David Duchovny to Host His First Podcast, About How to ‘Fail Better,’ With Guests Ben Stiller, Bette Midler and More

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor MrBeast, the YouTuber known for big-money giveaways, is going bigger than ever with his new show on Amazon’s Prime Video. The mega-popular YouTube creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, announced a deal with Prime Video for “Beast Games,” a reality-competition show promising the winner a $5 million cash prize — believed to be the largest single payout ever in TV history.

Ben Platt will play an exclusive, 18-performance concert residency at Broadway’s recently refurbished Palace Theatre early this summer to celebrate the release of his upcoming third album Honeymind.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Neil Young is bringing his music back to Spotify — because, he said, Apple and Amazon have “started serving the same disinformation” in podcasts that was the reason he quit Spotify more than two years ago. And Young said he can’t boycott Apple Music and Amazon Music, because then his music would have “very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all.” In January 2022, Young demanded that Spotify pull his tracks off its service in protest of the company’s failure to curb COVID misinformation in “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. He said Spotify “can have Rogan or Young.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In what’s poised to be one of the biggest initial public offerings of the year, Reddit disclosed financial details of its forthcoming IPO, through which it’s aiming to raise as much as $748 million. On Monday, in an update to its S-1 filing with the SEC, Reddit said it will offer 22 million shares, expected to be listed at an IPO price of between $31 and $34 per share.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor WWE has sold sponsorship rights to a prime piece of real estate: the center of its ring. On Friday, WWE announced a “record-setting” pact with Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime Hydration beverage brand to become the wrestling entertainment company’s exclusive “official hydration drink partner” and the first partner to ever appear on the center of the WWE ring.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Marilyn Monroe, who died 62 years ago, has been reincarnated as a “hyper-real” AI-generated digital avatar that lets fans engage in a conversation with the late actor — who can answer questions “in Marilyn’s signature voice and style,” according the company behind the project. AI technology firm Soul Machines unveiled Digital Marilyn, an interactive experience in which she “shares anecdotes and even delivers personalized greetings, creating an unforgettable experience for Marilyn fans.” The AI-generated chatbot lets you interact with the late actor “in real-time using advanced natural language processing, deep learning and GPT 3.5,” Soul Machines said in announcing the project Friday.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor When Hollywood accurately depicts work-family and gender-equity scenarios on screen, it’s good for business by driving up viewership and engagement, according to a new research study. The vast majority of engaged streaming viewers in the U.S.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor J.J. Abrams is taking a look back at “Felicity,” the beloved series he co-created that premiered 25 years ago, in a difference kind of rewatch podcast featuring guest appearances by the show’s stars, including Keri Russell, Scott Speedman and Scott Foley. “Dear Felicity,” from Abrams’ Bad Robot Audio and Spotify’s The Ringer, is set to debut Wednesday, March 13.

Josh Homme has announced his one-night-only ‘Josh Homme & Friends’ benefit gig with Dave Grohl, Matt Helders, Beck and more.The Queens Of The Stone Age frontman took to the band’s official social media accounts to share the details of the benefit gig. Taking place on March 20 at The Belasco in Los Angeles, California, ‘Josh Homme & Friends’ will be held in support of the Sweet Stuff Foundation.Other acts set to perform include The Kills, Jesse Hughes, Bill Burr, St.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged that the company is behind Netflix in terms of technical capabilities — and that the Mouse House is in the process of catching up. “We need to be at their level” of technical capability, in order to reduce marketing expenses and cut churn rates, Iger said about Netflix, speaking Tuesday at the 2024 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. Iger reiterated that Disney is on track to achieve profitability in the streaming business — which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ — by the fiscal quarter that ends September 2024.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The descendants of Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney have weighed in on the bid by two activist investment firms to win seats on the board of the Walt Disney Co. Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who runs hedge fund Trian Partners, is waging a proxy-fight battle to install himself and ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo as directors; Peltz’s stated aim is to drive up the price of Disney’s stock.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Dwayne Johnson now officially owns title to the sobriquet “The most electrifying man in sports and entertainment.” The actor and entertainment mogul, who broke out as a star in the WWE ring two decades ago, has gained rights to a number of nicknames, insults and catchphrases from his time in the ring in the 90s and early 2000s — including “Candy Ass,” “Jabroni,” and “If you smell what The Rock is cooking.” The transfer of the intellectual-property rights to the names and phrases to Johnson came under his deal to join the board of directors of TKO Group Holdings, the company formed by Endeavor that merged WWE and the UFC. As announced last month, Johnson officially has the rights to his famous ring name, “The Rock.” In its 10-K filing Feb.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor SiriusXM named industry veteran Sarah van Mosel to the newly created position of senior VP of podcast strategy. It’s a return to SiriusXM for von Mosel, who previously served as chief revenue office at its subsidiary Stitcher.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Stephen A. Smith, known for his no-filter commentary on sports, politics and culture, has a new podcast partner. “The Stephen A.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Adam McKay’s Hyperobject Industries has set up “Jockular,” a podcast from three queer best friends Katie Kershaw, Tien Tran and E.R. Fightmaster — who, along with their guests, will discuss all things queer, trans and women-forward in the world of sports. “Jockular” will dispense “equal doses of sports commentary, cultural criticism and light-hearted gossip,” per Hyperobject Industries, spanning sports including collegiate basketball, professional soccer and “power slapping” (which, weirdly, is an actual thing).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor It’s the end of the road for Warner Bros. Discovery‘s MotorTrend+ automotive streaming service. The media company announced that MotorTrend+ will be shut down after content from the service is fully migrated to Discovery+ and Max at the end of March.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix says its ad-supported plan includes “the vast majority” of TV shows and movies available on the standard no-ads tiers — but more than a year after the streamer introduced the cheaper option, several popular titles remain unavailable to customers with the ad plan. Most recently, Netflix customers noticed that Eli Roth’s horror film “Thanksgiving” (pictured above), added Feb. 17 for subscribers on ad-free tiers, is unavailable on the ad plan.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After critics slammed Google‘s “woke” generative AI system, the company halted the ability of its Gemini tool to create images of people to fix what it acknowledged were “inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions.” Google’s Gemini, formerly known as Bard, began offering text-to-image generative features this month. The problem appeared to be that, in trying to compensate for gender- and racial-representation bias in AI, the system was creating ahistorical images of people.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Pinterest is readying the launch of its first-ever streaming show, cooking and lifestyle series “Deliciously Entertaining” — aimed at whetting the appetite of users to engage with the image-sharing social platform. “Deliciously Entertaining” is one of Pinterest’s biggest original productions to date, developed and produced in partnership with media company Tastemade.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor HBO is no longer giving away free next-day looks to the popular “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” comedy talk show. With the Season 11 premiere of the show on Feb. 18, HBO has ceased sharing the main feature and other segments from “Last Week Tonight” on the show’s YouTube channel the following day.