 2
Sometimes love stories are messy. Sometimes they’re magnetic. And sometimes — like in Nobody Wants This — they’re both.
Kristen Bell stars as Joanne, an outspoken woman who co-hosts a sex podcast with her sister. She’s brash, funny, and brutally honest — the kind of person who says out loud what everyone else just Googles. Enter Noah (Adam Brody, a.k.a. Seth Cohen from The O.C.), a charming but conflicted rabbi whose life is built around faith, boundaries and expectations.
They meet at a dinner party. Sparks fly. And suddenly, the podcaster and the rabbi are trying to make sense of a connection that feels both right and totally impossible.
Their chemistry? Off the charts. Their comedic timing? Surgical. Bell and Brody make every scene hum with wit, warmth and that rare kind of emotional tension that makes you grin one moment and wince the next.
What elevates Nobody Wants This beyond the usual rom-com fare is its depth — the cultural and spiritual tug-of-war, the vulnerability beneath the humor, and the way it asks: Can love really bridge belief?
If you loved Season 1, Season 2 only doubles down on everything that worked. And if you’re new to it — congrats, you just found your next binge.
Nobody Wants This Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
The Kardashians — Season 7
Let’s face it: you might not keep up with the Kardashians, but the Kardashians always keep up with you.
The most famous (and infamous) family in television history returns for Season 7, and the drama is as thick as ever. Kris is still the CEO of chaos, there’s Kylie, Kendall, Kourtney, Khloe and Kim — and well, Kim’s taking things to a whole new level.
This season, we see Rob Kardashian step back into the spotlight (finally!), and Kim trades SKIMS for scripts as she films All’s Fair, a Ryan Murphy legal drama where she stars opposite — wait for it — Glenn Close.That’s right, Kim Kardashian and Glenn Close, in a courtroom, on Hulu. The crossover we never knew we would get.
But there’s more to Kim than her headline-grabbing career moves. She’s also waiting on her California Bar results and continuing her push for criminal justice reform — a storyline that’s genuinely admirable.
Love them or love to hate them, the Kardashians have permanently tattooed themselves on pop culture’s forehead. They’ve turned self-awareness into a business model and luxury into a language. The Kardashians Season 7 hits Hulu this week — fur thongs, sibling spats, and all.
Carl Weber’s The Family Business — Season 6
Ernie Hudson might be the busiest man in Hollywood, and somehow, he just keeps getting cooler. He’s back as L.C. Duncan, patriarch of Carl Weber’s The Family Business, a show that blends slick mob drama with pure soap opera flair — and fans can’t get enough.
The Duncans are the definition of “dual life.” By day, they run a luxury car dealership in New York. By night? They’re deeply entrenched in the city’s underworld — handling secrets, betrayals, and business the old-fashioned way: with power and precision.
This season, things get even messier. A child stolen at birth resurfaces, a $100 million theft rocks the family, and loyalties are tested like never before.
Hudson commands every frame, giving L.C. that rare mix of gravitas and danger. The show has heart, heat, and just enough swagger to make you feel like you’re watching a modern-day Black Godfather story unfold.
The Family Business Season 6 is streaming now on BET+, and it’s a ride worth taking.
Mayor of Kingstown — Season 4
Taylor Sheridan might be a machine. Between Yellowstone, Tulsa King, and now Mayor of Kingstown, the man’s building his own cinematic universe — one dust storm and shootout at a time.
Jeremy Renner returns as Mike McLusky, the unofficial “mayor” of Kingstown, Michigan — a town where the only thriving industry is incarceration. He’s the broker, the fixer, the one man who can walk between worlds: gangs, guards, cops, and politicians, all of them equally corrupt and desperate.
Season 4 finds Kingstown boiling over. Violence spills from the prisons into the streets, alliances crumble, and Mike’s attempts to keep order feel more like holding back a hurricane with his bare hands.
The show isn’t just about power — it’s about what power does to people. Sheridan uses the prison system as both setting and metaphor, turning the entire town into a moral cage.
It’s grim. It’s gripping. It’s Sheridan doing what Sheridan does best: crafting stories about flawed men trying to hold their worlds together while everything burns around them.
Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 is streaming now on Paramount+.
This is one of those rare weeks when every streaming platform comes to play. It’s premiere-palooza out there. Honestly, there were almost too many shows to mention. You’ve heard of series that hit all four quadrants — this week’s lineup covers the entire spectrum of streaming television.
I’m talking chills, thrills, laughs and family feuds. From Hallowicked origins to another entry in Taylor Sheridan’s never-ending TV empire… from the first family of reality TV to a romantic comedy that’s both spicy and sincere — there’s something for every mood, every screen, and every couch position imaginable.
Let’s hit “Play.”
It: Welcome to Derry
Stephen King’s world of It continues to expand — and somehow, Pennywise just keeps getting creepier. The dancing clown has always had a chokehold on American horror pop culture. Sure, Jason stalked you. Freddy invaded your dreams. But Pennywise? He knows your fears — and smiles through razor-sharp teeth while exploiting them.
I mean, really — a killer clown who preys on kids, lures them with balloons, and lives in the gutter? That’s childhood trauma in cinematic form.
It: Welcome to Derry takes us back to where it all began. Set in 1962, the series serves as a prequel to the hit films and follows a Korean War vet named Leroy, his wife Charlotte, and their son as they relocate to Derry, Maine — a picturesque little town with a stomach-turning secret.
The show connects directly to the 2017 and 2019 It movies, keeping that eerie mix of nostalgia and nightmare. Expect flickering streetlights, echoing laughter in the sewers, and a slow, suffocating dread that builds until you’re checking the corners of your room at 2 a.m.
Bottom line: Welcome to Derry isn’t just another cash-in on King’s mythos. It’s a return to the origin of fear itself — and it’s streaming this week on Max.
Nobody Wants This– Season 2
Sometimes love stories are messy. Sometimes they’re magnetic. And sometimes — like in Nobody Wants This — they’re both.
Kristen Bell stars as Joanne, an outspoken woman who co-hosts a sex podcast with her sister. She’s brash, funny, and brutally honest — the kind of person who says out loud what everyone else just Googles. Enter Noah (Adam Brody, a.k.a. Seth Cohen from The O.C.), a charming but conflicted rabbi whose life is built around faith, boundaries and expectations.
They meet at a dinner party. Sparks fly. And suddenly, the podcaster and the rabbi are trying to make sense of a connection that feels both right and totally impossible.
Their chemistry? Off the charts. Their comedic timing? Surgical. Bell and Brody make every scene hum with wit, warmth and that rare kind of emotional tension that makes you grin one moment and wince the next.
What elevates Nobody Wants This beyond the usual rom-com fare is its depth — the cultural and spiritual tug-of-war, the vulnerability beneath the humor, and the way it asks: Can love really bridge belief?
If you loved Season 1, Season 2 only doubles down on everything that worked. And if you’re new to it — congrats, you just found your next binge.
Nobody Wants This Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
The Kardashians — Season 7
Let’s face it: you might not keep up with the Kardashians, but the Kardashians always keep up with you.
The most famous (and infamous) family in television history returns for Season 7, and the drama is as thick as ever. Kris is still the CEO of chaos, there’s Kylie, Kendall, Kourtney, Khloe and Kim — and well, Kim’s taking things to a whole new level.
This season, we see Rob Kardashian step back into the spotlight (finally!), and Kim trades SKIMS for scripts as she films All’s Fair, a Ryan Murphy legal drama where she stars opposite — wait for it — Glenn Close.That’s right, Kim Kardashian and Glenn Close, in a courtroom, on Hulu. The crossover we never knew we would get.
But there’s more to Kim than her headline-grabbing career moves. She’s also waiting on her California Bar results and continuing her push for criminal justice reform — a storyline that’s genuinely admirable.
Love them or love to hate them, the Kardashians have permanently tattooed themselves on pop culture’s forehead. They’ve turned self-awareness into a business model and luxury into a language. The Kardashians Season 7 hits Hulu this week — fur thongs, sibling spats, and all.
Carl Weber’s The Family Business — Season 6
Ernie Hudson might be the busiest man in Hollywood, and somehow, he just keeps getting cooler. He’s back as L.C. Duncan, patriarch of Carl Weber’s The Family Business, a show that blends slick mob drama with pure soap opera flair — and fans can’t get enough.
The Duncans are the definition of “dual life.” By day, they run a luxury car dealership in New York. By night? They’re deeply entrenched in the city’s underworld — handling secrets, betrayals, and business the old-fashioned way: with power and precision.
This season, things get even messier. A child stolen at birth resurfaces, a $100 million theft rocks the family, and loyalties are tested like never before.
Hudson commands every frame, giving L.C. that rare mix of gravitas and danger. The show has heart, heat, and just enough swagger to make you feel like you’re watching a modern-day Black Godfather story unfold.
The Family Business Season 6 is streaming now on BET+, and it’s a ride worth taking.
Mayor of Kingstown — Season 4
Taylor Sheridan might be a machine. Between Yellowstone, Tulsa King, and now Mayor of Kingstown, the man’s building his own cinematic universe — one dust storm and shootout at a time.
Jeremy Renner returns as Mike McLusky, the unofficial “mayor” of Kingstown, Michigan — a town where the only thriving industry is incarceration. He’s the broker, the fixer, the one man who can walk between worlds: gangs, guards, cops, and politicians, all of them equally corrupt and desperate.
Season 4 finds Kingstown boiling over. Violence spills from the prisons into the streets, alliances crumble, and Mike’s attempts to keep order feel more like holding back a hurricane with his bare hands.
The show isn’t just about power — it’s about what power does to people. Sheridan uses the prison system as both setting and metaphor, turning the entire town into a moral cage.
It’s grim. It’s gripping. It’s Sheridan doing what Sheridan does best: crafting stories about flawed men trying to hold their worlds together while everything burns around them.
Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 is streaming now on Paramount+.
For years now, CNN has been haplessly trying to modernize its media franchise by launching a streaming service. Those of you aware of these efforts will recall CNN+, which launched a few years ago and, despite an ample amount of buzz and financing, humiliatingly lasted less than a month.
Well, not to be deterred, CNN is now trying it again.
This week, the news network’s owner, Warner Bros. Discovery, announced its next venture into streaming: CNN “All Access.” From the looks of things, as reported by CNBC, “All Access” doesn’t look terribly dissimilar from the last attempt to make this thing happen.
“It’s an essential step in CNN’s evolution,” Reuters quotes Alex MacCallum, CNN Worldwide’s executive vice president for digital products and services, as saying.
It may be essential, but will it actually work? That’s the question that hangs over this entire operation. It will likely only work if the network can corner a market of folks who feel that it’s in their best interest to shell out a certain amount of money so that they can stream CNN news programs—and the jury’s still out on whether such a market even exists.
Speaking of money, the pricing for “All Access” is comparable (but actually higher) than the fees for CNN+, which, at the time of its launch in 2022, cost $6 a month, or $60 a year. “All Access” costs $6.99 a month or $69.99 annually, CNBC reports, so, inflation considered, it’s not a terrible leap in price. The outlet also notes that, in an effort to gin up some initial interest, the service is also offering a limited-time annual subscription that only costs $41.99. To qualify for that deal, you have to sign up by January 5.
If you’ll recall, CNN+ was developed several years ago and was initially hailed as the future of news programming. Problematically, almost nobody signed up for the service. At the time, CNBC reported that, in the first few weeks of the service, only 10,000 people watched CNN+ on a daily basis. Some commentators noted that the demographic most committed to accessing media through streaming (younger viewers) was not exactly the demographic most known for watching CNN (older viewers). At the time of its unfortunate launch, it was compared to Quibi, the financially bloated streaming service launched in 2020 that sought to monetize “quick bite” infotainment but crashed and burned inside of a year.
No one knows whether CNN+: The Sequel will flounder or flourish. The news network has obviously set the bar pretty low for itself. With CNN+’s dismally short-lived tenure, the new service probably only needs to last two months to be considered an improvement by the company’s C-suite.
Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch put on a masterclass in comedy in The Roses, a brilliant new adaptation of Warren Adler’s 1981 novel War of the Roses, which follows a couple at odds.
The film hit theaters in August, and struck a chord with audiences who rated the film a commendable 79% on the review aggregate site, Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s a brilliant film at just 105 minutes long, and showcases some fabulous performances, not just from Colman and Cumberbatch, but also a brilliant supporting cast, made up of Kate McKinnon, Andy Samberg, Ncuti Gatwa, Sunita Mani, Zoë Chao, Jamie Demetriou, and more.
Below, you can find all you need to know about where to watch The Roses, as well as the The Roses digital release date and The Roses streaming information.
The Roses – How to Watch
The Roses is available on Video on Demand platforms from October 21, 2025. You will be able to rent and buy the title on places like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
Where Can I Watch The Roses?
The Roses is available to rent and buy on Video on Demand platforms from October 21, 2025.
It lands on platforms such as Prime Video, Apple TV+, Fandango at Home, and Google Play on October 21, 2025.
The Roses Physical Release Date
The Roses will be available in Blu-ray and DVD formats from November 25, 2025.
Bonus features include:
Gag Reel
Featurettes:
A House To Fight For – A behind-the-front-door look at the epicenter of both beauty and acrimony. See the construction of the Roses’ home, hear from the designer and the filmmakers on their vision, and discover the actors’ wish to take everything from the house home with them.
The Roses: An Inside Look – Hear from the cast and filmmakers about making The Roses. Learn about the actors’connection and chemistry, and join the grounded, satirical, British, wry wit that only Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch can pull off.
Comedy Gold – This cast is stacked with comedy talent bringing Tony McNamara’s witty dialogue to life with Jay Roach directing. Even Olivia Colman had to ask about this special cast, “How the F did we get them?”
Bonus features may vary depending on the retailer.
The Roses Digital Release Date
The Roses will be available to watch digitally from October 21, 2025.
Is The Roses Available to Stream in the US?
The Roses does not yet have an official streaming release. However, the film will likely end up on Disney+ in the coming weeks.
What Is The Roses About?
The official synopsis for The Roses, as per Disney, reads:
Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy (Colman) and Theo (Cumberbatch): successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, a storm is brewing – as Theo’s career nosedives while Ivy’sown ambitions take off, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites. The Roses is a reimagining of the 1989 classic film The War of the Roses, based on the novel by Warren Adler.
Video podcasts are coming to Netflix — in part because everyone’s gotta compete with YouTube. Photo: Bill Simmons via YouTube
What even counts as television these days, anyway? That question gets a tad thornier by the day, especially now that Netflix has announced a new partnership with Spotify to bring a curated slate of the latter’s owned video podcasts onto the streaming platform.
It’s a sizable lineup, one that mostly draws from The Ringer, the Bill Simmons–founded network that Spotify acquired in 2020, and which in recent months has been notably embracing video. The slate coming to Netflix includes the expected sports programming like The Bill Simmons Podcast (redemption, presumably, for Any Given Wednesday) and The Zach Lowe Show, but also more culture-oriented fare like The Rewatchables, The Big Picture, and The Dave Chang Show. Beyond The Ringer, the deal brings on podcasts that had been absorbed in Spotify’s 2019 acquisition of Parcast, including the generically named True Crime and Serial Killers, both of which will likely play nicely with Netflix’s recommendation algorithm. They will become available on Netflix in the U.S. early next year, with other markets to eventually follow. More titles are expected to be added later.
For Netflix, this move doesn’t come out of nowhere. The company has been steadily experimenting with broadening its on-platform definition of “content,” including video games and digital video programming that originated on YouTube, like the popular kids’ YouTuber Ms. Rachel. It’s also long dabbled on the periphery of podcasting, mainly producing branded company shows tied to its television projects, not unlike how HBO uses podcasts to deepen engagement with shows like The Gilded Age and The Last of Us.
But the podcast world has changed dramatically in the past few years. The rapid rise of video-first programming has completely reshaped the medium — and Netflix’s leadership has been watching. “The lines between podcast and talk shows are getting pretty blurry,” co-CEO Ted Sarandos told investors back in April. “As the popularity of video podcasts grows, I suspect you’ll see some of them find their way to Netflix.” Around the same time, Axios reported that it was seeking a podcast chief, signaling a deeper structural move into the space.
The Spotify podcasts heading to Netflix
Sports • The Bill Simmons Podcast • The Zach Lowe Show • The McShay Show • Fairway Rollin’ • The Mismatch • The Ringer F1 Show • The Ringer Fantasy Football Show • The Ringer NFL Show • The Ringer NBA Show
Culture / Lifestyle • The Rewatchables • The Big Picture • The Dave Chang Show • The Recipe Club • Dissect • True Crime • Conspiracy Theories • Serial Killers
For Spotify, things are a little more complicated. The deal represents both a retreat and a reframing. After spending years and billions of dollars to become the dominant podcasting player — buying Gimlet Media (now shuttered), Parcast (also largely shuttered), and The Ringer, plus signing exclusive deals with Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper (who later left for SiriusXM) — the Swedish platform had been further pivoting toward video in search of more lucrative ad dollars and a better business model for its podcast efforts. But YouTube’s sudden incursion into the podcast space, precipitated by the medium’s broader turn toward video, has effectively boxed Spotify in; it didn’t take long for audience-research reports to indicate that more podcast listeners now consider YouTube to be their top preferred platform, surpassing Spotify. By bringing its video podcasts to Netflix, Spotify can extend its shows’ reach without shouldering the cost of competing in video distribution. It’s a way of turning its original content into syndicated inventory, licensing its productions into a marketplace and audience ecosystem that’s indicated greater affinity toward visual programming.
Both companies, of course, are reacting to the same gravitational pull: YouTube. The platform has evolved into the default center of gravity for the creator economy, swallowing categories like music, gaming, education, and now podcasts. In recent months, YouTube had been quietly reframing itself as a direct competitor to Netflix, a position further substantiated by its own claim that the platform is reaching more viewers over television sets than on phones and computers. As such, for Netflix and Spotify, this partnership is less a marriage than a kind of mutual defense pact: Netflix gets a new vein of low-cost, evergreen talk content that helps it compete in attention time against YouTube, while Spotify gets a new distribution vector that can keep its video and podcast investments relevant.
The most intriguing question is how far Netflix is willing to go, and whether it’s considering adding what’s long thought to be the most popular podcast in the world: The Joe Rogan Experience. (Spotify doesn’t own Rogan’s show, but it holds an exclusive distribution deal.) Or, indeed, whether it will lean toward bringing on the most culturally influential podcast genre we have: politics. Given Netflix’s aversion to anything resembling news programming, there’s likely not much appetite for that. At least, not yet. But give it time — and, perhaps, a bad fiscal quarter.
EXCLUSIVE: Starring Korean-American chef Edward Lee as well as veteran actor Ryu Soo-young, Ed And Ryu: Mad About Seafood is a culinary travel documentary co-produced by BBC Studios Asia and Studio JanChi — with a K-pop star also set to make an appearance in the show.
London-based executive producer Jeong Sunyoung sits down with Deadline to share more about collaborating with Lee and Ryu to bring viewers on a gastronomic voyage around South Korea‘s coastline. Jeong talks about bridging different unscripted storytelling styles between the U.K. and Korea, casting Lee and Ryu in the show, and how co-producing with overseas partners like BBC Studios can potentially help to solve a major pain point in Korea’s unscripted television business.
Previously under the working title “12 Seas,”Ed And Ryu: Mad About Seafood is a four-part English-language series exploring South Korea’s rich seafood traditions and maritime heritage. Following Lee and Ryu as they harvest wild seaweed using ancient techniques and catch anchovies with traditional bamboo traps, the show is also about contemporary Korea: diving into the science behind K-beauty trends like salmon sperm injections and reimagining the local cuisine with seasonal seafood.
The show will premiere next year on BBC Earth and BBC Player across Asia.
Brewing a culinary adventure
Jeong is no stranger to exec producing a series about Korean food, after shepherding BBC Studios’ first original production in Asia, Deep Dive Korea: Song Ji-hyo’s Haenyeo Adventure, from concept development to its premiere in May this year. Starring Song Ji-hyo, the series followed the female free divers called “haenyeo” on Korea’s Jeju Island, who use their skills to harvest a variety of seafood.
The concept for Mad About Seafood first emerged from a pitch competition co-hosted by the Korean Creative Content Agency and BBC Studios. Studio Janchi, which focuses on food-related programs, beat more than 20 other pitches to win the competition.
The initial idea revolved around showcasing Korean seafood based on the seasonality of every month — with 12 episodes to reflect 12 months — but the final version pivoted to four episodes focusing on spring, summer, fall and winter.
The shoot for the series first began in March, with the final shoot set to take place in end-October.
Casting Edward Lee and Ryu Soo-young
A familiar face on cooking competition programs like Iron Chef America, MasterChef, and Culinary Class Wars, Lee was quickly cast in Mad About Seafood.
Jeong says that Mad About Seafood is far from just a whistle-stop tour of Korea’s culinary highlights, but instead, an in-depth program about culture and heritage that also provided space for Lee to share more about his identity as a Korean-American.
Ryu Soo-young (L) and Edward Lee (R) on the island of Jeju.
“I think what really made the audience root for him [in other shows] was his effort, in his early 50s, to reconnect with the heritage he felt he had slightly neglected because of many reasons,” says Jeong. “There was a scene where we asked him this question, and he said that he felt slightly guilty about not using his Korean name, but in the United States, as an Asian immigrant, you have pressure to assimilate with America as much as possible. Now he feels very free to enjoy his Korean heritage, so we tried to capture this moment in a very honest way.”
Ryu has starred in food shows like Stars’ Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant, Mr. Eo’s Food World Tour and K Food Show, besides acting in films and dramas like Steel Rain 2, Bloodhounds and Endless Love.
“Ryu Soo-young is a great, and although they hadn’t met before we put them together, they know of each other,” adds Jeong. “Koreans jokingly say that every household needs a Ryu Soo-young because he’s too perfect. He’s handsome. He’s very kind. He cooks.”
Differences in storytelling stylesbetween Korea and the UK
Reflecting on some of the differences between unscripted programs in Korea and the UK, Jeong said that Korean programs tend to have quite a lot of dialogue. “For international audiences, without having any language understanding or cultural background, it’s very difficult for them to engage with these kinds of programs, which actually works really well for Korean audiences.”
Besides collaborating with Studio JanChi and local crew in Korea, Jeong worked with BBC Studios’ global team, across the London, New York and Singapore offices to bring Mad About Seafood to life.
She says that with the BBC taking care of the international distribution, one of the biggest pain points in the Korean unscripted business is resolved for this show.
“We help to sell and distribute this program internationally. For Korean content, when it comes to drama, it’s very successful, but when it comes to unscripted — although domestic reality shows and some game shows have been quite successful in terms of launching a format — for factual entertainment or documentary, they are always looking for ways to get more exposure and international distribution. For BBC Studios, which is a world-leading distributor, this is very helpful,” says Jeong.
For Jeong, Mad About Seafood has also been the culmination of different threads in her life which have armed her with strong intercultural sensibilities and a sharp sense of how to produce for the international entertainment ecoysystem: her six-year career as a multimedia journalist alongside her decade-long journey as a TV producer; her upbringing and early professional life in Korea paired with her current career and home base in the UK.
“Because I’m Korean, I think it is a bit easier for me to push for a more challenging angle, because I’m an insider with outside knowledge, when it comes to storytelling for Korean audiences or with Korean production companies. I like to challenge them, because I really want to make sure that we are pushing the envelope when it comes to creativity.”
Eating a meal with Korea’s ‘haenyeos’
For example, while researching material before making Deep Dive Korea, Jeong felt that the topic of the haenyeo female free divers had been glorified in the media without sufficient context of the suffering and hardship historically associated with the community. “I asked, ‘why do they still not carry air tanks when this technology is available for them?’ I really wanted to push the show to go deeper into the subject matter.
“We were able to tell the story of old haenyeos who grww to love their jobs, but it was actually started by economic necessity. There are people, especially from the younger generation, who love being haenyeos because they love the idea of working in the ocean and there’s much more awareness around ecology and the environment these days. But for older people, it was probably a luxury for them,” adds Jeong.
In another example, Jeong shares that at the start, her Korean production partners were nervous about telling the story of hagfish in the show. A delicacy in Korea (and especially popular in Busan), the animal is linked to a dark period in the country’s history.
At a fish market.
“I wanted to talk about the history behind this food, because during the Japanese occupation, Japan built a factory around manufacturing goods from hagfish like hagfish bags and all. But Koreans at the time were very poor, so they found a way to eat hagfish meat out of the hagfish factory. I found this kind of story very interesting, because it’s very layered and it’s a great story to tell about how Korea was and how Korea is now,” says Jeong.
“But there was a little bit of hesitation from my production partner, because understandably, they want to show the best parts of Korea and don’t necessarily want to go back to these difficult times for Koreans, but I told them that people will resonate much more with the story because it’s a universal topic, in terms of going through hardships or difficult times. Now that we’ve actually overcomes this, this is great way of talking about Korea’s transformation through the lens of food. So I told my production partner my intentions behind what seemed to be slightly difficult story for them, and I think they understood and were, in the end, quite happy that we actually covered that subject.”
Memorable scenesand a changing Korea
Jeong says that another particularly memorable location in the upcoming series was a mud flat that they shot in the spring this year. Mudflats and tidal flats in Korea are home to a wide variety of clams, crabs, octopuses, and snails, which can be harvested.
“I actually didn’t know how important mud flats were when it comes to ecology,” says Jeong. “If you look at a mudflat, it looks lifeless and gray, but there’s actually so much life going on. It was a perfect spring story. Despite the depressing visuals on the surface, if you go deeper, there are so many clams and life there. Apparently, Korea has one of the largest mud flats in the world.”
With production wrapping up at the end of this month for the series, Jeong shares one of her biggest takeaways from traveling around the country.
“We really want to make sure that this is a story about dynamic, contemporary Korea. For instance, when we filmed the haenyeo in Jeju, I noticed when we filmed in rural areas in Korea, there are quite a number of foreign workers. The Korean demographic is changing.
“In the haenyeo sequence, we have a Filipino haenyeo who is loved by her colleagues. Her nickname is ‘Octopus Granny’ because she’s really good at catching octopus and that was very interesting for me, because haenyeo is a community that is known for being quite closed, but the fact that they embraced a foreign woman, who settled in Jeju Island because she married a local man, was an exciting way to show how Korea is changing.”
Peacock released the first teaser trailer for The Copenhagen Test during the show’s New York Comic Con panel, revealing the first look at the upcoming espionage thriller series starring Simu Liu and Melissa Barrera. It will premiere on December 27, 2025, only on Peacock.
“This espionage thriller series follows first-generation Chinese-American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale (Simu Liu), who realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears,” reads the show’s official synopsis. “Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies.”
What happens in The Copenhagen Test teaser trailer?
The trailer details the story of Alexander Hale (Liu), an intelligence analyst who doesn’t know whom he can trust anymore. The trailer doesn’t show off too much, but it does tease some fight scenes involving both Liu and Barrera, as well as a possible romantic connection between the two.
The Copenhagen Test was created by co-showrunner and writer Thomas Brandon (Legacies). Jennifer Yale (See, Outlander) also serves as co-showrunner and writer on the project. Alongside Liu and Barrera, series regulars on The Copenhagen Test include Sinclair Daniel, Brian D’Arcy James, Mark O’Brien, and Kathleen Chalfant.
Liu, Brandon, and Yale serve as executive producers on the show, alongside James Wan and Rob Hackett for Atomic Monster, and Mark Winemaker and Jet Wilkinson, the latter of whom also directs the first two episodes of the show.
As October rolls in and the end of the year approaches, the streaming landscape starts to feel like a cinematic buffet—overflowing with prestige dramas, cozy comedies, and dark thrillers fighting for attention before awards season hits its peak. Some projects are built to challenge you; others simply remind you why we fall in love with storytelling in the first place.
This week, we’re highlighting four completely different releases that reflect just how wide the streaming spectrum can be. From an inventive romantic comedy to a surprisingly emotional courtroom reboot, a heartfelt documentary about one of comedy’s most beloved figures, and a chilling true-crime drama that might just keep you up at night—there’s a little something here for everyone.
Monster: The Ed Gein Story
Simply put, Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story will make your skin crawl.
This new installment in Ryan Murphy’s anthology series turns its focus to Ed Gein, the 1950s grave robber and murderer whose crimes inspired some of cinema’s most notorious villains—from Norman Bates in Psycho to Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.
Charlie Hunnam delivers an unsettling and deeply human performance as Gein, playing him not as a horror caricature but as a man shaped by trauma, repression, and mental illness. Rather than leaning on shock value, the series takes a psychological approach, exploring how isolation, societal neglect and untreated illness can warp the human mind.
When I spoke with Hunnam, he explained that the creative intent behind the show was not to excuse Gein’s crimes, but to understand how someone could descend into such darkness. “I mean, I think that’s the essential obsession with the show—how a human being turns into a monster,” Hunnam said. “And we’re certainly not trying to absolve him, but we’re also not trying to vilify him. We’re just trying to understand the truth.”
He went on to describe how that truth ended up being more disturbing than anyone expected. “It was terrifying because he was a victim of things that I think we all in society are exposed to,” he said. “He was abused, which hopefully not everybody has to endure in life, but there was isolation, and that played a huge factor. These negative images he was exposed to coming out of the Second World War and then untreated mental health—all of which are very relevant things we should be concerned about in society today.”
The result is a haunting, introspective look at evil—not as a supernatural force, but as something born from pain, neglect, and human frailty. Monster: The Ed Gein Story refuses to sanitize or sensationalize Gein’s life; instead, it holds up a mirror to the darker corners of human experience.
Anchored by Hunnam’s chilling performance and Murphy’s signature flair the series is both disturbing and thought-provoking, a grim reflection on how horror sometimes grows from the most ordinary places. Monster: The Ed Gein Storyis now streaming on Netflix.
Maintenance Required
Romantic comedies have been quietly making a comeback in the streaming era, and Maintenance Required may be one of the most charming examples yet. The film stars Madelaine Petsch—best known for Riverdale and her recent horror work in The Strangers: Chapter 2—as Charlie, an ambitious, grease-stained mechanic who owns an all-female auto shop. Her friends are always pushing her to have a life beyond her work, but she insists she’s happy the way things are.
What she doesn’t realize is that her anonymous pen pal on a Reddit automotive thread—a fellow gearhead she’s bonded with over late-night engine debates—is actually her professional nemesis. Bo (played by Bad Boys for Life standout Jacob Scipio) is a smooth corporate executive whose company is opening a massive chain repair shop just blocks away from Charlie’s business.
As fate would have it, these two online confidants are also rivals in real life, each unaware that the other’s the person behind the keyboard. The setup plays like You’ve Got Mail for the modern age—complete with text notifications, digital misunderstandings, and clever winks at how we connect (and misconnect) in the internet era.
For Petsch, the project represented a welcome change of pace and a chance to play a character who didn’t have to look perfect doing it. “I felt like I needed a breath of fresh air for sure,” Petsch said. “And I loved the idea of getting my hands dirty and playing a character that doesn’t really care about how she looks. I fell in love with the story easily—the elements of female friendship, and the idea of playing someone who’s maybe a little closed off to love and needs some coaxing out of that.”
She continued, “That’s rare to see on screen, but I really resonate with it. And honestly, I just wanted to have some fun. I wanted to do something a little lighter.”
That looseness and sense of play carried through the entire production. The film leans heavily on improvisation, and much of its charm comes from the natural chemistry among the cast—especially in scenes with comedian Jim Gaffigan, who appears in a hilarious supporting role.
Scipio said working opposite Gaffigan often meant trying not to laugh through takes. “It was hard to keep it together, to be fair,” he admitted. “Jim’s just so funny—he’s a pro. He came in and totally owned the set. There was a lot of improvisation and trust throughout this movie, and when you’ve got a pro like that, you’ve got to let him rip. Man, he’s a peacock—you’ve got to let him fly.”
With its quick wit, warm chemistry, and heart firmly in the right place, Maintenance Required is a refreshing spin on a familiar formula. It’s a light, charming reminder that even when love is messy, it’s still worth getting your hands dirty.
Maintenance Required on Amazon Prime, October 8.
Matlock: Season 2
When Matlock first hit television in 1986, it was a folksy courtroom drama anchored by Andy Griffith’s charm and small-town wit. Nearly four decades later, the idea of rebooting that legacy seemed risky—until Kathy Bates was announced in the title role.
In this reimagined version, Bates plays Maddie Matlock, a brilliant attorney who uses the name of the famous TV lawyer as her cover while secretly working to expose corruption inside one of the country’s most powerful law firms. It’s a clever meta twist: rather than pretending the original show never existed, the new Matlock acknowledges it as pop culture and flips it on its head.
What emerges is a legal drama with a conspiratorial edge—smart, layered, and surprisingly emotional. Bates brings the same gravitas and sly humor that have defined her career, and she’s backed by a talented ensemble.
The result is a modern Matlock that honors its namesake while carving out something entirely new—a sharp, character-driven legal drama with warmth, humor, and a touch of intrigue. Season 2 premieres Sunday, October 12 on CBS and streams the next day on Paramount+.
Editor’s Note: On October 9, a day after this story was originally published, several news outlets reported that David Del Rio was fired from Matlock after an alleged sexual assault and has been walked off the set. As of press time, this is only an accusation but given the seriousness of the accusation and the immediate actions of Paramount executives, we’ve decided to remove the extended earlier interview we’d had with him for this story.
John Candy: I Like Me
Comedy legends come and go, but few radiated warmth like John Candy. From Planes, Trains & Automobiles to Uncle Buck and Cool Runnings, Candy had an ability to make you laugh one moment and tear up the next—a quality this new documentary captures beautifully.
Directed with affection and insight by Colin Hanks, John Candy: I Like Me uses never-before-seen footage, outtakes, home movies, and photographs to paint a portrait that goes beyond the punchlines. Through interviews with Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Murray, Macaulay Culkin, and others, the film examines both his comedic genius and his inner battles—his insecurities, his kindness, and the weight of fame.
The title comes from a line Candy delivers in Planes, Trains & Automobiles: “I like me. My wife likes me. My customers like me.” It’s a line that sums up everything about him—earnest, human, and unguarded. The documentary doesn’t shy away from his health issues or the pressures of Hollywood, but it ultimately celebrates a man who brought joy to millions while never losing sight of his humanity.
This isn’t just a trip down memory lane—it’s a reminder of the kind of heart and humor that rarely comes along twice. John Candy: I Like Me premieres October 10 on Amazon Prime, and it’s one of the most emotionally rewarding watches of the month.
We’ve all been there, completely absorbed in a movie or maybe your favorite comfort TV show is lulling you to sleep, when suddenly an ad blasts in like a jump scare at what sounds like double the volume and yanks you out of the moment.
Despite advertisers turning to cheap tricks to get your attention, a new California law aims to put an end to this annoying practice.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed on Monday state legislation that bans loud commercials on video streaming platforms, including Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max.
The law aims to close a loophole in the 2010 Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which banned blaring commercials on broadcast, cable, and satellite TV. But because streaming wasn’t yet mainstream, those platforms were left out at the time. Today, about 83% of U.S. adults use streaming services.
The new law also comes as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has said it’s been hearing from more viewers complaining about deafening ads. Back in February, the agency announced it was revisiting its decades-old rules from the CALM Act and seeking public comment on how to better protect consumers from excessively loud commercials. The FCC said complaints dropped after the rules first took effect, but in recent years they’ve started climbing up again with a “troubling jump” just last year.
Now, the California bill requires that streamers “not transmit the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content they accompany.”
“We heard Californians loud and clear, and what’s clear is that they don’t want commercials at a volume any louder than the level at which they were previously enjoying a program,” Gov. Newsom said in a statement.
The bill was written by State Senator Tom Umberg, who said the idea came from one of his staffers struggling to put their baby, Samantha, to sleep because of loud commercials.
“This bill was inspired by baby Samantha and every exhausted parent who’s finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work,” said Umberg.
The law faced some pushback from entertainment industry groups, which argued that streaming ads come from multiple sources, making them too difficult to control, and that the industry was already working on a fix.
Melissa Patack, a representative of the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents companies like Netflix, Paramount, and Disney, testified during a committee hearing in June.
“Unlike in the broadcasting cable network environment, where advertisers sell their ads directly to the networks, streaming ads come from several different sources and cannot necessarily or practically be controlled by streaming platforms,” Patack said at the time.
Set to take effect in July 2026, the law could influence national standards, given California’s size and close connections to the entertainment industry.
Only one streaming service lives on a site that will sell you paper towels with no shipping costs: Amazon Prime Video. But while shopping for household goods, you may also wonder, What are the best movies on Amazon Prime Video? Vanity Fair is here to help.
Truly, there are countless films on Prime Video you can rent for a few bucks—but if you are already an Amazon Prime subscriber, you get access to a ton of free, good movies. There are comedies, horror films, dramas, classics, sexy tennis movies with Zendaya (okay, only one sexy tennis movie with Zendaya), and a lot more. So don’t get stuck holding the remote like a schmuck while your spouse eats all the Häagen-Dazs. Take a look at this curated list and pick something out before you turn the television on.
All of Me (1984)
Director: Carl Reiner Genre: Comedy Notable cast: Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Richard Libertini MPA rating: PG Rotten Tomatoes: 85% Metacritic: 68
For those of us old enough to have seen this in theaters, we’ve been mumbling “put Edwina backinbowl” for 40 years. (It’s been a struggle.) This zany supernatural comedy is probably a little dated in its treatment of Eastern religions, but that hopefully won’t offend you too much when you see everyman Steve Martin’s physical antics after 50% of his body is overtaken by undead zillionaire Lily Tomlin. Though this is still a bananas picture, it was the first of Martin’s films that wasn’t just a joke parade like The Jerk or Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid—an important turn in the road for a great career.
City Lights (1931)
Director: Charlie Chaplin Genre: Comedy Notable cast: Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers MPA rating: Not rated Rotten Tomatoes: 95% Metacritic: 99
If you only know Charlie Chaplin as some dude who twirls a cane in three-second clips about “the magic of the movies,” well, you are in luck. The guy is famous for a reason, and while much of his success came from slapstick moments in short films, he was more than adept at sustaining an entire feature-length narrative. City Lights strings together a number of memorable bits (the boxing match! The rich drunk!) but is also a winning romance in which Chaplin’s Tramp (yes, the cane-twirling guy) wins the heart of a blind flower salesgirl played by Virginia Cherrill.
Conclave (2024)
Director: Edward Berger Genre: Drama Notable cast: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow MPA rating: PG Rotten Tomatoes: 93% Metacritic: 79
‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ premieres Friday Credit: courtesy Netflix
Premieres Wednesday:
Love Is Blind — An accountant, a social worker and a watch salesman are among the participants in Season 9, which brings the famous dating pods to the lofty altitudes of Denver. Will our cast of hopeful singles be able to find true and lasting love before the National Guard arrives? (Netflix)
Revenge of the Ghoul Log — Fresh from doing production design on I Know What You Did Last Summer, the Andujar Twins favor us with a 60-minute continuous shot of a grinning jack-o’-lantern. And here Nick Fuentes was thinking he finally had that market to himself. (Shudder)
Premieres Thursday:
The Game: You Never Play Alone — A Tamil game developer fights back against a carefully coordinated attack on her safety and identity in a thriller series that Netflix says reflects “the realities of contemporary digital life.” If that’s the case, expect the show to last for four seasons while she waits for her class-action settlement from Facebook. (Netflix)
Cillian Murphy in ‘Steve’ Credit: courtesy Netflix
Premieres Friday:
Monster: The Ed Gein Story — The third season of the Ryan Murphy anthology series casts Charlie Hunnam as the archetypal serial killer who inspired everything from Psycho to The Silence of the Lambs. And also Ted Cruz, but we aren’t supposed to talk about that! (Netflix)
Steve — The season of high-profile Oscar-bait dramas kicks into high gear, with Cillian Murphy taking on the part of a teacher who has to weather multiple crises on behalf of the students at his reform school. But if you’ve ever seen a stag film, you know it’s totally worth it. (Netflix)
V/H/S/Halloween — The latest installment of the found-footage horror franchise centers on a diet soda with some horrifying side effects. And if that sounds bad, try using it to wash down some Tylenol. (Shudder)
Premieres Sunday:
House of David — Season 2 picks up after David has slain Goliath and is looking for new worlds to conquer. Will he get to live out his dream of debating college students on a nationwide tour? (Only available to subscribers of The Wonder Project on Prime Video)
Premieres Tuesday:
The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Titans — The 14 contestants in Season 2 include Orlando’s very own Dollya Black, who made it to the runner-up level on the main Dragula show back in Season 3. “[T]his season is going to be DRAMA,” she promised on Instagram. Which should be very reassuring to everyone who was afraid of a sudden detour into commedia dell’arte. (AMC+ and Shudder)
Matt McCusker: A Humble Offering — In his first special, Shane Gillis’ asshole brother takes aim at such hot topics as race relations and the homeless. Cheer up, Brian Kilmeade; you might not have had the worst take after all. (Netflix)
True Haunting — Producer James Wan goes all Amityville Horror with a docuseries that examines real-life claims of paranormal activity, including interviews with the haunted parties and dramatic reenactments. Featured segments include “This House Murdered Me,” which despite its title is not an exposé of the Florida insurance market. (Netflix)
Each night, you look into your lover’s eyes and ask, “Will no legacy media outlet tell me about the best movies on Hulu?” Luckily, Vanity Fair is here for you. One glance at the platform’s A-to-Z listing reveals that there are almost too many good movies on Hulu to choose from, and it can become a chore to figure out which to select.
After a deep dive into the Hulu archive (the Hu-chive?), we’ve selected a top mix of classics, comedies, dramas, horror pictures, documentaries, and, importantly, a few titles that got overlooked upon their initial release. Our list is in alphabetical order, so you gotta scroll close to the bottom to get to Y Tu Mamá También.
A Complete Unknown (2024)
Director: James Mangold Genre: Drama/musical Notable cast: Timothée Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, Elle Fanning, Edward Norton MPA rating: R Rotten Tomatoes: 82% Metacritic: 70
The mercurial, Minnesota-born Robert Zimmerman, best known to humanity and the Swedish Academy as Bob Dylan, gets as good a straightforward musical biopic as the genre allows in A Complete Unknown.Timothée Chalamet nails the nasal twang and aloof demeanor of the musician as he transitions from politically relevant folk music to electric rock and roll. While there’s plenty in the movie that is pure Hollywood, it captures the essence of the Dylan phenomenon and how the transformation affected colleagues like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, as well as his romantic life.
Alien (1979)
Director: Ridley Scott Genre: Sci-fi/horror Notable cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright MPA rating: R Rotten Tomatoes: 93% Metacritic: 89
The original and still the best. A haunted-house story, a workplace drama, and a twist-filled mystery—all set in outer space. Sigourney Weaver’s rocket to superstardom took off here when she played the greatest interplanetary final girl, and John Hurt’s legendary tummy ache was a milestone for practical special effects. Several (not all!) of the sequels and prequels to this movie are good, but no matter how many times you’ve seen Alien, you will always find something new in it.
BlackBerry (2023)
Director: Matt Johnson Genre: Comedy Notable cast: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Michael Ironside MPA rating: R Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Metacritic: 78
Nexstar joined Sinclair on Friday in calling off its Jimmy Kimmel boycott just days after ABC returned the comedian to late-night television.
Beginning Friday night, Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to air on the ABC affiliates, which had preempted the show last week over remarks he made about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
“As a local broadcaster, Nexstar remains committed to protecting the First Amendment while producing and airing local and national news that is fact-based and unbiased and, above all, broadcasting content that is in the best interest of the communities we serve,” a Nexstar statement said. “We stand apart from cable television, monolithic streaming services, and national networks in our commitment–and obligation–to be stewards of the public airwaves.”
Similarly, Sinclair issued a statement earlier on Friday reversing its decision to keep the comedian off its airwaves.
It cited “feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives.”
Sinclair had previously vowed not to put Kimmel back on air unless meetings were held with ABC to discuss the network’s “commitmentment to professionalism and accountability.”
Those discussions are still ongoing, though ABC and Disney have not yet accepted any measures proposed by Sinclair, which included a network-wide independent ombudsman, per the company’s Friday release.
The stand-down comes days after Kimmel’s first episode back on air had the highest ratings for a regularly scheduled episode in over a decade. His monologue at the top of the show ranged from the First Amendment and the Trump administration to Erica Kirk’s speech at her late husband’s memorial, garnering over 21 million views on YouTube in just a couple days—the most for a monologue in his show’s history.
Kimmel’s comeback on Tuesday drew 6.3 million TV viewers, about four times the show’s average, despite nearly a quarter of ABC’s national reach blacking out his return episode. Sixty-six local stations owned by the ABC affiliates did not broadcast Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but this cost them a natural influx of viewership, and possibly some of their market, according to media experts.
“Blackouts like this often highlight the strength of digital platforms,” Natalie Andreas, a communications professor at the University of Texas, told Fortune.
Instead of limiting reach, blackouts push viewers toward spaces like YouTube where content spreads faster, lingers longer, and attracts new audiences who may not have tuned in live, she said.
Susan Keith, a professor in the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, told Fortune the blackouts can push viewers to seek—and easily find—Kimmel on their digital cable packages or YouTube if local stations didn’t air the show.
“There’s this idea of public interest, necessity and convenience that over-the-air broadcast media were supposed to fulfill,” she said. “So if we all move to streaming services for content because (of) incidents like this one,” it trains viewers to seek media this way.
Earlier this year, streaming overtook cable and broadcast as America’s most-watched form of TV, according to Nielsen data.
The FCC does not license TV or radio networks such as CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox, but rather individual stations that may air programming from these networks. But the shift to streaming has raised questions about what its continued role might be as viewers lean away from individual broadcast stations.
“I think this is an open question,” Keith said. “I think we don’t really know what to think about the ultimate usefulness of the FCC.”
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Why is everyone crazy about KPop Demon Hunters? The numbers are impressive: the film became a global phenomenon in just a few weeks, with 236 million views on Netflix by the end of August 2025, making it the most-watched title ever on the platform. The plot follows a group of K-pop idols who turn into demon hunters, tracking them through spectacular battles, plot twists, and personal challenges. The film’s soundtrack is full of original hits that accompany the most intense moments and turn every scene into a musical spectacular.
The film took a seemingly simple formula—K-pop girl group plus supernatural battles—and gave it depth. It speaks as much to avid K-pop fans, who recognize every reference and every detail of their favorite world, as it does to those with no familiarity with that rich culture. The protagonists are not only beautiful and strong: they have relatable flaws and insecurities.
Music is a big part of the story: it is not just present in the background, but accompanies the action, energizes the scenes and helps viewers understand the psychology of the characters. The film culminates with “Golden,” a hymn to sisterhood and female empowerment that explodes at the moment when the three protagonists, after a series of misunderstandings and a setback that threatens to break up the group, come together for one last rehearsal before the big show. It is the scene before the final showdown, half rehearsal performance and half reconciliation ceremony.
The song, with its soaring refrain and intimate stanzas, functions as an emotional code: as they sing, the tensions between the characters melt away and the music translates into voice what words cannot say. The song was immediately adopted by fans, spawning trends, covers and shared choreography.
Another strength is the film’s faithfulness to K-pop culture, which it shows off without indulging in too many clichés. Maggie Kang and her team have curated choreography, aesthetics, and pop details that fans immediately recognize. It is a believable universe, where every gesture and every costume tells something about the protagonists’ world. This is the real reason the film avoids the usual stereotypes. The girls fight, support each other, and truly care about their performances; their stories have layers, with comic timing and pauses that let the characters breathe.
Another cliché the film avoids: the superficial use of Korean culture as “exotic decoration.” Here, no references have been thrown in haphazardly. From fan club management to training practices, from backstage dynamics to stage preparation rituals, the details are carefully observed.
What K-Pop Demon Hunters has done, and what helps to explain its enormous success, is to build an ecosystem in which the audience does not only spectate, but participate. The film’s “fandom”—a worn-out word now, but useful here—is not just comprised of accounts that post photos or comment: it is a machine that produces content dedicated to the movie, with choreography on TikTok, mile-long threads analyzing motivations and script errors. K-Pop Demon Hunters has become a collective work of analysis, reflection, and play, a circle that never seems to end.
Yet watching K-Pop Demon Hunters closely, one realizes that the real currency of the film is not the plot, but who inhabits it: the protagonists. Rumi, Mira, and Zoey are not glossy window-dressing figurines, but people who stumble—in choreography, in decisions, in feelings—and come across as compelling for that very reason. Fandom feeds on these imperfections: it makes theories, memes, tutorials out of them. A costume turns into an Instagram filter; a shot becomes a quote; a dance move ends up looped on TikTok.
When the community sets its rituals in motion—collective rewatches, shared playlists—the film stops being a closed object and begins to live in the minds of those who love it. It is this narrative elasticity that ignites the passion for K-Pop Demon Hunters: not just affection, but a desire to participate and make a narrative of it in turn.
YouTube doesn’t charge a cent for hosting all of your uploaded videos, showing them to the wider world, or letting you spend all day streaming content made by others. What it does do is show you a whole lot of advertising in an attempt to make back some of its data storage costs—which, based on the flood of ads we all have to endure, are presumably astronomical.
By subscribing to YouTube Premium and now YouTube Premium Lite, you can remove those ads for good, across all your devices. As the cheaper option, the Lite package may seem like the best deal, and it will be for some.
Here’s how much you have to pay for YouTube Premium Lite, and what you get in return.
YouTube Premium Lite: Costs and Features
You’ll still see ads on music videos with YouTube Premium Lite.Courtesy of David Nield
If you’re prepared to add yet another digital subscription to your monthly outgoings, YouTube Premium Lite will set you back $8 a month. There’s no way to pay annually to get a discount overall, and there’s no family plan where you can spread the benefits to other people—two options you do have with the full version of YouTube Premium.
YouTube Premium Lite has one feature: It removes the ads on most YouTube videos, wherever you’re watching them (from your phone to your TV). You’ll still see ads on music videos, on YouTube Shorts, and when you search for videos on YouTube—but all ad types on other content will disappear.
Your subscription will be linked to your Google account, so it works wherever you’re signed in, and it includes YouTube Kids content as well. As it’s a monthly subscription, you can cancel at any time, and then subscribe again at any time. You can also upgrade at any time to the full YouTube Premium, of which we’ll learn more in a moment.
YouTube Premium Lite: Should You Subscribe?
The plan removes ads on most videos across all your devices.Courtesy of David Nield
A lot of us are now juggling multiple digital subscriptions for everything from cloud storage to AI chatbots, and it’s understandable if you’re not keen on the thought of adding extra expense on top, especially for an app and platform that you can already access free of charge.
Our favorite 4K streaming device, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus (9/10, WIRED Review), is marked down to just $29 on Amazon, a healthy discount off its already wallet-friendly price. It’s easy to use, extremely compact, and priced well under its competitors. It can turn a dumb 4K TV into a smart streaming platform in under 10 minutes with minimal fuss, and there’s a reason it’s our Editors’ Pick for 4K streaming devices.
Photograph: Parker Hall
Roku
Streaming Stick Plus (2025)
You might even consider the Streaming Stick Plus if you already have a smart TV and the interface is slow or buggy. Maybe it’s an older model and the years of updates have finally caught up with it. The Roku’s interface is clean and snappy, but even better, it’s incredibly easy to use, great for anyone who just wants to sit down with their popcorn and get movie night going.
It has great picture quality and feature support too, particularly for the price. It can stream content up to 4K, with support for HDR10, and you’re really only missing Dolby Vision, a high-end HDR codec that’s only found on the most premium televisions (and no Samsung models to date). It has no issue jumping from app to app, and it doesn’t get warm like some previous generations.
The Streaming Stick Plus is surprisingly compact too, with a slim body that’s designed to squeeze into an HDMI port without blocking the ports around it. Most TVs have an extra USB port for powering devices like this on the back, which means you won’t need to find an outlet or a spot on your entertainment stand.
Once reserved for the more premium Roku devices, the updated Streaming Stick Plus now has voice controls. Our reviewer Parker Hall was impressed with how well it worked, and he found it particularly useful for finding where a particular show or movie was streaming if he wasn’t sure.
There are only a few other 4K streaming devices at this price point, and this is our favorite of the bunch, thanks to its super straightforward interface and snappy streaming. Extras like a compact form factor and voice controls only sweeten the deal, especially when there’s a discount involved.
Euphoria fans got a surprise update this weekend, with the show’s third season release date window being revealed.
When is the Euphoria Season 3 release date window?
Speaking to Variety while at the Emmys over the weekend, HBO head Casey Bloys spoke about a litany of content coming up for the iconic network. When it comes to Euphoria Season 3, though, Bloys was surprisingly open about when to expect the third season of the Zendaya-led show.
“It’ll be the spring, but we don’t have a date confirmed yet,” said Bloys when he was asked about when fans might expect a premiere date for Euphoria Season 3. It’s unclear exactly when the show will arrive, but it does seem to be sooner than some fans previously thought.
Euphoria’s third season has been an up-and-down production. Initially, Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, and the rest of the cast of Euphoria were set to begin filming on Season 3 in 2024, but HBO announced that it had postponed production, with stars told to pursue other opportunities while creator Sam Levinson worked on the third season.
Shortly after the postponement, reports began to surface that people at HBO were unsure if a third season would ever happen due to the different visions that the creative team for the show had.
According to reports at the time, early drafts of Season 3 stories were seen as unsatisfying to HBO, with Levinson’s original vision for the new series featuring a five-year time jump. HBO was reportedly happy with the storylines given to Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi’s characters in the early drafts; however, the company took issue with Zendaya’s proposed character arc, which saw her working as a private detective.
Now, though, it seems as if things are progressing well for the show’s highly anticipated third and potentially final season.
In August of 2024, Netflix announced an upcoming docuseries starring Victoria Beckham. One year later, the project is finally seeing the light of day. Victoria Beckham will hit the streamer September 10, a release date announced on Instagram with a never-before-seen portrait of the designer.
Directed by the producers of the 2024 Beckham series and Nadia Hallgren (of Becoming, the documentary on Michelle Obama), the series will follow Victoria as she splits her time between family life and work during Fashion Week. Netflix cameras were on hand last September as she organized her Paris fashion show.
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Like the streamer’s earlier Beckham series—which retraced the soccer career of her husband, David Beckham—this new production adopts an intimate format. But it’s reportedly focused more on Victoria’s current life and her career in the fashion industry. As the head of a genuine fashion empire, the former Spice Girl is opening the doors of her studio to tell her own story for the very first time.
It’s been a particularly busy year for the Briton, with the expansion of her Victoria Beckham Beauty line, David Beckham’s knighthood, receiving the Harper’s Bazaar Entrepreneur of the Year award, and more. The documentary may also revisit rumors of family tensions, particularly with their son Brooklyn, who reportedly has had a strained relationship with his parents in recent months.
“The Girlfriend” premieres on Prime Video Wednesday Credit: Christopher Raphael/Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Premieres Wednesday:
AKA Charlie Sheen — Now that Bookie has been canceled, Mr. Winning has to fall back on a docuseries that chronicles his amazing career and extensively reported personal troubles. Listen, Charlie, we’ve moved on. Unless you’re planning on hang-gliding into the Taylor/Travis wedding, we’re just not interested anymore. (Netflix)
The Dead Girls — Learn the shocking story of Mexico’s Baladro Sisters, whose day job running a successful bordello was a front for their nefarious activities as serial killers. Ah, Mexico: where running a cathouse qualifies as a respectable cover. (Netflix)
The Girlfriend — The potential for psychodrama is off the charts when an upscale mom (Robin Wright) meets her son’s new squeeze (Olivia Cooke) and decides the girl might not be on the up-and-up. Yeah, that’s what they thought about Michelle Carter, but what a catch she turned out to be. (Prime Video)
Love Is Blind Brazil — Season 5 features contestants who are all over 50 years old. Even more amazing, none of them is in prison for trying to overturn a free and fair election. (Netflix)
Love Is Blind France — Meanwhile, the land of baguettes and ennui becomes the 11th territory to get its own Love Is Blind franchise. Like the flagship American version, it’s hosted by a real-life celebrity couple — in this case, judo champion Teddy Riner and his wife, Luthna Plocus, a … a … well, someone who appears to be Teddy Riner’s wife. Gotta love that European progressivism! (Netflix)
Tempest — The safety of the Korean peninsula depends upon an alliance between a South Korean diplomat and a special agent of indeterminate national origin. Given that the character’s name is Baek San-ho and he’s portrayed by Gang Dong-won, I think we can rule out Dutch. (Hulu)
Carla Sehn as Amanda in “Diary of a Ditched Girl” Credit: Carolina Romare/Courtesy of Netflix
Premieres Thursday:
Diary of a Ditched Girl — Can a Swedish woman finally find true romance, despite having been dumped by half the population of Malmö? I know that sounds bad, but you need to understand that Malmö is only the third-largest city in that country. Heck, they don’t even have room to house everybody in Ghost. (Netflix)
Dylan’s Playtime Adventures Season 1C — New installments further the stripy animated dog’s habit of pursuing a new career in every episode. Just remember you let your kids grow up on this when you one day want to lambaste them for their lack of focus. (HBO Max)
Kontrabida Academy — A Filipina restaurant worker embarks on a journey of self-actualization when she receives lessons in assertiveness from some of TV’s top villains. See, I knew Jim Cramer could find a good side hustle if he really applied himself. (Netflix)
Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black — As Season 2 commences, former stripper Kimmie has assumed control of Bellarie Cosmetics — which is going to require a lot of adjustment on the part of the Bellarie family, who naturally assumed they had dibs based on name alone. Honestly, that’s nothing compared to the catfight Bob and Frisch are having over Big Boy. (Netflix)
Wolf King — Season 2 is the swan song for Drew, whose responsibilities as the last king of the werewolves include picking a suitable queen. I’d say the hardest part is getting the friendship bracelet to her before the show, but it would just look like I have Tay-Tay on the brain. (Netflix)
Premieres Friday:
Beauty and the Bester — Explore the twisted relationship between South African rapist-murderer Thabo Bester and celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, who’s accused of helping him escape from prison. Gosh, so much romance this week. And to think Half-Valentine’s Day was last month. (Netflix)
Maledictions — An Argentinian politician is determined to find his missing daughter, even if it means exposing some dark secrets that could end his career. And if that doesn’t impress you, Ted Cruz’s kids are lucky he even tells them when he’s going on vacation. (Netflix)
Ratu Ratu Queens: The Series — Four Indonesian women make a new life for themselves as New Yorkers in a series that’s a prequel to the 2021 film Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens. What do you mean you don’t remember it? Girl, you’re such a Chinta! (Netflix)
The Wrong Paris — Miranda Cosgrove plays a contestant on a dating show who thought she was being sent to Paris, France, but ended up in Paris, Texas, instead. As a consolation prize, she may get swept off her feet by a charismatic cowboy anyway. Silly Miranda! That isn’t a cowboy. That’s Wim Wenders! (Netflix)
You and Everything Else — Female bonding is the leitmotif of a K-drama that charts the ups and downs of a best friendship over the decades. The final challenge is when one of the women has to be present for the other on her deathbed. That’s commitment all right, but it has its perks if you’ve had your eyes on a silverware setting. (Netflix)
Premieres Saturday:
Canelo Álvarez vs. Terence Crawford — This battle for the super middleweight belt pits reigning champion Alvarez against the upwardly mobile Crawford, a former welterweight who put on enough pounds last year to land himself in an entirely new classification. Wow, you too, huh? (Netflix)
Premieres Monday:
Futurama — Unlike seasons 11 and 12, which followed a release schedule of one episode per week, Season 13 of Matt Groening’s beloved 31st-century comedy is dumping all of its content at once, in one fell swoop. Sounds like somebody’s heard something about the future we’d rather not know about. (Hulu)
Premieres Tuesday:
Love Island Games — Season 2 sees Maya Jama being replaced as host by Ariana Madix, who’s now doing double duty as the presenting face of Love Island USA. Next up: a Kennedy Center honor! (Peacock)
Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story — And to wrap up a week of upside-down courtships, here’s a juicy inquest into the controversial marriage of Norwegian princess Märtha Louise and African American shaman/con artist Durek Verrett — who, among his other questionable statements, has claimed he can rid women’s vaginas of evil spirits. Seriously, and Meghan Markle thinks we want to watch her bake bread. (Netflix)
