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Netflix’s hit series The Night Agent remains at the top of the Nielsen streaming charts for the second week in a row. The show had 2.92 billion minutes of viewing from January 27 to February 2, 2025. This is only a small drop of 6% from its debut week.

Apple TV+’s Severance is also doing well. The series ranked fourth among original streaming shows with 557 million minutes of viewing. While this is slightly lower than its first two weeks (589 million and 622 million minutes), Severance is now Apple TV+’s most-watched show since Ted Lasso in 2023.

Another Netflix spy drama, The Recruit, had a strong week too. Its second season premiere brought in 1.19 billion minutes of viewing, up from 925 million for its first season debut in 2022.

Netflix’s documentary series American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson had 723 million minutes of viewing. Hulu’s drama Paradise also made the top 10 with 550 million minutes.

Meanwhile, Disney+’s animated...

Season two of Severance is shaping up as one of Apple TV+’s most watched series to date.

The series ranked fourth among original streaming shows for the week of Jan. 27-Feb. 2, according to Nielsen, with 557 million minutes of viewing. Though that’s down a little from the first two weeks of season two (which recorded 589 million and 622 million minutes), Severance has had the best three-week run for any Apple TV+ show since Ted Lasso’s third season in 2023.

The Night Agent topped the charts for the second straight week, drawing 2.92 billion minutes of viewing on Netflix — a scant 6 percent drop from its debut a week earlier. Another Netflix spy drama, The Recruit, opened in second place overall with 1.19 billion minutes with its season two debut, up from 925 million for its series premiere in December 2022.

Netflix’s four-episode doc series American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson (723 million minutes) and Hulu’s drama...

MrBeast wants to expand a holding company that encompasses all of the initiatives he has launched since erupting to YouTube fame, and he plans to fund that restructuring through a massive investment. According to Bloomberg, Jimmy Donaldson has spoken to several financial firms about a possible funding round that would value MrBeast’s holding company at $5 billion.

The MrBeast holding company houses the creator’s videomaking operation as well as his offline ventures, including the snack brand Feastables and the Lunchables competitor Lunchly. Those divisions reportedly combined to reach $400 million in sales last year, according to a pair of Bloomberg‘s sources.

Despite Donaldson’s substantial financial gains, he is well known for his practice of reinvesting the majority of his earnings in his future content. So even though he has broken records with projects like his Prime Video original series Beast Games, his big-budget productions take millions of dollars away from his bottom line.

When you’re ready to cancel Hulu, follow our guide and learn what you should watch next.

Hulu has one of the most generous free trials of any streaming service. New customers who sign up to Hulu alone can watch free for 30 days, but the sheer volume of commercials on the service can be maddening at times. If the ads on Hulu are driving you to cancel your subscription, or you’ve simply finished the latest season of “The Bear” and are ready to try something else, it’s easy to move on from Hulu.

We’ll give you easy-to-follow instructions on how to do just that below! We’ll also answer some questions about canceling Hulu, and give you a couple of alternative streamers to try when you’re done with the service.

Everything you need to know about canceling Hulu

How to cancel Hulu

Does canceling Hulu lock...

“Want to know what you’re playing for?”

It’s a line Survivor executive producer and host Jeff Probst has said countless times, right up there with the immortal catchphrase “the tribe has spoken.”

But what Survivor contestants are playing for isn’t what it used to be. Legacy competition shows largely haven’t kept pace with inflation, while newer reality shows on streaming network are aggressively flooding the zone with massive Lotto-sized payouts.

When CBS launched Survivor in 2000, the competition series’ $1 million prize seemed like an unfathomable amount of money. The payout equaled the highest possible prize on ABC’s quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which launched a year earlier. The following year, CBS debuted another competition series, The Amazing Race, which likewise offered a $1 million prize.

Suddenly, $1 million was the monetary TV prize ideal, and it sounded wonderful each time it was said on screen: “One … million … dollars.

David M. Parks new thriller, “Last Hit” is beginning principal photography in Los Angeles, Calif. this month. The film stars Mike Ferguson, Twana Barnett, Trent James (Blackout) and Nichola Perrett (YouTube @NichLmao) Mike Ferguson and Twana Barnett play a pair of criminals looking …

The post Indie Horror Icon, Mike Ferguson & Beast Games star, Twana Barnett New Film “Last Hit “ Begins Shooting in L.A. appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

MrBeast’s ambitious game show Beast Games became a huge success when it debuted on Prime Video in December 2024. Quickly turning into one of the platform’s biggest premieres, the unscripted show even garnered significant attention from fans. However, behind the scenes, the show put a major financial strain on Jimmy Donaldson’s wallet.

MrBeast in a still from Beast Games | image: Prime Video

Appearing on Steven Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast, the YouTuber thus revealed how the show cost him well over $100M—far more than what Amazon MGM Studios had boasted offering him. Further, sharing the estimated expenses for just two episodes, MrBeast revealed how he ended up spending more than The Office and Stranger Things S1’s entire budget.

MrBeast lost millions over the crazy expense of his Prime Video show A still from MrBeast’s Beast Games | image: Prime Video

Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast...

Mission accomplished for The Night Agent.

With the release of its second season, the Netflix hit dominated Nielsen’s U.S. ranking of streaming originals for the week of Jan. 20, with 3.11 billion minutes viewed across 20 episodes — a weekly high for the series.

More from TVLineSeverance Recap: John Noble Hams It Up - and Is [Spoiler] Actually a Villain?SNL50 Anniversary Special Draws Nearly 15 Million Viewers, Gives NBC a 5-Year HighSeverance Stars Set the Table for Irving's Ham Dinner With Burt and... John Noble? - 'There's Tension!'

Nielsen notes that little over half of Night Agent viewers were aged 35-...

The success of The Night Agent is apparently not a one-season phenomenon.

The Netflix thriller recorded its biggest week to date with the opening of its second season. The show amassed 3.11 billion minutes of viewing for the week of Jan. 20-26 (season two premiered Jan. 23), according to Nielsen’s streaming ratings, topping its previous best of 3.06 billion minutes in March 2023.

Nielsen says viewing of season two accounted for 76 percent of the weekly total, which works out to about 2.36 billion minutes.

After making its debut on the streaming charts a week earlier, Apple TV+’s Severance improved a little on that performance with 622 million minutes of viewing (a gain of about 6 percent week to week). That’s the highest weekly total for any Apple TV+ show since Ted Lasso in 2023.

The previous week’s overall No. 1, Netflix’s movie Back in Action, came down a little bit but still had a...

MrBeast already has the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, and he regularly finishes first in our weekly Top 50 rankings. Now, he’s adding another record to his list of accomplishments: An unassuming YouTube Shorts clip he uploaded more than two years ago has become the most-liked video on the platform.

For all of MrBeast’s social media star power, he isn’t even the primary star in his record-setting Short. Instead, the video depicts an American student’s trip to Paris, where he fulfills MrBeast’s desire to purchase a French baguette. Spoiler alert: The kid ends up earning much more than the $300 he was initially offered.

On a channel noted for its blockbuster long-form videos, the baguette Short has become the most-watched and most-liked upload. Its 1.4 billion views don’t amount to a record-setting sum for the entire platform, but its 54 million likes are enough to surpass the music video for “Despacito,...

Actors Mike Ferguson and Twana Barnett have joined the cast of “Last Hit,” a new action thriller that also stars Joe Davison, who appeared in the second season of “Stranger Things,” and Levee Duplay, who was in “The Tailor of Sin City.”

The film will star Ferguson and Barnett as a pair of criminals looking to get a fresh start from their illicit pasts. Their boss, played by Duplay, takes one of them hostage to force a final job. LeeAnne Bauer is also in the cast, playing a trusted confidante to the leading pair.

“Last Hit” is beginning principal photography in Los Angeles, Calif. this month. David M. Parks, who began feature work as a cinematographer, is directing the thriller. He made his debut with “Static Codes” in 2023 and has helmed several films since. Anthony Leone is screenwriter, while Ovsanna Yepremyan developed the story and is producing for RadCin.

Barnett...

Mr. Beast revealed exactly how much money he gave away to the contestants of Amazon Prime Video's Beast Games, and the number is shockingly high.

Beast Games was marketed as the biggest game show in history for multiple reasons. The number of contestants started at 1,000 and the winner was promised $5 million.

Throughout 10 episodes, the number of contestants got smaller, but in one of the biggest twists in game show history, the prize was doubled in the finale to $10 million.

Read full article on The Direct.

YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, created the reality game competition Beast Games, which recently concluded its first season. The show’s first season was won by Jeffrey Randall Allen, who was awarded a grand cash prize of $10 million. According to reports, Allen will not be taking home the whole amount won on the game show.

MrBeast’s Beast Games season 1 concluded recently (Credit: Prime Video).

The reality series has been the center of an ongoing controversy regarding the treatment of its contestants. As a result, it is easy for viewers to blame the YouTuber for Allen losing out on a large portion of the grand prize. However, netizens reacted to the news on social media and realized MrBeast wasn’t at fault. Here is why the winner of Beast Games is losing $5 million.

Beast Games winner reportedly set to lose almost $5 million from prize money

Beast Games premiered in December...

Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry. This week, Kai Cenat has academic ambitions, an old-school online video rivalry has bene revived, and an 11-year-old is becoming a beverage connoisseur.

Creator commotion

The king of streaming wants to take his fans to school. Kai Cenat has expressed his desire to set up a “streamer university” by renting out a college, putting creators up in the dorms, and bringing in big shots like MrBeast and Mark Rober to teach classes. Just think of how legendary the parties would be.

Pokimane’s security bill is getting expensive. The popular streamer told Colin and Samir that she spends five figures per month on her security detail. Taylor Lorenz of User Mag has dubbed that expense the “Female Creator Safety Tax,” and it’s much higher...

Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Beast Games” Season 1

Thursday’s finale of “Beast Games” saw what started out as 1,000 players get whittled down to six as they faced off for a grand prize of $5 million in cash.

But in a surprise twist, co-creator, executive producer and host Jimmy Donaldson — aka MrBeast — gave the group, who defied the odds over the course of the season in a series of physical, mental and social challenges, the opportunity to double the total prize they would compete for to $10 million based on a coin toss — making it the largest prize in game show history.

Gage Gallagher, known as Player 974, stepped up to volunteer to perform the toss, successfully doubling the amount for the group. But the person who would end up taking home the money in the end was Player 831: Jeff Allen.

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A post shared by Jeffrey Randall Allen (@legacy.

The season finale of MrBeast‘s reality competition series Beast Games is now streaming and the winner of the first edition has been revealed.

1,000 players kicked off the competition to win a whopping $5 million dollar cash prize. Week by week, players used their strength and wit to stay in the game, with the hope of being the multi-million-dollar winner.

There was a massive twist in the finale that increased the prize money by a staggering amount… making it the Biggest Game Show Prize In History.

Keep reading to find out more…

The episode began with the final 6 contestants competing for the $5 million prize, but they were told that the prize could be doubled to $10 million if one person agreed to risk their spot by doing a coin flip. If they called the flip correctly, the prize pot doubled to $10 million for all contestants. If they called it incorrectly, that person...

After spending three weeks at No. 1 on Nielsen’s overall streaming viewership chart, Netflix’s Squid Game has relinquished its crown.

Netflix’s Jamie Foxx-Cameron Diaz thriller Back In Action landed the top spot this week with 1.5 billion minutes viewed, Nielsen said in its weekly update on Thursday. Squid Game fell to No. 4 on the overall streaming chart with 1.25 billion minutes viewed during the Jan. 13-Jan. 19 frame, the most recent week in the data firm’s tally.

Meanwhile, Billy Bob Thornton-starrer Landman kept up its run with 1.05 billion minutes of viewing and represents the only Paramount+ show outside of library title Dexter to chart in the top 5 for this week on either the TV or movies charts.

Speaking of Western-influenced shows, Peter Berg’s American Primeval, which was the top premiere on the streaming chart last week, rose to No. 2 on the overall chart with 1.41 billion minutes viewed.

Last week’s Samba TV Weekly Wrap Report was all about thrills, as edge-of-your-seat action series dominated the Top 10. This week, as we creep ever closer to Valentine’s Day, comedy takes the lead in the form of “Kinda Pregnant.”

The movie stars Amy Schumer as a woman so jealous of her friends’ pregnancies that she resorts to wearing a fake baby bump. Hijinks follow, carried along by Schumer’s unique gifts for physical comedy.

“Kinda Pregnant” was a huge hit for Netflix, drawing 1.6 million households in its first five days. Younger millennial households were more likely to watch the film than other audiences, perhaps as this cohort begins building families (and experiencing similar jealousy) of their own.

While comedy and the quest for romance top the chart this week, viewers are clearly still chasing thrills. Last week’s chart-topper, “The Night Agent,” is still bringing in viewers as it sits in second this week.

[Warning: The following contains Major spoilers for the Beast Games Season 1 finale.] YouTube star MrBeast‘s first foray into streaming TV has completed its first season. Beast Games, a Squid Game-like competition show (minus the violence), revealed its victor in the Season 1 finale released on Thursday, February 13, on Prime Video. The grand prize was a whopping $10 million if you can believe it. And the winner had to beat hundreds of contestants to win the biggest cash prize in TV history (it was already a record-setting prize when it was just at the original $5 million). So who won Beast Games Season 1, and will the reality competition series continue? Here’s all there is to know about this show with a wild origin story and an even wilder format. Who is MrBeast? MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, is a popular YouTuber and social media personality with a massive following. He’s made a name for himself by staging expensive, filmed stunts...

Beast Games is one of the biggest reality competition series on television right now, and it might grant its winner the largest cash prize in the history of the tournament. As viewers follow the show on Amazon Prime Video, it’s becoming clearer who the crowd-favorite is – or perhaps the potential winner.

MrBeast in Beast Games / Credits: Prime Video

YouTube star MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, gathered one thousand participants to compete in a series of physical, mental, and social challenges for a chance to win $5 million – or potentially $10 million – in cash prize.

Prime Video’s Beast Games might already have a winner

The famed YouTuber recently posted an update on his X profile teasing viewers with the upcoming announcement of the Beast Games winner. MrBeast said that it could be the “largest cash prize in the history of entertainment,” which is definitely a huge deal.

Related 5 Alarming Allegations Against...

Prime Video’s new series follows six teenage couples in South Carolina as they try to navigate the choppy waters of love.

The producers of “Love is Blind” and “Married at First Sight” are preparing to bring their latest reality series to Prime Video. “Sweethearts” premieres on the streamer on Thursday, Feb. 13, and features six high school couples trying to decide if they’ll stick together, or if they’ll be flying solo in the future. See what they decided by taking advantage of a 30-day free trial of Prime Video.

How to watch ‘Sweethearts’ When: Thursday, Feb. 13 at 12:01 a.m. Et TV: Prime Video Stream: Watch with a 30-day free trial of Prime Video. From anywhere: Watch with a subscription to a Vpn. 30-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month amazon.com Everything you need to know about “Sweethearts”

How to watch ‘Sweethearts’

Watch a preview of ‘Sweethearts’

About ‘Sweethearts’

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A new teaser video rang in the Beast Games Episode 10 festivities with its season finale release date looming. 

The Amazon Prime Video reality series from the mind of YouTube star Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson is finally set to end, bringing a close to its 'Squid Game in real life' concept and awarding one of its contestants a record-breaking $5 million. 

The streaming hit has proven to be a massive success for Prime Video. It cemented itself as the platform's biggest unscripted series in just one week. 

Read full article on The Direct.

This weekly feature is in addition to TVLine’s daily What to Watch column, our monthly breakdown of What’s on Streaming, and our master list of Every New TV Show Premiering in 2025.

With over 500 scripted shows now airing across broadcast, cable and streaming, it’s easy to forget that a favorite comedy is returning, or that the new “prestige drama” you anticipated is about to debut. So consider this our reminder to set your DVR, order a Season Pass, pop a fresh Memorex into the Vcr… however it is you roll.

More from TVLineEvery New Scripted Show Confirmed to Premiere in 2025 — Save the Dates!

Beast Games Episode 9 featured a game-changing coin flip, and fans seem to think they may know the shocking outcome thanks to a TikTok video. 

The ultra-viral streaming reality series from YouTube star James "Mr. Beast" Donaldson has been wowing audiences on Prime Video since its December 2024 debut. 

The show operates like something of a real-life Squid Game, with contestants taking on zany challenges for the chance at winning a record-breaking $5 million grand prize. 

Read full article on The Direct.

Money may talk, but in the entertainment industry, it doesn’t just talk—it shouts from the rooftops. While Hollywood may have always been known for its extravagant salaries, streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video have thrown the rulebook out the window. The stars in the world of Prime Video aren’t just cashing in on their talent—they’re redefining what it means to be a paid actor in today’s digital age.

Gone are the days when a high-paying role was restricted to the big screen alone. Now, actors are raking in staggering amounts for their work on the small screen, with Amazon Prime leading the charge.

John Krasinski in Jack Ryan (2018)

From high-octane thrillers to feel-good comedies, these stars know how to turn their on-screen magic into cold, hard cash. So, buckle up, grab some popcorn, and get ready to discover the jaw-dropping paychecks that have made Prime Video history!

We’re one week away from the season finale of MrBeast‘s new show Beast Games and everyone wants to know who wins the grand prize!

While we’ve been told the entire season that the players were competing for a chance to win $5 million, we learned at the end of episode 9 that there’s a chance the prize will be doubled to $10 million.

Episode 9 featured the Top 10 contestants competing for a spot in the Final 6 to play the last game of the season. There was a voting game with six rounds. Each round, all contestants had to vote for someone to move forward to the Final 6 and the winner of each round was no longer allowed to vote in future rounds.

Top 6 Revealed

Courtney (454)

Twana (830)

Jeff (831)

Emma (937)

Yesi (947)

Gage (974)

So, who wins? We’re taking a look at Reddit predictions and there are some interesting theories.

Keep reading to find out more…...

Netflix’s Squid Game dominated Nielsen’s U.S. streaming rankings for a third straight week, this time amassing 2.4 billion minutes viewed across 16 episodes.

Paramount+’s Landman, with the release of its Season 1 finale, placed second with 1.38 billion minutes viewed (a weekly high for the Taylor Sheridan drama) across 10 episodes. Nielsen notes that Millennials and Gen X were the main draw for Landman, with 58% of the audience falling into the 35-64 age bracket.

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Squid Game dominated the streaming charts, though it cooled off a good amount in its third week at No. 1. Landman also peaked following its season finale, and American Primeval had a strong debut.

For the week of Jan. 6-12, Squid Game racked up 2.37 billion minutes of viewing on Netflix, according to Nielsen’s streaming ratings. That’s down by about 48 percent from the previous week — but still almost a billion minutes clear of Landman in second place. Since the Dec. 26 premiere of season two, Squid Game has totaled 11.88 billion minutes of watch time in the United States.

As for Landman, its 1.38 billion minutes for the week leading into its Jan. 12 season finale continued the Paramount+ drama’s streak of improving every week it’s been on. It grew from 1.3 billion minutes a week earlier.

American Primeval, a western from Peter Berg, was the top premiere of the week with 1.25 billion viewing minutes on Netflix.

As premium plans become more costly, a majority of new streaming subscribers are opting for ads, according to a new report from Samba TV.

In the second half of 2024, 43% of total SVOD subscribers had an ad-supported plan. The share is increasing, with 56% of new subscribers in that time period choosing the ad option, Samba says.

Peacock is leading the pack with 78% of its new subscribers in the second half of the year choosing an ad-supported plan, which is pretty on par with the second half of 2023, when 76% of new subscribers chose ads. Notably, Netflix saw a pretty significant increase in new subscribers opting for ads, up from 28% to 44%. Max also saw a larger jump from 18% to 39%.

In its report, Samba calls this an opportunity for streamers to reach “younger and more diverse audiences that have historically been harder to reach on linear TV,” which had always been the case to...

Amazon’s Beast Games mega game show has received plenty of flak from critics. Averaging only 13 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, professional TV reviewers have called it “a sad reflection of our modern times,” “one of the most undignified spectacles ever shown on TV” and “a deafening, joyless cash dash” that “exists solely to show us the worst of the human condition.”

So, yes, the show is that good — addictive in a Squid Game knockoff kind of way. The amount of cash being tossed around is obscene, and that’s part of what makes the show guiltily watchable. In the second episode, when the show’s inflatable-tube-man host Mr. Beast howls and waves his arm when not one of four contestants is tempted by a $1 million bribe to eliminate the rest of their 50-person teams, it’s very compelling TV. Indeed, viewers have firmly split with the critics on this show...

Get to know Jc, or Player 566, after he left his mark on Beast Games and became a bit of an antagonist in Episode 8.

Amazon Prime Video's Beast Games is a high-stakes competition that brings 1,000 contestants into the arena. With a record-breaking $5 million grand prize (the largest in game show history), the series raises the stakes like never before.

Despite poor critical reception and a lawsuit over alleged mistreatment of contestants during production, Beast Games became a top performer on Prime Video.

Read full article on The Direct.

Time and again, YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson has proved his massive reach and influential capabilities. But he seemingly outdid himself with the Prime Video show Beast Games, which pulled in a staggering 50M viewers worldwide. With such massive success, it’s no surprise that other streaming giants are looking for a similar piece of the action.

Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast | image: @mrbeast/YouTube

Reports suggest that both Disney and Netflix are allegedly trying to copy the same formula, hoping to replicate MrBeast’s magic. While Netflix recently aired a Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight that saw 65M views, Disney has yet to make such a groundbreaking show. But while Hollywood is eager to tap into influencers, many netizens think it’s a risky bet—after all, there’s only one MrBeast, and his success is tough to copy!

Beast Games became Prime Video’s biggest release of 2024

Jimmy Donaldson,...

Out of 1,000 original contestants, Emma Nelson (also designated as Player 937) made her way into the Top 10 Cast of Beast Games, and many would like to get to know her better.

Beast Games is literally the biggest game show in television history. Starting with 1,000 contestants (one of which has faced a ton of backlash) and boasting a grand prize of $5 million, it features the most competitors and the highest prize ever.

As of writing, Episode 8 was the latest episode to be released, and it finally revealed which contestants made it into the top 10.

Read full article on The Direct.

Amazon Prime Video's Beast Games is nearing its finish line as the final Top 10 contestants do whatever it takes to win the $5,000,000 grand prize. 

From a pool of 1000 contestants in the reality series, only 10 contestants remain as tensions rise and betrayal ensues among the participants. 

It all came down to the actions of Player 830, Twana Barnett, after she decided to eliminate Deano and Jaz in Episode 7. 

Read full article on The Direct.

We’re so close to the end of MrBeast‘s reality show Beast Games and there will be just six contestants remaining in the competition after the latest challenge, which won’t be completed until episode 9.

1,000 players kicked off the competition to win a whopping $5 million dollar cash prize. Week by week, players will use their strength and wit to stay in the game, with the hope of being the multi-million-dollar winner.

Episode eight featured the Top 10 contestants splitting a $1 million pot. The challenge began with the contestants having to collectively decide who would get the first position in the challenge. After they unanimously chose Twana, player 830, she was given the chance to pick the person in position two, that person picked position three, and so on.

We later found out that Twana was the first person to encounter the $1 million prize pot for the challenge and she could take however much money she wanted,...

It’s been quite a long time since any streaming titles popped the way that Squid Game did with the debut of Season 2.

Nielsen says that the Netflix series racked up more than 4B (4.6B to be exact) viewing minutes for the second consecutive week from December 30 to January 5, which is a feat not accomplished since Wednesday did so in November 2022. While Nielsen doesn’t separate viewing by season, the company did say that 80% of the watch time during this interval went to Season 2.

It’s likely that Squid Game will continue to put up impressive numbers, since according to Netflix the second season was seeing record viewership into January.

Six other titles scored over 1B viewing minutes, including Virgin River with 1.39B, marking its third week in second place since Season 6 premiered on December 19.

Paramount+ seems to have a hit on its hands with Landman, which generated 1.3B minutes viewed during this week,...

Paramount+’s Landman continued its upward trajectory in the first few days of 2025, hitting its best viewing-time mark so far in Nielsen’s streaming rankings. Squid Game had a second straight huge week for Netflix as well.

The Korean hit drew just under 4.6 billion minutes of viewing in the United States for the week of Dec. 30-Jan. 5, topping the 4 billion mark again a week after its season two premiere. The series fell by less than 7 percent week-to-week from the 4.92 billion minutes it had for its long-awaited return.

Landman snagged 1.3 billion minutes of watch time in the week leading up to its ninth episode. The Taylor Sheridan series, starring Billy Bob Thornton, has improved its totals in every week since it first hit the rankings in late November.

Two other shows also reached a billion minutes to open the year: Virgin River came in at 1.39 billion for Netflix, and Missing You...

Squid Game dominated Nielsen’s U.S. ranking of streaming originals for a second straight week since its release of Season 2, with 4.6 billion minutes viewed across 16 episodes, during the week of Dec. 30.

It was announced on Thursday morning that the wildly popular Squid Game will conclude its three-season run on June 27.

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Netflix’s Virgin River again placed a very...

Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx’s spy thriller “Back in Action” continues its dominance of the streaming landscape, maintaining its top position for a second consecutive week. After capturing 3.2 million U.S. households during its first weekend streaming, the action-packed film has shown remarkable staying power, demonstrating that audiences aren’t ready to let go of this high-stakes adventure.

Netflix showed its streaming supremacy with an impressive triple threat at the top of the charts, as “The Night Agent” Season 2 and “American Primeval” secured the No. 2 and No. 3 positions respectively.

The Paramount+ release of “Gladiator II” proved its box office success wasn’t a fluke, charging into No. 4, while Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman” was finally unseated from its lock on the top two slots over the last seven weeks to fall into No. 5. The success of “The Night Agent” Season 2 sparked renewed interest in its predecessor, with Season 1 claiming the No.

“Bluey” and “Grey’s Anatomy” were the most-streamed programs of 2024, according to a year-end Nielsen report. The Australian preschool program racked up 55.62 billion viewing minutes on Disney+, while the long-running hospital drama nabbed 47.85 billion across Hulu and Netflix.

Animated series on Hulu took the next two spots — “Family Guy” with 42.44 billion minutes viewed and “Bob’s Burgers” with 36.80 billion — followed by “NCIS” with 35.91 billion across Netflix, Hulu and Paramount+. “Young Sheldon” and “The Big Bang Theory” ranked at No. 6 and No. 7, followed by “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Criminal Minds” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

Streaming in general was up 10% from 2023, with 12 trillion minutes in total. That equates to about 8.4 billion dates, or 23 million years’ worth of watching.

No originals debuted on the overall streaming top 10 chart. Netflix’s “Bridgerton” led that list with 21.42 billion viewing minutes, followed by the streamer’s dating series “Love Is Blind” with 16.45 billion. Rounding out the originals chart are “The Boys,...

Blink49 Studios is bulking up its executive roster with a series of promotions and a key hire as the Fifth Season-backed production banner continues to expand its footprint in the global content market.

Former Lionsgate executive Andrew Nissen has joined the company as VP of scripted television, reporting to Carolyn Newman, executive VP of global scripted. Based in Los Angeles, Nissen transitions from his previous role as director of scripted television development at Lionsgate, where he helped shepherd high-profile projects including “A Gentleman in Moscow.”

The Toronto-headquartered studio also elevated four senior executives. Allison Brough moves up to senior VP of unscripted television in Toronto, continuing to oversee the company’s reality slate under Toby Dormer, executive VP of unscripted television.

Lucy Galstyan has been upped to senior VP of business and legal affairs, unscripted, operating from the L.A. office and reporting to Nicole Levinsohn, executive VP of business and legal affairs.

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The Season 2 debut of “Squid Game” boosted the Netflix series to reach the biggest weekly streaming audience any show has seen in 2024, according to Nielsen’s streaming charts.

With the second installment debuting Dec. 26 on Netflix, “Squid Game” drew 4.92 billion minutes over its two seasons in the interval between Dec. 23 to Dec. 29. Viewership for “Squid Game” was more than double that of Netflix’s “Virgin River,” which scored a whopping 2.25 billion viewing minutes as the second most-watched streaming program of the week.

Dwayne Johnson-led “Red One” also scored an impressive streaming viewership as the holiday movie scored 1.81 billion viewing minutes on Prime Video during the week, clocking in as the third most-watched program of the week. Next up was holiday thriller “Carry-On,” which scored 1.54 billion viewing minutes on Netflix,...

Christmas week brought a bounty of viewing to streaming platforms, with eight titles crossing the billion-minute mark in Nielsen’s streaming ratings. Netflix’s Squid Game, however, stood well apart from the pack.

The Korean hit posted the highest single-week viewing tally for any streaming title in the United States in 2024 with 4.92 billion minutes of viewing for the week of Dec. 23-29. Season two of Squid Game premiered Dec. 26.

The show’s premiere week was the best for any title in two years, in fact — since Wednesday delivered about 5.3 billion minutes of viewing for the week of Nov. 28-Dec. 4, 2022. Squid Game also smashed its own previous high of 3.26 billion minutes during season one’s run in 2021. Netflix had earlier said season two set a worldwide record for a premiere week, based on the streamer’s internal data.

Coming in second overall was Virgin River, Squid Game‘s tonal opposite, at 2.25 billion minutes of viewing,...

With the release of its long-awaited Season 2, Squid Game unsurprisingly dominated Nielsen’s U.S. streaming ranking for the week of Dec. 23.

Netflix’s most-watched series ever amassed 4.92 billion minutes viewed across 16 total episodes, marking the largest weekly haul of any 2024 series and landing it squarely atop both the streaming originals and overall charts.

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Nielsen notes that the South Korean thriller attracted a young,...

Ever since Paramount Plus’s “Landman” debuted in December, it has been in a battle with Netflix for the number one spot. Apart from the two weeks where it gave way to Netflix’s “Carry On,” Taylor Sheridan’s latest series “Landman” has spent four of the last seven weeks at the top of the weekly Top 10.

This week, the new hit series was displaced by Netflix’s “Back in Action” starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx, according to the Samba TV Weekly Wrap for January 13-19. Cameron Diaz’s comeback after nearly a decade away from the screen was an instant hit for the streamer with the spy thriller earning 3.2M US households tuning in over its debut weekend.

Down from its premiere week where it first appeared in second place on the chart, Netflix’s Western epic miniseries “American Primeval” comes in third this week. Fourth was Netflix...

Maternal Mystery

Disney+ has dropped first-look images for its upcoming U.K. original series “The Stolen Girl,” a psychological thriller toplining Denise Gough, Holliday Grainger, Ambika Mod and Jim Sturgess.

The five-part limited series, previously developed under the working title “Playdate,” comes from scribe Catherine Moulton (“Baptiste”) and helmer Eva Husson (“Mothering Sunday”). The project adapts Alex Dahl’s bestselling page-turner “Playdate.”

The story follows Elisa, a mother whose world implodes after her nine-year-old daughter Lucia vanishes during what was meant to be an innocent sleepover. The seemingly perfect host mother Rebecca, along with her daughter Josie, disappear without a trace – leaving behind only a vacant holiday rental where their supposed family home once stood.

As authorities launch a Europe-wide search, scrutiny falls heavily on Elisa and her husband Fred while family secrets bubble to the surface. Narrative promises to explore whether Rebecca’s shocking actions could have deeper justification than initially apparent.

Tite Kubo’s comeback after the ten-year hiatus is nothing short of legendary. The mangaka made waves in the anime industry through his impeccable shonen series Bleach. To this date, it is as iconic as it gets.

With the rise of weeaboo celebrities and influencers, anime is getting its much-needed popularity boost. This holds especially true for MrBeast and his enthusiasm for the same. However, he may have stirred the pot with his statement.

Ichigo Kurosaki in a still from the anime | Credit: Studio Pierrot

Of late, fans have clapped back at the YouTuber for excluding Kubo’s masterpiece from the Big 3 status. His retorts further angered most readers and viewers who stormed the internet with their guns blazing at him.

And while playing favorites is a common phenomenon when it comes to anime, it was a dirty move indeed. To exclude the series from its rightful status, however, doesn...

Mr. Beast's Beast Games is about to head into its final stretch of episode releases.

With only Episodes 7-10 left to air for the hit reality series, tensions are high as contestants compete to see who will take home the life-changing grand prize of $5 million. 

The series most recently set its cast against each other in a series of challenges that included a massive roulette wheel, a straight-up Iq test, and an ultra-competitive rock-climbing race. 

Read full article on The Direct.

Netflix and Prime Video helped streaming take a bigger portion of total TV viewing than ever before, according to new Nielsen data.

The holidays were a veritable feast for streaming services. That’s according to Nielsen, which this week released its monthly “The Gauge” report detailing which TV sources saw the most viewing over the course of the month. Streaming rose to a new record high usage during December, powered by gains from Max, Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube. It’s an impressive gain, and another sign that cord-cutting is continuing to bite into cable and broadcast audiences.

Key Details: Netflix matched a service record by accounting for 8.5% of total TV viewing in December. Prime Video set a new platform best by hitting 4.0% of all TV watched. Max saw an 18% viewing increase during the month, the largest increase of any streamer. 30-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month amazon.com

Nielsen’s data found...

The holiday season brought big gifts to several streaming platforms, with YouTube, Netflix and Prime Video all hitting or tying their best mark ever in Nielsen’s monthly snapshot of TV use.

The ratings service’s December Gauge rankings — which, due to a quirk of how Nielsen collects its data, also includes the last week of November — show streaming services commanding an all-time high of 43.3 percent of all TV viewing in the United States. That’s within a few percentage points of the combined 46.2 percent for broadcast (22.4 percent) and cable (23.8 percent) for the month.

YouTube, as usual, was the top individual streaming service with 11.1 percent of TV use, up from 10.8 percent in the November rankings and its best showing to date. Netflix — which had two heavily watched NFL games on Christmas — matched its all-time high of 8.5 percent (set in July 2023), and Prime Video had 4 percent thanks to its weekly NFL...