Netflix Rules Nielsen Streaming Chart With ‘Inventing Anna’, ‘Vikings: Valhalla’ & ‘Worst Roommate Ever’

Netflix, seen as the big dog in the streaming wars, just saw 200,000 people cancel their subscriptions as announced by the company. The streaming giant recently closed up shop in Russia due to the country’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, following multiple other western companies including fellow streamers who ceased operating there.

EXCLUSIVE: J. Miles Dale, Oscar-winning producer of The Shape of Water and nominee Nightmare Alley, has formed a creative partnership with Netflix. Dale will produce feature films under a multi-year first-look deal via his Demilo Films banner. Dale’s currently an executive producer and co-showrunner on the Netflix series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet Of Curiosities and he is also executive producer on the Netflix series Sex/Life.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s Group Effort Initiative has partnered with Netflix on a new initiative that will expand underrepresented communities’ access to below-the-line career opportunities. Participants will secure access to on-set production training, as well as job placements this year on multiple Netflix productions throughout the United States and Canada.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterRyan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s company Group Effort Initiative is working with Netflix to hire people from underrepresented communities in film and television production jobs.The partnership, which focuses on below-the-line career opportunities, aims to create training and entry-level job options for marginalized communities in the U.S. and Canada.

“Bling Empire” Season 2 has a premiere date: The Netflix reality TV show will return on May 13.Season 2 of the series will span eight 40-minute episodes. Here’s the synopsis for Season 2: “Los Angeles’s beloved uber-rich Asians are back with even more luxury, glamor and crazy.

Pixar’s Turning Red repeated at No. 1 on Nielsen’s weekly streaming chart, holding off Netflix’s movie rival The Adam Project.

Kacey Musgraves has an apt tribute to Willie Nelson in her home. The 33-year-old singer gave Architectural Digest a tour of her home in Nashville, Tennessee, and proudly showed off her prized gift from the country legend.In her light-filled art room off of her open entryway, Musgraves displays a framed joint from Nelson.

Pixar’s Turning Red, the studio’s latest animated feature to be re-routed to Disney+ from movie theaters, topped Nielsen’s weekly streaming chart in its debut.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAnyone who feels the Grammy Awards can be stodgy today might want to consider how far the show has come since the 1990s.Not only was it an utterly abysmal time for fashion — The hair! The shoulder pads! The big, stiff suits! — but the music industry was riding the CD boom, which took profits to hitherto-unimagined heights and made hubris balloon even faster: The titans of the industry thought, as they often do, “We have made it, we’ll just keep doing exactly the same thing over and over and the masses will give us more and more money!” The sounds of the future — hip-hop, alternative, heavy metal — got obligatory new categories as a patronizing pat on the head for “the youngsters” (as Ed Sullivan, the mainstream entertainment curator of the Boomer generation, used to call them). By the early 1990s, the Grammy voting body had become ever more out-of-touch, complacent, arrogant and, most of all, old.

Steve Clarke Crime has always been part of television’s DNA, but in global marketplaces, true crime is enjoying unprecedented levels of success across the streamers and on more traditional outlets.Earlier this year, Shonda Rhimes’ “Inventing Anna,” starring Julia Garner as the fake heiress Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey), became one of Netflix’s biggest shows ever.“Inventing Anna” is the tip of TV’s latest crime wave as producers and commissioners hope to find the horrifying stories that might one day take their place alongside such TV true crime successes as “ The Jinx,” “ The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” “Don’t Fuck With Cats” or “Making a Murderer,” the Netflix series that took true crime to the streamers. “The fascination with true crime has never been stronger,” says Dan Korn, VP of programming at A+E Networks U.K ., whose channels include Crime + Investigation.

Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan were spotted on a date morning after returning from a trip to LA.The couple recently swapped the sunnier climate of California for the UK as they returned from a work trip to LA and were seen donning gym gear as they walked through the streets near their Essex home. Mark, 35, braced the cold weather in a pair of gym shorts and long-sleeved top, with a padded gilet worn over the top for warmth. He also wore a pair of white trainers as he tucked his hands into his pockets.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix shows “Vikings: Valhalla” and “Worst Roommate Ever” both racked up more than 1 billion minutes watched during the week of Feb. 28-March 6, per Nielsen’s newly released Top 10 streaming rankings.

Inventing Anna saw its audience shrink 37% from the prior week, but the reality-based Netflix drama still pulled in almost 2.1 billion minutes of viewing to top Nielsen’s U.S. streaming chart.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix’s “A Madea Homecoming” and Disney’s “Free Guy” both made their debuts on Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings with more than 1 billion minutes watched in the titles’ first few days of availability.Tyler Perry’s “A Madea Homecoming” was No. 4 on the list of overall streaming programs for the week of Feb. 21-27, with 1.04 billion minutes viewed in the two days following its Feb.

Sir Alex Ferguson name-checked two first team players after the infamous 2011 Manchester derby loss at Old Trafford that saw Manchester City dismantle Manchester United 6-1.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterJulia Garner has signed a first-look television deal with Tomorrow Studios, Variety has learned.Under the deal, Garner and her producing partner, Rowan Riley, will develop scripted series via their Alma Margo production company for Tomorrow Studios, an ITV partnership.“Above all else, Alma Margo is looking for bold and original content, so we thought it only natural to partner with a studio that also fits that description,” said Garner and Riley. “We are incredibly proud to be working with Tomorrow Studios who exhibit every quality that we’re looking for in a partner: intelligence, drive, experience and passion.”Garner is perhaps best known for her role in the critically-acclaimed Netflix series “Ozark,” which will release the second half of its fourth and final season in April.