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| Wednesday, October 21, 2026 |
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Happy hump day, readers! Here’s what to know going into this Wednesday:
- Netflix Posts Better-Than-Expected Earnings (That Still Aren’t Good Enough)
- Are Microdramas Over In China Already?
- ‘The Hunting Wives’ Returns With A Spicy S2 Trailer
Plus: Don’t forget about our Cynopsis Holiday Guide! Please send your listings (from Nov. 4 to Jan. 1) to janetdilauro@gmail.com, alyssa@cynopsis.com and victoria@cynopsis.com no later than Oct. 23 with the subject line: Holiday Guide.
To be included, programs must be in the following format:
Thursday, November 19: Network Name: My One Christmas Wish at 9a, Paper Angels at 11a, 12 Days of Giving at 1p.
A confirmation email will be sent following each submission. If you don’t receive a confirmation email, please resubmit!
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| In The News |
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Netflix kicked off a new season of third-quarter earnings reports on Tuesday evening. Revenue grew 12% year over year to $12.9 billion, in line with Wall Street estimates – but ads sales didn’t grow quite as much as expected.
- In its earnings presentation, Netflix’s leadership team made the case that engagement rates are much healthier than recent investor concerns suggest, and that there’s no need for a “fundamental shift in strategy,” according to co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
- That said, US engagement is “not growing as fast as it could, or as fast as we’d like,” said Sarandos, which is part of why the streamer brought in new Chief Content Officer Peter Rice to replace Bela Bajaria.
- Co-CEO Greg Peters also commented on the recent layoff of about 6% of Netflix’s staff, saying some of the cuts seemed from “areas that we built quickly and we ended up overinvested in.”
- Despite the better-than-expected earnings, stocks still dropped 6% immediately in after-hours trading.
Trouble in microparadise? A new report from consulting firm Owl & Co suggests that in China – where the microdrama industry is more mature compared with Hollywood – nearly two-thirds of the microdramas released last quarter were AI-generated. That’s quite the jump from a mere 3% in the first quarter and 28% in the second.
- AI is certainly not new to the world of microdramas. More than 95% of titles released in the first three months of this year were made using AI in some capacity, the report also notes.
- At the same time, however, Chinese advertising company DataEye suggests that 98.7% of microdramas produced during the first half of 2026 failed to recoup their costs. Some of that failure may stem from microdramas’ ties to the mobile app industry, which is rife with both user churn and marketing spend, two things that impact profitability. But AI fatigue among viewers may also play a role in microdrama productions proving less than lucrative.
- The Takeaway: Western entertainment companies are still figuring out how to approach vertical short-form video, where there are fewer regulations (despite the best efforts of unions like SAG-AFTRA) compared with long-form film and TV productions. But if China’s landscape is any indication of what’s to come, AI usage doesn’t guarantee a profit even with reduced costs.
As part of its continued efforts to cut costs, the BBC is closing down three of its linear broadcasting services next year, BBC Three, BBC Scotland and BBC Radio 4 Extra. This is the second time BBC Three has been shut down, the first time between 2016 and 2022. BBC News also plans to slash 100 more jobs over the next few months, which will contribute £5.5 million ($7.5 million) of savings toward the organization’s overall goal of £500 million.
CNN is threatening to bring the Trump administration back to court over its ongoing exclusion from Air Force One press coverage if restrictions continue after the end of the business day Thursday. CNN, MS Now and Politico have regained access to the White House after a federal judge stopped the administration from reinstating its ban against the three outlets, but their ability to participate in traveling presidential press pools remains unresolved.
Legendary Entertainment has submitted a $3.5 billion offer to acquire Lionsgate Studios Corp, according to Bloomberg. If successful, the acquisition would give Legendary Entertainment access to a vast library of TV series and films generating roughly $1 billion in annual revenue.
Say hello to yet another streaming service. JustWatch, an international streaming TV guide, launched JustWatch TV on Tuesday. The service is available on JustWatch’s app and website and has 30 content partners at launch, including Paramount (sorry, Skydance), Fremantle, Cineverse in the US and SND in France, among others. JustWatch TV has three tiers: a free ad-supported version, an ad-free subscription plan and a virtual storefront to rent movies à la carte.
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| New & Returning Series |
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For sneak peeks, check out Cynopsis Trailer Park.
Dale Dickey in Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives”
Netflix released a spicy new trailer for Season 2 of “The Hunting Wives,” featuring fans’ first look at characters played by Dale Dickey (“Widow’s Bay”) and John Stamos (“Big Shot”). The full season premieres Nov. 26.
MGM+ dropped an official trailer for “New Wave,” an original docuseries exploring artists who influenced the music landscape during the ‘70s and ‘80s, including Billy Idol, The Police and Duran Duran. The series is slated to premiere Nov. 23.
Hulu released an official trailer and key art for “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Orange County,” which will premiere Nov. 12.
NBCUniversal Local will begin airing its new original series “Open House Outrageous” after “Saturday Night Live” on select affiliate channels Oct. 24.
“Mayor of Kingstown” will debut its fifth and final season on Paramount+ on Jan. 15.
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| Today’s Premieres |
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ABC: “CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton” at 9 p.m.
Apple TV: “Where’s Wanda?” Season 2
Netflix: “The Mothers of Penguins” Season 2; “The New Stanford Prison Experiment”
Paramount+: “All the Queen’s Men” Season 5
Prime Video: “The Terminal List” Season 2
Tubi: “Just One Before I Die”
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| Production |
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The BBC renewed its hit drama “This City Is Ours” for Season 3. Season 2 will begin airing in the UK on Sunday. (AMC+ secured the distribution rights for Season 1 earlier this year.)
“Hashtag Homicide,” the documentary true-crime series from BIG Media, has been renewed for a second season, which will premiere next summer. The first season is currently available on several streaming platforms in the US and Canada, including Tubi and Prime Video.
Comedian Nick Kroll (“Big Mouth”) will host the US version of “LOL: Last One Laughing” on Amazon. The international comedy competition series invites 10 performers to spend six hours together trying to get one another to break.
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| Tech News You Can Use |
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The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) is now offering its members free access to software that makes documents unreadable by AI models, which writers can use to protect their scripts. The program, Cloak, is also available to non-members for $10 when using WGAE’s script registration service.
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| Coming Up |
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Jay-Z will likely headline next year’s Super Bowl halftime show, according to multiple sources familiar with the decision-making process. Given that Jay-Z’s sports management and entertainment company, Roc Nation, has a $5-million-per-year deal with the NFL, the decision is not necessarily surprising.
In other halftime show updates, U2 will perform during Netflix’s Thanksgiving Eve NFL broadcast. The game between the Green Bay Packers and the Los Angeles Rams will mark the NFL’s first Thanksgiving Eve matchup.
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| Sports Report |
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NBC Sports and Amazon-owned Prime Video are gearing up for their second season as NBA broadcast partners. Both platforms anticipate higher viewership compared with the prior season, but consumers don’t love the idea of having to pay for multiple services to access all games. To sweeten the deal, Prime Video is giving viewers the option to watch games with multiple camera angles and on-screen graphics and stats, while NBC will likely continue offering out-of-market games on Peacock.
Sticking with the NBA, the Atlanta Hawks are the first of the league’s teams to stream games exclusively on Prime Video. As part of the agreement, all local games will be available for in-market Prime subscribers at no additional cost.
Now, moving on to the Super Bowl: The NFL, Disney, ESPN and Lucasfilm announced an alternate telecast for next year’s Big Game, which will be set in the “Star Wars” galaxy. “Star Wars Funday Football,” an extension of the Emmy Award-winning “Funday Football” brand, will turn live players into animated avatars representing “Star Wars” characters. The alt telecast will be available to watch on Disney+, the ESPN app, Disney Channel and Disney XD.
Some love for the fighters, too. FloSports announced an expansion to its MMA coverage portfolio thanks to a partnership with Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA). The deal will introduce five LFA events this year to the platform’s hub for combat sports – aptly named FloCombat – with that number expected to grow to 25 events next year.
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| Coming Up |
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The Season 3 finale of “Lioness” ended with the most-watched episode in the show’s history, drawing 9.7 million viewers tuning in during its first seven days of availability. The series averaged 8.5 million viewers per week throughout the season, according to data from Nielsen and Paramount+.
Not surprisingly, the recent breakout success of “You Can See Everything,” Nathan Fielder’s feature-length documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, has driven massive interest in Hulu’s “The Dropout” starring Amanda Seyfried. Viewership of the limited series jumped by 182% in September after the movie was announced Sept. 6. Since then, viewership has increased to 2.2 million hours, or 296,000 estimated views.
Netflix’s new Canadian monster series, “Below,” grabbed the top spot on the streamer’s English TV list in its second week with 21.2 million views. Meanwhile, Season 4 of “The Diplomat” took the No. 5 spot with 2.8 million views four days after its premiere.
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| Distribution |
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STARZ signed a distribution agreement with Verizon that will restore access to STARZ programming, including STARZ On Demand, to Verizon Fios subscribers.
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| Executive Moves |
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French TV production company Banijay Entertainment announced its post-merger executive structure after combining with All3Media in July. Among the new names are Fred Balmary as chief business officer, Lucas Green as chief content officer and James Townley as chief content officer of development.
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What was the name of the animatronic robot skeleton that served as Craig Ferguson’s sidekick on “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” from 2010 to 2014?
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YESTERDAY’S TRIVIA ANSWER
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In the ‘90s sitcom “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” how many live black cats (meaning, not counting the puppet) shared the role of Sabrina’s pet, Salem? Four
Congrats to: Rev. Mark Wajda/Clermont, FL and Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA
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