|
|
| Wednesday, September 2, 2026 |
|
|
Happy hump day! Here’s the latest for today:
- Women Are Losing Creator And Director Roles In Television
- Is A Federal Film and TV Tax Credit Finally Coming?
- Netflix Doubles Down On Podcasts
|
|
|
|
In The News
|
|
Emmy Rossum and Lola Petticrew in “Furious,” created by Elizabeth Meriwether
Women are less represented in television than they used to be – both in front of and behind the camera. That’s according to the latest “Boxed In” study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, which tracked more than 2,500 characters and 3,600 credits during the 2025-26 television year.
- According to the Center’s research, women only accounted for 22% of creators in the 2025-26 television season, down from 27% in 2024-25.
- For streaming series, the percentage of women “plummeted” from 36% to 24% for creators and from 32% to 22% for directors.
- Overall, women are creating fewer TV shows on both streaming and broadcast than they were almost a decade ago in 2017-18.
- Female characters also declined in original streaming programs, from 49% to 44%. And for both streaming and broadcast productions, major female characters were significantly younger than their male counterparts, most commonly in their 20s and 30s.
- The Takeaway: The study corroborates similar findings made in the Center’s most recent “Celluloid Ceiling” report, which also suggests the decline in female employment can be linked to studio consolidations and political anti-diversity efforts. “Hollywood has never needed permission to exclude and diminish women, but it now has it,” wrote Dr. Martha M. Lauzen when the report was published.
Made in America? After another sit-down with “Special Ambassador to Hollywood” Jon Voight, President Donald Trump declared his support for a federal film and TV tax credit in a Truth Social post on Monday.
- This isn’t the first time Trump has brought up the declining rates of domestic film and TV production. In October last year, he announced his intention to impose a “100% tariff” on movies made outside the US.
- However, unlike the tariff idea, a federal tax credit has many supporters, including Voight and many prominent Hollywood labor unions, all of whom wrote a joint letter to Trump on the matter last year.
- Even California Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who led the first impeachment trial against Trump, admitted in a statement that he is “in strong agreement with the President” on this particular issue. (The response among Bluesky users was not exactly positive, to say the least.)
- The Takeaway: A federal tax credit could benefit some red states – such as North Carolina and Georgia, which already have robust state tax credits – as much as blue states like California. Which may explain why Trump is bringing it up just months before the midterm elections.
|
|
|
| Partner content |
|
|
Forward 2026: A Forum for the Future of TV Advertising—Oct. 29, NYC
Join us at Forward 2026, where Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman will deliver the keynote and marketing leaders from MANSCAPED, Liquid I.V., Avocado, and Jones Road Beauty will share how they’re using TV to reach new audiences, measure impact, and drive real business growth.
Attendance is free, but space is limited.
RSVP Now
|
|
|
New & Returning Series
|
|
For sneak peeks, check out Cynopsis Trailer Park.
Disney+ and Hulu announced that Season 2 of “Adventure Time: Side Quests” will premiere Oct. 2. A soft reboot of the original “Adventure Time,” the show is lighter and follows a less serialized format.
Prime Video has set a Dec. 9 release date for the third and final season of “Maxton Hall – The World Between Us,” the German-language YA drama that premiered in 2024 as the No. 1 non-American Prime Original series worldwide.
Jeff Corwin’s new conservation series, aptly titled “Jeff Corwin’s Southern Wild,” will air on ABC stations nationwide beginning Oct. 3. Produced by Hearst Media Production Group and Lees-McRae College, the series explores the wildlife and local cultures of North Carolina.
TODAY’S PREMIERES
The CW: “NewsNation Presents: The Lindsay Clancy Trial” at 9 p.m.
HGTV: “Botched Homes” at 10 p.m.
Netflix: “Lovesick”
|
|
|
| Partner content |
|
|
Philo Ads is an innovative and effective way to reach CTV audiences.
Philo Ads offers scalable, brand-safe campaigns built for performance. Ready to capture the attention of our highly engaged audiences? Launch your next campaign with Philo Ads today!
Visit ads.philo.tv to learn more.
|
|
|
Production
|
|
Season 3 of “Shadow Has Fallen,” the Prime Video spin-off of the “Has Fallen” film trilogy starring Gerard Butler, has started production in South Africa. Iwan Rheon (“Game of Thrones”), Brendan Coyle (“Downton Abbey”) and Atwanda Kani (“Black Panther”) are joining the cast of the show, which was written by series creator Howard Overman (“Misfits”) and produced by StudioCanal, Urban Myth Films, Millennium and G-Base.
Production has also started on “Danger Money,” a new action-comedy series for Prime Video starring Ray Winstone (“The Departed”), Alex Kingston (“Doctor Who”) and Iain Glen (“Game of Thrones”). Winstone stars as a former member of the British Special Air Service who gets pulled into a job too good to refuse. The series was written and co-created by David Crow (“X-Men: First Class”) and Oliver Maltman (“Semi-Detached”) and is being produced by Two Brothers Pictures (“Fleabag”) in association with All3Media International.
Matthew Perry
A docuseries about the late “Friends” actor Matthew Perry is in the works at Netflix. Called “The One About Matthew Perry,” the three-part series is directed by Mary Robinson (“Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV”) and produced by Maxine Productions, part of Sony Pictures Television.
Netflix also renewed a number of its video podcast titles, including “Murder With My Husband” and “The Pete Davidson Show,” and ordered several more from talent like comedian Katt Williams and author Harlan Coben (“I Will Find You”). The streamer now claims to have more than 60 podcasts available on its platform.
Kevin Hart is joining forces with new microdrama platform aTwist. The app, which launches Thursday, will collaborate with Hartbeat, Hart’s production company, on a slate of more than 20 original series.
|
|
|
| Partner content |
|
|
Tech News You Can Use
|
|
Fresh off a recent home screen revamp, Roku unveiled its first self-branded smart TVs with organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology. OLED displays allow for higher contrast ratios, making blacks darker and whites brighter. Unlike Roku’s previous television offerings, these new devices will be available exclusively online through Amazon.
|
|
|
Coming Up
|
|
CBS will air a half-hour sneak preview of its new and returning series on Sept. 10, titled “CBS Fall First Look.”
Tonight (Sept. 2), The CW plans to air “NewsNation Presents: The Lindsay Clancy Trial,” a one-hour special about the murder trial that has dominated headlines for weeks. The special will include an exclusive interview with Rusty Yates, whose ex-wife was similarly accused of killing her children while under extreme postpartum psychosis.
The Country Music Association (CMA) announced the finalists for its 2026 Broadcast Awards. Winners will be declared in advance of “The 60th Annual CMA Awards,” which airs Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. on ABC and Disney+.
|
|
|
Sports Report
|
|
ESPN Unlimited is now available directly on YouTube TV, giving subscribers access to all live ESPN events. The news comes 10 months after Google and Disney finally reached an agreement that gave YouTube TV access to the new direct-to-consumer service in addition to the ESPN linear network.
|
|
|
Ratings
|
|
For the 20th week in a row, “ABC World News Tonight With David Muir” hit the No. 1 newscast in total viewers (8.731 million), adults ages 25 to 54 (1.219 million) and adults ages 18 to 49 (876,000) on all broadcast and cable (excluding sports), based on Nielsen’s Live+Same Day Big Data Plus Panel.
The latest season of HGTV’s “Ugliest House in America” premiered to 18.6 million viewers across linear and streaming on July 20. It was the series’ highest-rated season ever among women ages 25 to 54.
Some more data on Netflix’s “Grand Theft Auto VI” first look: Between Thursday, Aug. 27 and Sunday, Aug. 30, the 27-minute special drew 31.1 million views. Comparatively, the YouTube version, which was posted six hours after Netflix, only had 17 million views as of Tuesday, even though YouTube recently began counting views from the moment a video starts playing.
|
|
|
|
|
What kind of cancer is Walter White diagnosed with at the start of “Breaking Bad” (2008-2013)?
Email answers to Trivia@Cynopsis.com and include your name, company and city/state (don’t forget!). Only the first four correct responses from each time zone will be included.
|
|
|
|
Yesterday’s Trivia Answer
|
|
Which major antagonist appears a full season earlier in Netflix’s live action “Avatar: The Last Airbender” series than they did in the original animated version? Azula
Congrats to: Tom Boyd-WGN/Chicago, IL; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions; LA
|
|
|
|
|
|
