Bluey #1 in streaming. Again. Kids love that dog.
From January to June in the US, as per Nielsen, January to June, Bluey saw 25.1B minutes viewed. It makes it the number one show in streaming.
Worth noting that this is based on minutes streamed, so considering almost every Bluey episode runs 7 minutes, that’s a lot of episodes being watched.
A few other things to note:
Only one international show makes the US list, which still shows that despite break-out hits like Squid Game, US viewers are still, en masse, seeking English language programming.
Check out Gunsmoke there on the top 10. Yeah, it’s the classic show seen here on the charts. There’s some obvious reasons to do with cultural interest and older audiences finding their way finally to streaming. But, I’d also suggest it highlights the opportunities of exploiting older library titles on streaming platforms. I wonder how that Mission: Impossible channel does on Pluto TV…
The Big Bang Theory is more widely viewed than Friends?
And note that South Park is there at number 20… It’s why there’s such a s**tfight over the rights to the show - read about that at THR.
Read: Deadline
And just like that
HBO show And Just Like That, which is such a cultural phenomenon that every article still needs to make reference to Sex & The City for the audience to know which show exactly they are talking about (it’s the X, formerly known as Twitter, of TV shows), continues to find ways to remind me to never press play on the show again.
And for disclosure, I did watch season one in its entirety.
Here’s a picture of series star Sarah Jessica Parker wearing a ridiculous hat:
I can’t watch it. I won’t.
Seeing a still of that hat is like how they put pictures of cancer mouths on cigarette packets in Australia. But, maybe worse? Regardless, thank you Television Surgeon General for keeping me away from pressing play.
Maybe HBO Max can add a lock on it for me. I’d pay for a higher tier if they could stop me watching this.
For those interested, Sarah Jessica Parker defended fighting for it’s inclusion on the show in an interview with USA Today, re-reported by the New York Post.
“Once you’ve put a lot of hats on your head, you feel like it’s missing its punctuation point,” she said. “There was that hat. It was going to be a lovely summer day, and it just felt like the period at the end of the sentence. I loved it, and [King] agreed. I feel we’ve really worn him down. His eyes have adapted to large-scale things on heads now, so he’s pretty generous about how often they can appear.”
King, for his part, told USA Today, “It’s like, ‘Hey, everybody, we’re back! Here’s a hat that Carrie would wear eating sherbet in Washington Square Park. Why not?’ I’ve learned over the years that sometimes logic is not as good as a hat. It makes people say, ‘I love it. I hate it. Oh, my God, what was she thinking?'”
Charlie we love you
Working Dog Productions… it’s time to give Reuben Kincaid a call and work out a settlement with the producers of the new Owen Wilson movie titled… wait for it… Charlie The Wonderdog.
You can read about the animated film at Variety.
Australian readers of ABW (who are, yes, of a certain vintage), will recall the ongoing sketch from the early 90s The Late Show ‘Charlie The Wonderdog’. It was a parody of terrible kids shows from the 80s.
News Desk
The share of viewers watching The Daily Show is higher now than when Jon Stewart said goodbye a decade ago. Read: Deadline
French TV presenter/icon Thierry Ardisson has died, aged 76. Read: Euronews
Emily in Paris starts shooting this August in Venice. Read: Deadline
Madam Secretary co-stars Téa Leoni & Tim Daly have gotten married. Good on them. Read: TV Insider
You can read my Mediaweek article about the first look at the new Harry Potter kid, or just look at the photo. But, please… click the link.
Trailer Park
The Girlfriend debuts Sept 10 on Prime Video. *NOTE: FOLKS, WATCH THIS TRAILER!
Based on Michelle Frances' novel of the same name, The Girlfriend follows Laura (Wright), a woman who seemingly has it all: a glittering career, a loving husband, and her precious son, Daniel. Her perfect life begins to unravel when Daniel brings home Cherry (Cooke), a girlfriend who changes everything. After a tense introduction, Laura becomes convinced Cherry is hiding something. Is she a manipulative social climber, or is Laura just paranoid? The truth is a matter of perspective.
Hostage debuts on Netflix August 21.
When the British prime minister's husband is kidnapped and the French president starts receiving threats, both leaders must face an impossible choice.
Butterfly debuts on Prime Video August 13.
Butterfly is a character-driven spy thriller that explores complex family dynamics within the treacherous world of global espionage. It's centered on David Jung (Daniel Dae Kim), an enigmatic, highly unpredictable former US intelligence operative living in South Korea, whose life is blown to pieces when the consequences of an impossible decision from his past come back to haunt him, and he finds himself pursued by Rebecca (Reina Hardesty), a deadly, sociopathic young agent assigned to kill him, and Caddis, the sinister spy organization she works for.
The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball debuts on Hulu July 28.
Welcome back to Elmore, where the laws of reality are a joke, and family life is anything but ordinary. Whether he's battling an evil fast-food empire, facing off against a sentient AI in love with his mom, or trying to stop Banana Joe from wearing pants - Gumball Watterson drags his brother Darwin, sister Anais, and the rest of the town of Elmore along for the ride. With even wilder stories, bigger twists, and surreal humor, the show is so amazing that they had to rename it!
That’s the newsletter for today.
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