As ‘Shiny Happy People’ Achieves Prime Video’s Biggest Docuseries Debut Ever, Amazon TV Chief Vernon Sanders Talks Strategy (EXCLUSIVE)

working from home or heading to school in the fall, Apple's latest laptops will have you flying through the day and streaming your favorite shows and movies at night. Amazon Prime Day starts on July 11, but we're already seeing Apple deals that are worth snagging now. Early Prime Day deals are already in effect on thousands of items ahead of the big event and while Apple products rarely see major discounts, Amazon has the best deals we've ever seen on the latest and greatest MacBook Air and Pro models. Just in time to start your back-to-school shopping, you can save up to $200 on Apple's latest M2-based MacBooks. With a high-resolution Liquid Retina XDR display, M2 chip, and up to 24GB of unified memory, these MacBooks at the lowest prices we've seen yet are a Prime Day deal you don't want to pass up.Get a big 15-inch display with M2 power at a budget-friendly price.

K.J. Yossman Soccer star Kalvin Phillips is the subject of a new doc on Amazon Prime Video. Phillips, one of Manchester City’s top players, will tells his story in “Kalvin Phillips: The Road to City.” From his early days at Leeds Academy to Man City’s historic triple win (taking the Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League), “The Road to City” will chart Phillips’ meteoric rise. “The documentary paints an intimate portrait of a footballer with deep roots and family values as it follows his journey to Manchester City and the dramatic injury ahead of the biggest tournament in football, the 2022 FIFA World Cup,” reads the logline.

Naman Ramachandran Seasoned media executive Gideon Khobane has joined Amazon as the director for Prime Video Africa. Khobane joins with a remit to support the growth of the Prime Video service across sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa and Nigeria. Working closely with the Africa Originals team, headed up by Ned Mitchell, the content acquisitions team, led by Ayanna Lonian and product teams responsible for launching customer features, Khobane is tasked with helping to provide a mix of original and exclusive TV series and movies for existing Prime Video members and to attract new customers in sub-Saharan Africa. The executive, whose experience over his 18-year career ranges from pay-TV to free-to-air broadcasters across sub-Saharan Africa, most recently served as a group executive responsible for general entertainment for the Multichoice Group, and previous to that, served as CEO of SuperSport International and channel director at M-Net. Khobane will continue to be based in South Africa.

Prime Video is about to showcase some cool chicks riding rad barrels.

Jack Ryan is returning to Amazon Prime Video for a fourth and final season – you can find release details below.The new season sees John Krasinski return as Tom Clancy’s titular CIA analyst-turned-field agent for his “most dangerous mission yet”.The official synopsis for season four reads: “The fourth-and-final season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan finds the titular character on his most dangerous mission yet: facing an enemy both foreign and domestic.“As the new CIA Acting Deputy Director, Jack Ryan is tasked with unearthing internal corruption, and in doing so, uncovers a series of suspicious black ops that could expose the vulnerability of the country.“As Jack and the team investigate how deep the corruption runs, he discovers a far-worse reality—the convergence of a drug cartel with a terrorist organisation—ultimately revealing a conspiracy much closer to home and testing our hero’s belief in the system he has always fought to protect.”The first two episodes of season four will be available on the service from 12am GMT on June 30. A further four episodes will follow, with one being released each week.Season three of the series debuted all eight episodes at once, but the service has now switched to a weekly release schedule for the final season.Alongside Krasinski, the fourth season will also see the return of Wendell Pierce (James Greer), Michael Kelly (Mike November) and Betty Gabriel (Elizabeth Wright).

Selome Hailu “The Walking Dead: Dead City” had the biggest premiere of any season of television on AMC+ since the service launched in 2020. The previous record-holder was predecessor series “The Walking Dead.” The iconic zombie drama had its 11th and final season released in three stretches, with the final set of eight episodes achieving the biggest debut on Oct. 2, 2022. These data points are reported by AMC based on one week of streaming data for each respective premiere. “The Walking Dead: Dead City” also made waves on linear TV, where the first episode brought in 2 million viewers accounting for three days of measurement. That includes the AMC cable channel as well as a simulcast across BBCA, IFC and SundanceTV, as well as two encore screenings on AMC. Of those 2 million, 768,000 fell into the adults age 25-54 range, with 573,000 in the adults 18-49 range, per Live+3 data.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Prime Video has revealed its top traveling non-English local originals in the history of the service, with Spanish YA romance “My Fault” and French crime thriller “Medellín” topping the list. Both are feature films that launched in the last two weeks across Prime Video’s footprint in 240 countries around the world. Interestingly, both titles have more than 75% of their viewership coming from outside their country of origin (Spain for “My Fault,” and France for “Medellín”), though Prime Video hasn’t disclosed any further metrics related to ratings or impressions. Of the list (available in full below), 60% are movies and 40% are TV series.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While unveiling its slate of new French originals and acquisitions on Monday, Prime Video announced that it would skip a French theatrical release for “Challengers,” Luca Guadagnino’s anticipated tennis drama. The film, which stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and “West Side Story” star Mike Faist, will still be released in theaters in all other territories. During a posh press event hosted at the Pavillon Royal on the outskirts of Paris, Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, Prime Video’s country managing director for France, said the strategic move by the Amazon streamer resulted from France’s notoriously strict windowing rules, which demands streamers to wait 15 to 17 months after a theatrical roll out before making a new film available on their services. The rule has led other studios to opt to skip French cinemas for new releases before, such as Disney’s decision to debut “Strange World” on streaming.

James Duggar sent a loving shout-out to his dad, Jim Bob Duggar, while celebrating Father’s Day — and seemingly took a swipe at sister Jill Duggar in the process.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Zazie Beetz, Dominque Fishback, Dianna Agron and more stars braved the New York City rain Monday evening to attend the 16th annual Tribeca Artists Dinner. Hosted by Chanel at SoHo restaurant Balthazar, the event was thrown in tribute to the 10 women visual artists who contributed their work to projects featured in the 2023 Tribeca Festival, organized by festival chiefs Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. This group of honorees included Ana Benaroya, Beverly Fishman, Christie Neptume, Lisa Lebofsky, Natia Lemay, Patricia Encarnacion, Renee Cox, Sheree Hovsepian, Shinique Smith and Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz. “When you’re 22, you’ve gotten out of those teenage years. And this year is quite spectacular. So many of our programs have matured,” Rosenthal told Variety of this year’s Tribeca Festival while on the red carpet, shielded from the downpour. “The other thing is that, the past two years whether we were just coming out of the pandemic and did a hybrid festival, and then last year there were still COVID restrictions. This feels like it’s the Roaring Twenties. People are back and ready to party — partying in the streets and coming to screenings and it’s just been fantastic.”

Amy Duggar King is responding to Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s statement blasting the new docuseries about the scandal-plagued family.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Prime Video debuted the first-look image and revealed the premiere date for the adaptation of thriller series “Harlan Coben’s Shelter” from New York Times best-selling author Harlan Coben on Thursday. The show marks Coben’s first collaboration with Prime Video. The first three episodes of the eight-episode series will premiere globally on Aug. 18 exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, with new episodes available each Friday, leading up to the season finale on Sept. 22. “Harlan Coben’s Shelter” follows the story of Mickey Bolitar after the sudden death of his father leads him to start a new life in Kasselton, New Jersey. Mickey quickly finds himself tangled in the mysterious disappearance of a new student at his school, Ashley Kent, which leads to uncovering unimaginable secrets within their quiet suburban community.

Justina Machado stars in The Horror of Dolores Roach, the new series on Amazon’s Prime Video dropping July 7. A trailer for the eight-episode series was released (which you can see above) and it previews the capabilities of Dolores Roach’s “magic hands.”

Even the best intentions sometimes can turn into a nightmare, and this is a situation that Dolores Roach finds herself in after serving an unjust prison sentence in the new Prime Video series, “The Horror of Dolores Roach.” READ MORE: Steven Soderbergh’s Max Limited Series ‘Full Circle’ Headlines 2023 Tribeca Festival’s TV Lineup As seen in the trailer for the series, “The Horror of Dolores Roach” follows the story of the title character, who finally gets out of prison after 16 years, only to find herself needing to find a job to escape her current situation.

If you’re a fan of “Mayans M.C.,” you’re well aware of the work of actor JD Pardo. As EZ Reyes, the lead in ‘Mayans,’ Pardo has imbued his character with complicated emotions, so many different layers, and a charisma that has made this series one of the best on TV.

Jinger Duggar Vuolo is sharing her story.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Amazon’s Prime Video greenlit a new documentary from Nascar Studios that will chronicle NASCAR’s special “Garage 56” entry at the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The documentary will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, and comes as streamers — not always able to spend the billions required for actual sports rights — see traction from offering in-depth documentary looks at various sports. Netflix has found success with a look inside Formula 1 Racing while Prime Video in January announced the launch of “The Ride,” an inside look at the Professional Bull Riders tour.

Wall Street Journal that the tech giant’s discussions are in the early stages and have been ongoing over the past several weeks. The report notes Amazon is planning for short ad breaks and is considering giving existing Prime subscribers the option to pay for an ad-free alternative and other features.Prime Video is currently included with Prime membership for $14.99 per month and is offered standalone for $8.99 per month. Additionally, Amazon has a separate, free ad-supported streaming platform called Freevee.

Jill Duggar shared her story in the bombshell docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets — and more of her relatives have begun to chime in.

BreAnna Bell The “Angry Birds” universe just became one series bigger. Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Kids+ has picked up “Angry Birds Mystery Island” to series from Eric Rogers (Futurama) and Titmouse. “We’re excited to work with Amazon to add a new chapter to the Hatchlings’ story in ‘Angry Birds Mystery Island,’” said Rovio’s head of Brand Licensing, Hanna Valkeapää-Nokkala. “I’m sure fans of the Hatchlings will be eager to see them in their own series, with speaking voices for the first time.” The 24-episode first season will follow three new hatchlings — Mia, Rosie, and Buddy — and a foreign-exchange piglet named Hamylton on their all-expenses-paid island getaway, where they find themselves mistakenly catapulted onto an uncharted island. Left to explore the exotic sights, smells, and unexplained phenomena of their new environment without any adults around, the ragtag bunch quickly learns that, in order to survive and make it back home, they will need to unlock the mysteries of the island together.